Are we Christians, or “Pre” Christians?

The following “sermon” was presented at Tyler Unity Center on Sunday, July 8, 2007. Our pastor had called me that Friday, sounding terribly ill, and asked me if I could conduct the service for her. So I spent much of my day on Saturday writing the following presentation, and on Sunday, delivered the following lesson. I started with a bit of humor from a sermon I had heard many years ago that had stuck in my memory, and then launched into what turned into a summary of most everything I think is wrong with the American brand of “Christianity,” and how we can fix it….

Humor

A man was walking down a path one day, his mind wandering, as our minds often do, distracted by his current daydream to the point that he failed to notice the path’s end as he tumbled over the steep edge….

Grasping at the air as he toppled, he managed to grab hold of a singular sapling protruding from the side of the steep canyon as he watched one of his shoes falling hundreds of feet through the air towards its certain demise.

Dangling there, his grip weakening and hoping to avoid a fate similar to that of his lost shoe, the man looked upwards toward the heavens and considered his next move.

Realizing that no escape was possible, and considering that he had never been a particularly religious man, he fell back on his only remaining option, which involved a sudden spiritual revelation and a desire to speak to God.

“Hello?” He shouted, desperately, “I know I’ve never been a religious man, God, but if you help me out of this one, I promise to always do right by you here on out!”

He listened for a few seconds, and then a faint voice carried on the breeze came back to him – “I am the Lord thy God, and I will save you if you will only believe in me and do what I say.”

“Sure, God!” He screamed back, his grip slowly slipping. “Anything you say. I believe in you and promise to do whatever you say! But Please hurry – I can’t hold much longer!”

Once again, the faint voice of God was carried to the man upon a gentle breeze. “Let go of the branch,” the voice said.

Silence, then “Excuse me?” the man asked.

“Let go of the branch,” the gentle voice of God repeated.

The man was silent for a while, his mind racing with fear and hope, after which he responded, “Is there anyone else up there I can talk to?”

-- so listening to the small, still voice (it seems) can be important when we least expect it… and its message can often surprise us.

Disclaimer

Some people hold on to biblical scripture as the literal transcription on the word of God, as though an elderly bearded man dictated it to a secretary who faithfully jotted down each syllable.

Others see it as a hopelessly outdated and trivial artifact, with no more pertinence to the modern world than an eight track tape and of little value to us -- even as a collection of stories.

No matter where you are on the scale of biblical literalist to biblical dismissivist (a word I just made up), we must all agree that the book does hold great significance to a lot of people.

I like to believe that we all have a direct connection to the Christ Spirit within us – and that we therefore don’t necessarily need a preacher or any particular book or passage to tell us what the small, still voice of God is saying.

Still, I see the bible as a captivating and revealing connection with history, and feel we can glean much from its pages in order to grow and know.

It is in this spirit that I hope you will indulge today’s short pursuit of some practical uses of the book so pervasive, that it’s latin origin comes from the word meaning, simply, “book.”

Lesson

Introduction

We have heard many lessons about the importance of changing ourselves rather than changing others.

The gospel of Matthew quotes Christ as saying, “They do not take the log out of their own eye before attempting to remove the splinter from someone elses!” (Matthew 7.3)

Then in the Gospel of John, he says, “He who is without sin cast the first stone!” (John 8.7)

Many new testament scriptures and therefore many lessons here and elsewhere focus on our being less concerned with the spiritual journeys taken by others… and more focused on our own journeys.

Our pastor once made a comment, during one of her “talks” to the effect that we might consider listening to her lesson in terms of our own life – rather than applying it (as we so often do) to the person sitting next to us on the pew.

-- I don’t know about you, but she had caught me “red-handed” – as I realized that I was, in fact, not thinking about me but someone else as she spoke. I chuckled to myself… only slightly embarrassed… and allowed the rest of her lesson to be about me.

It was a healthy reminder – since we are often inclined to think first of the lessons that others need to learn before we consider our own.

After all, it’s always easier to fix other peoples’ problems, right?

But still… even realizing the importance of our own spiritual journeys… at some point we have to accept that we are social animals.

“Changing ourselves” doesn’t always seem to be enough, does it?

Why else would we have taken physical form if not to touch – to feel – to make a difference in the lives of others?

That’s why we write books and poetry and music and feel the need to speak – to be heard – because our own internal spiritual journeys don’t seem sufficient to satisfy our apparent need to make a difference in this magnificent natural world.

Could it be that part of our own spiritual journey IS to affect others?

For many, Christ’s message of “not casting the first stone” or “removing the log” from their own eye does not satisfy their compulsion – their innate need – to reach out and touch the lives of others.

That’s what I’d like to talk about today… it involves reconciling the idea of Christ’s message of our internal spiritual growth with our innate need to be part of an external community and our “God-given” compulsion to want to change the world.

I’ve entitled today’s lesson:

Reconciling the Personal Journey with the Social Quest

That’s a good topic, isn’t it?

-- I mean, don’t you agree that the world still has some room for improvement?

How can we help but want to improve more than just ourselves – to want to leave the world in just a little better shape than we found it?

This issue, by the way, isn’t a new one. It’s been an ongoing debate since Christ threw his first wrench into the machine of religion.

Since Christ brought us his revolutionary “New Covenant,” we have struggled with it’s poetic simplicity on the one hand… and on the other hand with the fact that it doesn’t seem to allow us to do the one thing we like to do most – which is telling other people what they should be doing.

Think about it. The old testament was kind of fun in a way. It had all kinds of rules, from dietary limitations to work schedules to building codes to sexual and relationship prohibitions.

And there’s a part of us that likes such rules. After all, the more rules we have… the less we are required to think.

There’s a comfort in that – the comfort of security. And people have always been prone to sacrifice their freedom for some extra security. Just look at our President and the “Patriot Act,” which – with the stroke of a pen – took away most of our civil liberties (like the right of trial or counsel) in order to protect us from “terrorism.”

Similarly, the old testament made it easy to tell people what to do.

Hell, in the old testament, you couldn’t even look over your shoulder without being turned into a pillar of salt!

Still, it offered in its sometimes stifling and even contradictory dogma, the security of knowing God’s will for those who were chosen by God to follow His will.

And then this hippie comes along and screws everything up.

His name was “Jesus,” and he tells everyone, “I want you to forget that old covenant – I have a new one that you can replace it with. You remember all those commandments and rules and dietary restrictions and stuff about sacrificing small animals? – … well, let’s try this, instead:”

And Jesus said: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” John 13:34

We’ve all heard that verse from the gospel of John… and it sounds beautiful, but to the untrained ear, it appears to leave much unsaid.

I mean… surely Jesus didn’t intend to replace all the protections provided by the biblical “Patriot Act” (the Old Testament) with that one simple, poetic rule to love one another!

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