The Way…and The Other Way
Once again the Bible makes a very strong statement. Last week it was the First Letter of John that told us, in a dozen different ways, that God loves us and our calling is to come into a community where we will be loved. This week it is the Gospel of John, saying the same thing. “As the father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” It is hard to miss!
It is a time in our Christian story when discipleship is fading and the population is walking away from the church. It is the movement of history: there are reasons, both in society and the church, that could explain this exit. But to say “Have faith, pray about it, then leave it in the Lord’s hands” is the kind of withdrawal we have been practicing for 65 years now, and it goes nowhere. We’ll need to take a new look
Here’s a scenario, a picture of how the Christian person is frequently described. I’m asking you to see this picture in your mind. How well does it describe you? Do you believe this is a legitimate picture and, if so, where did it come from? I’m going to suggest seven attributes. Do they describe you or do you wish they did describe you? Is this you, or is it someone else?
Here we go.
- Truth, in the Bible is very clear: it’s black and white; it’s all or nothing; it’s us believers against them, the unbelievers.
- The Bible is the inerrant Word of God, which means every line can be readily understood in whatever age it is read.
- You and I must take Jesus as our “personal Saviour”.
- Jesus is the only way to heaven and God has vowed that no one gets in without having confessed belief in Jesus.
- A Christian believes in the creation of the world in seven days – Creationism, it’s sometimes called.
- Abortion is an evil that the state must ban; any government that does not do so is an opponent of the Christian Church.
- People who claim an alternative sexual orientation – that is designated as LGBTQ – must always act as if they were heterosexual.
There is a reason we believe this. We’ve been convinced that these “true believers” are the only group in the church that is growing. Well, I have news. It’s not true*. This conviction is not growing; indeed, it is far weaker, by actual measurement, than it claims to be. It’s called Fundamentalism, sometimes Evangelicalism, and it’s not what it’s cracked up to be!
And yet it has grown particularly relevant as a result of a double turn in our recent history. Donald Trump – that well-known figure of American politics – has suggested to Christians who think this way, that he will provide an America that is the defender of all things Christian. He will provide a Christendom, without the need of Jesus. At about the same time Vladamir Putin, of Russia, suggested the same thing. The Orthodox Church, which is much more aligned with the political powers than anything we are used to, can depend upon him as a protector. He is portraying himself as the great defender of Christendom, symbolized by a massive statue of Vladamir the Great**, right outside the Kremlin.
Isn’t that strange? We have been taught that we Christians should keep our religion and politics separate. But now comes two politicians, at the end of Christendom, suggesting that they can keep Christendom alive, so long as it aligns itself with political power, rather than with Jesus.
Our history is demanding that we ask ourselves one pointed question: What is the most urgent work that God is calling us to do? From both texts – this Sunday from the Gospel of John, last Sunday from the First Epistle of John – there is a response, pointed and clear. We are to love one another as God has loved us. We are to be a community of friends. Jesus has introduced us to a God who is always taking risks by making room for others. If you ever are asked, “What is the most urgent task that God is calling us to do?” I hope you do not miss this, the banner of Christ, the Big Command.
Let’s take another look at that scenario of belief mentioned a moment ago. Note that Jesus and other New Testament writers have never suggested that the Hebrew stories of the Old Testament were literally true and often treated them as symbolic.
- While the creation was very important to Jesus, he never did suggest that it must be literally understood as a seven-day operation.
- Jesus never did ask anyone to take him as their “personal saviour” but always spoke to people as if they were a part of the Community of God.
- Although such things as abortion and homosexuality did exist in Jesus’ day, he never referred to them or suggested that either had any implications for faithful living. (The Leviticus references that anti-LGBTQ regularly cite need a closer and longer read.)
It is painful to see how all of these actions are exclusionary. They force us to see ourselves as inside the community while seeing others as outside it. All stress is a purifying activity that never did interest Jesus. What did interest him was the embracing inclusion and love of God. He came – not looking like God but like one of us, incarnate, in the flesh – to teach us a very wholesome way of how so can live, and give life to the whole of creation. It’s hard to do it without him!
If you and I can find a way to heal and be kind to the others here in the church who, on some days, are having it pretty rough, and if we can find a way to give hope to the people in our neighbourhood, and if we can treat the whole creation as that which feeds us day by day....be assured: That’s enough. It’s what you are called to do and you’ll find it’s not a namby-pamby task! Being the world’s moral police force is not your job.
The blessing of Christ is for all the world, and it can come through us if we hold hands tightly.
* If you are not convinced, here’s the book for you: The Fall of the Evangelical Nation, by Christine Wicker.
**Vladamir the Great was a historical figure who, like St. Patrick, carried the Christian faith to Kyiv and its environs. Putin would like the world to believe that Moscow is the heart of Christianity, rather than Kyiv in Ukraine, and that he is “Vladamir the Second”.