April 27, 2008 - "How Do We Talk About Our Faith In A Pluralistic World?"

Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
Easter 6
April 27, 2008
W. Gregory Pope

HOW DO WE TALK
ABOUT OUR FAITH
IN A PLURALISTIC WORLD?

Acts 17:22-34; Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21

A couple of weeks ago the city of Louisville awoke to the ground shifting beneath our feet. Tremors from a real live earthquake. For the past couple of decades the religious landscape has also been shifting beneath our feet. Tremors from a real live faithquake, to use a word by Leonard Sweet.

If you fell asleep in 1950 and woke up today you would perhaps feel as though you had traveled to another planet, religiously speaking. It is a very different world than the one in which most us grew up. In the 1950's cutting edge Interfaith Conversations would have taken place between Baptists and Catholics. Today the conversations take place between Christians and Jews and Buddhists and Muslims.

Back in 1950 many Christians did not even know someone of another religion. Today Buddhists and Jews and Muslims and Christians are neighbors.

Fifty years ago the Bible was the only holy book most of us knew existed. Now we are aware of the Koran, The Bhaghava Gita, and the Tao Te Ching. In this new world, there is no longer just one holy book embraced by all as the authority on religious truth. In this new world there are voices from various other religions calling for the freedom to express their faith and not be forced to practice Christianity by praying the Lord’s Prayer at a high school football game or going to court to find the Ten Commandments hanging there.

It’s a whole new world. We call it “postmodern” and “pluralistic,” even “post-Christian.” (And if you define being Christian according to the teachings of Jesus, I’m not sure our world or nation ever was Christian.)

“Pluralism” is the recognition of other voices of religious authority and the diversity of cultures living together in one place.

“Postmodernism” is a rejection of the idea that the only truth we can know is that which can be proven by the modern scientific method. In some of its forms, postmodernism denies the reality of absolute truth altogether. Many postmoderns do not believe there is a such thing as absolute truth: Whatever is true for me may not be true for you.

The faithquake that is taking place is a move beyond that which is logical and rational to the experiential. More and more people today are embracing what we have often called the supernatural. People are very much into spirituality these days. Spirituality of all stripes. All you need to do is check out the local bookstore.

And has this evermore created an earthquake within the church. Some within the church have so strongly rebelled against postmodernism and our pluralistic society that they have narrowed the definition of truth so thin that they exclude all who disagree with them. I do not think that is the most helpful response to the world in which we live.

This morning I want us to think together about what it means to share our faith in this new world. How do we go about fulfilling the Great Commission to go into all the world sharing the gospel and making disciples?

Let me begin by saying that I think we as genuine Baptists are best suited for a postmodern world because of our emphasis on individual freedom. The last thing our postmodern pluralistic world is going to listen to is the church telling them how wrong their beliefs are and forcing down their throats what we think are the right beliefs. No one is led to change their minds or to understand something in a new way when they are told their beliefs are stupid and that they must see things our way because we alone possess the truth about God. For us to be able to say as Baptist Christians that we respect every person’s right to believe as they feel led to believe will go a long way in gaining an audience for us to share our faith.

There is a fascinating conversation going on these days among those who call themselves part of the Emergent Church. Some within this group believe the church is in the midst of such a seismic shift it is not an understatement to call it a Reformation, equivalent to the changes that came with the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. I tend to agree with them. One of the leaders, Tony Jones, has written a remarkable book entitled The New Christians.

The Emergent Church includes conservatives and progressives who together are seeking a third way between fundamentalism and liberalism. They are creating faith communities made up of people from all political and theological perspectives. They do not all believe the same thing. But one thing they do hold in common is the conviction that God’s truth comes to us best as we talk about scripture and share our faith experiences together in community.

They are often accused of not believing in absolute truth, but as Jones writes, “We believe in absolute truth, we just don’t believe we can know what it is.” It is a humble and open approach to belief and faith. And I, for one, think it is the way church ought to be. Whenever we talk about God, Paul tells us we see through a glass dimly. We can only know in part. Therefore humility and openness is required.

That doesn’t mean we take the stance that all truth is relative. It does mean that as Christians we do not possess the whole truth about God or the world. And that humble acknowledgment is one of the best places to start when talking about our faith with others.

In our epistle lesson for today, Peter tells us to be prepared to give an account of the hope that is within us, to be ready to talk about our faith, but to do so with gentleness and reverence.

It is crucial, I think, to look at the world and realize why many of us hold to the particular faith that we do. If the truth be told, many of us are Christian simply because of the home in which we are raised. This is not the case with all Christians, but it is true about most of us. For most of us our parents or grandparents were Christian, and they made sure we were in a Christian church.

And if our home was not Christian chances were very strong that if we were going to adopt any religion it would be Christian simply because of the country in which we live.

Though other religions are growing in this country, the largest number of religious people in America are Christian. And if you are born into this country to parents of no religious persuasion, if you adopt a particular religion on your own, chances are in America it will be Christian. Even more so if you live in the American South, a South Flannery O’Connor characterized as not so much Christ-centered as Christ-haunted. Jesus is everywhere, distorted though he may be. He is the shining silver buckle on the Bible belt.

What I want us to realize is that being Christian for most of us wasn’t a choice as much as it was something into which we grew. Yes, we chose to be baptized and join the church, but for most of us there wasn’t much of a chance that we would choose another religion.

And the reason why this is important to realize is because the same is true for people who grow up in other parts of the world. If you had grown up in India you can almost be certain that you would be Hindu rather than Christian. If you were born in Iraq or Iran, you can almost be assured that you would be Muslim. You would know nothing else.

To be a Muslim and have a Christian missionary living near you in Iran, sharing with you about the Christian faith, would seem as strange to you as it would today to have a Muslim missionary living in your neighborhood now trying to evangelize you and your Christian family into the Muslim faith.

The truth of the matter is I cannot say, just as you cannot say, that we would be Christian today had we been raised in a Muslim or Jewish home. Chances are we would not. And we must rid ourselves of the notion that all Buddhists and Hindus and Jews and others of non-Christian religions are heathen pagans who recognize Christianity as true but refuse to accept it.

Muslim children sit on their grandma’s knee and hear stories of Mohammed. Buddhist children hear stories of Buddha and how to follow the path of Enlightenment. Jews gather as a family every year around the table at Passover to tell their defining story of how God delivered them out of slavery in Egypt. These are not families who are intentionally leading their children astray from what they believe to be the truth of Christianity. Rather, they believe in their hearts just as we believe in ours that their particular path to God is real and true.

Other religions and those who practice them deserve our respect. Several years ago I was part of a series of interfaith conversations and one Jewish man shared how rare it is to find a Jewish child who has not been told by some Christian that they and their family are going to Hell. To tell a child that is not in the least bit Christian.

It makes me think of Southern Baptist evangelist Bailey Smith’s words on the platform of the Southern Baptist Convention when he proclaimed to a standing ovation, “God Almighty does not hear the prayers of a Jew.” Who are we to say whom God will or will not listen to!

I believe that God Almighty hears the prayers of every Jew and the prayers of every human being created in God’s image. And every person, no matter what their religion, deserves our respect for the beliefs they hold dear, as long as those beliefs do not bring harm to others.

We learn to respect one other’s religious beliefs by entering into conversation with those of other faiths. Recent books on evangelism are saying “count conversations, not conversions.” I believe it is a biblical model of evangelism, exemplified by Jesus and Paul.

You don’t have to share a person’s belief system to respect their faith. And we do not need to relinquish our beliefs and our convictions to the point of relativity whereby we say it doesn’t matter what you believe. It does matter. It matters to the Jew, to the Buddhist, the Hindu, and the Muslim, and they expect our beliefs to matter to us.

It is important as a Christian for you to maintain the centrality of Jesus for your life. Just do not be arrogant about it and force others to accept your beliefs. We must give others the same respect and freedom concerning their religion that we want for ourselves.

I want the freedom to personally believe in the centrality of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. I wholeheartedly believe that the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus point us to the one God of Creation more clearly than any other source of revelation we have known. Jesus brings God near to me. He is, to borrow John A. T. Robertson’s phrase, “the human face of God” for me. The Christian faith’s assertion is that Jesus Christ is our best glimpse into the mind and heart and being of God. Not the only revelation, but the most complete.

As for me, I seek to order my life around the Christian vision of reality, no doubt because it is what my parents and church have taught me since birth, but also because I find profound meaning in the Christian vision. The Christian story serves as the foundational lense through which I see and live in the world. The Christian story helps me make sense of the world. It provides me with a most meaningful way of relating to God, to others, and to all creation. The Christian vision envelopes my life and I believe the way of Jesus to be the way of truth and purposeful living. It is the basis of my hope for eternal life. And that is why I choose as an adult to be Christian and to be a pastor.

But in talking about my faith with others, I must realize that my Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim sisters and brothers believe as wholeheartedly in their faith as I do in mine. They read and seek to follow their sacred writings as I seek to follow mine. Their faith stories help them make sense of their world as do mine.

So how do we go about sharing our faith in this kind of pluralistic world?

There are those who would say we should not even hope for conversion in our conversations with others about faith. I would agree that it would be unethical to develop relationships with others with the hidden agenda to convert them. It is also, I think, unethical to “target” Jews or Muslims or Buddhists for evangelism. That turns people into objects. As to seeking conversion, when faith forms the foundation of our lives, it is a bit difficult to expect us not to want others to have our faith experience. So it is not about giving up altogether on conversion; it has to do with how we go about sharing our faith.

Looking at the story from Acts we read earlier, their situation looks similar to ours today. The Athenians are described as those who would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new - much like postmodernism. And as Paul talks with them he compliments them on how extremely religious they are. He is respectful of their objects of worship. And then he points to their altar that bears the inscription: “to an unknown god.” There appears to be an openness on the part of the Athenians to learn more about an unknown god.

And notice how respectful Paul was in speaking with them. Meeting them where they were in their own faith journeys, he says, “Let me share with you what I believe about this unknown God.” And he shares the story of his faith.

He tells them this God who made the earth and all that is within it is very near to each one of us. That it is this One in whom we live and move and have our being. And quoting from their own poets, seeking to draw from their religious traditions, he agrees with them that we are all God’s offspring.

Paul shared his faith by engaging the world and culture of his hearers. So can we with the music, movies, literature and arts of our culture.

And they listened to him, the text says. Some scoffed at him. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” Because of his respectful conversation with them about their own religion, Paul gained a hearing.

And so it seems to me that with the acknowledgment that one’s religion has a great deal to do with where we were born and the religion of our parents, as well as the confession that no one holds all the truth about God, it seems that we should seek to share our faith in a way that I would call Relational, Conversational, Experiential Evangelism. Or what Time magazine writer Michael Kinsley calls “non-coercive conversion.” We do not press our faith onto those who are not interested. Jesus called us to be witnesses, not a God-squad that coerces others to believe as we do.

We develop relationships with people and we talk about our faith experiences with each other. There is a song by Ken Medema that goes “Don’t tell me you’ve got a friend in Jesus without showing me first I’ve got a friend in you.” It’s about building relationships with people outside of the church.

We are not called to practice “hit and run” evangelism, meeting someone on the street, shoving a gospel tract in their face, and giving a five minute schpiel on how to go to heaven when you die. You never see anyone in the Bible doing evangelism that way because that’s not what being Christian is all about. Biblical evangelism is centered in relationship and community and the invitation to walk in the way of Jesus.

A recent study shows that adult converts these days come to Christianity through relationships. They encounter the gospel through a community of faith that permits people to discover faith for themselves, at their own pace, able to ask any question, and free to share their convictions without the risk of ridicule. For most people, “belonging comes before believing.” That is why relationships are so important.

Jesus calls us to be witnesses. And all a witness does is take the stand and says what he or she has seen and experienced. It is to say, “I have a relationship with Jesus that brings meaning and fulfillment to my life and I want to share my experience with you.”

The psalmist for today serves as an example of sharing her faith, telling what God has done for her. And that’s all we can do.

To be a witness is to enter into a respectful, open conversation with others about our faith. It is to say, “I’m not here to tell you how wrong you are. I’m here to learn what your faith tradition has to teach me, as well as share with you what my faith means to me.” Evangelism is a two-way conversation, not a one-way presentation.

And let us never forget that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to change people. We don’t convert people. We don’t win anyone to the Lord. We don’t make Christians. God does.

When John the gospel writer talks about the Holy Spirit, he speaks of the Spirit as one who leads us into truth, who convicts us, who abides with us always, and who provides us with the words to say at the appropriate time.

And so we nurture the life of the Spirit within us so that we will know what to say and when and how to do so with gentleness and reverence.

Our task is to simply be a witness. A witness to the full truth about what it means to be Christian. Becoming Christian is more than just saying a prayer asking Jesus into your heart. It runs deeper than a set of beliefs about Jesus.

Becoming Christian is:
about making a decision about how you will live the rest of your life.

It is to say,

“I will follow in the way of Jesus -
loving God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength;
loving my neighbor as I love myself,
loving my enemy,
feeding the hungry,
standing on the side of the poor,
denying myself for the well-being of others,
living in community with other Christians in the body of Christ.”

And to do so empowered by God’s love. We follow in the way of Jesus basking in the warm glow of God’s grace, assured of God’s presence every step of the way.

To be Christian is to know you are accepted by God, loved by God, forgiven by God, and called by God to live life walking in the way of Jesus.

That is the faith we live. That is the faith to which we are we called to give witness. Not arrogantly or coercively, but humbly and freely, respectfully and lovingly. Simply go and tell what Jesus means to you. And with God’s help, may the life you live mirror the words you say.

April 20, 2008 - "Who Will You Be When You Grow Up?"

Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 20, 2008
W. Gregory Pope

WHO WILL YOU BE
WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:1-10; John 14:1-14

Someone in my house was recently sent home from school with a book entitled Hands Are Not For Hitting. I know you think you know who it is, but Cindy is not in school right now. (And I’m grateful for the providence of God that has her working in the nursery when I say stuff like that! My mistake will probably be in overestimating your spiritual maturity in keeping secrets from her. But you could surprise me.)

It seems this particular family member has not yet learned how to respond when he or she does not get what he or she wants.

It’s a wonderful little book that tells us what our hands are made for and the hurt that is caused when we use them inappropriately. I recommend its purchase for anyone in your family who is unsure what to do with their hands. And it seems to have the power of scripture to transform because after one evening of reading the book this person was no longer hitting people, and they were repeating the refrain, “Hands are not for hitting.”

However, we had to give the book back, and a week later, it had started up again. You know why? Because for any change to last, spiritual formation is required. Our actions always stem from who we are on the inside and to change requires that we be shaped spiritually. And there are no quick fixes in the realm of spiritual formation. But spiritual formation in the way of Jesus is the primary purpose of the church.

Writer and pastor John Ortberg tells of a man in his church he calls Hank. Hank had attended church since he was a boy, and now was in his sixties. He was known by everyone - but no one really liked him. He had difficulty loving his wife. His children could not speak freely with him and felt no affection from him. He was not concerned for the poor, had little tolerance for those outside the church, and tended to judge harshly those who were inside.

One day someone in the church asked him, “Hank, are you happy?”
Without smiling, he responded, “Yes.”

“Well, then,” the person replied, “tell your face.”

Hank’s outward demeanor mirrored a deeper and much more tragic reality: Hank was not changing. He was not being transformed. He was not growing toward Christlikeness.

But here’s what is most remarkable: Nobody in the church was surprised by this. No one called an emergency meeting of the church leaders to consider this strange case of a person who wasn’t changing. No one really expected Hank to change, so no one was surprised when it didn’t happen.

There were other expectations in the church. People expected that Hank would attend services, give money, and do church work. But no one expected that day by day, month by month, decade by decade, Hank would be transformed and grow more and more into the likeness of Jesus. People did not expect he would become a progressively more loving, joyful, and winsome person. So they were not shocked when it did not happen. [1]

In various ways throughout the Bible, we are encouraged to grow spiritually, to be transformed, to become more like Jesus. Our epistle reading for today calls us to grow into salvation, into wholeness, into the person God created us to be.

But do we really expect one another to change and to grow in Christlikeness? I will say it again: The primary purpose of the church is spiritual formation in the way of Jesus. We should expect change in one another. We should expect each other to become more Christlike as we grow older.

How do we grow into salvation, into Christlikeness?

Dallas Willard is a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California. He is also a prolific writer on the spiritual life and discipleship in particular. For our help in spiritual formation he offers the acronym “VIM,” as in the phrase “vim and vigor.” “Vim” is a derivative of the Latin term “vis” (v-i-s), referring to direction, strength, energy, virtue; and sometimes having to do the nature and essence of something or someone.

The V stands for Vision: Who are we are and who are we called to be?
The I stands for Intention: Do we intend to live and become this kind of person?
The M stands for Method and Means: What are we going to do in order to become this person? [2]

VISION

We must have a vision of who we are and who we are called to become.

Peter tells us, we who are Gentiles: Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. That’s who we are. We belong to God, created in God’s image, of infinite worth to God, made to live in love with God and one another.

Two weeks ago in the Karen worship service, someone told the story about his mother being mistreated at work. His mother was told that in essence the Karen people were zeroes. This of course, broke his heart. So he went home that night and prayed. He heard nothing from God. The next morning he woke up and God spoke to him. God said, “I am One. And when you put a One in front of a Zero, you have ten. And you put another Zero after that you have a hundred and then a thousand. With me,” God said, “the Karen are never Zeroes!”

With God no one is a Zero. Not even the ignorant person who had no idea to whom he was speaking. We are all of us God’s people. God’s children. God’s beloved. We must hold before us that vision of ourselves, along with the vision of the kind of people God is creating us to be.

Because you see, if we were insignificant zeroes, our spiritual ruin would not be so heartbreaking. But we are not insignificant zeroes. We are God’s people. It matters who we become.

Our biblical texts this morning describe and give examples of the kind of people God wants us to become. This is what it looks like when we “grow into salvation,” to use Peter’s phrase. This is who we will be when we grow up.

1. To begin with, we will be people filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not only a part of the vision of who are called to be. It is also the means by which we become Christlike. We are filled with the Holy Spirit.

It was said of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, that he was filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:55). And when we are filled with Holy Spirit on the inside, we will put away, as Peter said, all malice and guile and insincerity and envy and slander, and we will produce in our lives what the Bible calls fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

That is the kind of person the Holy Spirit shapes into being. And if that is not who we are becoming then something is wrong. If you want to know whether or not you are growing, ask the members of your family. That should make for a pleasant ride home. But they know us better than anyone.

The role of the Holy Spirit is crucial in our spiritual growth. Because simply trying to act more lovingly will only lead to despair. It is the work of God’s Spirit in the depths of our being that enables us to grow in Christlikeness.

2. Perhaps the most difficult part of spiritual growth is forgiving those who hurt us. We have our model both Jesus and Stephen (Acts 7:60) who, when they are being killed, ask God to forgive them and to not hold their sin against them.

Forgiveness is crucial to the spiritual life. Because we all have to live with the Hanks of the world. And while they are changing and growing, it is part of our spiritual formation to learn to forgive them as they say and do hurtful things.

We also have to remember that there is a Hank inside us all, still changing, still growing toward Christlikeness. And others will need to forgive us too.

3. A third part of the vision of the person growing into salvation is trusting God and depending upon God’s leading and guiding in your life.

Jesus said, “Do not let your heart be troubled; trust in God, trust in me” (John 14:1). The psalmist prayed, “For your name’s sake, O Lord, lead me and guide me” (Psalm 31:3). The person growing into salvation is the person leaning less and less upon their own understanding and trusting God more and more, allowing God to shape our decisions, and living more at peace in the world with a heart less troubled.

4. The fourth part of the vision has to do with living in community with others. It takes great spiritual maturity to choose to live with others and to grow together in spiritual formation. Community is hard work. You have to live with the Hanks of the world. And others have to live with the Hank inside of you. It is easier to avoid community, especially with those who are different than you. It is easier to just gather with a small group of friends.

But scripture reminds us that we are all God’s people and that the whole world is made up of God’s children. As the church, Peter says we must let ourselves be built into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, for we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people (1 Peter 2:5,9).

A sign of growing up spiritually is to be able to live in community with others, some of whom we may not like. And in the midst of community grow in Christlikeness.

That is the vision of who God wants us to as we grow up: filled with the Holy Spirit, producing fruit of the Spirit, forgiving those who hurt us, trusting God more and more to lead and guide us, and to do so living in community with one another. In essence, we are to be people who embody the kingdom of God, the kingdom of justice and joy and righteousness.

INTENTION

The question we each must ask ourselves is whether or not this is our Intention? Do you intend to grow and change and be transformed into Christlikeness? Have you ever decided: This is the kind of person I am going to become. I’m going to bring every element of my being, working from the inside out, into harmony with the will of God and the character of Jesus.

We must intend the vision if it is to be realized.

A man meets a woman at a party, and he is stunned by her beauty. He thinks to himself, “I cannot let this women get away. I’ve got to figure out some way to create a connection.” So he says to her, “You know, I may not look like much, but my father is a very wealthy man, and he’s in bad health. He’s an old guy. He’s not going to live more than two years at the most. And when he dies, I will be worth fifty million dollars.” Well, you can tell the woman is impressed. She asks for his business card. Three days later he gets a note from her informing him that she is now his stepmother.

This woman caught a vision. Then she set her intentions upon obtaining that vision. And then she discovered the means and method whereby to make that vision a reality.

Of course, that’s not exactly the vision, intention, and method we are striving for as we grow into salvation. But it is an example of how often we set our hearts on something and do what we have to do to make that vision a reality.

What is the vision of your life? Have you set your heart on growing toward Christlikeness? Is Christlikeness something you intend for your life?

METHOD AND MEANS

If it is, then there are methods and means by which you make your vision a reality. To grow, to change, to be more loving, forgiving, trusting, requires more than intention; it requires: one, a reliance upon the Spirit of God to work within us; and two, it requires effort on our part through spiritual disciplines and practices through which God can shape us inwardly.

It’s what Peter was talking about when he said we must long for pure spiritual milk so that we might grow into salvation (1 Peter 2:2). We long for this, Peter says, because we have “tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

He’s talking about nourishing our souls on the basics of spiritual formation: prayer, scripture, worship, reflecting on God’s goodness, meditating on the person and teachings of Jesus, setting aside the time where we can be filled with God’s Spirit.

Our actions spring from who we are inside. Our inner being has to change. The process of spiritual formation is a renovation of the mind, the emotions, the heart, the will, the spirit, the body, and the soul to the point where the entire self is organized around God and fully integrated under God.

Is that what your want for your life? Well that is why we are here: to grow together into Christlikeness. May it be our vision and intention. And may God grant us the means to make it so. Amen.
_____________________

1. John Ortberg, Laurie Pederson, Judson Poling, Fully Devoted: Living Each Day in Jesus’ Name, Zondervan, 2000, 15-16
2. Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, NavPress, 2002, 85-91

April 6, 2008 - "The Beloved Community"

Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
The Third Sunday of Easter
April 6, 2008
W. Gregory Pope

THE BELOVED COMMUNITY

Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35

(Holy Communion)

This past Friday, April 4, marked the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the wisest, courageous and most inspiring individuals to ever walk the face of this earth, he deserves every street and building named in his honor.

He dared to dream of what he called “the beloved community” and “the solidarity of the human family.” It was the dream of a nation and a world where his children and all people would not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character. He faced what seemed to be the insurmountable forces of racism and hatred embedded in church and state. Yet he, along with the thousands he inspired, victoriously faced such evil forces with the power of the spoken word and actions of non-violent love.

King proclaimed that our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation. His was a vision of a completely integrated society, a community of love and justice wherein brotherhood would be an actuality in all of social life.

He sought integration more than desegregation. Integration, as King understood it, is much more inclusive and positive than desegregation. Desegregation is essentially negative in that it eliminates discrimination against blacks through laws, whereas integration requires a positive change in attitudes. It involves personal and social relationships that are created by love - and these cannot be legislated. King knew that once segregation had been abolished and desegregation accomplished, blacks and whites would still have to learn how to relate to each other across those barriers which have traditionally separated them in our society. All of us would have to become color blind.

In speaking about the possibility of actualizing the Beloved Community in history, King attempted to avoid what he called “a superficial optimism” on the one hand, and “a crippling pessimism” on the other. He hoped it could at least exist in isolated forms in some group life. In his mind, such a community would be the ideal corporate expression of the Christian faith. [1]

As we dream of such a world, we have to start here in this place, the community of faith. The church is a training ground, a school for life in the world. Over the past year our congregation has begun to look more like the diverse world in which we live. And we are still learning how to live as Christians in a fully integrated congregation.

Clarence Jordan, in his Cotton Patch version, translates the beginning of our epistle lesson to say, “If you claim as Father the One who utterly disregards a man’s race and is concerned only with the way he acts, then carry out your Christian commitment with fear and trembling.”

If the church is to be a training ground for creating a beloved community in the world it is essential that we learn what it means to act like Christians and love one another.

Jesus told his disciples in the Upper Room as they broke bread together the night before he died that he was giving them a new commandment to love one another as he had loved them. And that it was by that love that the world would know they were his disciples. Love is so central to being Christian that scripture says, “If you say you love God and don’t love your brother or sister, you are a liar.”

Genuine Mutual Love Deeply From the Heart

Peter calls us to have “genuine mutual love” and to “love one another deeply from the heart.” He calls us to an authentic, sincere, unhypocritical love without false pretense. Not the sweet smile through clenched teeth that gossips behind a person’s back or rolls the eyes when the other speaks.

It is a mutual love, shared among brothers and sisters in the human family, especially the family of faith. It is a love where all are treated as equals.

It comes deeply from the heart, a heart trained in obedience, shaped by the love of God. And yet, it is not a love that comes just in obedience to a command. But a love that is constant and enduring, unshaken by adversity or shifting circumstances.

The Difficulties With Love

To learn to love with a pure love and to allow God to create among us a beloved community, we must begin with God’s love for us. The love of God for us defines love and makes it possible. It is the source of all genuine loves. It is the source we return to time and time again when love is so difficult.

Love is difficult for many reasons. The writings of Christian ethicist Sondra Wheeler have helped me a great deal this week as I have sought to understand the difficulties we have with love. [2] She talks about how we both do and suffer wrong in our human relationships, and how our failures in love confront us with the weaknesses in ourselves - our honest errors, our limitations in wisdom and insight and understanding. We are unable to clearly see into another’s heart and we are only partly acquainted with our own. Many times we lack not only the wisdom to love well but also the courage to love faithfully when it is hard or costly to do so. We are often fearful, driven by the impulse to protect ourselves. Our loves are challenged and frequently compromised by a kind of selfishness. [3]

It is no great revelation to say that human beings tend to be self-centered and self-absorbed. When basic needs of love and companionship go unmet, the pain tempts us to ensure our needs are met by controlling others. Human loves not anchored in the reality of Christ’s redemptive love depend for their survival on their ability to give us what we want. [4]

But if we only love and do good to those who love us and can give us what we want, Jesus asks, what do we do more than unbelievers? The lack of love one often finds in Christian community leads you to wonder whether the things we say we believe make any real difference in our lives.

Our failures in love teach us it is more about the person we have become than it is what we say we believe. Peter says that those who show genuine love are those whose hearts have been trained in obedience to the truth - the truth about who we are and why we humans act the way we do, and the truth about the kind of person God wants to shape us to be.

When disagreements arise and tempers flare, the important thing is not about declaring who is right and who is wrong. The important thing is to realize that most likely the other person is suffering in some way and that people tend to behave badly when they are in pain. A little bit of reflection may then make you wonder whether your being in pain has led you to behave badly as well. [5]

Love can be so difficult and painful we would probably turn away from relationships altogether if it were not for one thing: We crave love like we crave air. We long for it and reach for it and hope for it against all odds and beyond all reason because we must. In some basic sense love is what we live for. I believe it’s because Love is what we were made for. [6]

What is Love?

To know what love is and how to love others we hear Christ’s daunting call to love one another as he has loved us - all the way to sacrifice. We love because God first loved us. Human loves cannot flourish without something like the self-giving love of God. The love of God that reaches across barriers and offenses and takes on itself the task of reconciliation, even where we are the offended party. [7]

The question comes: Are we are willing to love as God loves? Frankly, we are not willing. We are often moved by Jesus’ picture of unconditional love. We claim the Sermon on the Mount as one of our favorite portions of scripture. But when it comes to acting according to Jesus’ teaching, we quickly find that we don’t really want closeness to God on those terms.

A three year old girl was sent into her room to pick up the toys she had scattered from one end of it to the other. Her mother went in to check on her a few minutes later and found her sitting contentedly on the floor playing with something, the toys still scattered everywhere. When asked why she had not picked up any of her toys she answered with remarkable clarity: “I can’t want to.” [8]

How Do We Love Rightly?

So how do we love rightly?

1. To love rightly requires our receiving and our dependence upon the gift of the Holy Spirit. When Peter preached at Pentecost, the people asked him what they must do to be saved, to be whole, and he said, “Repent, be baptized, so that sins are forgiven, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

We need a love grounded in something stronger and deeper than our own capacities to see truthfully and care faithfully. It will be the Holy Spirit within that enables us to love one another as Christ as loved us. We cannot do it on our own.

2. To love rightly calls for continual repentance and change and transformation of the heart. It is to change our “want to.” Peter will go on to say “put away all malice and guile and insincerity and envy and slander.”

3. To love rightly calls us to remember our baptism, that we are each of us the beloved of God who have committed our lives to the way of Jesus, which is the way of love. Our loves must be governed by the realization that each and every person is first and last and always the daughter or son of God, redeemed by Christ and claimed by him for God’s own.

Richard Niebuhr says that love is rejoicing over the existence of the beloved . . . it is profound satisfaction over everything that makes him great and glorious. Love is gratitude; it is thankfulness for the existence of the beloved. Love is reverence . . . it rejoices in the otherness of the other; it desires the beloved to be what she is and does not seek to refashion her into a replica of the self. Rejoicing. Gratitude. Reverence. Respect. That is love. [9]

4. To love rightly calls us to the forgiveness of sins - to remember that our sins are forgiven and that we must forgive. We pray it every Sunday: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

So many of our offenses against God take the form of failures in fairness, honesty, patience, and kindness toward other people. Wheeler says that confession offers a constant reminder that we hurt others as often as we are hurt, and that we disappoint as often as we are disappointed by those we love. The practices of confession and pardon remind us that our connections to God and one another rest not on success but on mercy, and that forgiveness is the ordinary texture of a shared life. [1]0

At the Corner of Fourth and Walnut

One of the most beautiful visions of an all-encompassing love was penned by another visionary who died unexpectedly the same year King did, 1968. Ten years earlier Thomas Merton had his own epiphany of “a beloved community.” March 18th of this year marked the 50th anniversary of that epiphany occurring right here in Louisville at the corner of Fourth and Walnut (now Muhammed Ali), right at the edge of what is now Fourth Street Live. The placard and a portion of the quote can be found on the cover of your bulletin. He writes:

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, so that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation. . .

The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream . . .

We belong to God. Yet so does everybody else . . .

There are no strangers . . .

The sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud . . .

It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race . . .

If only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are walking around shining like the sun. . . .
It was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more greed. I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other. . . .

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God . . .

It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven . . .

I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. The gate of heaven is everywhere. [11]

We find in these inspired words what it means to love in the beloved community. If only we as a congregation could see each other like this and love in this way.

To love is to realize we all belong to each other and to God.

To love is to realize we are not alien to one another even though we may be total strangers.

To love is to realize we are no longer isolated, separate, but one beloved community.

To love is to make sure all people have the necessities of life.

To love is to no longer judge by the color of skin but by the content of character (and to judge character with grace and forgiveness).

To love is to listen to each other with the heart.

To love is to see people walking around shining like the sun, and to try to tell them they are. Someone recently told me they were sitting on an airplane and all of a sudden everyone he saw was walking around shining like the sun. It can still happen today if only we have eyes to see.

To love like this is indeed to walk through the gate of heaven.

The psalmist asked the question today: What will I do in return for God’s bountiful goodness? More than anything else, what God wants is for us to love one another. That will be more than enough to make God’s heart sing. Because our acts of genuine mutual love are snapshots of reality into God’s original dream, the dream of the beloved community.

*****************

1. Kenneth L. Smith and Ira G. Zepp, Jr., “Martin Luther King’s Vision of the Beloved Community,” Christian Century, April 3, 1974, 361-363
2. Sondra Wheeler, What We Were Made For: Christian Reflections on Love, Jossey-Bass, 2007
3. Ibid., 1-2
4. Ibid., 27, 41, 46
5. Ibid., 121
6. Ibid., xiii
7. Ibid., 18-19
8. Ibid., 170
9. H. Richard Niebuhr, The Purpose of the Church and Its Ministry, HarperCollins, 1956, 35, as quoted in Wheeler, 52)
10. Wheeler, 59
11. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Doubleday, 1966, 140-142

March 30, 2008 - "Embrace the World"

Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
The Second Sunday of Easter
March 30, 2008
W. Gregory Pope

EMBRACE THE WORLD
(A Global Missions Emphasis)
Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

I have been a North Carolina Tar Heel fan since I was 12 years old. (I realize that, given the preacher’s context, that may be the worst opening line to a sermon - ever! But give me a shot at redemption.) When I was twelve, it was the day of Dean Smith, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, and Sam Perkins in Tar Heel Nation. And I fell in love with Carolina Blue.

Before last night’s game I was already feeling divided inside. Louisville has been my home team for three years now. And I knew a Louisville win would make many people I love happy. I was still surprised, however, when at the end of the game as North Carolina was cutting down the nets on their way to the Final Four, I felt sadness. Throughout the game I found my loyalty running red.

So perhaps a small conversion took place last night and I’m learning to more fully embrace the world in which I live. (And that line, given today’s theme, may the weakest transition from an introduction to the body of a sermon. But it is offered in love and with an intention to connect with my congregation. So do with it what you will!)

Tools With Which to Embrace the World

This is the Second Sunday of Easter and our Gospel Lesson lets us in on a meeting with Jesus and his disciples on the evening of that first Easter.

For the past three years Jesus has changed their lives in immeasurable ways. Now the transformation is about to go further and deeper and wider. But first he has to meet them where they are. And he does.

.......Peace


The Risen Christ, having been freed from death, appears to the disciples who are behind locked doors, scared to death. And the first word he says to their fearful hearts is “Peace be with you.” Too frightened to participate in the liturgy, they forget to say, “And also with you.” Jesus understands. He will offer the word of peace twice more in their presence. Again, with no response from his frightened congregation.

.......Purpose

In addition to the gift of peace he gives them a calling. Sometimes you need a reason, a higher purpose to come out from behind the locked doors of your life. And so Jesus says to them: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

.......Power and Courage

But you need more than peace and purpose to move beyond your fears and into your calling. You need power and courage. So the Risen Christ who has been freed from death breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus offers them the very presence and power of God to do what he’s calling them to do.

To Be Sent as Jesus Was Sent

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” That is the Great Commission in the Gospel of John for all followers of Jesus.

But what does it mean to be sent as Jesus was sent?

.......How and Why Was Jesus Sent?

Well, why was Jesus sent? What was the nature of that sending?

Jesus was sent because God had a dream for the world. Throughout history God had revealed that dream to Moses and the prophets, and they preached it as best they could understand it. But people still didn’t seem to get it.

So, as Peter told the crowd in Acts, it was God’s plan to send Jesus into the world to teach us God’s ways. However, instead of listening to him we killed him. But God didn’t allow crucifixion to end the story. God raised Jesus from the dead, vindicating the message Jesus was sent to teach us.

What was that message? What was God’s dream?

Jesus called it the kingdom of God. And in many ways it turned upside down everything we believe about God and love and power and righteousness.

Jesus came to say that God loved the world unconditionally. God does not hate nor despise the world. God loves the world so much it breaks God’s heart into pieces to see the way we treat other. To see the rich and powerful oppress the poor and weak. To see how so many of us live so selfishly.

Jesus came to say that God’s dream for the world is justice and compassion and forgiveness, loving your enemies not killing them, even if they’re nailing you to a cross.

Jesus came to say that God’s kingdom is not about taking over the world. God’s kingdom is about giving yourself for the sake of the world.

Jesus came to say to those in political and religious power that they were to use their power to provide for the needy and to show mercy and to proclaim forgiveness.

Jesus came to say that God’s mercy is greater than God’s holiness. He came to say that God’s heart is made glad by those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and choose to do what is right and just. But he said that nothing causes heaven to throw a party of like someone being lifted up out of their sin and failure and surrounded with God’s mercy and grace.

And that’s why Jesus was killed. When you tell those in power that God is on the side of the weak and the poor, when you tell the religious right (that is religious people who believe themselves always to be right) that God is more about mercy and grace, you threaten the very foundation of their political and religious systems. You are called unpatriotic and labeled soft on sin. You are dangerous and you must be silenced.

And so they silenced Jesus. Or so they thought.

They hung him up on a cross for all the world to say. Their message was this: If this man is your King, you’re going to end up like this. And that’s why the disciples are behind closed doors locked in fear.

But less than three days after his crucifixion, God raised Jesus from the dead to inform those in power that Jesus was God’s Messiah who spoke the truth. And that the greatest power they had at their disposal - the threat of death - was not the greatest power in the world.

Resurrection power was now forever loose in the world.

.......How and Why Are We Sent?

And in the power of resurrection Jesus sends us out into the world just as God had sent him.

I don’t know about you but that makes me more than a little nervous

We are the ones now entrusted with God’s dream for the world.

We are now the Body of Christ sent out into the world to love and embrace the world, not despise it or destroy it. We are sent to call the world to justice, to decrease the gap between the rich and poor, to embrace simplicity and live generously, to shower the world with compassion and forgiveness, even to our enemies as we seek to make them friends and live together in peace, and to find those who have fallen and lift them up in the grace and mercy of God.

And know this: when you do heaven will throw a party and God will weep in joy. But the politically powerful and the religiously righteous will hate you because you threaten the very foundation of their political and religious systems. You will be called unpatriotic and labeled soft on sin. And they will seek to silence you.

And they just might.

But the living hope of Easter, rooted in the resurrection of Jesus, tells us that death is not the final power and doesn’t have the final word. So we need not fear death.

God’s Kingdom will live on. The seeds you plant will flourish long after you’re gone.

Resurrection power is forever loose in the world.

Transition to “Embrace the World” Video

Over the next few weeks you are going to hear the stories of people who have been captured by God’s dream for the world and have chosen to embrace the world where God has sent them. Places like Brooklyn and India, Thailand and Morocco. And you’re gong to hear how you can partner with them.

This calling of Jesus to be sent into the world was not a calling to one person, but to the community of disciples who would become the church. And it’s not just one local church, but all Christians, all followers of Jesus everywhere.

For the past several hundred years Christians have grouped themselves into denominations and partnered together for ministry and mission throughout the world. As we live into a post-denominational era, Christians look for multiple partnerships and networks through and beyond denominational structures. We realize that we can do more with other Christians, other churches, other organizations than we can do alone. And so we look for people and projects where we can partner with others in ministry.

Some of those projects we can participate in ourselves. They are nearby or we can travel. There is also work that needs to be done around the world, places we cannot go. Or if we can go we cannot stay.

God has called people to those places. We are given the opportunity to support them with our prayers and our resources.


As a congregation we have multiples partners in ministry. The one partner we with whom we invest most of our missions money is the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, or CBF. This Spring we will be hearing stories from CBF field personnel and the ways in which they are embracing the world. Through the Embrace the World Offering, you and I can partner with them in the work they are doing.

But more than just giving toward the offering, I want you to pray that God will open your eyes to the ways in which you personally can embrace the world right where you live.

You can embrace the children among us by giving yourself for a day or a week at our Children’s Camp the first week of June.

You can embrace our community one Saturday morning a month as we go out as the hands and feet of Christ to embody God’s love. Two upcoming dates are April 19 and May 17. I invite you to Embrace the World with us.

I want to ask Steven Cole to go ahead and open up this video screen. I want you to hear the story of Nomie Derani and her ministry with the Arab American Friendship House in Brooklyn, New York. You can also read more about her on the insert provided in your bulletin. (VIDEO)