Dangerous church: dangerous God
August 16th 2009
Rumc
Boy it’s nice to be in church isn’t it? It’s comfortable- are you comfortable, not too hot, would you like a pillow. How about a foot stool?
Is the light OK, how about the pews- too hard? To straight up and down? Is cliff here- maybe we can get the trustees to consider installing a lazy boy for each of us? That way we could be comfortable on Sunday morning.
Who among us doesn’t like to be comfortable? If uncomfortable was a good thing you ladies would still be wearing corsets. Men would still be wearing hair shirts, and children would enjoy sizzle of their legs on the shinny aluminum slide on the hottest summer afternoon. We all value safety, and comfort, and restfulness and calm.
But I’m sorry that’s not what we are talking about today.
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Although the church ought to have a core of safe, relationships where we take care of each other and watch each other’s backs and nurture each other-- you have done a great job with that. But if the church stops there it is not the church.
I want to tell you today that I don’t want to belong to a safe church. I have belonged to safe churches all my life and do you know what happens in safe churches- NOTHING.
I’m tired of leading a safe church-But if being a safe church means we can’t say anything that is going to ruffle feathers I don’t want anything to do with it.
If being a safe church means that we can’t address the important issues of the day because it might be controversial I don’t want anything to do with it.
If being a safe church means that we only do things the way have always done them, I don’t want to have anything to do with it.
If being a safe church means building a privacy fence around your relationship with God, I don’t want to have anything to do with it.
If being a safe church means that we can’t make mistakes, I don’t want to have anything to do with it.
It is my job to tell you today that we can not afford to be a safe church. We can not afford to play it safe. We can not afford to value safety over faithfulness.
This series will argue that we worship a dangerous God, we follow a dangerous savior, live in a dangerous world, have a dangerous mission, are called to be dangerous disciples, experience dangerous transformation, dangerous generosity, and dangerous devotion. And if we are to be faithful to who God calls us to be; we must be a dangerous church.
We must reject the popular and easy attitude that all is well and we just have to keep doing what we have always done. If we do that they say that by 2020 the rural church in America will be dead- a mere shadow of itself with 75% of you dead or moved.
We must reject the warped separation of church and state which has come to mean keeping the church out of everything important.
We must reject modern Christianity that has abandoned the biblical principles of righteousness and justice- that has abandoned its historical roots that lead John Wesley to go to the people who needed the message and preach on stumps outside the factories.
We must reject safe Christianity and reclaim the courage of the circuit riders who rode right behind the pioneers to settle the west.
“Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors” was a great idea but it wasn’t very successful because many of our churches lacked the first two and opening our doors revealed empty pews, empty faith and empty ministry.
I reject business as usual in the church- and from this day on I refuse to lead in a safe church in a dying denomination.
And I hope you do too. That’s what I’m counting on anyway.
But we have to back up and see why this is important. This is not my agenda. This is not my soapbox. This is not my program. In fact it is not a program at all. We are going to start the process of rethinking what it means to be church. And today we start with the startling reality that we worship a dangerous God.
If God were a God who played it safe God would never have created us. That’s the truth. If God wanted to play it safe at the very least he would have created robots or puppets. But NO- God took a chance from the very beginning, creating human beings in his image. In other words with free will. With the ability to choose right or wrong- love or hate- obedience or sin- joy or despair- worship or distain- God or No God.
If God was a safe God there would only be one road to follow. If God were a safe God, there would have been no serpent, no fruit in the garden, and no ability to choose.
But lest you think that was some kind of Divine faux-pas; that is the way God has operated through all of history.
Who forced Noah to build an ark? Could God have done it? Sure.
Who destroyed Abraham’s home so he would have to take his family and cattle and move to a new land? Could God have operated that way? SURE.
Who picked up Moses and magically transported him to Pharaoh’s court so Pharaoh would listen to him about freeing the Israelites? It didn’t happen that way? Isn’t that a little strange? Wouldn’t that have been a safer route to go than the burning bush? I think so- but God IS NOT INTERESTED IN TAKING THE SAFE ROUTE.
Who struck down Pharaoh and put a new kinder, gentler ruler in place when the Israelites cried out from their slavery. No one? Hmm. Don’t you think God could have done that?
Who kept the people of
Who kept Jonah from getting on the ship going the opposite direction God asked him to go? No one? Well, couldn’t God have just made that ship late so Jonah wouldn’t have the choice? I suspect so!
Do you see that God is not a God who has been known to play it safe?
How about the Exile? When the people were unfaithful, God allowed them to be carried off to a different country. Could that have backfired? Yep, did that stop God? NO.
Then, get this- when the people got to comfortable offering their calves and grain, and thought they had the world, including God by the tail. When the worship of God became a safe ritual with little or no faith- with little or no justice- with little or no righteousness-- with little or no danger that anyone would be touched, affected or changed - God said “you offerings mean nothing to me- what does the lord require”-
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:7-8)
It is not the old rituals, the customs, the way we have always done things, the comfortable, the easy, the safe, or the secure that pleases God.
God is a God who takes risks, embraces the unknown, pushes people out of their comfort zone, requires a leap of faith, imposes a cost on discipleship, and is not satisfied until we have left everything behind- our comfort, our security, our traditions, our possessions, our desires, our will, our greed, our selfishness, our stubbornness, our pride and our lives. EVERYTHING must be laid aside in order to follow the God who risks everything in order to be in relationship with you. But that is the subject of next week’s sermon.
Are you ready? Are you ready to embark on this journey with me? A journey that is as exciting as any you could imagine. I don’t know when we will arrive because like Abraham God just says “GO.” I don’t know where we will land; because God just says “Go” I don’t know what we will look like when we get there. There is a good chance that we will be bruised. There is a good chance that we will get lost along the way. There is a good chance that we will end up backing up because we went down a dead end. But I can guarantee that we will not be who we are today. I can guarantee that we will not be where we are today. And I can guarantee that whoever we are and wherever we land, God will is already there waiting for us. Preparing for us. Calling us. and leading us to rethink what it means to be church.
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God- it is just a joy to be in your worship today. What a privilege to sing your praises, hear your word and pray to you. The options you lay before us are awesome- faith or doubt- life and death- love and hate. Lord help us to be faithful in all things. We do not want to make church all about us, but all about you. We do not want our congregation to be a social club, but the body of Christ. We do not want to be those who choose the easy way, but those who choose the right way- your way- the disciple way.
The needs of those near to us are overwhelming. We can’t begin to name all the persons who need special attention. You are faithful and just, though, and already know those needs before we pray. Make us faithful in being answers to our own prayers as you call us. Send us out with quick feet, gentle hands, gentle tongues, and kind hearts to speak your word of hope and salvation to persons who are broken and hurting.
We give you all the thanks an praise lord. We honor you and give you all the glory, Lord, Hear our prayer.
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