Last week, I spoke with you about perfection, the Christian idea of sanctification. Now most Christians do not want to be perfect. We want to be a little better than others. It’s a feeling as old as the Pharisees. Part of running for President is showing that you are morally better than the others. I’m not perfect but I haven’t had three wives. I’m not perfect but my haircuts don’t cost 400 dollars.
Being half perfect is not God’s plan nor does it bring human happiness. In our everyday lives, we know this instinctively. What if you said to your boss, I’ll probably get to work about half the time? I won’t steal seventy percent of the time.
John Wesley, in starting the Methodist Church, constantly asked the question, ‘Have you gone on to perfection or with God’s help are you trying to do so?’ It is a quote from Hebrews 5. Today, at every annual conference of any Methodist Church, the incoming pastors are asked the historic questions, including, ‘Have you gone on to perfection?’
Remember, that for many people, they need to quest for the heart of God after they experience salvation. Its not just a normal process and it explains why so many Christians claim faith while staying dead in injustice and violence.
Today, I want to think with you about this same idea of perfection in our relationships with others and in society. Most of us are uncomfortable in sharing our faith. And Jesus has some strong words in Luke which explain why we feel so uncomfortable. So if you want to be a person who influences others and yet you are nervous or find it impossible to witness, then I pray that today helps you take a step in God’s plan. Getting your life set towards perfection is a good thing
Jesus says I came to set the earth on fire. The search for perfection leads us to a lifestyle that challenges the powers and principalities of earth. We are part of a cosmic battle between God and Satan. And it creates a lot of emotional feelings in us. Its not surprising that anyone here should feel awkward about witness.
Wouldn’t it be nice if our witness was a natural process? We just be a good neighbor and one day, the man next door says, ‘You’re so nice. It must be because you go to church. Can I go with you?’ This is the kind of witness you’ve been hoping for. You admit that you do go to church and let him know the time. He comes to church, commits his life to Christ and gets involved all by himself, saving you that messy nuisance of helping him break into the friendship circles of the church. This is practical Christianity!
The truth is that it does happen like this on rare occasions. If you bake bread for others long enough, someone will see that as the love of God and respond. But God wants you to be much more active than that in your witness.
The structures of our sinful world are powerful and they do not give in to gradual change. Racism in the United States is still a powerful force that refuses to remove its roots and tendrils until someone has the courage to chop them. Conservative white Christians have been the most likely voter group to oppose even President Bush on immigration because of racism. The Cambodia report that you will hear tonight contains a complaint from 58 pastors who believe that foreign richer nations are racist against Cambodians and I believe that they are right.
Rev. Wiley Drake of the Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park endorsed Sam Brownback for President recently. He has put the non profit status of his church in jeopardy as a result. His creative answer is to call for imprecatory prayers against his foes. "God says to pray imprecatory prayer against people who attack God's church," he said. "The Bible says that if anybody attacks God's people, David said this is what will happen to them. . . . Children will become orphans and wives will become widows."
Imprecatory prayers are alternately defined as praying for someone's misfortune, or an appeal to God for justice.
"Let his days be few; and let another take his office," the prayer reads. "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."
I personally think that he has made several unwise decisions in all of this and you will be happy to know that I don’t plan to apply this passage in a similar way.
So it does not take us much time to realize why Jesus says that his message will be so controversial. And Jesus specifically points out how controversial when he says that the gospel even divides families. While Rev. Drake is completely misunderstanding the gospel, this all illustrates the clash between the powers of light and darkness.
We don’t do much of this because we are scared of the reaction. In his biography, Martin Luther King is constantly being pushed to be more radical by his supporters. And King has a very real sense that he will pay with his life. He keeps pushing back and says, I won’t take a Calvary step until its time.
In addition to embarrassment that we may feel or fear, we also fear making a real error in trying to be prophetic. What a pity to try for a prophetic witness and look back five years later to realize that you shouldn’t have done it. Its much easier to have a witness of baking bread for people. There is virtually no chance of making a mistake.
And we also don’t do much prophetic witness because it can bring up ungodly feelings in us. The Christian web site, Street Prophets, is a site that I read more and more. The moderator is Rev. Daniel Schultz, who pastors a United Church of Christ in rural Wisconsin.
In addition to many other insights, he called another pastor recently that part of the horse towards the back. Many people asked him why he took such a radical step. His idea is that he has certain tools at his disposal to advocate for change. And in normal email and chatting, he would never even get the attention of this national leader. With that part of the horse towards the back, he actually did get the attention of the person.
At first I liked it. With the Cambodia situation, I can think of several people who should be called that part of the horse towards the back. But my problem is that I’m so deeply invested in Cambodia that I have feelings. I could not just call them that to get their attention. I have thought a lot about it and I do believe if I called a Country Director that part of the horse towards the back, I would get him to start writing to me again.
But I don’t trust my own inclination to anger. I just have moments when I get angry and prophetic witness could mix some unholy personal glee with the witness.
So I’m looking for prophetic witness that’s good for me. Email to political leaders is good for me. I can do a lot of that without getting sour. Writing a thoughtful article to push for big change -- I can do that. If you read the article on Chinese ministry that I wrote with Rev. Yuen, it calls for difficult and intentional change in the English and Chinese ministries. I know that its hard to hear and you may have some feelings when you see it. But I also feel that we are like fireman for the church, sounding the alarm that changes need to happen now.
I have certain hot button issues that if I see an article that promotes evil in the national press, I go to a web site and make a donation against it. It has helped me keep my spiritual balance in this wicked war. So there are things we can all discover that will work for us. In each case it will be different.
What motivates us is the sanctified love of God for others. The quotes you saw this morning before the service are why we are willing to be embarrassed, give sacrificially, and work for change. Our mission is to be the heart of God until everyone has a bed tonight, everyone has a sandwich for lunch today. When entire sanctification takes over your life, there is just this passion to keep going until the people suffering in Peru have help, until the people after this hurricane have shelter, until the pastors in Cambodia have dignity and self determination. It is not anger that sets the earth on fire, it is a sold out love for every person who is not yet liberated.
For Daniel Schultz, he is able to go further in strong action and apparently it does not hurt his soul. My question is, what does God want you to do? One thing I'm sure of, our faith calls for us to be involved, join Christ in opposing structures of sin that keep people bound through false laws and rules.
We have looked for two weeks at a Wesleyan idea, Entire Sanctification. Last week we looked at our own hearts and how they only track the North Star of our faith, Jesus Christ, after a committing experience, usually after salvation. This week we see how that works out in life. We join Christ in ministries of love, but also ministries born of sanctified love where we feel with the oppressed.
At times, people ask me, how are Methodists different? This is how we are different. We are the people who preach that you should go on to perfection. Holiness unto the Lord, now and forever. Amen.
