WHAT REALLY COUNTS

WHAT REALLY COUNTS

Galatians 6:11-17

Psalm 66

July 8, 2007 Pastor Garrison

On our first full day in London back in May the schedule for my pastor’s cohort group was open in the morning so we decided to visit Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is impressive. Its stained glass windows, flying buttresses, soaring towers and the history contained within it all create a sense of awe. Yet there was something about it that felt wrong and the longer we spent there, the more obvious it became. Westminster Abbey, while considered an “active” church, is in reality a museum of English history. As you walk through the building you quickly realize you are walking on the tombs of those who have been buried below the Abbey floor. Lining the walls and aisles are elaborate memorials and tombs and of monarchs, military heroes, and famous persons in English art and literature going back 1000 years.

People flock to the Abbey daily, not to worship, but to tour – to see the architecture and the history. On the hour one of the vicars of the Abbey will call everyone to pause for prayer. Very few do. As we concluded our visit there we realized the Abbey stands more as a symbol of nationalism and of the domination of the state church (and all the worst that brought throughout English history) than it represents true Christianity.

As we exited the Abbey we noticed a building across the square with the inscription “Methodist Central Hall.” Since it sounded like it might be a church, we decided to check it out. As we entered the building we found many people inside attending what we learned was a healing conference. A wonderful woman introduced herself to us and, upon learning why we were in London, showed us around the building and told us about the history and ministry of the church. Just across the square from Westminster Abbey stood this large Methodist church with its active, missionally focused congregation. Instead of tourist brochures, there were tracts and books about the faith. Instead of hundreds of tourists gawking at historical monuments, there were hundreds of people seeking Christ. Instead of a symbol of domination, here was an alive and working body of Christ, a symbol of deliverance. Over the next two weeks this study in contrasts – domination and deliverance - would be emphasized to us again and again. While the Church of England enjoys the status and privileges of the state church, for the most part it has lost its relevance and its voice in the life of the English people. It is a symbol of a religion, but, with few exceptions, no longer is a voice for Christ.

As our two weeks in London unfolded, one verse of scripture kept coming to mind. In Matthew 16:18, following Peter’s confession of faith, Jesus says, “…upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” In spite of the desperate state of affairs in the Church of England, there are places in England where the Good News is being proclaimed, places where people’s lives are being changed, places where people are discovering what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to live Christ-like lives in the 21^st century.

Paul addressed the issues of domination and deliverance also as he wrote to the Galatians. There were those – Paul called them the Judaizers - who were preaching a different gospel from the one he preached. They sought to force on the Gentiles who had come to Christ the dictates of the Jewish law. In doing so, Paul said they were really only trying to boast in their own accomplishments. Paul, however, said he placed his confidence in what the cross of Christ had done for him. “As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Imagine for a moment that you have been assigned the task of mentoring a new Christian. What would you tell them? Would you hand them a list of do’s and don’ts? Do go to church every Sunday. Do tithe your income. Do serve others. Don’t gamble. Don’t use bad language, and so on.

Those Paul was criticizing were doing exactly that. They wanted the new Gentile Christians to be just like them – followers of the rules of Jewish law. They didn’t understand that because of the cross of Christ they also were freed from the law, freed to become a new person as they followed and modeled their lives after the teaching and example of Jesus.

(Contemporary service – show the Christian/Christ-follower video clip here.) (Contemporary – What really counts – that we look and sound like a “Christian” or that we follow Christ?)

Would you urge your imaginary new Christian to follow a religion or to follow a Lord? You see, there is a big difference between these two. Religion focuses on the externals – practices, theologies, traditions, rituals, etc. While claiming a Lord focuses first on the internal –modeling our thinking, our motives and then our actions - after the example of the One we have chosen to follow.

So what would you tell your new Christian? Would you list the rules of a religion or would you offer to walk with them as you both discover how to model your lives after Jesus?

Several weeks ago Pastor Jack preached on Romans 12 where Paul instructed Christians to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” Why does Paul focus on the mind and not on actions or behaviors? It is because the mind is where our true self resides. It is the place known only to us and to God. If our minds are not transformed, then our bodies, our actions, our words, nothing else about us ever will be. We can put on a good show – we can look really religious – but deep down inside nothing really has changed about us.

Paul said it’s not about the dogmas of a religion, rather it is all about the cross. “Because of that cross, my interest in this world died long ago, and the world’s interest in me is also long dead. It doesn’t make any difference now whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people.” Listen to that last part one more time. “What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people.”

Paul was so emphatic about this message to the Galatians that he finished the letter in his own handwriting and in “large letters.” Back in chapter 5 he got a little emphatic too. Quoting from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, The Message:

Christ has set us free to live a free live. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

I am emphatic about this. The moment anyone of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: the person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.

I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressing itself in love.

So what is a Christian? What would you tell that imaginary new Christian you are mentoring? I like what Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Michigan says, “Christians are people learning who they are in Christ. We are being taught about our new identity.” Bell sees Christians as people who are on a journey of discovery. In contrast, the culture of the world perceives Christians as people who are mean, petty, demanding and who always think they are “right.” (This is the message which came across loud and clear on the England trip and it is not true just of English culture. You don’t have to look too far here in America to see the same attitudes as well.) Why? Maybe it is because we Christians today have fallen into the trap about which Paul warned the Galatians. We have become more concerned about the externals of religion – holding the “right” religious beliefs, worshiping in the “right” style, or being part of the correct political party for Christians - than we have been concerned about allowing Christ to work His transforming power in our own lives that we might live out our faith “expressing itself in love.” We’ve become Pharisaical - we’ve become those Judaizers.

Brothers and sisters, we have a problem, right here at Spring Creek, but it is not unique to us. It is a cancer destroying the message of the cross throughout western Christianity. We have become so focused on the things of religion – right beliefs, moral issues, the right songs, organs vs. bands, time schedules, which doors are open on Sunday mornings – all those things which seem important, but, in reality, are not. We have majored in the minors and in doing so are in danger of, or maybe already have, lost our first love – Jesus Christ. We have allowed our own personal preferences, our own perceptions of religion to place a “dividing wall of hostility” between us within the church and between us and the culture.

Paul said true followers of Christ express their faith in love. When we are not motivated by love, we become critical of others. We stop looking for good in one another and see only faults. Soon the unity of the body of believers is broken and our witness becomes like that which I saw represented in the contrast between Westminster Abbey and Methodist Central Hall – one of domination rather than deliverance.

Paul is very clear, we need to get our focus off the minors and get back to what really counts – “whether we really have been changed into new and different people” – whether our faith is “expressing itself in love.”

Things do go wrong in communities, but when that happens we can’t sweep it under the carpet or form cliques and gossip about it. Rather than acting out of an arrogant self-assurance, we need to act out of love – the love we have seen and learned from Jesus. Paul is clear, Christians deal with one another in a loving and gentle manner. The goal of faith is not to defend a religion, but to restore relationships, between us and God, and between ourselves and other people. The whole point of the story from Genesis to Revelation is just that – restoration – God bringing us back into being what He originally intended us to be.

In their recently released book, Jim and Casper Go to Church, Jim Henderson writes: “Jesus didn’t just teach principles; he taught practices. He gave people something to do. He didn’t just teach them about forgiveness; he told them to forgive their debtors. He didn’t just talk about love as a concept…; he told people to love their enemies. He didn’t just tell people to think about changing their behaviors; he told them to repent… Sure it’s challenging, but it doesn’t take a weekend seminar to understand what he means.”

Absolutely, it is challenging. It is much easier for us to say “that’s just the way I am” than it is to commit ourselves to changing anything about ourselves or about the church. We feel we’re ok the way we are. “I’m a good person, life is comfortable, what do I need to change?” Satan isn’t called “the deceiver” for no reason.

There is not one of us here today who does not have something we carry in our minds and hearts that no one else – but God – knows about us. There is not one of us here today who has not sinned. We all have some baggage.

Rob Bell, in what has become one of my favorite books, Velvet Elvis, writes:

“I’m learning that very few people actually live from their heart. Very few connect with their soul. And those few who do the difficult work, who stare their junk in the face, who get counsel, who let Jesus into all the rooms in their soul that no one ever goes in, they make a difference. They are so different; they’re coming from such a different place that their voices inevitably get heard above the others. They are pursuing wholeness and shalom, and it’s contagious.”

At my age I’ve added quite a bit of baggage and it’s time to get rid of it. It’s not easy to admit some of the things which I’m carrying are things that I am thankful only God knows. I need to stare my junk in the face and really let Jesus in. And when I allow that to happen it is freeing – just as Jesus and Paul said it would be. The more I do that, the more I want to surrender to Him. It’s all about domination and deliverance. Will I let the power of the sin that is within me dominate my life or will I choose to let Jesus deliver me?

I can so identify with Paul’s struggle as he wrote in Romans 7:21-25:

It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Winning the battle over the power of sin which takes place within us can seem overwhelming until we come to the point where we realize that it is not something we can do on our own – it is Jesus, the power of His cross and His Spirit at work in our lives which will make that victory possible. It is the Holy Spirit’s work in us – convicting us, counseling us, directing us – that will accomplish the work of the cross in our lives. And when we allow that to happen and we get a taste of true freedom, then that process of deliverance, the process of being changed into new and different people begins.

And it is not just in our personal lives that this is true. It has to happen in the life of the church as well. We are a body and we have a corporate mind and soul. What is good for us individually is good for the church as well. It is time for us as a church to stare our junk in the face and let Jesus in, let Jesus transform us into what He wants us to be. Will we as a church continue to let the power of sin dominate our corporate life or will we choose to let Jesus deliver us and turn us into what He wants us to be – new and different people?

Reuben P. Job, quoted in a devotional I sometimes use, tells this story.

“Every United Methodist preacher since the time of John Wesley has been asked a series of questions before being admitted into full membership in an annual conference. The first question is, ‘Have you faith in Christ?’ The second question is, ‘Are you going on to perfection?”

Bishop Gerald Kennedy was asking these historic questions of candidates standing before him in the presence of an annual conference session. When asked if he was going on to perfection, one candidate responded, ‘No!’ Bishop Kennedy quickly replied, ‘Then where are you going?’ It was an appropriate question then, and it is an appropriate question now – not only for preachers but also for all Christians.

Where are you going? If you continue on the course you have charted, where will it all end? … Are you going on toward God? If not, where are you going?”

Brothers and sisters, where are you going? Where are we – and this body, the Spring Creek Church, going? Are we going on toward God? Are we being changed into new and different people? Is our faith expressing itself in love?

Claiming Jesus as our Lord isn’t about being religious – believing a certain way, doing the rituals or ordinances (as we Brethren prefer to call them) the right way, or worshiping in a certain style. It is about being involved in a process of change that is taking place within us and within the church which expresses itself in our relationships with one another and in our witness to the world, that there is another way to live, a better way – the way of Jesus. It’s about people learning “who they are in Christ.” It’s about a struggle that is constantly at work within us between the domination of sin and deliverance from sin through the power of Christ. All of that – the process, the struggle, the learning – is about being changed to look more and more like our Lord – Jesus Christ. It’s what being free in Christ really means. There is something happening within us and within the church all the time. We are constantly measuring our thoughts and our actions after the example of Christ. We are constantly learning and growing.

Paul never imagined that a person would become a Christian and suddenly be made good. Indeed, he himself struggled with sin throughout his life. In his writing he always implies that there exists the potential for God’s goodness in our lives to bring about transformation and renewal.

Somewhere along the line the church, especially the evangelical church, has gotten the idea that freedom in Christ means saying a certain “salvation prayer” and then we’re in. The deed’s done. No more worries. I’m part of the family. The problem with this approach is that it sees the cross of Christ from the point of what is has done for me. It is a selfish approach. While Christ’s death on the cross guarantees our forgiveness, there is much more to it than that. Forgiveness leads to something much bigger: restoration. And that is what Paul is saying to the Galatians. There is something much bigger here and it happens when you allow Christ’s Spirit to work His transforming and freeing power in your life.

Rob Bell says, “God isn’t just interested in the covering of our sins; God wants to make us into the people we were originally created to be. It is not just the removal of what’s being held against us; it is God pulling us into the people he originally had in mind when he made us. This is why Jesus always orients his message around becoming the kind of people who are generous and loving and compassionate. The goal here isn’t simply to not sin. Our purpose is to increase the shalom in this world…”

How does this restoration process work? I believe the writer of Psalm 66 was going through a process of restoration. I think there is something here we can draw on to help us as well.

Imagine a swirling vortex starting small at the bottom and gradually rising higher and wider and stronger as it grows. The Psalmist begins with praise. He recognizes who God is – glorious, mighty in power, worker of miracles. He reflects on God’s actions in the past - specifically the crossing of the Red Sea during the Exodus and God’s testing of His people through which they have been “purified like silver” - and therefore recognizes God’s power to change us. He recognizes God’s working in his own life as he invites us to hear what God has done for him. And then he comes back to praise and the process starts all over again.

It is like the swirling vortex. We begin our walk with God in recognition of who He is. We see how He has worked in the past in the lives of other faithful people. Through that evidence we recognize He has the power to work in the lives people. That helps us to see how He has and is working in our own lives, which then draws us back to praise. Each time we go through this process we grow a little, we change a little, we learn more, we are restored more and more into the likeness of the person God wants us to be. The vortex grows – our faith grows – as we continually allow this process to occur in our lives. But there must be a conscious decision to enter into this process of growth and change. It is too easy to allow the power of sin to dominate our lives. In Galatians 5:17 Paul warns us, “These two forces [our sinful nature and life in the Spirit] are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.”

That is why it is so important that we realize our salvation through the cross of Christ is not a once and done action. We don’t suddenly become different people when we accept Jesus as our Lord. Paul, writing in Philippians says, “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” The saving power of the cross of Christ is evidenced in our lives in an ongoing process of spiritual growth and change which is constantly taking place within us making us new and different people.

So where are you going? Where are we – the Spring Creek Church - going? Are we going on toward God? Are we being changed into new and different people?

Paul was right. Our choices in life are never free from the conflict between the domination of the power of sin over our lives and the freedom of deliverance through Christ. If we ever stop feeling that conflict, we most likely have ceased to grow into that person God wants us to be.

Focus on God – who He is, what He has done in the world and what He is doing in your own life. Keep reciting the stories in your mind. Let that spiritual vortex grow and expand in your life. Let’s get our focus off the minors and on to Christ. The central issue is not whether we obey the dogmas of a religion. It is not what you and I do that matters, it is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new. It’s all about Jesus, brothers and sisters. It’s not about us. If we call Jesus our Lord, then we should be seeing in our lives and in the life of this church a growing discipleship which expresses itself in love. “What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people. May God’s mercy and peace be upon all those who live by this principle.” Amen.