Civility: Tolerance Isn't Enough

Civility: Tolerance Isn't Enough

September 9

1 Peter 3:8-17

Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing. For

“Those who desire life

    and desire to see good days,

let them keep their tongues from evil

    and their lips from speaking deceit;

let them turn away from evil and do good;

    let them seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

    and his ears are open to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

I shared earlier with you my experience with road rage this summer, and since then I have had many of you come and share the encounters that you have had with people filled with anger and/or road rage.

We live in a very challenging time

In 2010 a study was conducted on CIVILITY in our nation.    2010 

         

          62% said that incivility was a major problem

          72% said that incivility was getting worse

          Interestingly --- the worst place for civility?

                   Politics, followed closely by road rage

          Least uncivil place --- houses of worship

I wish I could have found a more recent study, but I am willing to bet that civility is perceived as being worse today than 8 years ago.

A powerful personal testimonial on civility is shared by writer Ann Bauer in a piece called: "Our Anger Is Poisoning Us".  She wrote it following the sudden and mysterious death of her 28 year old son. (Washington Post)

My perception is that civility has been in decline recently

          As I worked on this sermon, I read dozens of sermons on civility

                   And I noticed a huge change in tone over the last couple of years

And that change seems so profound that I began limiting my resources to things that were at least 5 or 6 years old to try and avoid any hint of our current state of affairs.

I don't want to pretend that incivility is a new problem

We have been wrestling with it as long as people have been in relationship with one another.

However, if one wants to do some research it seems clear that there are a number of factors that lead to an increase in incivility.

I don't have the time to get into that now, but you are all capable of digging deeper if you wish to find out more.  I highly recommend Parker Palmer's book: Healing the Heart of Democracy written in 2011.

What is civility?

Os Guinness in an interview with Faith and Leadership in 2009 said:

Misunderstandings surround the idea of civility; it’s frequently mistaken for squeamishness about cultural differences, false tolerance or dinner-party etiquette. Classically, civility is a republican virtue, with a small “r,” and a democratic necessity, with a small “d.” It’s the only way you can have a diverse society, freely but civilly, peacefully.

Gail Strong earlier this year made a statement that has really stuck with me.  I apologize if I get this a little wrong, but in essence what she suggested is that we spend way too much time worrying about creating safe spaces --- and instead we need to create courageous spaces.

Let me unpack that for a moment.

As I understand safe space --- that is a place where no one is going to get their feelings hurt or their understandings challenged.  It is a place safe from anything but parroting what I believe

Merriam Webster defines it as: a place (as on a college campus) intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations

          Many of us believe the church should be a safe space

         

                   Go read the Prophets

                             Better yet, go read Jesus

If the church is a place where we are not going to be challenged --- then we cannot follow Jesus because he is constantly challenging us (or at least he is challenging me)

                                                I hate to tell you --- I am filled with bias

                                                          I do my best to be biased for Jesus

We need to create courageous spaces --- places where we can set aside our bitterness and advocate and discus what it means to live out Jesus' command to love one another

I believe that is what the church is --- when it is at its best.

The last two years have been fascinating to me in how people have responded to my sermons

·         someone, following a sermon told me that in the sermon I gave them permission to vote for Trump

·         others have walked out of worship because they believe that I am anti-Trump

I am PRO-Jesus --- and biased for the Way that Jesus calls us. 

The Way of Jesus, as I tried to share a few weeks ago is neither blue nor red.  I have challenged both parties when they are in control of government and acting in ways that are antithetical to the way of Jesus.

Os Guinness says:

It’s time for Christians to speak out, to follow our Lord clearly and differently. I boil [the difference] down to three words: integrity, credibility and civility. Integrity asks, “can we be 100 percent faithful to Jesus, following his teachings, growing like him and still engage with the modern world so that faith prevails?” That’s integrity. Much of the church lacks integrity.

The second difference is in credibility. Since the Enlightenment all Christians are what Richard Dawkins calls “faith heads,” anti-intellectuals, despite the fact that many of the greatest thinkers of Western history -- Augustine, Pascal and Newton among them -- loved Christ passionately. I knew Bertrand Russell when I was a student. He said Christians would sooner die than think. We need to be champions of truth, champions of thinking and love God with our minds in order to recover the great credibility of the gospel.

The third difference is with civility. That sounds very abstract, compared to addressing AIDS, or nuclear issues or terrorism. Actually, living with our deep differences underlies all the other issues. America once got it nearly right, but America is losing its way.

What does that look like?

          To live with integrity, credibility and civility

Let me try to give you an example

John McCain may have given up his dream of the Presidency because he advocated for integrity, credibility and civility.

In an article from 2008 (Politico 10/10/08)

Fearing the raw and at times angry emotions of his supporters may damage his campaign, John McCain on Friday urged them to tone down their increasingly personal denunciations of Barack Obama, including one woman who said she had heard that the Democrat was "an Arab."

Each time he tried to cool the crowd, he was rewarded with a round of boos.

"I have to tell you. Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States," McCain told a supporter at a town hall meeting in Minnesota who said he was “scared” of the prospect of an Obama presidency and of who the Democrat would appoint to the Supreme Court.

“Come on, John!” one audience member yelled out as the Republican crowd expressed dismay at their nominee. Others yelled "liar," and "terrorist," referring to Obama.

McCain passed his wireless microphone to one woman who said, "I can't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's not, he's not uh — he's an Arab. He's not — " before McCain retook the microphone and replied:

"No, ma'am. He's a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not [an Arab]."

. . .

McCain promised the audience he wouldn’t back down — but again sought to tamp down emotions.

"We want to fight, and I will fight," McCain said. "But I will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments, and I will respect him."

At which point he was booed again.

As we have read and watched the tributes for the late Senator McCain, many have commented (with the benefit of hindsight) that this exchange may have cost him the presidency

Integrity, credibility and civility

Parker Palmer in his marvelous book continually calls on us: WE THE PEOPLE to drive the discourse that takes place in our society.  Like Os Guinness, he would suggest that too often we have given up and just accept the uncivil behavior to continue.

He writes: 

Talking about “those people” instead of talking with each other is a poor excuse for genuine political discourse.

. . .

If we want to “create a politics worthy of the human spirit,” we must find ways to bridge our differences, whether they are defined by age, gender, class, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or political ideology. Then we must seek patches of common ground on the issues we care most about. This is more than a feel-good exercise.

. . .

I will not plead for tolerance, a virtue so thin it is barely a virtue: “Be of good cheer! I am willing to tolerate you!” Nor will I spend much time pleading for better manners in public discourse: manners for the sake of manners are as thin as tolerance. The civility we need will not come from watching our tongues. It will come from valuing our differences.

Charles Camosy teaches Christian ethics at Fordham University in New York.   In 2012 he wrote a column for The Seattle Times called “Five Tips for a Civic Discourse.”

(http://old.seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2018728414_guest20charlescamosy.html)

He writes:

I propose five practices for moving beyond the polarization which currently dominates our public discourse:

·         Humility. We are finite, flawed beings and are prone to making serious mistakes. We need to enter into discussions and arguments with this at the very front of our minds — not only in being comfortable with someone challenging our point of view, but also reserving the right to change our mind when our argument is shown to be problematic.

·         Solidarity with our conversation partner. This involves active listening, presuming that one has something to learn, and (if possible) getting to know them personally beyond an abstraction. Never reduce another's ideas because of their gender, race, level of privilege, sexual orientation, or social location. Similarly, never reduce them to what you suspect are their "secret personal motivations." Instead, give your partner the courtesy of carefully responding to the actual idea or argument that she is offering for your consideration.

·         Avoiding binary thinking. The issues that are seriously debated in our public sphere are almost always too complex to fit into simplistic categories like liberal/conservative, religious/secular, open/close-minded, pro-life/pro-choice, etc. Furthermore, it sets up framework in which taking one side automatically defines one against "the other side" — thus further limiting serious and open engagement.

·         Avoiding fence-building and dismissive words and phrases. It might feel good to score these rhetorical points, but doing so is one of the major contributors to our polarized discourse. Let us simply stop using words and phrases like: radical feminist, war on women, neocon, limousine liberal, prude, heretic, tree-hugger, anti-science, anti-life, and so on. Instead, use language that engages and draws the other into a fruitful engage of ideas.

·         Leading with what you are for. Not only is this the best way to make a convincing case for the view you currently hold, but this practice often reveals that we are actually after very similar things and simply need to be able to talk in an open and coherent way about the best plan for getting there.

If you want some suggestions that are a little more pious sounding.  At our 2015 Annual Conference, the Indiana United Methodist conference adopted the following guidelines.

RESPECT others as Jesus would have done when he was here on earth.
PRAY for others as well as yourself especially those with whom you disagree.
LISTEN to others before thinking about what you want to say in response.
UNDERSTAND what others are saying so clearly that you could accurately state their view.
SHARE your own point of view with grace and humility as well as honesty and candor.
FOCUS your commitments on issues being discussed not on persons expressing them.
COMMIT yourself to the unity of the Spirit seeking consensus whenever possible.
GIVE the time needed to work through the process in which you are engaged.
ACKNOWLEDGE that you may be wrong even when you think you are right.
Allow the Fruit of the Spirit to permeate your way of interacting with others;

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control.

President Lincoln, said in the Gettysburg Address that "we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."

As United Methodists, we too seem to be engaged in a great civil war over the inclusion of LGBTQI people in the life of the church.

Great sums of money, heartbreak, and loss have already occurred.  But, from my window peering in on the process, very little civil dialog is taking place.  Mainly it just seems to be monologs with "the base".

If we are going to avoid a split within the church, it is going to take each of us listening to each other.  And learning to love one another again.

Following, as Lincoln suggested in his 2nd Inaugural address:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

As Christians, followers of Jesus we have one job to do, to make disciples for Jesus.  We can't do that if we don't work together.

The world is looking at us and laughing

We say that we are a people of: Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors, it is time for all of us to start living that way.

So You Want To Be A Christian

John 21:15-17   (NRSV)

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

Of all the stories that our bible has that tell of the resurrection of Jesus, by far my favorite is this one found in John’s Gospel.

The disciples have all headed home, no doubt disappointed about at all that had take place in Jerusalem a short while earlier.

          Jesus, their leader, was dead

We find Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John the sons of Zebedee, and two unnamed disciples have made their way back to the Sea of Galilee near Capernaum.

Peter says: “I am going fishing” and the others decide to join him.

They catch NOTHING

A stranger appears on the seashore and calls out to them and suggest that maybe they should try fishing on the other side of the boat.

I don’t know about you, but when I have been out for hours fishing and been skunked the last thing I was is some smart aleck telling me how to fish.

But for whatever reason they give it a try

And the results --- well the results were unbelievable --- more fish than they could even bring into the boat

It is at that moment that Peter comes to the conclusion that it is Jesus --- How that can be he is not sure --- but he is sure it is him and he jumps out of the boat and rushes to the shore.

When he gets there, he finds that this stranger/Jesus (Obviously it did not LOOK like Jesus) has started a fire begun baking bread and is waiting for them to bring fish to be cooked.

Jesus/ the stranger says to them:

          “Come and have breakfast.”

 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.

It was then, that they knew it was Jesus

I love this story --- and it is one of my favorite places in all of the Holy Lands to visit.

It is at this moment that we get these transformational words from Jesus.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

I have preached on this passage dozens of times over the years --- And I have always interpreted it in a unique way --- suggesting that in some Greek translations of this text that there is a significant play on words.

Three times Jesus asks Peter a question --- but it is not exactly the same question every time.

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me --- do you agape me (love me fully) more than these?”

Peter said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love (philos --- love you like a brother) you.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love (agape) me?”

Peter said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love (philos) you.”

Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

Jesus said to Peter the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love (philos) me?”

Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?”

Peter said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love (philos) you.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

What strikes me about this passage is that seems to understand the limits on Peter’s ability to love Jesus

Peter is not able to offer Jesus Agape love --- only philos love

Peter can’t offer absolute – unconditional -- perfect love --- only love for a brother

                   And Jesus says THAT IS SUFFICIENT --- I will take what you can offer

There is great power in this story.  It says:

Jesus accepts us where we are and doesn’t demand more than we can give.

I really believe this is what Jesus was trying to say to Peter --- but the problem is, we often get comfortable and believe that giving what we got right now is enough. 

Becoming a disciple -- a follower of Jesus --- a Christian --- means that we are willing to move beyond where we are today and actually FOLLOW --- actually grow in our love of Jesus

It is moving out of our comforts zone and moving beyond a philos love for Jesus to an agape love

So I want you to hold that understanding of this passage in mind, but also try to look at it another way.

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep” to Peter, but if you think about it for a minute ---- Peter would never have seen a shepherd feed a sheep.

          Sheep were pastured --- they were not domesticated

          A shepherd never actually FED their sheep

So what might this text mean to Peter?

Hearing this text as Peter would have heard it --- Jesus seems to be showing what the role of the Shepherd is intended to be. 

And he seems to be suggesting four roles for the shepherd.

·         To keep the sheep mobile and on the road to mission with Jesus.

·         To insure that the sheep had plenty of good pasture so they could mature and reproduce.

·         To keep them safe from the predators.

·         To go out and find any lost sheep. This couldn’t be achieved if the sheep couldn’t take care of themselves in the shepherd’s absence.

If we are to take this story and apply it to today --- this passage seems to suggest that the role of the pastor and staff is to equip the saints.

The role of the laity is to be the ministers.

          It’s that simple.

Laity are not complete saints until they have been equipped.

As Bill Easum says: "Paid staff steal the essence of sainthood from people when they “do” the work of ministry."

Clearly the biblical role of all of God’s people is to be the priesthood of the believer. The author of 1st Peter writes:

You yourselves are being built like living stones into a spiritual temple. You are being made into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-5 CEB)

In most mainline churches, too much emphasis is placed on the role of the paid staff to do most of the ministry.

Believe me, most staff are happy to do it --- that is why we went into ministry --- we like doing ministry

Heck, I get it, it is much easier to pay somebody else to do the ministry --- but that is not what it means to be a follower of Jesus --- to be a Christian.

Christianity has one big over arching goal – to make disciples. 

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20

Go and make disciples.

          The goal of ministry is to grow people. 

This means that making disciples is more important than sitting on a committee making decisions. 

Put another way:

The role of laity is not to hold an office in the church, to make decisions, and to run the church. 

If I were to ask you what ministries you have performed over the years I am willing to bet that a majority of you would recite a litany of positions that you have held within the church.

Ministry is not about the committees that you have served on, ministry is all about reaching out to make disciples for Jesus.

We spend way too much time and effort on ourselves and not enough building God's kingdom.

So if you want to be a Christian what does that mean?

Remember leadership Guru Stephen Covey --- he always talked about beginning with the end in mind so here are nine things that come to my mind

1.    A priority for a mature follower of Jesus is that they worship God, to worship God. 

They don't come to church to be “fed” spiritually or to be inspired, but to give their hearts to God.

They don't argue over the time of service, or the color of the carpeting.

They may have a worship preference, but they don’t hold that out as the only way, because it’s ultimately not about style.

It’s about giving themselves over to God.

2.    They are constantly seeking God’s will. 

Focus on God's kingdom and not our own personal agenda

3.    A mature disciple loves God and neighbor.

If there is anything I could say about a follower of Jesus it is that they obey what you could call the Jesus Creed:

 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Mathew 22:36-40

4.    They are non-judgmental. 

This is the loving neighbor part. Mature disciples know that they have been made whole by the grace of God. They know they don’t deserve it, but God’s unconditional love is just that, unconditional. They know they are not judged, so they don’t judge others.  In other words, they desire all to be welcome because they know all belong to God.

5.    It’s not about them. It’s about God and neighbor. 

It is pretty easy to tell who is about themselves and who is about God and others.

6.    They are intentional about connecting with the least among us. 

People are called to different ministries, but mature disciples are doing something that brings them face to face with Jesus which he tells us is found in the least of these (Matthew 25:31-46).

It might be the homeless, poor, sick, imprisoned, hurting or disenfranchised, but they get in the trenches in some way to connect with someone who is in great need.

7.    They are generous with their time, talent and treasure. 

Mature disciples always seem to have time for others. They use what they do well for the sake of others. And they give of their resources to help others.

8.    They push the church to be outward looking. 

Mature disciples remind the church that it is organized for the benefit of its non-members.

They are concerned about the visitor and the newer attenders, wanting to ensure that they not only feel welcome, but that the programs of the church are meaningful and accessible.

They favor making the building available for use by the community.

They are willing to challenge church members who are only thinking of themselves or about what’s good for the congregation.

9.    Finally, and most importantly --- Followers of Jesus are actively trying to reproduce.

What is the goal of a Christian -- to make disciples!

So a mature Christian --- follower of Jesus --- sees reproduction as their number 1 responsibility.

          Sharing the love and hope that is Jesus.

What is the goal of an apple tree?

          To produce fruit (apples)? NO

          The goal is to produce more apple trees.

The goal of Christianity is to make more disciples --- more followers of Jesus.

I never said that this would be a warm and fuzzy sermon.

But this is the challenge that we sign up for when we choose to be Christians.  And remember you chose to follow Jesus!

As Matt was preaching last week, challenging us to be more hospitable what kept coming into my mind was how we often see church like a sporting event.

We come to church to get excited and fired up --- but we let someone else do all the work for us.

I think we can see church and draw some parallels with sports, but the disconnect is we are not to be spectators, but we are to be participants.

And church is not the big game on Sunday; Church is the locker room talk before the day --- church is the daily practice getting ready for the event.  It is where we get fired up and go over the game plan on how we are going to go out and compete --- it is where we get trained and empowered to go out and execute the game plan.  The coaches don't go out and compete in the game --- their job is to get you ready.

That's what church is

How we live our lives demonstrates how committed we are to the mission and ministry to Jesus. 

Your job --- my job --- isn't to grow the church (please don't tell the superintendent I said that) my job, your job is to grow disciples.

So --- do you want to be a Christian?

It is the greatest journey, and the most demanding journey you will ever be on!

The good and wonderful news is God accepts you exactly where you are.

          If you can only offer God philos love --- God says --- I will take it

BUT DON'T STOP THERE

God desires us to love with agape --- complete, full love

And we do that by becoming mature followers of Jesus

So get involved

Getting involved means interacting with God's children

We have had two funerals these past two days

          Beautiful services celebrating the lives of Tom Lugar, John and Carolyn Tucker

          But we couldn't have done it without some of you engaging in ministry

Michelle, Marilyn, Candice and Debbie all actively engaging people in their grief with the love of God

Ministry is hands on --- seeing God's children --- and lifting them with the love of God

          Soup's On

          Fletcher Place

          Neighbor link

          Martin Luther King Center

          School 43

          Project Transformation

          Habitat for Humanity

          The person who comes in off the street needing help

          IHN/Family Promise

But maybe you aren’t ready yet

          You still need practice and learning

Join a Bible Study or Sunday School Class

          Re (Confirm)

          New Disciple

But my friends, a mature disciple knows that it is not in the classroom where transformation takes place

          There is a time and place for learning

          But the goal of Bible Study is not another Bible Study

At some point we have to set our books down and get busy doing the work of the kingdom

So you want to be a Christian

          A follower of Jesus

                   Come on, let's go and change the world for God

What If You Can't

Genesis 4:1-12 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

As Matt was preaching last week one of my favorite poems kept popping into my head.

It is Rudyard Kippling’s wonderful poem IF.

If you can keep your head when all about you  

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,  

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;  

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;  

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;  

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;  

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,  

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,  

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,  

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,  

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

A preacher was quoting that poem from Kippling when a man in the back of the room jumped up and said: BUT WHAT IF YOU CAN’T

That is the challenge of life.

Matt was 100% right, we need to listen to each other, we need to demonstrate compassion to each other --- BUT WHAT IF YOU CAN’T!

          What if you can't?

As I was heading to Michigan a couple of weeks ago, we were snarled in heavy traffic near South Bend.  There wasn’t any place to go, but the truck behind me felt like I wasn’t moving fast enough, as soon I could I moved over I did, and as he passed me, he cut the truck over forcing me onto the shoulder. 

          Believe me --- At that moment I wasn’t feeling any compassion

                   Anger welled up inside me

                             I am sure I said a few things that I probably shouldn't have

And running through my head was the memorable line from the movie Network

                                      “I am mad as Hell and not going to take it anymore!”

                             And I tried to safely get a picture of his license plate

                                      Which I failed to do, which made me even madder!

The very first question in the Bible after the exit from the Garden of Eden is found in Genesis chapter 4.  God asks Cain: “Why are you angry?”

I think most of us could be asked the same question.

We are becoming an increasingly angry society

I have gotten to the point where I cannot stand watching the news, because I get angry

There was a powerful article in the Indy Star a couple weeks ago about how dysfunctional social media has become.

I see many of your posts and interactions on FaceBook --- sometimes we just aren't very nice to each other.

Anger is quite dangerous if it is not handled in a healthy way, and it can become extremely destructive.

Some of us have experienced destroyed relationships, destroyed bodies, and even destroyed churches because of anger not being handled in healthy or helpful ways.

Anger can be expressed in many ways.

It isn't always expressed outwardly towards others.

Sometimes it's expressed inwardly and when that happens, internal anger can cause stress as well as depression and many other things including severe health problems.

Anger can throw us into an absolute funk and we don't have any idea what to do.

Anger is real

And like Howard Beale I often want to say: "I am mad as Hell, and I am not going to take this anymore!"

Because, sometimes I can't --- I can't show compassion, I can't be nice, I just can't!

Is that you?

Do you feel that sometimes?

What if I told you that there was another way?

Would you be willing to listen, or better yet take a chance that might change your life?

The answer just might be found in following the advice of Brant Hansen who in 2015 wrote a transformative book called, Unoffendable

The key question he tries to address is do we have a choice?

          Do we have to experience anger?

As I read the book the answer seems to be yes and no.

I do think we can choose not to take offense --- not to become angry.

This choice, however, isn’t made in isolation; the choice to be unoffendable is intertwined --- linked by our answers to a host of other questions.

To try to put this into simple terms let me ask a question; is the choice to run a marathon just one choice?

          Well, yes and no.

To be sure, it’s a choice, but it’s not a choice made in isolation from other choices about diet, sleep, training, and rest.

You don't just wake up one morning and choose to run a marathon that day --- you choose to run a marathon by all the choices you make in the months leading up to it.

So many other things in life are the same way --- none of our choices are really made in isolation from everything else but are truly contingent upon other things.

It’s the exposing of this interlocking nature of anger and offense that I found so helpful in Hansen’s book.

Being unoffendable isn’t a mere choice to grow “thick skin” (whatever that means --- or stop being a snowflake as people like to hurl at each other) --- but the holistic choice to pursue a life centered on Jesus.

BUT wait -- isn't there a place for RIGHTEOUS ANGER?

Aren't there times when we should be offended --- when we should be angry?

Hansen argues that righteous anger belongs to God and to God alone.

He repeatedly quotes from the bible to show how God wants us to get rid of our anger.

Ephesians 4:31 (NRSV)

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice

Colossians 3:8  (NRSV)

But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.

How anger is dangerous

James 1:20 (The Message)

God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger.

How silly anger ultimately is

Ecclesiastes 7:9 (The Message)

Don’t be quick to fly off the handle.

Anger boomerangs. You can spot a fool by the lumps on his head.

And probably the most quoted verse in the bible on anger

Ephesians 4:26-27   (The Message)

Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge.

Which would seem to suggest that anger can be good, and many stop right there, but listen to the rest of the verse

And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

And don't forget our passage this morning, as God asks Cain:

“Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Giving into anger can lead us down some dangerous and deadly paths . . .

And Hansen is quick to point out that anger is not listed as one of the fruits of the spirit!

In a post on his Blog, Hansen shares his encounters with what he called "Bible show interviewers":

Bible Show Interviewer: But the Bible says human anger can be a good thing and righteous.

Brant:                          Actually, it doesn’t. (Cites multiple scriptures, including where we’re told, point-blank, to get rid of all anger, that human anger is never righteous, etc.)

Interviewer:                 Oh, so… you’re telling me I shouldn’t harbor anger towards terrorists?

Brant:                          I’m just reading scriptures and stuff.

Interviewer:                 C’mon. You’re telling me to get rid of all anger?

Brant:                          I’m just reading scriptures and stuff.

Interviewer:                 Are you NUTS?

Brant:                          Why yes. Yes I am. But I’m just reading scriptures and stuff.

He goes on:

It tends to become a “You can’t tell me I can’t stay angry towards this or that criminal!”-type discussion. I try to point out that Jesus levels the moral playing field, and we’re murderers, too.

Yep. 2000 years later… and no one wants to hear that. Still doesn’t go over well. The Gospel still liberates many, and scandalizes the rest.

The truth is, most of us are unwilling to let God be God and us to just be God’s creation. 

We want to be in control!

We want to let our anger determine who is right and who is wrong.

Dietrich Bonheoffer in The Cost of Discipleship wrote:

Jesus will not accept the common distinction between righteous indignation and unjustifiable anger.  The disciple must be entirely innocent of anger, because anger is an offence against both God and his neighbor.

Dr Martin Luther King agreed when he wrote in his autobiography

This Monday I went home with a heavy heart.  I was weighed down with a terrible sense of guilt, remembering that on two or three occasions I had allowed myself to become very angry and indignant.  I had spoken hastily and resentfully.  Yet I knew that this was no way to solve a problem.  "You must not harbor anger," I admonished myself.  "You must be willing to suffer the anger of the opponent, and yet not return anger."

He went on and explained how one can fight injustice without anger.  He wrote:

We are not advocating violence.  We want to love our enemies.  I want you to love our enemies.  Be good to them.  Love them and let them know that you love them.

In other words, be motivated by love

          love for victims

          love for bystanders

          love for enemies

I didn't say this would be easy

Let me ask you --- is your anger working?

          Are you happier with your anger --- even your righteous anger?

Is our constant sniping at one another making the world a better place?

As I look around, I would suggest that our anger and indignation has gotten out of hand!

As CHRISTIANS, and I am speaking to followers of Jesus --- choosing to be unoffendable means choosing to be humble.

Hansen concludes his book:

          Choosing to be unoffendable means choosing to be humble.  Not only that, the practice teaches humility, once you've decided that you can't control other people; once you've reconciled yourself to the fact that the world, and its people, are broken; once you've realized your own moral failure before God; once you've abandoned the idea that your significance comes from anything other than God, you're growing in humility, and thats exactly where God wants us all. 

          It's contrary to seemingly everything in our culture, but the more we divest ourselves of ourselves, the better our lives get.  Jesus told us as much.  He said if we'd give up our lives, for his sake, we'd find real life.

          When we surrender our perceived "rights," when we let go of our attempts to manipulate, we find --- surprise! --- joy.

But what if I can't!

          Well, the truth is you can't

You cannot solve your anger problem on your own

But, if you let go and let God be in control, you can begin to allow yourself to be unoffendable.

If you do that you will grow in ways you never dreamed possible

          And your life will be a heck of a lot happier as well!

God's Politics

A couple of months ago I asked for suggestions for topics to preach on over the summer months.  I must admit that you gave me come very challenging and difficult ideas to try and tackle.  Fortunately for me, I am not preaching many Sundays this summer --- so I got to really pick and choose which ones I want to attempt.

Three topics really jumped out at me, and I felt that there were things that as follwers of Jesus we need to examine in how we best understand and live in relationship to them.

What I had planned to do this morning was look at how we deal with difficult people.  I know that this is an important topic because we all have people that we struggle with.  I had planned to follow that up with God's final judgment and what that means for us as Christians and how it should affect how we relate to the world.  I will get to both of those topics over the next few weeks.

But there was one other topic, that to be honest, I really didn't want to address, but one that I knew that I had too. 

On Wednesday (4^th of July) as I was heading to the Monon Trail for my daily run, I was listening to NPR.  And as is their tradition of the 4^th they were reading the US Constitution.  It was powerful --- and I knew that I had to address this topic.

The question was asked two different ways, from two very different points of view --- but I want to try to give us a third way of looking at it.

And the question is, how do we, as Christians respond, in this politically divisive environment that we find ourselves.

Before you make assumptions about what I am going to say --- let me frame this conversation this way: 

God is not blue or red. 

And I doubt that God really cares much about our political parties. 

God cares deeply about what we do --- or don't do --- but God is not about the United States political sphere.

One party or the other may want to do their best to claim God --- and God's righteousness --- but claiming God and reality are not the same.

I am a big Civil War buff.  My father's family lived just off the battlefield at Shiloh and Nancy's grandparents owned land that was fought over in the battle of Bentonville.

While I was at Duke, I came to realize that two of the best repositories for original Civil War era documents are at Duke University and Indiana University. 

I decided to go into the rare books library at Duke and read as many journals that were written by chaplains that I could get my hands on. 

I was curious about how they viewed their role in the war

How they understood the role of God (of providence) in the battles and the overall conflict

And what struck me was the similarities between the Chaplains of the North and the South.

          Both were convinced of the righteousness of their cause

          Both believed that God was on their side

          Both believed that God would vindicate them

          Both saw the OTHER as evil and vile

It was at this same time that I was serving two little churches in rural North Carolina.

There was nothing extraordinary about these two churches.

          One was in town --- the town had 235 residents

          The other was a couple of miles outside of town in the open country

Both churches were filled with wonderful and loving people

          They were there for me when Stewart got sick and died

                   They threw me a lifeline that I can never repay

I had a friend --- a fellow student at Duke --- who was a dynamic preacher --- and I invited him to come and preach at my two little churches.

          I will never forget his reaction

                   "Don't you know where you live?"

                             Yeah – I was living in Western North Carolina in 1985

I had never really thought about racism before --- and I have never seen the fear that I saw in his face before

          Needless to say --- he didn't come and preach

I really don't know how they would have responded

Unfortunately, I think I do ----

While they were loving people and some of the “best” Christians I have ever known, when I arrived and was being shown around I was told where "ni**er" town was and that I needed to avoid that area.

How could "good Christians" be so convinced that God had made European folk and people of color so differently?

          I still don't have an answer . . .

But what I came to realize, is that many of us confuse our relationship with God with justifying our insecurities, prejudices and misunderstandings. 

Or to rationalize our God to meet our political agenda.

Once again I want to state clearly --- Jesus is not Red --- nor is Jesus Blue!

That doesn't make us bad people

But why is it that we are so afraid to talk about our faith and politics?

Why is it so scary --- so frightening --- so hard, to talk about religion or politics?

Jim Wallis, in his provocative book (written in 2005): God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, writes:

Perhaps these topics are too important, too potentially divisive, or raise the issues of core values and ultimate concerns that make us uncomfortable.

I believe that this may be the most important challenge facing us today

This morning what I am going to attempt to do is set a few parameters, a few guidelines, so that as we begin to dig into some particular topics, we can do so, without getting weighed down by a lot of baggage.

Now I know that this is going to be hard.

Because as soon as some of you heard me begin to speak, you already have some assumptions in your head.

·         Some of you have checked out

·         some of you think you know what I am going to say

·         Some of you think that I have a political party agenda in mind

That leads me to the reiterate the first point I want to make:

GOD IS NOT PARTISAN 

          In other words, God is not a republican or a democrat.

I think that is pretty straight forward.

There are parts of each of our two parties that seem to have values that could be called God affirming and there are parts of each of our two parties that go against the very grain that God is calling us to become.

The second point I want to make is this:

VALUES MATTER

That became very clear in polling that was done following the 2004 Presidential election and again in 2016.

When asked to choose what influenced their vote most, people choose, what we would call one moral value or another.

And that is the first great question that we must ask: Which values and whose values are we going to follow?

And today in America, we are a nation that is very divided over this question but I believe that there are core values in which we can find common ground regardless of whether we are Red or Blue.

          Core values that come from being a Disciple of Jesus

The third point that I want to make is:

Only people of faith can change the way the wind is blowing in America to help all people hear the prophetic call of the Bible.

You see, I am convinced that neither party gets it right.

For Republicans it's all about sex and life and protecting the perceived American Way

          Abortion

          Homosexuality/Gay marriage

          Immigration

The Democrats seem terrified of God, so they refuse to address the issue.

Both parties' visions are morally and politically incomplete and need to be addressed by people of faith --- and that is you and me.

We must build on the values that God teaches us and use our influence as disciples to change the world.

And that leads to a fourth point that I must make; and this one may be even harder that the other three.

GOD IS PERSONAL, BUT NEVER PRIVATE

What do I mean by that?

We have a personal relationship with God but we cannot keep that to ourselves. 

Our personal relationship should influence how we act and think and do in society.

And there are no better guides to help us than those found in the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.

I challenge you to pick a prophet and sit down and read it carefully and prayerfully.

We have to take back our faith.

Listen to Wallis:

The religious and political Right gets the public meaning of religion mostly wrong -- preferring to focus only on sexual and cultural issues while ignoring the weightier matters of justice.  The secular Left doesn't seem to get the meaning and promise of faith for politics at all -- mistakenly dismissing spirituality as irrelevant to social change. . . .

It is time to take back our faith.

Take back our faith from whom?  To be honest, the confusion comes from many sources.  From religious right-wingers who claim to know God's political views on every issue, and then ignore the subjects that God seems to care the most about.  From pedophile priests and cover-up bishops who destroy lives and shame the church.  From television preachers whose extravagant lifestyles and crass fund-raising tactics embarrass more Christians than they know.  From liberal secularists who want to banish faith from public life and deny spiritual values to the soul of politics.  And even from liberal theologians whose cultural conformity and creedal modernity serve to erode the foundations of historic biblical faith.  From New Age philosophers who want to make Jesus into a nonthreatening spiritual guru.  And from politicians who love to say how religious they are but utterly fail to apply the values of faith to their public leadership and political policies.

WOE!

What made that hit home even more for me was a visit I once paid to an independent church a few years ago.

They must have used the word PROSPERITY at least 25 times

You were promised that if you followed their interpretation of the Gospel (which is of course the only correct way) then God would bless you. 

Otherwise . . . and they always kind of left that hanging.

I left that service and wanted to quit the ministry --- to quit Christianity --- if that is what it really is about.

But I refuse to give in to that perverted understanding of God and Jesus Christ.

God calls us together --- not so that we can follow the rules and be blessed, or to reflect the cultures values:

but so that we can build communities of faith whose purpose is to reshape lives and the world.

God calls us as a people of faith to not only talk about our faith --- but to actually live our faith.

In other words --- we are called to be Disciples for Jesus

To become the Disciples Jesus wants us to be, we cannot ignore the social ills of our times --- the social ills that were so near and dear to Jesus.

          Poverty

          Justice

          Opportunity and access

I don't know about you, but it is pretty exciting to recognize that we are a part of a community that is going to change the world with God's love and justice.

I could go on all day, but that is not what you need to hear today.

But I do want to remind you of these four main points:

·         GOD IS NOT PARTISAN

·         VALUES MATTER

·         ONLY THE PEOPLE OF FAITH CAN CHANGE THE WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING IN AMERICA TO HELP ALL PEOPLE HEAR THE PROPHETIC CALL OF THE BIBLE.

·         GOD IS PERSONAL, BUT NEVER PRIVATE

A week ago I went out and joined the protest that took place at the State House over the separation of families at our borders.

I think that we can all agree that babies and children should not be taken from their parents

What we can disagree over is how best to deal with the disparity and injustice that makes a mother or father flee their country and travel thousands of miles in search of something better.

I believe that Abraham Lincoln had it right when he suggested that: Our task should not be to invoke religion and the name of God by claiming God's blessing and endorsement for our national policies and practices --- saying, in effect, that God is on our side.  Rather Lincoln said, we should pray and worry earnestly whether we are on God's side.