NRSV John 17:11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
DANGEROUS CHURCH: dangerous Savior and dangerous disciples
RUMC
September 23, 2009
We like to think of Reinbeck as a pretty safe place. And it is. It isn’t like Waterloo or DesMoines or even Cedar Rapids or Iowa City. Thank goodness that insanity doesn’t seem to have infected our community. The murders, shootings, rapes and violent crimes we read about in the paper seem a long way away. And that is a good feeling. A safe feeling. Safe is good.
On a personal note, I have to say we appreciate feeling safe here, maybe more than the average person because we were victims of a burglary while we were at home just 2 months after Amber was born. That is a frightening, awful violated feeling that I hope to never feel again. I like safety much more.
Safety, though not a particularly Christian value, has become a characteristic of so much contemporary Christianity, And often innocently enough.
It begins when we just get plain tired of dealing with the world on the world's terms. We get tired of garbage like Bob and Tom on the radio; sex and cussing in music; so we turn to KNWS Christian station- safety. It feels so good.
We get tired the soft core porn that passes for prime time television; the constant barrage of name calling and vile accusations from both sides of the political aisle. We get tired of live streaming war and death on the news, so we turn the channel and watch little house on the prairie. OH, safety. It feels so good.
We get tired of newspapers filled with tragedy, doom saying know it alls and even our own gossipy friends and neighbors. And we just want to shrink and hide in a corner somewhere.
So when we get to church we want a nice safe place to worship.
Any Christian who does not get bone tired of dealing with the world on the world's terms has probably lost some basic human sensibility. So there's no denying that we need sanctuaries; safe places to which we can retreat.
I don’t want you to mistake a safe place to retreat, however, for a safe place to hide. Jesus did not hide from the world- where most of us would have given up to live in the safety of Nazareth he faced those dangers head on.
In fact Jesus himself was a dangerous savior.
How dangerous would you have to be to have a contract for a professional hit out for you before you were two years old?
How dangerous would you have to be to in order to make the highest religious authorities in the land afraid of you?
How dangerous would you be considered if you were heard to say; “I will tear this temple down and in three days build it again.” That would go over about as well as joking with airport security about the bomb you have in your shorts.
How dangerous would you have to be to have the chief priest—you can translate that to bishop if you like—how dangerous would you have to be to have the bishop make your execution number one job on their todo list no matter how long it takes?
How dangerous would you have to be to have armed occupation soldiers stationed at you grave “Just in case”
THAT’S HOW DANGEROUS OUR SAVIOR JESUS WAS!
a. We have a dangerous savior because he knew right from wrong and he was not afraid to point it out. Our society is one which values the melting pot the, compromise, the voice of the majority. We are coming to the point that truth really has very little meaning in our society because what is true for me might not be true for you. And with is right for me in this situation is not necessarily right for you, or even me, in another circumstance. Jesus spoke out against this type of relativism and situation ethics. Saying there is fundamentally right and wrong. That made him dangerous.
Second Jesus was dangerous because he was an accepter. In a class conscious society, and a society that believed in clean and unclean people- in a society where foreigners were to be feared- lepers avoided- sinners shunned- and women ignored--accepting and loving all of these people is a dangerous thing. He was one who no matter what he knew about a person- whether they are tax cheats, prostitutes, the hemorrhaging woman, the dead little girl Judas, the soldier at the foot of the cross or the thief on the next cross over
c. . It didn’t make any difference to Jesus what your background, your medical condition, your nationality, or your skin color was. It didn’t make any difference to Jesus! Since he didn’t draw the lines where the authorities drew them he was considered dangerous man.
d. Jesus was dangerous because he would not blindly accept the religious tradition.
i. The tradition , for instance of the moneychangers in the temple helping people to make a good sacrifice and the chief priest a good profit..
ii. The tradition, for instance, of not picking grain or healing on the Sabbath or not touching a leper.
iii. Jesus was never heard to utter those now famous words, “But we have never done it that way before..” To the religious establishment Jesus was a dangerous man, a dangerous savior,
e. Finally Jesus was dangerous because he knew and took God's commands and God's heart seriously.
i. Not do not kill, but do not hate
ii. Not do not commit adultery but do not lust
iii. Not do not steal, but do not covet
iv. Not do not hate- but love
Anyone who takes God's heart seriously and expects others to do the same would certainly be considered dangerous in any age, anhy place, any society.
So here we sit. Safe from the garbage that assails us every day of our lives. Safe (we would like to think) from the trauma and violence and hatred that surround us. - Safe behind our stained glass. Safe in our pews. Safe in our singing, safe in our reading, safe inside and safe outside. That’s OK, but if that is where we stop we are in danger rather than being dangerous. If that is where our faith and our ministry stops we are in danger because we are spectators rather than disciples.
The real problem is that we fool ourselves into thinking that we are doing exactly what Jesus would want.
We fool ourselves into thinking that Jesus would be happy with pew potatoes --but Jesus says “Go therefore into all the world”
We fool ourselves into thinking that Jesus guarantees that we will always be safe and successful –but he tells the apostles- if they don’t welcome you, brush the dust from your feet and move on
We fool ourselves into thinking that being a disciple is supposed to be safe and easy and forget that one of Jesus greatest invitations to discipleship was “Pick up your cross and follow me.” In other words take up the instrument of death and come die with Jesus. If death isn’t dangerous, I don’t know what is.
As a church we can not be content with safe, tame, harmless disciples. We must develop dangerous disciples or die. Do you hear me? We must become dangerous disciples or the church will die.
1. Dangerous disciples love God more than anything--- more than themselves, more than their soccer teams even more than their family. In the simplest terms that means they give up whatever it takes to be growing closer to God. Do you hear what I am saying or do you want me to go stepping on toes? Developing Dangerous Disciples means giving up- sacrificing, rescheduling, or saying NO to anything that keeps you from showing your love to God.. How do we show our love to God? Both private and public worship. Let me say this as plainly as I can Being a dangerous disciple requires that you give up- sacrifice, reschedule, or saying NO to anything that keeps you from public and private worship of God. We must love God at all costs.
2. Dangerous disciples also love God's people. It is not always easy to love those with whom we are closest.. We say and do things that hurt each other’s feelings, step on each other’s toes, and neglect each other’s priorities.. That’s the ugly part of being in relationship with anyone, anywhere, and any time. Unfortunately those things happen in the church too. So get over it! Love each other with a love so strong that it is stronger than any hurt feelings. Love with a love that is stronger than any bruised ego. Love with a love so strong that it is infinitely stronger than the disappointment of not getting your own way. That kind of love is a choice. And it is a hard choice. Anyone who says love is easy has never tried it. Love is hard and downright dangerous/ I am glad to take the risk of loving you- though- because God first took the risk of loving me. Dangerous disciples love one another.
3. Finally Dangerous disciples love the world because God loved it first. If loving God were not dangerous enough, and if loving each other wasn’t dangerous enough, dangerous disciples love the world, because God loved it first. Loving the world means first and foremost loving those outside of the church enough to share our dangerous love of God with them-- and give them a glimpse of the dangerous love we have for God's children. Sharing our love for God and love for each other is no little thing. In this egomaniacal, me me me world in which we live people will look down on love, they will not understand love, and they will out of ignorance- even hate those who love. To love the world as God loves it is to risk being misunderstood, falsely accused and mocked. But love me must because that’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
If taking God seriously and changing the world is dangerous, Jesus is like high explosives. When we become disciples of this dangerous savior he hands us a bundle of dynamite-- he lights it--- and he leaves it up to us. We can stand here and pull a Wyllie E Coyote—you know look into the camera and go boom!! Or we can get out of our pews and use it. It is up to you will you be dangerous disciples?
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