Alright, okay, so we obviously have a lot of things to talk about over the next several weeks, and we are going to do that, but before we jump into that let me say this. Good morning, welcome or welcome back to this place that we call DCC. We want to give a special shout out and welcome to all of our friends who are out there today watching us online, to all of our new friends who are with us today for the very first time, and to all of you who came for the first time last week and decided to give us another shot. We are so glad that you are here. Whether you are tuning in or sitting here today if you are fairly new we think that it is important that you know that you we are not people who used to be like you, tolerate people like you or fix people like you. This is safe place full of people just like you. We all have stories and want you to know that all of yours is safe and welcome here regardless of how it reads and that you belong with us regardless of what you believe. We are glad that you’re here and it’s not a secret, we hope that you come back.
ILLUST> Okay. Let’s do this. Before we jump into the world that we live in today, let’s start with how things used to be in this great country of ours which all really started back at Plymouth Rock almost 400 years ago. So, the pilgrims that landed there signed the Mayflower Compact that said this…”having undertaken for the glory of God and for the advancement of a Christian faith.” Does that mean that all of the pilgrims and all of the founding fathers were Christian? No. It does mean that God and Christianity was a part of how this thing we call the United States of America all got started though. In 1636 America’s first University, Harvard University had this precept…”let every student be plainly instructed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life and therefore lay Christ at the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning”. What? That’s Harvard. Doesn’t sound much like Harvard today. Something has shifted, something has changed. Let’s keep going. Finally, we have the US Consitution and then the first ten amendments specifically the first amendment from which this concept or terminology emerged called the separation of church and state. This idea that we need to be sure that we separate church and state emerges. Now watch what happens after that. Since then Abraham Lincoln talked about God in the Gettysburg Address, President Woodrow Wilson asserted that "America was born a Christian nation, On DDAY, President Franklin Roosevelt got on the radio and prayed while the nation joined him, the New York Times printed the prayer, the New York Daily times printed the Lord’s Prayer in the paper that same day, in 1950 we adopted the Pledge of Allegiance…one nation under God, in 1956 by an Act of Congress a new national motto was declared…In God we Trust. We were on a roll, but since that time something has shifted, something has changed.
Now more than ever before there is more and more of an outcry and a push for the separation of church and state. Could it be that the major push these days on this hot button issue of the separation of church and state is primarily because of this? There is not and has not been enough separation of church and hate. That is what I want us to think about, that is why we are doing this series...lots for us to think about and talk about over the next several weeks. Let me say this as we jump into this. When I watch television I get frustrated when I get to the end of a great show and there is no resolution those dreaded three words hit the screen “to be continued”. As much as I hate that this series is much the same. It has taken the church over 2000 years to end up where we are. It is going to take more than a week or two to talk through how we begin to change that. Hope you understand that. So here we go, let’s do this, let’s start by getting back to basics.
If you have a Bible you can turn there. If you want or need a Bible, we have Bibles on the back tables that you can grab right now if you would like if you close or on your way out. Or you can hit read off your program, hit our app, and then hit You Version, and it will all be right there in front of you. Everything I read is also going to be on the screens. Here we go John chapter 13 beginning with verse 31...
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. 33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
Okay. So context here, when who was gone? Judas, one of his disciples. Gone where, gone to get the guys that are going to arrest Jesus. He just left the room. Context here is very important. So Jesus is on the edge of being arrested and crucified. Yes, he has spent 3 years with these guys, but there is now still so much to tell them and show them and so little time. By identifying Judas as his betrayer he has just put the wheels in motion for everything to happen. Time is of the essence. Jesus has just washed their feet, showing them what servant leadership is supposed to look like, a vital part of this thing we do call church. He has just walked them through communion, he says this is representative of my body and blood and the sacrifice I am getting ready to make for you do this in remembrance of that and of me. Another vital part of this thing we do called church, why we do it here every week. Then he tells them that the time has come for him to leave them. It all fits, Jesus is preparing them to lead this thing we do called church into the future.
Now here is the interesting thing about this moment. You know what happens next? We don’t have turn there but if you read Luke 22 this week you will see it here’s what happens next. Right after all of these incredibly special moments with Jesus the disciples break out into a huge argument about who among them is the greatest and going to be the greatest in the Kingdom that Jesus is getting ready to establish. Sounds like my kids…come on…sounds like us…sounds like church people. Finally, it is all worth while, all of the hardship in following Jesus for the past few years. Finally, it is here, the moment that they have been waiting for. The more I thought about it is week the more I realized that it really does raise an interesting question for us, for the church today. Here it is…
ARE WE LOOKING FORWARD OR LOOKING AROUND? Church people are notorious for looking forward. What are we looking forward to, the return of Jesus, when we all get to heaven. Going to be a great thing, sang about it in church my whole life growing up. “When we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be, when we all see Jesus we’ll sing and shout the victory”. Do all dogs go to heaven? The movie suggests so, I don’t know. This I do know, it’s going to be awesome, I highly recommend it. It is something that we should be looking forward to.
The problem is when life becomes all about the destination and we forget the journey. Are any of you destination people? Me too. I have lived my life always being about what’s next. I still do that. Now, I have some friends around me who are trying to teach me this idea that it’s about having joy in the journey. I struggle with that. See, as great as heaven is there is more to the story that we are living in than just heaven, the destination. We have a tendency to come into church look straight forward, feed me, teach me, tell me more, remind me of the story, help me feel better about my future and we forget to look around. We saw it here last week…
ILLUST> Last week there was an older couple here all dressed up in suit and tie and dress for Easter. Don’t hear me wrong, it’s not an age thing, it’s a mindset thing. So this couple, I am sure that they are good people, nice people, people who even love Jesus, but as soon as Don’t Stop Believing started they jumped out and shot out the door. They moved so fast that some of our team out in the lobby couldn’t even catch them to talk to them. They tried. So I don’t know, I could be wrong but here is my guess. They were doing what church people do. They were looking forward not around. They were looking forward to singing songs about the resurrection of Jesus, hear another message about the stone being rolled away, looking forward to thinking about heaven some day, Jesus lives forever and we will too. But then, when a secular song was played, they were out. Here’s the tragedy in that. They didn’t look around. They didn’t stay long enough to see the smiles, hear the cheers, hear people singing along. They didn’t get to hear the comments of people in the lobby after the service, I had given up hope that a church like this could actually exist. They didn’t get to see facebook blow up that afternoon with all the people posting videos of that moment. Why did they miss all of that? They were looking forward to their future, the hope in the story for them, and not looking around. That stuff really used to make me angry, I’m growing up, now more than that it really makes me sad.
It is not surprise that on the very eve of the moment that they have been waiting for the disciples start arguing about who is going to be the greatest. It is what we do, we look forward and not around. Jesus keeps going. Check this out…
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Don’t forget the context. Jesus is getting ready to go and is getting ready to hand the mission off to these guys, the establishment of this thing we do called church. He says this…a new command I give you. I looked, it is the only time Jesus ever really said that. He has lived it, he has demonstrated in on a daily basis for 3 years for these guys, he has handed down lots of commands on this better way to live that he came to bring, things like do to others as you would have them do to you, forgive, let your light shine, be born again, get rid of things that cause you to sin. BUT now, I know we already have 10 but let’s elevate this one to commandment status, here’s a new one…love one another. Somehow, someway, I think we, the church have missed the significance of what Jesus is trying to say to us here. It’s a big miss. Here’s the point…
THE ABSENCE OF LOVE CREATES SPACE FOR THE PERCEPTION OF HATE. I don’t think that it is all the hateful things that we, the church, church people are doing that creates the perception of hate. I think missing this commandment by Jesus, the absence of love, is creating space for the perception that we hate. For a lot of us church people, love is simply one of many cards in our hands to be played and for some of us it’s way down the list. Think about it, when you think about the church, as you have come to know it and experience it, if you didn’t know how Jesus finishes this sentence here, based on what you, your friends, your family, people you know have experienced how would you finish the sentence that Jesus starts here? By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you…go to church every Sunday, hold up a sign, hand out a tract, take a position, know a lot, pray a lot, preach a lot, act better than others, look down on people, ignore people, judge people, scold people, rebuke people, write off people, condemn people. Jesus says no, here is the test. Here is the way that people are going to know you are with me…if you and as you love.
Now, it is easy to read this and limit it to how church people love church people. There definitely is that and we are supposed to do that. But we can’t forget what Jesus has already tagged as the greatest commandment ever love God, love people, not just church people all people. That is one of the things that I love the most about this place. We are all about trying our best to show the love of Jesus to the world around us with no strings attached.
ILLUST> In the past month we had bingo here at DCC. You went nuts, we are still getting great feedback you want to do it again. Well that idea was Jay Busta’s. He is a volunteer who leads our 20-30 something community here and they wanted to raise money to feed local firefighters. You contributed about $1000 and they just fed their first group of 20+ firefighters with many more meals to come in the future thanks to you. They were fed a giant Mexican feast. Jay said that they were super appreciative and the that the loving embrace of the Kingdom was felt through the reach of DCC. By this will all men know that you are my disciples…not by how you preach, what you teach, what you believe or how you behave, by how you love. We are taking that outside of the walls of this place. It’s happening inside two. Another couple that was here for the first time last week sent me an email. They too have been church people for years, but they had a different kind of experience. They were running late, that’s what church people do, and he was walking the car. Listen to what he said. When my wife walked in she began to week as the worship team sang. I came in a few minutes later. I was buffeted by the Spirit of God, and when my wife found me in the back of the room, she said ‘this is home’. Call me crazy, I like them better. That’s a better story.
It is often hard to see a lot of love flowing out of the church into the world around us. The truth is, sometimes it’s hard to see it when we peak inside the walls too.
ILLUST> I have a lot of preacher heros, one of my biggest is Andy Stanley, but one of the older ones is his dad Charles Stanley. He tells the story of his early days at First Baptist Atlanta. As an associate pastor he preached while the church conducted a national search for a new lead pastor. As they searched the strangest thing began to happen. The church started to really grow. The church experienced new life, the new members class was full, the baptistery was being used every week. Offerings were increasing. But there was a certain group of people in the church who thought that Charles was too young and too interested in reaching un-churched people. Eventually, he was told by the powers that be in the church that if he didn’t resign he would never work in a Southern Baptist Church again. Can you feel the love tonight? You feeling the love? Watch this, finally, a deacon addressed the situation from the stage during a Wednesday night service. When Charles Stanley came up and stood on stage next to him the deacon said you had better watch yourself or you might get punched. A few seconds later, everyone in the church watched as the deacon reared back and punched Andy’s dad right in the jaw. Jerry Springer invades the church.
See I really don’t think it is the people who are holding up signs that are the problem. They are not helping any, but they are not the problem. Last time I checked, there were nuts in every box of Cracker Jacks. Here it is. We are to be so much like Jesus, so much love and so much grace toward each other and people outside the church, that these people that call themselves Christians and hold up these signs full of hate are seen as what they really are, extremists, not the rule but the exception to the rule. Is our problem the few extremists that are out picketing and holding up signs or could it be that the absence of love is what is creating the space for the perception of hate in and by the church? I think we need to think and be honest about that. Let’s finish this. Watch this now…
36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” 37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Here’s a new commandment. Seems like they would be on the edge of their seats. But, no sooner are the words off Jesus lips and Peter is changing the subject, Lord where are you going again? Peter totally missed it. Aren’t we a lot like Peter? If you look at 2000+ years of church history I think the answer is yes. So before we get too critical of Peter here is one last question for me and you…
ARE WE MAJORING ON MINORS? Where Jesus is going is obviously most important to Peter. Here is my question, what’s most important to us? Is is what we know, what we believe, how we behave, the rules, the rituals, the regulations, how we teach, whether or not we have VBS or Sunday School, how we dress, where we stand on alcohol or medical marijuana, the volume of the music, whether we sing hymns every week. What’s most important to us? We probably all have different answers to that question. Now, here’s the most important question. What’s most important to Jesus? The answer is clear, how we love. Are we majoring on minors in the church? I think that we are and I think it is killing us. The church of Jesus Christ is not growing in this country, it’s shrinking. Let’s be honest, your teenagers and mine are questioning whether this whole church thing is for them. They may not have permission or the courage to tell you but they are. We need to understand. We are not only not reaching people, we are struggling to keep them too.
Here’s our reality whether we like it or not. What many people have seen, heard, experienced, watched, and felt is may not be hate, but it certainly feels a lot like it. Something has to give, something has to change. We need to get back to basics. This is the ultimate test handed down by Jesus himself, by this will they know…how we love. It’s a challenge isn’t it? You bet. Sometimes that is easier said than done. Some people are hard to love. So how do we do that? What do we need to change? What does that look like for you and for me? We will pick it up and begin to talk about that next week. Here it comes, those three dreaded words…to be continued. Hope to see you next week. Let’s pray.
