O God, of your grace you have brought us into the new creation of your love, keep us secure in this grace for ever ☩ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
We’re continuing our sermon series on the question “what is the Church?” As we’re trying to come out of this pandemic and reestablish habits of faith, it’s important to remind ourselves of the foundation on which we stand. So in the previous two sermons, I said that the purpose of the Church is to celebrate the Eucharist because it both immerses us into the story of faith and also because it shapes us into being a people who “see Communion in everything,” as my college chaplain used to put it. Last Sunday, we saw that the reasons for coming to Church are that we are fed in the grace of God, we are given armor to stand firm against the trials of life, we are taught and corrected in the ways of faith, and we abide with one another in Christ.
The foundational question for us to
consider today is “What does it mean to be a Christian?” This is an important question
to consider because it seems that these days, a lot of people are questioning
the validity of other’s faith. For example – how can you call yourself a
Christian if you’re not willing to wear a mask for the sake of others? And that’s
a valid point. Put another way, the question is “what makes someone a Christian?”
One response is to say that Christians
are people who think certain things – that Jesus is their Savior. The problem
with that is there’s no grace in it. Faith becomes a question of the intellect instead
of life. And in several places in Scripture, Jesus says something to the effect
of “‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of
heaven.” So, we might say, we are not made a Christian by our thoughts.
Others will say that Christians are
those who follow the Greatest Commandment to love God and to love our neighbors
as ourselves. But, again, grace is missing here because faith becomes our work
instead of God’s. If Christianity were only about following a moral code, then really,
most of the New Testament and the Church is unnecessary, as the Torah seems to
pretty well cover it. And, turning to Jesus again, he says that no one can come
to the Father except through him and in the book of Acts we hear “There is
salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among
mortals by which we must be saved.”
So if being a Christian is not about
what we think or what we do, then what makes a Christian? The answer is
Baptism. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything magically superstitious about
having water poured on your head. This is why we call Baptism a Sacrament, as
it is a doorway into something else. It is something like that wardrobe that four
English children found that led them into the world of Narnia. The words and
actions of Baptism have immense power in the same way that two people standing up
here who exchange metal bands and repeat a few lines after me are doing something
far greater than their words or actions alone convey.
For Baptism to make sense, we have
to understand it as such a doorway and not merely an event. So, yes, a
Christian who chooses to stay on the front porch of faith is still a member of
the household. And this, I’ll confess, I find to be incredibly frustrating. I
do sometimes wish that God wasn’t so extravagant when it comes to grace because,
let’s face it, there are a lot of Christians out there who really don’t deserve
the title. But, thanks be to God that God is God and that I am not.
And so when we encounter those
Christians who stay at the metaphorical porch of faith, our task is not to blame
or shame them for being there, rather it is to welcome them more deeply into
the house. Explore the library to learn. Find rest and refreshment in the bedrooms.
Be nourished in the dining room. Experience fellowship in the parlor. Connect
to the past in the attic. Instead of seeing Christianity as a status or Baptism
as an event, think of it as something like a house to explore or a journey to
go on. Actually, the earliest followers of Jesus were not called “Christians,”
rather they were known as “members of the Way.”
Baptism is the symbol of our
immersion in God’s grace – it represents our adoption into the household of God,
the forgiveness of our sins, the promise of eternal life in God’s love, the
empowerment of the Spirit, and our entrance into the new creation of Jesus’
Resurrection. To be clear, I am not saying that any of these things are given
only in Baptism; I am not saying that those who are not Baptized are not forgiven
by God or do not have God’s Spirit animating their own. But I am saying that Baptism
names these gifts so that they can be properly and fully enjoyed and employed.
A few years ago, a scholar wrote a
landmark book on the idea of grace, exploring what the idea of a “gift” has
meant throughout history. We tend to think that we know what an idea is and
then assume that everyone else across culture and time has thought the same things
as us – but that’s simply not true. This scholar talks about the difference between
an unconditioned gift and an unconditional one. Baptismal grace is unconditioned
in the sense that it is given freely and without regard to merit. But it is not
without conditions – meaning that Baptism does leave a mark on us. He writes, “St.
Paul expects baptism to create new life, which includes the formation of habits
that express the reality of Resurrection life.” Which means the gift is given to
be used. Christians then, at our best, are those who have received the gifts of
God and use them for the purposes for which God intends. So more than being about
what we think or do, Christianity is about a reality we inhabit – a reality
full of the gifts of God.
And what are these gifts of God that
are the hallmarks of what makes a Christian a Christian? It’s helpful when
preachers put things in terms that are memorable, so I want you to think about
the gifts of God that make a Christian a Christian in terms that Jesus himself
gave us – the way, the truth, and the life.
First up, Christians are those who
are on the Way. As I’ve already mentioned, early followers of Jesus were known
as “the Way.” That name suggests movement, growth, and purpose in a way that “Christian”
does not. “Christian” sadly, has become a demographic word, a box that you
check on a form. What God has gifted us is not simply a status, but rather an
adventure, a way of being in this world that brings us closer to the beauty and
goodness of God.
The path of this way is not left for
us to figure out, God has given us the way. In Genesis, we read that humanity
is created in the image of God. And in this morning’s reading from James, we
heard “For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those
who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going
away, immediately forget what they were like.” Christians who are off track,
and that’s all of us from time to time, are those who have forgotten this divine image
in which they, and more importantly, all of us together, are made. Our lives
should mimic Jesus’ own. He himself told us “follow me.” The metaphor that you’ve
heard me use often is that Christians go with the grain of the universe. And
Jesus shows us that grain – it is one of humility, of forgiveness, of
generosity, of hope, of deference, of love. So many of the topics that are
dividing us right now could so easily be addressed if we simply looked in the mirror
more often and were reminded of this image of God which is our way.
Next is that Christians are those who
know and live by the truth. More than anything else, I wish Christians were
known for being truth-hearers. When someone walks by our church, if all they
could say about us was “That’s a place where they tell the truth,” then I’d be
satisfied. I don’t need to tell you, but there is just so much lying out there
these days. Lying about the truths of science, lying about election results, lying
about vaccination status, lying about whether or not we did our homework, lying
about how often we drink, lying about all kinds of things.
I attended a recent School Board
meeting and when the County Health Director was sharing an update on current
numbers, I heard someone, who was not wearing a mask, make up your own mind about
what that means, say “That’s not true!” We’ve gotten to the point where we
simply dismiss facts that are inconvenient or challenge our worldview. I cannot
overstate how dangerous this is to a society, but also how detrimental it is to
our faith. Jesus says that he is “truth,” and if we make all truth into an
opinion, then we are essentially calling Jesus a liar. We have to tell the
truth.
One of the central truths of our
faith is what we heard Jesus say in this morning’s reading from Mark: “Listen
to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by
going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” We don’t
want to hear this. But what Jesus is telling us is that we are sinful, that we
are corrupted, that we get things wrong. And this isn’t just because we were
given some bad information or had a lapse in judgment, but because our hearts
are infected with Sin. None of us has all the answers and none of us are
perfect. Our lack of humility is tearing us apart and is literally killing us –
just walk over to the hospital if you want to see the evidence of this.
The other central truth though is
that God loves us, forgives us, and does not hold those imperfections against
us, but rather has given us the Holy Spirit so that we might walk in newness of
life. Now, there are a lot of ways to interpret the book called the Song of
Solomon that we heard this morning. Without question, it is an erotic love
poem, but what that poem is doing in the Bible is a question of debate. One
such interpretation is that it is a metaphor for God’s love for us. And, for
this today, that’s the truth we need to hear. God is calling to us all – “arise,
my loves, my fair ones, and come away,” follow me in the way of love. This is
what truth is all about – acknowledging both the brokenness of sin and the even
more powerful love of God.
And being a Christian means participating
in the abundant life given to us in Jesus. This week’s Collect asks God to “bring
forth in us the fruit of good works” and in James, we heard the exhortation to
become doers, not merely hearers, of the word. Faith is about the entirety of
our lives – not just our Sunday mornings, not only whatever money is leftover,
not only what we do when others are watching. Faith is an incarnate reality.
So we prayed that God would increase
in us “true religion.” This is about seeing Christianity as the totality of our
lives. The one thing that I so desperately want is for all Christians is for us
to start with faith. When it comes to deciding what you think about critical race
theory, or the vaccine, or climate change, or charitable giving, or who to vote
for, or which school to send your kids to, or what to do when someone wrongs
you is for us all to start with faith.
But, instead, we so often start with
fear, or what we saw on the news, or what we wish were true, or what would be
best for us, or what might lead to the best outcome for us. As a reminder, our
central symbol is the Cross – that should tell us something about how we feel
about personal safety and comfort. Christianity does not exempt us from
suffering, rather it takes us into the very heart of it where we find the healing
love of God. Christians are people who have the Cross before us at all times,
but who see it not as a sign of defeat, but of the power and call of love. Christians
are those whose lives are lived in Christ, Crucified and Resurrected.
Christians are people of the way,
who seek the truth, and who live in the glory of the Cross. In Baptism, Christians receive this gift of grace and in the Eucharist, we are nourished for our
journey on the way of following Jesus.
