I was a bit concerned about the music and theme for today because my topic is not easily set to music. Strange as that sounds, the things I want to share today don’t really fall into an easily recognized liturgical theme. So I was delighted that Amanda selected the song, “They’ll Know we are Christians by our Love” as a suggestion for the service. And I thought, by garsh, this lady is good! She found a musical piece to describe exactly one of the points I want to make this morning. Plus, she has shared already in the service lots of cool music, so Amanda, thanks and we all look forward to you ministry among us at Alive360. God’s best to you. Let’s thank both Amanda and God for her ministry among us.
I remember seeing a member of our church, and this is some years ago, walk out of the service when the song, “They’ll Know We are Christians by our Love” was being sung. I didn’t think much of it – figured a pot roast was getting overcooked or perhaps the family was only able to come to a portion of the worship service – so I was surprised when one of the family called me later in that week.
“Mark,” began the woman, “I am so sorry that I walked out of your service on Sunday. I couldn’t hear that song without becoming bitter and upset, so I just felt it was better for my family to leave.”
Now, that’s quite a conversation starter. I wasn’t sure what to say back to her. Sensing my pause, she continued, and I am going to mask her specific reasons for her comments.
“I have loved Jesus my whole life and I love going to this church, but that has not always been the case with me and churches.”
She continued, “Due to circumstances in our family, I have found that, in spite of my devotion to Jesus and faith in God, and my prayer life in previous churches and attendance at Bible studies, I am never accepted for who I am. There is always a condition or some expectation for me to be different. And it seems to me that this song, They’ll Know We are Christians by our Love, is one of the most hypocritical hymns in all of Christianity.”
Now I had things to talk to her about, and we did talk at great length. Let’s call her Janice. Janice became a Christian in her early teen years, and was enthusiastic about her faith. She was active in her church, and after some geographical changes, became active in other churches. She and her family were strong givers, not only from her purse, but with her hands and heart. She did all the right things, yet, because of whom she was, the church was always after her to change, repent and be different. And all the while they would sing, TKWACBOL. The song became, to her, the complete opposite of what she witnessed from her various church communities. And, although she loved Federated, she was afraid it would be the same here, so she left church whenever we sang that song.
Janice is not alone in her assessment that we, as followers of Jesus, are often not primarily known for our capacity to love. In fact, information coming to us from researchers and pastors who minister out on the edges of culture, indicates that overwhelmingly, those outside of the church do not trust us within the church.
In his amazing book, They Like Jesus, but Not the Church, pastor Dan Kimball tells of his study with those who live outside of the walls of the organized part of Christianity. He has met and interacted with many church outsiders in his commitment to building community within the community of Santa Cruz, CA. And while the book has many striking allegations for us who are within the church-going Family of God, I found one charge to be more striking and telling than some of the others. I confess have been transfixed by this book much of the summer. Nestled within such complaints and impressions that the church is organized religion with a political agenda, the church is dominated by males, unkind to other religious views, homophobic, and full of fundamentalists, is the statement that we, as the church, are judgmental and negative. In other words, one of the primary reasons that people avoid the church these days even if they were to become curious is that we are known more for what we are against than what we are for.
Now, you might object. We are part of the UCC. We hold a different perspective and other sensibilities. And, in some areas, you would be correct. However, as Rosanna Rosanna Danna used to say, “It doesn’t matta.” Our friends outside of the church don’t know that we organize ourselves into camps of different perspectives. To the world, the secular part of society, the church is all the same. So when we grumble about something political, Valley Presbyterian, St. Joan’s and Fellowship Bible are also called into comparison.
I want to look at this deeper.
I remember as a young minister, 30 years ago, hearing my sister-in-law, Annie, complain that she hated to be to serve on Sunday at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. I asked her why, and she told me, knowing of course that I was a minister and probably wanting me to do something about this, that on Sundays, the church people would come in after services, often in large groups eating together, make lots of demands and commotion, and then leave without tipping. Mostly they left little Bible tracts or pamphlets about getting saved or going to heaven. She accounted that once a minister took her aside and actually said, handing her a tract she had seen many times before, that this little booklet was more valuable than all the money in the world and if she read it and followed the instructions, she would understand.
Annie was furious. Never had the man asked her about her spiritual condition, nor had he, and many like him, been especially kind or appreciative. Instead, the cheapskate made up his mind that this young woman, working on Sunday and not going to church, was probably some heathen unbeliever needing salvation. Annie worked on Sunday because she needed to work, not because she was avoiding church.
Judgmental and negative, Annie could only assume, after numerous identical occasions, that these people were against her and determined that she was not among the flock. Fact is, while Annie is doing very well now in her faith, but she took a side trip for some years because she shunned the church for its judgmental portrayal.
I have often pictured that scenario, Annie and the pastor. How much more effective it would have been to take her aside, and give her an appropriate tip, or even a couple of dollars over what the correct percentage was, give her the tract as well, and say, “We have enjoyed your service today so much – you really took care of us and you were so pleasant. In addition to this tip, that you certainly earned, I have a little booklet for you to read and consider. Thanks again for your great service.”
Putting our money where our mouths are is very compelling to those trying to make a living as servers.
Being known for what we are against, rather than what we are for, is not a great testimony for the living church of Jesus Christ. Yet, over and over, Dan Kimball and other authors I have been reading say this is the impression that those absent from church are saying. Dan found that overwhelmingly, the people he talked to really liked Jesus. The all seemed to know something of his message, and the predominant impression is that Jesus personified love and acceptance. Many were non-churched followers of our Savior on their own, but simply could not find reason enough to attend a church.
Interestingly, if we survey Christ’s ministry in the Gospels, and quantify with whom he spent time, the vast majority of his time was spent out of the synagogue and among those who were outside of the circle of supposed respectability. Jesus hung out at the place where people were – not where they went to worship in an organized way. Jesus was concerned about the lost, the last and the least, as author Brian McClaren describes those out in the world around us - those who watch us and listen to us and then determine that we, the Christians, are not people that they want to be around.
In his introduction to the book of Nehemiah in the Message translation of the Bible, Eugene Petersen discusses this concept of the secular world and our all-too-often theological inability to weave the secular world around us with the sacred lives we all come to church to nurture. Let me share with you from his introduction of Ne Hi Mia, who was, incidentally, the second shortest person in the Bible. The shortest was a man named Bildad, one of Job’s supposed friends. Yep, in Job he is referred to as Bildad the Shuhite. Shoe height. Knee High. Ya, like fungus, I kind of grow on you.
Peterson writes, “Separating life into distinct categories of “sacred” and “secular” damages, sometimes irreparably, and y attempt to live a whole and satisfying life, a coherent life with meaning and purpose, a life lived to the glory of God. Where did…people come up with the habit of separating themselves and the world around them into these two camps? …The Holy Scriptures strenuously resist such a separation.”
And this is why those on the outside of us are suspicious of us. Especially when it always seems that the church is making this proclamation or that declaration. For example, I remember from my ministry in Ravenna a fundamentalist Baptist pastor condemned the need for a school levy publically. At the time I was an officer in our local ministerial association and was inundated by comments and calls as to why the churches were against the levy, which was desperately needed. When one part of the body of Christ speaks out, all parts are implicated. Which is the conclusion that those who watch us end up reaching.
As important as statements, positions and decrees may be, it is true that Jesus had nothing to do with them. He simply was about love, acceptance, truth, and the rest of the Good News.
Well, this is a point that would be easy to belabor, or even rant about. We, as part of the church, are as guilty as any part of the church. There are those who think poorly of us and it is up to us to correct the impression. So let’s shift in our discussion and return to the Psalm that Hamilton read for us at the beginning of the service, for in it are great reminders of what we should be know for.
Psalm 146
1-2 Hallelujah! O my soul, praise God!
All my life long I'll praise God,
singing songs to my God as long as I live.
3-9 Don't put your life in the hands of experts
who know nothing of life, of salvation life.
Mere humans don't have what it takes;
when they die, their projects die with them.
Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,
put your hope in God and know real blessing!
God made sky and soil,
sea and all the fish in it.
He always does what he says—
he defends the wronged,
he feeds the hungry.
God frees prisoners—
he gives sight to the blind,
he lifts up the fallen.
GOD loves good people, protects strangers,
takes the side of orphans and widows,
but makes short work of the wicked.
10 GOD's in charge—always.
Zion's God is God for good!
Hallelujah!
What if we were know for these things rather than what we are against? What if – What if those people around you and me suddenly became aware of our care and love for them, and saw us in a new light as we carried the sacred with us into the secular world around us. What if we tipped extra at our favorite diner just because, or said something to the person check out your groceries or library books or taking you money at the gas station that was personal, complimentary or even silly? What if we took serious the words of James when he warns us of our problematic speech saying:
A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
5-6It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
A word can accomplish anything, James says. Anything. So why not select the words of life over negative words of judgment, condemnation, cursing or belittling? Why not take loving and caring words to all the people in our lives who have no church home, or who are suspicious of the church. Why not be what the old sawdust trail preachers used to call “soul winners,” and win people to a life of faith through friendship and kindness. We have said it often before – the number one way people come to a church is through an invitation. Why not use those words more – Would you like to come to church with me? Words are universes of power, influence and change.
Bottom line – What do they really know about us? For now, they seem to focus upon what we are against, or what we don’t accept, or what we don’t like. They perceive that we are insensitive and arrogant, and that we know nothing about the prevailing culture. And perhaps the saddest one is, they think we are irrelevant and that church is a thing of the past. Remember, they like Jesus in huge numbers, but what we do here on Sunday mornings and the rest of the week, well, they think it’s often pretty lame.
And perhaps the secret is in the best possible framing of that familiar song, “They’ll Know We Are Christians.” It is the love that Jesus had that is mentioned time and time again. His love is what makes him remarkable even to those who think he was just a great teacher. It is his love that distinguishes him to those with no faith interest. And it will be love again, plain and simple, from you and me, which changes their impression of who we are as the Church of Jesus Christ.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12
And don’t forget to tip your servers!!
Amen-