Sermon manuscript:
It is very common for Christians to conceive of their
Christianity merely as a way to avert disaster. The key word for why this is
not a correct view is that word “merely.” The statement is true without the
“merely.” Christianity is, in fact, the only
way to avert disaster. Disaster is the devil, death, evil, and hell. There is
no way to overcome these things except through Christ who is given to those who
believe the Gospel. So what is the problem, then, if we have that word “merely”
in there? What’s wrong with saying that Christianity is merely a way to avert
disaster?
The answer is that it betrays an entirely wrong attitude and
focus. The mind and the heart remain firmly fixed on the things of the flesh. God’s
ways, God’s commandments, what pleases God, is not what is front and center.
The desire is to get around God—not having to obey him, or, perhaps, minimally
obeying him—in order to forestall disaster.
The focus, the loving attitude is towards the things of this
earthly life. A Christian can end up having the very same goals for life as an
unbeliever. The goals might be merely to enjoy creature comforts, to make a
name for one’s self, to have a painless death, and so on. Perhaps we could sum
this all up as a desire to maximize our pleasure and minimize any suffering.
That is where Jesus can fit in and do his part. Jesus is just kind of an
insurance policy that things won’t go south after you die. He is merely a way
to avoid disaster.
With this mindset it is not possible to give up anything of
this life unless it is pried out of our cold, dead hands, so to speak. Jesus’s
requirement that we take up his cross is either ignored, or one goes in search
of the lightest, most comfortable cross one can find. We want full coverage,
but for the cheapest premium possible. Then we can invest our time, talents,
and treasures in the things that we actually love instead of God whom we merely
fear.
This mentality is always going to produce a cheap,
hap-hazard, pathetic, and infertile Christianity. More robust examples of
Christianity won’t make sense to those who live in weak times. The exploits of
the apostles, such as we heard in our first reading from the Acts of the
Apostles, is going to seem very far away from us indeed.
In our first reading today you see Christians who are eager
to live their new life in Jesus, which operates by different rules. Just before
our reading something very dramatic happened—something that you would think
would discourage people from becoming Christians. A husband and wife, named Ananias
and Sapphira, sold some property in order to make an offering. Nobody forced
them to sell this property or to make this offering. However, when they made
the offering, they pretended that they were giving the full proceeds from the
sale when in actual fact they had kept back a portion for themselves. Peter
asked them why they had lied to the Holy Spirit. Then God killed them. They
were buried side by side for giving an offering.
This deeply impressed upon the people at that time that
membership in Christ’s church is no laughing matter. The Jerusalem congregation
amazingly was not ashamed, fearing that they had gotten wrapped up in some kind
of cult. Instead they feared God. This incident also kept people away who were merely
shopping for insurance. This premium for this policy was way too steep. Only
those who were daring enough to want to meet God retained any interest. And so in
the wake of this incident the life of the Christian congregation had never been
more vigorous. People were being baptized. The faithful wanted to learn, to
worship, to pray. The blessings of Pentecost were very evident among them.
Something that we think would be very, very bad for evangelism—namely, the death
of a couple of their members—only served to heighten their piety and to keep
the luke-warm away.
The vigor of this Christian congregation did not go
unnoticed. The Christians kept testifying to Jesus as the fulfillment of the
Old Testament prophecies of the Christ who would save his people. The same
people who nailed Jesus to the cross because he said that he is Christ were now
hearing about his disciples saying the same thing. Here they had thought that
they had solved that problem—they killed the leader and figured that the
disciples would be too intimidated to carry on—but the Holy Spirit had other
plans. Instead of just one man preaching, Jesus, now there were dozens of
preachers preaching salvation in Jesus’s Name. They had to be dealt with. So,
again, they try to decapitate the movement. They arrest the apostles.
Now let’s think about what’s going on here. In a sense the
apostles weren’t doing anything wrong, and yet, in another sense, they were
inflicting the most serious of injuries. The apostles weren’t harming anyone’s
body. They weren’t taking other people’s property. (In fact, they were giving
away and sharing what they had.) But on the other hand, they were assaulting
people where people cannot stand being assaulted. They were attacking people’s
religion. We must understand how serious this is.
Everyone has a religion because everyone believes in
something. Everyone has a god, or, more likely, many gods. Everybody has his or
her own beliefs about what will make a person happy, that is to say, blessed.
Everybody has his or her own ideas of what makes a person cursed. We are not
accustomed to talking in terms of “blessed” or “cursed” because we have been
thoroughly taught that the only religions that exist are formal religions. If
you aren’t Christian or Muslim or Hindu, etc., then you are someone who doesn’t
have a religion.
This, however, is not true. Everyone believes in stuff.
Everyone believes that certain things will make them happy or blessed.
Everybody has things that they fear. These things that people put their fear,
love, and trust in are those people’s gods. When you start attacking the things
that provide meaning in in people’s lives, what people believe in, what they worship,
what they sacrifice for—and when these attacks hit home—you are going to get an
exceedingly strong reaction.
Some might turn away from their worthless gods that have no
power to save them from death and rottenness. Some will get exceedingly angry
that these things they have held so dear are pointed out as being impotent and
that only the Lord is God. He alone can truly save.
When we think about what is going on with these early
Christians we must understand that they were not just handing out candy and
“Jesus loves you” stickers. They weren’t selling insurance policies. They were
going for the jugular, spiritually speaking, so that those who heard them might
die to themselves and their worthless, stupid idols, and be raised
incorruptible in Jesus.
So, again, the apostles weren’t harming anybody. And yet, in
another sense, they were inflicting the worst wounds as they were tearing people
away from their idols. This activity is why the prophets were put to death in
the Old Testament. This is the most common reason for Christians to be put to
death in the New Testament. It was for the witness to Jesus that John was
exiled to the island of Patmos. It was for the witness to Jesus that the
apostles were put in prison in Jerusalem.
But then, as we heard, the most extraordinary thing
happened. During the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison.
He told the apostles to go preach in the temple. The apostles gladly obeyed.
I’d like to you notice how daring and unusual this is. If
the apostles were like us, if they were only interested in maximizing pleasure
and minimizing pain, then the last thing they would do would be to comply with
the angel’s instructions. Maybe they would make a break for it after the doors
were opened for them. They could flee to where they assumed they would be safe.
Or they could have stayed in prison. The Jewish authorities
are already so angry with them that they have thrown them into prison. A
Sanhedrin had been called—the very same kind of Sanhedrin that had sentenced
Jesus to death in the middle of the night not long before this. Maybe if the
apostles would show themselves to be obedient, to be easily cowed, and if they
would tone down the rhetoric a little bit, they could be released after just a
slap on the wrist. The sure-fire way to make these angry, dangerous people even
angrier is to go to the most public place in Jerusalem and carry on with what got
them thrown into prison in the first place.
Love and joy and peace is what prompted the apostles to do
what they did. The Holy Spirit gave them their boldness. They are lively. They
are making in-roads. Like a soldier they are on the move. They are not playing
it safe. They are not selling some pre-packaged spiritual product that is
supposed to occupy some little piece of the people’s lives who would believe
their message, while the rest of their lives can remain untouched.
No. The work of Jesus is victorious and vigorous. It is like
leaven. If leaven is added to just one little part of a lump of dough it is
going to work its way through the whole thing. So also Jesus’s victory over
sin, death, and the devil is going to work its way through our whole life. All
the parts of our life are to be infused with divine love. The great guide in
this endeavor is the 10 commandments, which require of us love towards God and
love towards our neighbor. The work that Jesus has done is such that it
overturns the old order. He has given us a new life. There is an adventure in
store for us where we can be daring and loving—not playing it safe, not being a
coward—but going on the offense against God’s enemies.
Realize, of course, that when you go on offense, you are
going to stir up some trouble. We all get awfully comfortable with the evil in
our life. We don’t want it taken away from us. When the boat gets rocked, we
want things to go back to what is normal and comfortable. Folks can get violent
with this resistance to change. To the kingdom of God’s action there is going
to be a reaction. This is why the apostles were put in prison again and again.
As we live our life as Christians we must be prepared with
appropriate expectations. If we are expecting that we are going to be loved and
thanked and praised for attacking what is evil, then we better have a second
thought coming. But we must understand this for what it is. It is not bad. To
suffer for doing good is not a bad thing. It is a good thing. It is following
the lead of our master Jesus. It is taking up our cross and following him. So
don’t be scared off by that.
Realize, also, that you will be attacked by fear and dread. The
apostles experienced the same thing. Paul plainly tells us that he did his work
in weakness. He did it with fear and trembling. God likes to do his work
through imperfect and weak vessels. Therefore you must not think that since you
feel inadequate or frightened to attack evil in your own life or in the lives
of the people you love, that this means it’s something you should not do. You
need to wait until you are stronger. As the Lord said to Paul, “My grace is
made perfect in weakness.”
The easiest thing in the world is to do nothing. But then
the kingdom of God is also inactive in us. During this season of Easter, and
Christ’s ascension, and Pentecost we must grasp that Christ’s kingdom is a
living and active thing. Christianity is not merely a way to avert disaster.
Christianity is a new life fighting against the forces of death. You are
privileged to take your place in that fight according to the opportunities that
God puts into your life. This is how Jesus reigns and rules in his spiritual
kingdom.
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