Sermon for March 27, 2011

Reflecting on Commitment
Text: John 15:18-25
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
March 27, 2011

If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.

These chapters from the Gospel of John are what is usually called Jesus’ Final Discourse. It is a theological rationale for who he was, what he was, and an explanation about his ministry. It is, in so many ways, a classic apologia, a discourse telling the world, who and what he was.

And there are the words. If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. These are words that cannot have mad the apostles jump up and say, “Wow, we’re really excited about this!!!” These are words to the effect that Jesus is saying, “If you follow me, people will hate you.” Jesus was also correct about this.

Jesus was warning them that following him, being a Christian, was going to be difficult. Making a commitment to follow Jesus is one thing; living out that commitment is an entirely other thing. Sometimes reflecting on the commitment we make to God is worthwhile.

The commitment to Christ has never been an easy one.

In the early Christian church being a Christian was illegal. The Romans persecuted the early Christians, the ancient Jews struggled the early Christians, and the early Christians persecuted each other because they didn’t all agree with one another.

As time went on the persecution of Christians was mostly done by other Christians. The Spanish Inquisition pre-dated the Protestant Reformation and it was Christians persecuting other Christians for often minor variations of belief.

After the time of the Protestant Reformation there was widespread persecution of Christians by other Christians. There was, of course, conflict between the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, but there were also internal conflicts among Roman Catholics and among Protestants. If you lived in Geneva at the time of John Calvin and disagreed with him, you were in mortal danger. Christians not only argued with one another, they persecuted and killed one another.

So being a Christian has never been particularly easy.

In recent years things have changed in so many ways, but in other ways, the same problems that Christianity has wrestled with still remain.

When North Korea became a Communist country they were officially atheists. One day the government announced, however, that all Christians could practice their faith openly and encouraged everyone who really believed in God to attend Worship on a particular Sunday. On that day people excitedly went to Worship and the churches were packed. And in all the churches around the country, the doors were bolted and the churches were burned to the ground filled with worshipers. It was a horrible display of persecution. Christians throughout the world have suffered at the hands of those who hate people who have faith in Jesus Christ.

In our nation and place in time, we celebrate a freedom of religion that is good. But it doesn’t mean that Christianity is thriving. In fact, if you research it, Worship attendance across the country has been on a downward turn for years. The largest religious growth group in the United States are people who call themselves ‘spiritual, but not religious.’ Some are on a journey real of faith and some are not. But one of the biggest problems so many people have is Christianity is seen in a variety of ways, and many of those ways are not very helpful.

People like to blame the government or the news media, or science, or 1001 other things, but, as throughout history, the biggest problem with Christianity has been the way it’s been practiced. A major factor in the diminishment of Christianity has not been from outside of Christianity, but within ourselves.

I want to reflect on two things.

The first is this. Author Scott McKnight argues that one of the primary sins that hinders the progress of the gospel is individualism.

“Individualism is an intentional march away from Eden, away from God and away from others. When the gospel is packaged as attractive to individuals instead of a community, the problem is only compounded. Individualism makes God and others into commodities we choose to further our own ends”


One of the most common words used in the Bible is the Greek word koinonia. It is most usually translated as communion, association, fellowship, sharing, common, contribution, or partnership. Christianity from the very beginning existed as a corporate reality, as a community. To be Christian meant just to belong to the community. Nobody could be Christian by himself or herself, as an isolated individual, but only together with others.

The dictionary defines individualism as, "the leading of one's life in one's own way without regard for others." The definition and recognizing that the church is about community, demonstrates that individualism and Christianity have little in common.

Yet, in recent years, individualism has arisen in Christianity a great deal. In recent weeks I’ve been reading about people attacking a new book by Rob Bell entitled, Love Wins. A pastor in North Carolina was fired by his congregation because, horror of horrors, he agreed with Bell that God’s grace is all pervasive. One critic of Bell said that we are nothing without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Funny thing about that expression, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you ask older people they’ll tell you that they never recall that being talked about in church. The reason is, it wasn’t. It’s usage became more and more popular in more recent years when individualism began to permeate society and Christianity. The expression a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is not in the Bible. When people say we are nothing without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ they are not citing te Bible and they are not citing anything prevalent in historic Christianity.

Christianity has always been communal and being around others and serving others. While I would never tell anyone that they should not develop a personal relationship with God or personally pray or personally make choices about their faith, I would never say that we are nothing without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

And the more Christianity embraces the concept of individualism, the idea that it’s all about me, the more we will diminish.

The second thing is this.

Over the years we’ve come to diminish God.

The other day I was doing some research for this sermon and I was listening to sermons about God and people’s perceptions on God and salvation. One man in Arizona really stood out.

He preached a sermon about Joel Osteen, the Pastor of the largest church in the country and a proponent of the so-called prosperity Gospel. This guy said that Osteen was going to hell.

He preached a sermon about Billy Graham. We’ve all heard of Billy Graham. He’s going to hell as well, according to this guy.

If you read or use any Bible besides the 1611 King James Version. Hell. If you are a woman who wears a head covering----most especially if you are an Amish woman wearing a head covering. Hell. If you’ve ever practiced birth control. Hell. Gay? Hell. Every said hello to a gay person. Hell. Went to college. Hell. The Pope. Hell. Roman Catholics. Hell.

He never mentioned the United Church of Christ, but if I had to guess I’d guess his perception is that our futures are warm.

His perception of God strikes me as being a God who views human life as a Pass/Fail course, and most people Fail. It seems like a really small image of God.

Or there is the image of God as a cosmic Santa Claus. If we ask God for something, we’ll get it. Want a pony----then pray for a pony and God will give you a pony.

If someone is sick and you really have faith, then pray for them and they will get well.

At the casino and want to win big? Just pray and it’ll come true.

Want your team to win the big game? Just pray and they’ll do it.

Again, this is a small image of God. Most of us don’t get the ponies, everyone ultimately dies, and despite the fervent prayers from up the road, most people don’t beat the casino’s odds. And Lord knows I’ve prayed for the Giants during games as so many people have done for their teams, and have had my heart broken.

But my point is this. Whenever people who are Christians make God small, when we make God exclusionary, when we make God into little more than a cosmic Santa Claus, or do whatever it is we do to make God smaller, we make God less Godlike and when God is no longer God, when God is no longer beyond our comprehension and ability to fully understand, we make God easy to dismiss. And when we make God easy to dismiss we make it easy for people to not really have a need to commit----and we make ourselves have an easier time not committing.

What made commitment difficult in Jesus’ time was danger. What made commitment difficult in later times was confusion and danger. And what makes commitment difficult now is losing the communal emphasis of the Gospel and diminishing God down to our size.

The Gospel is not easy. God is not easy. As we travel this season of Lent, let’s not embrace a God who is easy to embrace and easy to understand, but let us together, as a community, embrace the Gospel, and embrace God, for what is really there.