Day 1073 - Do Not Be Alarmed

This is a revised sermon given at Mowbray Presbyterian Church, Soddy Daisy, TN; Nov. 15, 2015

Old Testament Reading: Psalm 16

New Testament Reading: Mark 13:1-8

People have used this passage, and others like it for centuries to point to the impending end times whose moment someone claims to know, sometimes they use Matthew 25:31-46, the Revelation of John, or even one of today’s lectionary passages, Daniel 12: 1-3. (Daniel 12:1 speaks of the end saying, “there will be a time of anguish at the end such as never occurred since nations first came into existence.”)

Usually people who do this are focused on apocalyptic ideas by fear inspired by some current events that in their mind point to a soon-to-occur glorification. Daniel probably wrote about the oppressive rulers who followed Alexander, or the suppression of Jewish revolts in the later BCE era.

Today, for example, they carry on in hysteria over Daesh and the terrorist attack in Paris. More so, even Daesh  itself is fully preoccupied with an apocalyptic vision of the future it hopes to herald into existence. But for us Christians, all these gospel passages deal with the destruction of the Temple and the existing Jewish religious leadership. We do everyone a disservice to claim other purposes.

The destruction of the Temple was the powerful message. Jesus indicted a religious order steeped in complacency and preoccupation with tradition and rules over meaning and compassion. That message forced the religious authorities to implement the plan to kill Jesus.

Yet these pundits ignore that point and even point to the PC(USA) as a one of the signs of doom. I find it almost humorous that they overlook the words, “do not be alarmed, the time is not yet come.” Only God knows the day of the end of days. (I doubt they even know what Presbyterians believe, but I’ll return to that in a minute.)

The modern-day prophets of doom overlook two other matters. They forget that Jesus even cautions against them saying such people will lead you astray about those days. The doomsayers forget the positive message to people of faith. God loves us. Don’t fear the end or use it to scare people into believing; focus instead on living the life Jesus calls us to live.

I wonder if they overlook all the other teachings of Jesus about the future. In an earlier passage of Mark (10:35-40) James and John asked Jesus to decide who was going to sit at his right and left hand at the end. Jesus replied they did not know the cup from which they ask to drink. They insisted they did know but Jesus knew in his mind they were going to drink from his cup even though they did not realize what that meant. Jesus knew it wasn’t going to be a rose garden.

Jesus told his disciples they will face oppression and prejudice of trial and accusation because of faith --- but he offers comforting words of grace for those who have faith. He says don’t fret over the worries of tomorrow. There are plenty for today, “If I take care the birds in the field will I not take care of you?”

Furthermore, throughout the gospel Jesus frequently cautions us that Christians are always going to be ”the outsiders”. Paul made it very clear that the world (He called it the world of flesh) opposes the emergence of the Kingdom of God. From his perspective, people of faith are in a world that is being displaced by our new home, the Kingdom of God.

Jesus set a high bar for living a Christian life that the world of flesh opposes. We can’t forget that being a Christian is not walking in a rose garden.

Jesus summed up that high bar when religious lawyers tried to trap him. They ask Jesus what is the greatest commandment. The answer as you may remember, is “The Lord is one. Love the Lord with all your heart, and all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

Why do we to follow this command? It is because we are returning love to God in a human attempt to match the love that He has for his good creation.

The lawyer voiced the second greatest commandment completing the pair that Jesus is the entire essence of the law. We should love our neighbor as we love our self. I restate that as, “Love your neighbor and God the way God loves you.”

That is the high bar. It’s not easy to love someone who snubs you, holds a different political position, or practices Christianity differently than you do, or holds a religious belief at odds with yours. It is easy to love like-minded friends, but even then we sometimes find that difficult.

It’s very difficult to escape the fundamental fact that those two commandments reflect the character of Christian faith. We enjoy the grace of Christ by spreading that grace by our words and action empowered by God.

Did Jesus give us a warrant to judge people by those two commandments? Jesus, and the many instances In the Old Testament where God speaks to his people make it very clear that judgment is reserved to God alone.

So when we decide to judge people for what they believe, how they act, how they dress, how much money they make or do not make, by their spouse or children, we actually usurp God’s prerogative.

What happens when the tables are turned on us and we find ourselves accused by some people who claim to be good Christians but don’t like our way of denominational government of being signs of the end? They judge us “evil” because of our forbearance of others expressed in our Book of Order. They judge us poor Christians or un-Christian and may even shun us.  How should we approach such a situation? Step back and think about what we say we believe.

A primary principle of Reformed Protestantism is that God calls us to him. The various Reformed denominations may argue what “calls us” means, but the bottom line is we agree that there is no way for us to enter the kingdom of God except by being called by the grace of God in Christ.

Presbyterians have worked out a rather nice implementation of the grace called for in the two greatest commandments that guide our faithful actions. We acknowledge Scripture is the principal guide for our behavior towards our fellows.

We also know that that applying scripture literally leads us into a very uncomfortable field of circumstance such as slavery and stoning people for sin. As a consequence, we use the scriptures as a guide when we struggle with each other. We argue and seek discernment through prayer to reach a consensus on how we should interpret scripture to avoid unrighteous action.

Our confessions and Book of Order reflect this consensus. Consensus means we may not always agree with the majority, but we acknowledge it as the fruit of a process that protects us against reflexive and obvious theological error. It is a process very much like our own American government where we are ruled by consent of the majority within the bounds of the Constitution. Unlike the US government, our consensus is not enforced by the state because our authority is spiritual not governmental or legal. Unlike some of our critics, we know can’t force people to come to God.

We also acknowledge that the Lord is the ruler of conscience and that the Holy Spirit guides our discernment. We respect those who feel unable to follow some of our interpretations for good reason since we know even the majority can err. We can exercise a “scruple” when our conscience binds us about virtually everything we believe that does not represent a challenge to the essential parts of Christian belief, for example, on who we marry in our congregation.  We should exercise a scruple very, very carefully.

How does all this help us with the folks who judge us? We could take that first step to invite them into fellowship. Perhaps they can come and talk or we answer their questions about how we reach decisions and what we believe as Christians. We could point to Jesus who said never try to stop someone doing good work in his name, they can hardly criticize us if they are busy doing so. (We could even do this with some of our Presbyterian brethren.)

Maybe we should recite some of our tenets about God’s grace that forms our vision of the church in the world. Have you read the first few pages of the Book of Order? This is what we believe:

- We, the universal Church are the body of Christ on Earth whose objective is to demonstrate the gift of grace to the community of the world and are committed to a community of faith that trusts in God alone even at the risk of losing one’s life.

- We, the universal Church, are a community of hope being part of the New Creation. We strive to be a community of love that breaks down  the walls of hostility, where sins are forgiven and reconciliation is found, not judgment.

- We, the universal Church, are the witness to the world of God’s grace. We proclaim to all the good news of God’s love and call all people to discipleship in Christ in the shared font and table. Our highest goal is to glorify and enjoy God’s grace now and forever participating in God’s mission on earth.

- We, the universal Church, seek to include all people and are never content to enjoy the benefits of Christian community for itself alone.

- Denominations obscure but do not destroy unity in Christ. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is committed to reducing that obscurity, and is willing to seek and to deepen communion with all other churches within the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

- We claim holiness only as being part of the universal Church of Christ as we lead lives worthy of the Gospel we proclaim. In gratitude and humility for Christ’s redemption, we rely upon the work of God’s Spirit through Scripture and the means of grace to call every believer and every Christian community.

- We confess the persistence of sin in our corporate and individual lives separates people of good faith.

- We are obligated to embrace our brothers and sisters in Christ with great forbearance of their criticism of us for our openness to scripture. What gets us into heaven is this proclamation alone, “Jesus is Lord. We have faith to act in His service.”

How we celebrate communion, how many times we baptize people, what person we marry, how we conduct our worship service are simply the way our denomination works. Our sins (we are all sinners) are not keys to salvation or damnation, only denying Grace keeps us from God.

However, fomenting strife and exclusion among fellow Christians makes one a stumbling block to the children seeking to come to Jesus. If we stand on our faith and invite our fellow Christians who shun us into our fellowship, we do what Paul says in Romans 12:1-20, “…if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” These principles are why I like Presbyterians, even as we argue.

I offer you the words that Jesus used. The love of God for you and your salvation is permanent.

I think Presbyterians have a pretty good way of practicing our faith founded in scripture. We are flawed like every other denomination, but we do proclaim grace and love, not judgment. We stand as a connected body, a denomination that respects consensus and every person. We honor God as the ultimate ruler of conscience and our salvation.

We can affirm that Jesus alone is Lord and we have the joy and privilege to spread the love of Christ for humankind knowing that life and in death we are His. I encourage you to leave the sin of judgment to others and invite your detractors into our fellowship, holding to our hope that our forgiveness and love brings the faithful to us, resting easy in our permanence.

Ignore the fear mongers who try to scare you about worldly challenges such as Daesh. They will find their way into oblivion, and as a footnote on apocalyptic naysayers seeking their own destruction in history books. Don’t ignore them only because they are not even being a very good example of Christian faith, don’t ignore them because they would rather see a Muslim child drown in the sea than offer sanctuary than offer a hand, ignore them and shun their ideas because they distort scripture and are stumbling blocks to those seeking grace.