ARE YOU CHRISTIAN ENOUGH?
Luke 7: 36 – 50; Gal. 2: 11 – 16
Dr. Ezekiel Ette
A story is told of a man who wanted to become a Christian. He walked to church within a walking distance from his home. When he got there he discovered that the board of trustees was having an emergency meeting with the pastor so he waited outside for the meeting to be over. While he was waiting outside the closed door, he could not help but overheard what sounded like an argument behind the closed door. You see the elders of the church had received a complaint that the pastor was seen at a skating rink enjoying himself. No one who is a good Christian should enjoy the self in that manner because it takes away from spending time in a contemplative mood about one’s soul, one trustee noted. With such frivolity, as was alleged, it proved that they had someone as a pastor who was not a good Christian. The young man who was waiting outside left the church and as he walked away, he wondered why anybody should be a Christian.
Our story today in Luke’s Gospel is about an encounter between Jesus and a member of a sect called the Pharisee. St Luke identifies him as someone whose name was Simon, a common name at the time of Christ. The Pharisees regarded themselves as the preserver of authentic Judaism that was not tainted by Hellenism or the Greek culture. Let me remind you of a few things about the Pharisees in case you have forgotten them. The Pharisees were considered a religious as well as a social group in the time of Jesus. They were so involved in the political process that they could be classified as a political party. They claimed to be the mouth piece of the common people. In fact, the name in Greek meant those who were set apart. They considered themselves set apart from the corrupt influence of Hellenism and foreigners. The Pharisees hated those who were wealthy, and did I say they hated the Roman culture? To the Pharisees the influence of these heathens and their political system was a violation of what they saw as the Jewish traditional culture. The Pharisees hated change and they wanted things done the old fashioned way. They were very conservative. They wanted strict interpretation of the Torah or Jewish law and believed that some rules were not written down but were transmitted orally. One commentator said that because they considered themselves pious, they managed to develop 613 laws such that personal preferences became divine laws. You see with that kind of set-up, the Pharisees became judgmental and anyone who failed to live by their standard was seen as a sinner. They developed a false sense of righteousness and their own rules even became a burden to them. For example, giving a tenth to God or tithing, meant taking a tenth of an enema mixture to the temple.
In our story today from St. Luke 7 : 36 – 50, Simon the Pharisee had invited our Lord to his house for dinner. On hearing that Jesus was a guest at Simon’s house a woman with no name and simply identified as a sinner took a jar of perfume to wash the feet of Christ. The Evangelist recorded that she was weeping and with her tears she cleaned his feet and wipe them dry with her long flowing hair. The story is not about the act itself but what the evangelist is interested in is the reaction of the host who might have been at the opposite end of the room. It is possible that our Lord was sitting by the door which allowed the woman easy access without going through the host. The host on seeing the action of the woman thought to himself (v.39), this is certainly not a prophet sent by God. What the Pharisee does not know is that he is standing in front of God’s Holy Son who knows all secrets. You see, given the righteousness of the Pharisee, those who know God should not even allow those they themselves consider sinners to touch them. Simon and his group of Pharisees knew what God wants. Because of his knowledge and closeness to God, he knew that some people are not welcomed by God. Simon is so sure of what God wants that he immediately knew that Jesus is not from God.
See our Lord’s reaction in Verse 40. Jesus knew Simon’s secret thought and told him the parable of the debtors. Then he concluded in v. 48 by forgiving the sins of the woman but not that of Simon interestingly. “Your sins are forgiven” Jesus told the woman. He wanted to show Simon that he came for sinners and not for righteous people.
That encounter between Jesus and Simon has been repeated numerous times since then. Who is accepted by God and who is not wanted has been a continued and repeated quest. Who does God want and who is not wanted by God has been the preoccupation of those who are supposed to love others as we are loved by God. Turn with me now to our second Bible passage in Paul’s letter to the first European church in a place named Gaul. In Galatians 2 : 11 – 16, Peter who probably was with Jesus when the encounter with Simon occurred had his own I’m-better-than-you moment. Paul told the church about an incidence of hypocrisy with Peter. At Antioch during his Missionary Journey, Peter used to eat with the gentiles but stopped when others came from Jerusalem to join them.. Now before you think this was some back-biting, St Paul was using this to illustrate a point. Peter became prejudiced when he noticed others in order to have social acceptability. He was afraid about what others would say should he continue in fellowship with the Gentiles. Those who came from Jerusalem segregated themselves and Paul said even Baranabas, supposedly a liberal minded man, joined in this sinful act. Notice what Paul said. He told Peter: “How could you expect others to live the Christian life when you, yourself are not living as a Christian?” Notice Paul’s message and lesson for us in V. 16: We become right with God, not through legalism, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
If I want to give you a history of legalisms and holier than thou in Christianity, we would be here all day. But thankfully, my wife told me not to go into my lecture mode. As tempting as it is to give you such history lesson, I would limit my remarks to a few examples. If you do not take anything away from today’s sermon note this: In every age and each generation since that encounter with Simon and the one with Peter, we who claim to follow the Christ, who was a friend to sinners, have been in the business of deciding who God loves and who is hated. We have been in the business of deciding who should belong in the church and who should be thrown out. Personal prejudices have been turned into divine law for the benefit of a few. Like Simon the Pharisee, we have tried to substitute the tenets of the faith with personal prejudices. We have abandoned the great commandment of loving the neighbor and God and have instead adopted human rules as articles of faith.
It is interesting that the first Christian Council meeting in Jerusalem following Paul’s preaching to those who were different was about deciding whether gentiles belong in the faith (Acts 15). When the Europeans first arrived in America and preached to the Indians the question that the missionary needed answers for was “Do the Indians have souls?” They had to wait for the authority of Pope Leo X before they could baptize their first Native American convert. Having Baptized the Indians the question with what to do with the African slaves loomed large. The Europeans could not hold others in bondage and preach the love of God at the same time and so they segregated the Africans and forced them to worship away from the white owners. Under God the Europeans considered themselves superior. The Catholic Church accepted the Africans but could not accept them as priests. The question of what to do with women became the next vexed issue. Some were not sure that God wanted women to preach. God could accept the women’s contribution of money and labor for the church that, they were sure, but they were not sure that God wanted the women to say anything beyond “here is my money”. Some still do have problems with women leading a group of worshipers that includes men.
So you see we still have tried to tell God who God wants and who is rejected. The beauty of it all is that in every age, they have all justified their actions by pointing to some obscure scripture passage for discrimination and prejudice. It is always easy to thump through the scripture and feel righteous about our prejudice and convince ourselves that in hating others we are doing what God wants. Like the Pharisees of old, we know what God wants except unlike what the Prophet Micah said: it is not to seek justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6 : 8). Instead, we know God wants us to hate the poor, the foreigners and those who are different. We can pick a Bible passage and justify why others should be denied fundamental rights and driven out of town. When a Methodist Pastor stood on top of Stone Mountain, Georgia, he declared that he was a member of the royal priesthood set apart by God. He managed to convince many of his contemporaries that by joining the Ku Klux Klan to unleash hatred and violence they were doing the work of God. In 1925 another preacher H. W. Evans will write: “As the star of Bethlehem guided the wise men to Christ, so it is that the Klan is expected more and more to guide men to the right life under Christ’s banner”. The right life as understood by the Klan members and these churchmen was violence and the killing of Blacks, Jews and Catholics. Yes, we can use the scripture to justify hate and many have done that throughout history. We can hate in the name of God and many have been told to kill for God.
Who then is a Christian? What have you been told to do in the name of God? The scripture warns us in Matt: 24 : 23 – 26 that many will come to convince and lead the faithful astray, and we have seen so many being led astray. In our time the simple question of who is a Christian will produce such answers as “it depends”, because there are multiple voices out there telling us just how to live and then how to die. John Lennon the British singer pondering the legalisms and conflict of our time once wrote a song he called “Watching the Wheel Go By”. "People say I’m crazy, doing what I’m doing. They give me all kinds of warning to save me from ruin. When I say I’m okay they look at me kind of strange”. Yes, there are some out there who have prescriptions and qualification for Christianity but it is not “love thy neighbor”, but which political party you should vote for. In 1980 the Rev. Jerry Fallwell predicted that America was going downhill unless Christians join his Moral Majority camp and vote a certain way and tell Congress what the rest of the nation should see and hear. Legislating morality and voting a certain party was called the Christian way and the term the Christian vote was born. The vote was not for compassion and love but for limited government that benefits a few. Over the years we have managed to convince the entire country that public support and programs for the poor, the weak, the sick and the elderly is anti-Christian. The result has been that we in the Church who call ourselves Christians have left the great traditions and activism that produced great achievements in America. We have managed to support wars and programs for the wealthy. The work of those generations past who brought great changes to society like social security, civil rights, voting rights and the great society is now seen as anti-Christian. We have gravitated towards the few who replace the Gospel of love with the Gospel of hate-thy-neighbor and contribute to my affluence. We have managed to convince ourselves that loving the neighbor is wrong. The word “Christian” now takes an added meaning of intolerance. The result is that churches are now empty on Sunday mornings and the religion has been hijacked by those who preach personal prejudices. We have abandoned the message of Jesus Christ and we have allowed ourselves to be used for personal and political purposes. In the old liturgical language, we have not loved as Christ loved us.
Contrast the attitude of the woman with that of the Pharisee. She knew that she was a sinner. She performed the humble act of washing the Lord’s feet. She cried and asked for mercy but the Pharisee on the other hand is self-righteous. It is hard to be humble when you know you are very good. When you know that you are righteous because you know what God wants it is hard to be penitent and feel the need for the mercy and Grace of God.
Are you a Christian? And what does it mean for you to be a Christian in a changing world? Are you using modern communication technology to tell others how to live instead of showing them the love of God? So you do attend church, does that make you a Christian? Do you keep a list of those who should be kept out of the church because you have an email from God and phone records to prove your direct link to God on what God wants and what God hates? Does God tell you like “God” told those in the past who should live and who should die? The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. observed that Sunday morning was the most segregated day of the week in America. Mondays through Saturdays we are all forced by secular law to work and live together, blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanic etc., but on Sundays we retreat into our segregated churches in segregated ranks and sing “How sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds”. Pastors mount pulpits to preach how the Christian should vote and what is Christian public policy. I stop by here to tell you that you are not a follower of Christ unless you believe and know that we are save by faith in Christ not by who you are, not by what you do, not by what you do not do and we are not saved because we vote Republican or Democrat. We are not saved by hating homosexuals while celebrating racism and vilifying programs for the poor.
It is time we Christians realize that we follow a friend of sinners and stop telling others how to live according to our preferences. It is time we stop shouting about who we are and start living in service to God and each other. It is time to stop telling others to live like us, but instead start showing by examples how to love like God loves us. A song writer once wrote that they will know us by how we love each other and humanity.
Let me leave you with a story about our hymn this morning. The hymn is called “O Master. Let Me Walk with Thee”. It was written by the Rev. Washington Gladden one of the civil right fighters of the 19th century. The Rev. Gladden served as a church worker and college president in Ohio at the height of the fight about slavery in the United States. He led the progressive voices and argued forcefully against slavery. To the Rev Gladden, the Christian should be a force for change and good in the world. The movement that preached this belief was called the social gospel movement. Some people did not like such belief, because after all, there were passages in the Bible that said “slaves be obedient to your master” This was prove enough that God sanctioned slavery, and so the Rev Gladden and people like him were not Christians enough. The Rev. Gladden and some in the social gospel movement lost favor in the church hierarchy. Some were stripped of their positions in the church. In one of his moments of reflection the Rev. Gladden wrote this song “O master let me Walk with Thee”. Listen to these lines because sometimes we just sing songs in the church and fail to pay attention to the words:
O Master let me walk with thee;
In lowly paths of service free
Tell me thy secret let me bear
The strain of toil, the fret of care.
Yes, some people may say that you are not a Christian because you believe all should be accepted as children of God. Some may say that you are not a Christian because you embrace difference and welcome the stranger. Some may not see the acceptance of a neighbor and the love of the poor as Christian duty because it may not fit with a political ideology. It has often been the case that we in the church behave more like the Pharisees than the penitent woman. When the Rev. Gladden’s song was chosen to be included in hymnals used in churches, many denominations took away the two verses that indicted the self-righteousness of the church. Take a look at the verses that were taken out of our present hymnal:
O Master let me walk with thee
Before the taunting Pharisees
Help me to bear the sting of spite
The hate of men who hide thy light.
The sore distrust of souls sincere
Who cannot read thy judgment clear
The dullness of the multitude
Who dimly guess that thou art good.
Are you a Christian who dimly guess that God is good while pushing agendas that push others away from the God of Love? Are you bringing people to God with acceptance and forgiveness or are you keeping a score of who qualifies to be called a Christian? Are you in business of making judgment of who God wants? Our prayer and action should be one of humility in the knowledge that God chose to love us even when we were sinners. We in turn should love others, that is how others will know we are Christians. In the words of that hymn written by the Rev Gladden almost two hundred years ago, our prayer with humility should be “O Master let me walk with thee. Thanks be to God, Amen.
