Membership Has No Privileges

Our sermon text for today is really scene two of one of the key moments in Jesus’ early ministry. We looked at scene one several weeks ago, that was Luke 4:16-22, and Kurt just read it for us again as a refresher.

Scene one is a proud moment. Jesus has been speaking in synagogues in a number of small towns and getting excellent reviews. He is starting to become famous. This morning he is back in his hometown. This morning his mother has brought out her best robe and spent some extra time on her hair. They ask him to say a few words and it is wonderful. The people are beaming over ‘their kid’ who has turned out so well and is giving Nazareth a good name. Jesus picks one of their favorite scriptures. It describes the day when God will move in a mighty way to bring blessings again.

As he reads they fit themselves right into the text. “Yes, I’m poor and I’m ready for some good news. Yes, we are prisoners under Roman occupation and I am oppressed by the occupation and I want to be free. God, look at all my problems. Where are you? You have been letting us down. It’s time to do something.”

And then, Jesus announces that that prophecy isn’t just something hanging out there, waiting to be fulfilled some day in the distant future. It is being fulfilled even as he spoke. And that was exciting. It was great. They loved it!

Now hold that thought for a moment, a very proud and hopeful and exciting moment in Jesus’ home synagogue in Nazareth. Before we go on to scene 2, I need to tell you another story.

This is a story about an old friend of Kathy’s Dr. Marc Erikson. He was a missionary doctor in Somalia maybe 30 years ago. Somalia was a difficult mission field. The people were desperately poor, as they are today. And the missionaries just hadn’t found the key that would open their hearts to the gospel. They loved and served and explained, but nobody was responding. To make matters worse the rumor began to spread that if someone would tell the missionaries they wanted to be a Christian, the missionaries would give them stuff: food, clothing, a good education for their children. And so they started having people come, but only for what they could get. Missionaries call them rice Christians. Rice Christians may look like real seekers for a moment, but their eyes are so fixed on getting stuff that they just don’t hear when the missionaries talked about a savior who died for them, who calls us to turn away from our sins, to sacrifice our desires and serve others and such things.

Anyone who has been a parent should be able to understand. You want to give good things to your kids. But you don’t want to train them to be self-centered, demanding brats. If you start giving in to your kids with everything they ask, they will never learn the importance of working hard to make the good things of life possible. They will never learn to appreciate the love behind the gifts they receive. They will never learn to think about other people. You can understand the danger.

One day there was a knock on Marc’s door. When he opened it the man announced he wanted to become a Christian. Marc started explaining, I’m not going to give you food for saying that. I’m not going to give you clothing for saying that. I’m not going to get your children into school for saying that.

And of course missionaries often feed and clothe and educate people. But a very careful line needs to be drawn that the missionary’s service comes out of God’s love and when we respond to God’s love it is not just to get stuff. If you really want to be a Christian you need to deal with God himself, not just stuff. When we come to God we submit ourselves to God and present ourselves as servants. And if we are just there to use God we haven’t understood the first thing of being a Christian yet.

Well this man was different. He said he didn’t care what he got. He wanted to follow Jesus. And that man found salvation that day, God met him at the point of his deepest needs, a gift much more wonderful than food or clothing.

It was a strange way for a missionary to speak to someone who said he wanted to be a Christian. But can you understand the importance of the line that Marc was drawing?

We serve a loving God who loves to give. But he will not be used. He will not be manipulated. He is God, not us. In his wisdom he knows that if he appeals to our highest instincts we grow and are stretched in good ways. If he indulges our self-centeredness it destroys us.