CHRISTIANS BEHAVING BADLY: WE ARE WITNESSES

Sermon #1 of the FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) Series

 

 

          Please take your Bibles & turn to the very last book, Revelation, the very last chapter, the very last ten verses.  (You may also find the bulletin insert with these same verses printed on it!)  Seven of these 10 verses were to be our lesson on May 16, but because we were enjoying the children’s cantata, they weren’t preached.   Notice I said, seven of the ten.  That day’s reading had three of the verses removed:  verses 15, 18, &19.[1] 

 

          Read verse 15.   Simply put, it isn’t very nice, is it?  The editors who select these passages know that many persons don’t read along when scripture is read, so we wouldn’t know what the verse actually said.  The reading would proceed without any politically incorrect negativism.

 

          Look at verses 18 & 19 that were also omitted.   They read:

 

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; & if anyone takes away from the words of this book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life …. (bold emphasis mine). --- Rev. 22:18-19

 

Even after being warned, they took out those exact verses.  Imagine! 

 

I don’t think Christians guilty of major, major sins over the centuries set out in life by saying to themselves, “Hmm, I think I’m going to be a judge that sentences witches to death by drowning,” or “I’m going to burn heretics at the stake,” or “I’m going to be a pastor who steals money from the offering plate.”  Goodness, no!  They start out with the little, innocuous things, like tampering with God’s word, despite obvious warnings to the contrary. 

 

When we consider the insidious effect that sin has by starting small, is it any wonder that so many unscrupulous believers across time have disregarded God’s word when it comes to weightier matters of faith & life!?!  It’s easy to wag an accusing finger at the big sinners, but they didn’t start out that way.

 

          Critics of the faith & devout Christians, alike, wonder how Jesus’ followers can be guilty of some of the sins we, Christians, commit.  Especially confounding are those heinous atrocities often done in the name of God, things like the crusades, the Inquisition, witch trials, & finding biblical justification for chattel slavery.  Even church members in bitter conflict with one another cause us to ponder whether some brothers & sisters ever learned the most basic teaching of Jesus, namely, forgiveness.  The Inquisition is long gone, but church members in conflict are alive & well.  There are some who even kill one another, as happened with that cyanide-laced coffee at a Lutheran church in Maine.  That stuff makes for a negative witness around the neighborhood, doesn’t it!?!

 

          As a reader of the Bible, I’m not surprised at this stuff.  Please don’t consider me jaded or cynical, but three chapters into Genesis & the trouble begins.  There were liars & a murderer in the first family.  (You remember Adam & Eve & their first two sons, Cain & Abel.)  Moses was a murderer.  King David was an adulterer.  Rahab was a prostitute.  Ruth slept with a man before she married him.  Matthew was a corrupt tax collector.  Paul conspired to murder Christians.  Corrupt clergy & other faith leaders are well-documented.  I think of Nadab & Abihu, the sons of the chief priest, Aaron, (Leviticus 10), as well as the prophet Samuel’s two sons, Joel (not the prophet) & Abijah (1st Samuel 8).  Talk about rotten PK’s (preacher’s kids)!  Acts 5 records the lying, cheating, & stealing of Ananias & Sapphira, a married couple of lay persons.

 

          The Bible records these sinners & documents their sins.  The Bible also addresses them.  Our lesson from the prophet Malachi is directed at cor-rupt clergy.   God’s not fooled.  God’s on top of this stuff.  And Jesus, too, how many times does he chide his faith’s leaders?  The words he speaks in our gospel lesson are just one example of his disappointment.  Think about the anger he displayed when overturning the tables in the temple!

 

          So, are we surprised at a Christian’s bad behavior?  No, probably not.  Disturbed & saddened (at that behavior)?  Yes, definitely.

 

          When one becomes a Christian, one does not magically become perfect – morally, physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually.  Perfection, or more properly, sanctification is usually a process.  As Martin Luther said, we are simul justus et peccator – simultaneously saved, yet (still) sinner(s).  John Wesley added that we are going on to perfection, honestly striving for it, because we haven’t yet attained it.

 

          None of what I just stated should serve as an excuse.  It may, how-ever, help us understand & be merciful.  Sins – all sins, the big & little sins --  still require Christians who sin to confront them.  And we confront the noto-rious corporate sins I noted in the same way we deal with individual sins.

 

(Because) when someone mentions the Crusades, etc., we can’t ignore the truth of those charges.  When someone points out our personal failings, we don’t make excuses, either.  Instead, we best do four things after sinning.  I call them “The Four A’s.” ---

1)  Admit/acknowledge (confess) our wrongdoing.
2)  Apologize for it. 

3)  Ask forgiveness of those we hurt, including God, who’s hurt. 

4)    Alter our behavior (repent).   Repentance may require restitution.

If any of these steps are too hard to accomplish, then we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to help us with them.  That’s okay.  That’s even better.

 

These steps are absolutely necessary when we sin.  Our faith requires them.  Some of the things we, Christians, have done is terrible.  I hope our critics would accept these sincere acts of contrition & humility.

 

While it is fair to hold us to biblical standard, it is not fair to exagge-rate our sins, something that is popular to do in certain circles, nowadays.  It’s quite the sport to bash people of faith, such that religious folk in gener-al, & Christians in particular, are seen as what’s wrong with the world.[2]

 

Our sins, while inexcusable, at least deserve to be put into their proper context.  Tell the whole story.  In the interest of time, I’ll only cite a few examples now, but please know that more are contained in the printed text at the hospitality desk & on our website.

For example:

> Regarding the Crusades: Did you know that it took Christians 200 years to muster an armed military response, while during all that time Muslim incursions slowly took over major parts of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, & Europe?  The peaceful means employed failed for two centuries, until they finally resorted to self-defense.

 

Did you know that some of the so-called Christian crusaders went after fellow believers in Constantinople?  This was a political, power-motivated enterprise, not just a religious endeavor to beat back Muslims.


Did you know that the Christians who did return home after the Crusades often returned poorer than when they set out?  They did not get wealthy from plundering the treasures of Islam.

 

Regarding the Spanish Inquisition:  1,500 to 4,000 persons were executed over the 350-year history of those heresy trials.[3]   Terrible!  Did you know that most of the Christians found guilty of various forms of heresy were sentenced to what we would call “community service,” not death? It wasn’t a three-centuries-long torture chamber, as we’re often led to believe.  Information adding context is important, not to excuse, but bring perspective. 

 

Did you know that the British government exaggerated the evils of these Roman Catholic courts because Protestant England often was at war with Catholic Spain?

 

Regarding the Salem Witch Trials:  We’re taught that Christians started this sad chapter in our colonial history, but did you know that it was a Christian, named Increase Mather, who put an end to these trials? 


Did you know that despite the commonly-inflated numbers, 25 persons died?  19 were hanged, one was pressed to death & the rest died in jail.  Again, let’s be honest about the maddening reality, not make it worse than it was.

 

And regarding other items in history…. 

We know that missionaries were sometimes guilty of not appreciating native culture.  But did you know that countless God-revering missionaries brought life-saving changes to indigenous people living in unsanitary, dangerous (even murderous), needy & dire circumstances?  They deserve some credit.

 

 Did you know that the Roman Catholic Church not only expressed disagreement at how Native Americans were exploited by the mercantilist policies of Spain, but brought many positive changes to those peoples with their missionaries?

 

 Did you know that it was Christians in Great Britain who were responsible for ending the slave trade in that country & got written into law that the nation pay restitution as punishment for it (which it did at great cost!), that the Southern Baptist Convention apologized for being on the wrong side of slavery, that Canadian Lutherans apologized for their founder being anti-Jewish, that Pope John Paul II apologized for the Roman Catholic Church’s anti-Jewish attitudes & actions over the centuries, & that some of Israel’s best friends are conservative Christians here in the US?  We don’t hear about these things too often, do we?

 

It is fair to chastise Christians for our shameful mistakes.  The evils we own cannot & should not be downplayed.  The issue is a two-sided coin, however.  There is much good done in the name of Christ: art, architect-ture, music, literature, government, hospitals, orphanages, homeless shel-ters, environmental & relief organizations that respond to disasters in Indo-nesia, Haiti, & the Gulf Coast, provide medical care, malaria netting, food, clothing, & encouragement.   Critics, though, want to make faith the “bad guy,” suggesting that a world without religion would be far better. 

 

Let’s examine that thesis for a minute.  The 20th century saw several atheist totalitarian regimes.  Their results can help us decide whether faith or no faith is better for humankind.  By numbers alone, the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin (not even the other leaders) killed 20 million of their own people.  Chairman Mao, when leading communist China, killed 70 million.  Adolf Hitler, by these calculations, almost appears to be the good guy!  He “only” slaughtered 10 million persons (6 million of them were Jews). 

 

Put this into perspective.  Over the course of 500 years, Christians are responsible for 200,000 deaths in the U.S. & Europe.  Pathetic!  One is bad enough.  In a few decades, however, the three biggest atheist regimes alone killed 100 million persons.[4]   I rest my case.  Christendom has its problems, but not nearly the horrors of atheism.  Show me one atheist-inspired orphanage or homeless shelter.

 

Again, I am not excusing our bad behavior as Christians.

 

Folks have a right to be, & should be, outraged over the priest who molests a child or the missionary who arrogantly disrespects a native culture.  We are properly grieved by the pastor who has an affair & the horrors that persons commit by vainly taking God’s name as justification for their wrong-headed actions.  We’re appropriately angered when that TV preacher living a lavish lifestyle bilks viewers out of hard-earned cash. 

 

So, what do we do with all of this, especially when confronted? 

 

First, act on “The 4 A’s”  I mentioned earlier: admit, apologize, ask forgiveness, & alter behavior.   This is a good habit to get into any day.  Sadly, while we might not commit these same past mistakes, we will commit mistakes in the future, so the four steps are necessary to practice.

 

Second, realize that anyone can do evil things in God’s name.  That’s called taking God’s name in vain.  God warned us not to do this (Exodus 20:7), but persons have.  That’s no reflection on God.  It’s actually unjust, & illogical, to blame God for human mistakes.  Don’t tar & feather all Christian faith.  Judge Jesus by his teachings & life, not by followers who’ve gone astray & abused their free will.

 

Third, realize there is a clear difference between nominal, cultural Christians & authentic Christians.  Some persons genuinely live their faith daily.   Others, we know this, look good Sunday morning, but engage in behavior that ignores Jesus the other six & a half days of the week.  People see that, too.  As I said a few seconds ago, “Anyone can claim the name of Jesus.” Not to be fooled, though, Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16).  

 

What I’m saying in all of this is that although we can lament the mistakes of the past – ours & those of Christians centuries before us -- it would be far better if we resolve to be different & truly become different.  It’s that fourth “A” to alter behavior.

 

  Granted, because we are not perfect, to varying degrees, we are hypocritical.  Sin is a sickness.  Are we suffering from a cold, those acci-dental & occasional sins, that can be easily cured?  Or, in some cases, are we burdened with a more serious disease, a long-time pattern of disobed-ience, requiring major treatment, surgery, therapy, etc?  How are we addressing our illnesses, those shortcomings: with an “I-don’t-care” shrug of the shoulders, or confronting them head on with the help of Christ & his living Spirit? 

 

It’s our experience that hypocrisy is the norm for Christians.  History teaches that wasn’t always the case.  Many Christians were genuinely good & nice people.  How do you think the church grew exponentially in those first centuries, if hypocrisy was the norm?  It wasn’t.  Certainly, Chris-tians were not perfect individuals, but they did take their faith sincerely.  They lived it in ways that were congruent with what Christ modeled.  Their daily lives became a witness that attracted & won new believers to the faith.  Jesus was their standard & non-Christians saw that consistency between Jesus & his followers, between the faith they professed & the life the lived.  It was contagious & captivating.  Persons looked at that kind of life & wanted it for themselves.

 

Is that how we live?  Oh, yes, we fall short, but how far short do we fall?  Is it the common cold that we have, or are we cancerously disease- ridden, mutilated, & deformed?  What do others see in our lives?  Truly, we are Christ’s witnesses - no escaping it.  What kind of witnesses are we?


Jesus puts God first & tells us to do likewise.  Jesus says to love God by loving others, especially the unlovable.

 

The example of Jesus & a life changed by him are what we need to embrace.  We acknowledge our sins, while well aware that the propensity to sin remains in us.  An attitude of humility & acts of service help correct, & more importantly, prevent our individual & communal failings.

 

If you want to be different, than the record we’ve examined…  If you want to be better, than many nominal Christians have  been, than you have been…  If you want a faith that profoundly changes you to sincerely be the best person God created & re-created you to be …then take this time on your knees at holy communion today to commit yourself to change.  We can’t just point fingers & hang our heads low at a shame-ful past, without owning the fact that we, too, fall short of Christ’s ideal. 

 

The Good News, though is resurrection makes forgiveness ours, provides us with another chance at goodness, & gives the one thing we all need – hope!   (Because) perfection – “holiness of heart & life,” Wesley called it -- really is where we want to end up.  Don’t abandon that goal.  Don’t just dejec-tedly limp along figuring you’ll get there sooner or later.  Be empowered by the Holy Spirit now to find meaning & reach that spiritual destination. 

 

          Sin infects & changes us.  Christ’s love can transform us, too.  We are witnesses either way.  Sin destroys life.  Christ brings meaning to life.  Without Christ there is no genuine hope.  With him, we bring hope to the world.                In the Name…

 

Note:  Persons are encouraged to review the following texts & their sources in order to verify the facts cited herein.  Most notably recommended are two New York Times bestsellers: Indian scholar, Dinesh D’Souza’s 2007 book, What’s So Great About Christianity?; & former atheist, Lee Strobel’s 2000 book, The Case for Faith.

 

 


[1] The Revised Common Lectionary is a three-year cycle of four readings each Sunday (Old Testament, psalm, gospel, & epistle).  An interdenominational group of editors/scholars selects the verses with the intention that preachers expose their congregations to a broad range of Bible texts.

[2] See books by Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell), Sam Harris (The End of Faith), Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great), et al (etc.)

[3] How many persons have received capital punishment sentences in our nations’ 234-year history.  The Inquisitors thought they were doing right to criminals/heretics.  We believe the same with the convicted criminals we execute.  It’s a different age, but a similar concept.

[4] This figure does not include smaller atheist dictatorships like Cambodia under Pol Pot (see the film , The Killing Fields), which adds another 1.5 – 2 million lives to the total.  One could add other Soviet & Chinese dictators, Kim Jong-il, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Nicolae Ceausescu, Fidel Castro, et al.