Text: Isaiah
11:1-9
Focus: social
justice
Function: to
help the church get involved in social justice programs
Form: Bible
study
Despite what people
think, within the Christian family and outside of it, the point of
Christianity isn't “to go to heaven when you die.”
Let me say that again:
“the point of Christianity isn't to go to heaven when you die.”
I remember preaching in
Haiti, and in the midst of people who were desperately poor, their
only real hope was heaven.
And heaven is the home
of Christians. It is our final reward. Jesus said: “do not lay up
for yourselves treasures on earth… … But lay up treasures in
heaven. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.”
(Matthew
6:19-21)
Heaven is important to
us as Christians. But let me say it again, “the point of
Christianity isn't to go to heaven when you die.”
Turn to somebody and
ask them: “What does pastor mean when he says that `the point of
Christianity isn't to go to heaven when we die?'”
Jesus said: “go into
all the world and baptize them teaching them to observe all that I
command you.” (Matthew
28:19-20) He also said, through his prophets, that we are his
body, his representatives on earth. (1
Corinthians 12:27)
So let me say it again,
the point of Christianity isn't to go to heaven when we die. The
point of Christianity is to be part of God's plan to set the world
back to the rights and to bring people back into God's family.
Indeed, heaven is where
our ultimate reward lies, but the point of Christianity is to redeem
the world. Those whose think that point of Christianity is to get us
to heaven when we die are still under the misguided notion that
everything we have is all about us. It isn't about us, but it is
about what Jesus can do -will do- in and through us.
This is Biblical, In
Revelations
21:3 we read that the great drama will end, not with “saved
souls” being snatched up into heaven, away from the wicked earth
and the mortal bodies which have dragged them down into sin, but with
God's New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth, so that “the
dwelling of God is with humans”
I love the hymn “This
Is My Father's World.” there
is a line: Jesus who died shall be satisfied and earth and heaven
will be one.
Remember, during this
series about the basics, we have emphasized that in the church
the gap -the veil- between heaven and earth is often times parted and
is almost always very thin.
God wants to dwell with
humanity. And in the church, there is a chance, through worship,
through Bible study, through prayer, and through our community, to
get closer to God and in so doing, we get closer to heaven.
So
again: “the point of Christianity isn't to go to heaven when you
die.” We have already inherited Eternal life (John
17:1-5). As Christians, the new creation, the fact of eternal
life, even the seal of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God dwelling
inside of us, means that we are already experiencing the Kingdom of
God.
And when we think of
the kingdom of God, we think of heaven.
Christianity will get
you to heaven when you die. But Christianity is serving God, becoming
a member of God's kingdom, while we are still living here on earth. I
fear, or I sense, that much of modern Christianity has nearly become
a fire escape from hell without any demands on the way we live now.
Last
week we looked at the symbol of baptism. It is a symbol of dying to
ourselves and becoming alive to live for God. But Bishop Wright in
the book Simply Christian, tells
us that for the first three centuries of Christianity, when
Christians talked about the resurrection, they were not talking
merely about life after death. Instead, they were talking about the
new lives that they were now living.
They experienced a new
creation and they knew that it had already started: New Creation,
Starting Now.
Let me explain the
significance of what I am saying and the subtle difference of a
Christianity that embraces the importance of being partners with God
to implement the healing kingdom
of God now, instead of living for ourselves now with the hope of
eternal life beginning at the end of our earthly lives: I
remember a discussion about missions and evangelism while I was
studying theology. Someone said: “what good do we do people if we
feed them, clothe them, gives them medical assistance, and they still
go to hell?”
Well, I said: “how
about the fact that Jesus commands us to do those things?”
One of the great hopes
of Christianity, the hope that comforts us the most when someone
dies, is the promise of heaven. Indeed, Heaven is for real. But
Christianity falls far short of Jesus' teachings if it leaves out the
three entire years that Jesus spent teaching us how to love one
another.
Baptism is a symbol of
death to life. And at the same time it is a symbol of renouncing and
rediscovering. We renounce a life that lives to serve only ourselves.
We rediscover the initial purpose that God has for every one of us
–perhaps even the initial purpose that Adam and Eve lost in the
garden. Remember, when we join the family of God, we reconnect to the
divine side of what it means for us to be created in the “image of
God.”
At
the beginning of the book Simply Christian,
Wright points out that all of humanity longs for God, longs for
community, longs for justice, and longs for beauty. Becoming
Christian reconnects us with our longing for God.
Relationships: The
last two weeks we have studied the importance of Christian community.
We have learned that we cannot survive without each other.
There are other aspects
to community that God wants to heal. Just as our scriptural text
points out lions and lambs, babes and vipers, indeed all of creation
living together in harmony, God wants to heal all of our
relationships.
Hebrews
13:1-4 tells us to
let brotherly love flourish, to be kind even to prisoners, and to
honor the marriage bed. As Christians we place an high priority on
hospitality toward one another, towards strangers, toward enemies,
and we place incredible significance to marriage and family.
God wants to save and
heal us in community. When I look at that list of people to be kind
toward, in Hebrews 13, and I see prisoners and then see marriage
partners, I see a similarity.
I am not saying that
marriage is a prison. I am not saying that husbands and wives treat
each other like prisoners treat each other or like guards treat the
prisoners.
What is obvious to me
is that community involves relationships with people who are not yet
perfect. As a matter of fact, many of them are far from perfect.
I have spent many years
as a salesman. One of those things that I learned, especially with
big contracts, is to not oversell my product. When I first became a
Christian, I expected to be joining a community of people who were
close to perfect. It happens often, especially with new Christians.
Sooner or later, we all find out that Phil is still Phil, Phyllis is
still Phyllis, the best of us -people like Phyllis- for example still
have the things that make them different and unique.
Marriages that have
lasted long and have been rewarding, are the marriages where people
choose to love each other in spite of their imperfections. So, the
author of Hebrews, places relationships with prisoners, in the same
context as relationships in marriage.
The point is, a vital
Christian community, a vital marriage, a vital family, works best
when the members love, forgive, and continually make allowances for
each other's foibles. And the reason is because we are part of the
new creation and it has already begun in spite of us.
Justice. In
Matthew
25, Jesus tells us that if we do not care for the poor, the sick,
for prisoners, the people who are hurting, then we do not belong to
Jesus. In 1st
John 4, John tells us that if we do not care for those in need,
we do not know God.
One cannot separate the
call to justice from Christianity. For the first three centuries,
Christianity spread like wildfire across the Roman Empire to the
West, the Ethiopian Empire to the south, and even into India in the
East.
The main reason given,
for the rapid expansion, was because Christianity took on the care
for the poor everywhere it went. The message of Jesus and his
teachings were obvious to the people living around Christians.
Because of the way they loved others, Christianity took hold in the
world. And brothers and sisters, that did not come without personal
sacrifice. That happened because people gave up greed. That happened
because people believed that those who give to the poor lend to the
lord (Proverbs
19:17). It happened because they believed that the new creation
has already started.
And then tragedy
struck. And it struck because someone became a Christian. Isn't that
odd?
The Roman Emperor,
Constantine, became a believer. However, when he was baptized, he
refused to allow his right arm to be baptized. His right arm was his
sword arm and he refused to give up his warlike ways.
He tried to subject the
Kingdom of God under a kingdom of mankind. It doesn't work that way.
The church became an
agent of the state, it was funded from the Roman treasury. Therefore,
the care for the poor was indirectly funded by the Roman treasury.
The clergy took on roles of importance in the political arena. I
believe, that people with motive for power instead of a passion for
the gospel infiltrated the ranks of leadership in the church and
corruption entered the system.
There are some in
today's political discourse who say that all welfare should be done
by the church. And indeed at the beginning of the church, that is the
way it was. However, when the church became a regent of the state,
that power was turned over. And we have not been able to put it
right.
The sad thing about the
Christian community today is that one side says that the only thing
that matters is justice. And the other side says, the only thing that
matters is getting people to heaven when they die.
Both matter. Especially
this year, and election-year, the words that come from our mouth
should be words that draw people into the family of God, salvation
and heaven, and draw people to stop ignoring the call to “love our
neighbors as ourselves.” Throughout Scripture, Jesus takes the side
of the poor. Christians need to remember that. As Christians, we need
to speak a balanced approach, not the extremes of the political
arena.
Beauty. We long
for beauty. I can imagine the garden of Eden. I can imagine Adam and
Eve in perfect beauty, walking naked, and enjoying their lives
without any weeds, mosquitoes or any pests.
God created beauty. God
created beauty for us to enjoy. When we view beauty, our spirits are
lifted and our soul was brought into a place that is divine. We value
it. We evaluated because it reminds us of God, our Creator.
At the end of every day
of creation, God said: “it is good.” When we find ourselves in
the midst of beauty, we find ourselves in the heart of God who
created it for us. And because we are created in God's image, we too
get to create beauty.
Why is all this
important? Because, Christianity is holistic. It brings beauty,
justice and restoration to every facet of our lives. Or it is
intended to.
We are the ones who
cause that to fail when we stoop to the level of the world around us
and strive to gain our own revenge, when we get so busy that we
forget the importance of relationship, and when we forget to stop and
smell the roses.
We are already part of
a new creation, and it has already begun.
Praise God!
No comments:
Post a Comment