Sermon for CATM – Sunday June 5, 2011 – Am I a Fan or Follower?
Toronto Star Headline: Does Religion Belong at AA. Fight Over ‘God’ Splits Toronto AA Groups
The recovery group Alcoholics Anonymous is struggling over its very DNA. The group was founded on Jesus being the key to transformation for those seeking freedom from addictions.
In its desire to bring the principles of AA to a broader group, the term ‘higher power’ is used in its description of God. Christians know who that higher power is.
Now two schismatic groups within AA called “Beyond Belief” and “We Agnostics” are trying to assert its legitimacy within AA and as a result there is some tension in the AA.
The side the media is taking is predictably critical of those who want AA to continue to recognize and keep central the reality of God’s transforming power in recovery.
But this begs the question: Does God make a difference in a person’s life? Can ‘community’ ‘mindfulness’ or ‘self-awareness’ as the schismatic AA groups assert, replace God. Is God relevant anymore?
Does being someone who acknowledges Jesus make any difference anymore? My answer might surprise you. My answer is, “it depends”.
Osama Bin Laden [Show photo] is quite dead. There is not much argument about that any more. In the US, our neighbour country to the south, there was mixed reaction to the killing of Osama.
Many Christians celebrated the death of the architect of 9/11. Some among those who celebrated suggested that it was almost a moral imperative to bask in the joy of Bin Laden’s death. Other Christians, of all stripes, were much less enthusiastic, much less triumphal.
My own initial thoughts were, “Good on you, Obama, good on you Special Forces”.
Then I started to feel uncomfortable with that response, so I justified myself by thinking that if they hadn’t killed him and had just captured him and put him on trial for his atrocities, that would have been all kinds of messy.
Then I remembered the teachings of Jesus and I started to feel very uncomfortable with my own initial response to the murder of Osama Bin Laden. It dawned on me that I was way, way off.
As they always do, the thoughts of God make mincemeat of my own best thoughts and imaginings.
The thoughts of God, the Word of God and the teaching of Jesus don’t let me get away with much.
If I really want to follow Jesus, does it mean that I need to do as He did and live the life the way He did?
It might be more accurate to say, if I don’t really want to do life the way Jesus tells me, that I’m more of a fan than a follower. And that is the ‘depends’ that I mentioned earlier.
Whether or not Jesus truly makes a difference in a life depends on one question: Am I a fan or a follower of Christ.
And if that’s the case, what’s the difference between being a follower vs. a fan of Jesus?
Fan
If I want to be fan of Jesus, I will:
As A Fan I Would Admire His Charisma and Authority
Jesus had impressive authority. He commanded large audiences when he wanted to. 4000, 5000 – all without a personal PA system. Impressive. He was a maverick, a non-conformist, a dissenter to the status quo, and He called out those in authority.
He spoke like someone who knew what He was talking about and people took Him very seriously once He got going. As a fan of Jesus, his authority will attract me?
If I’m of one political persuasion or another and I think that invoking His name might buy me some credibility or help to further my agenda, I might be, as a fan, attracted to Jesus.
As A Fan I Would Admire His Power
Jesus’ authority extended into performing remarkable miracles, everything from healing the blind to causing the lame to walk to raising the dead and lots in between. I would be impressed by that power.
If I had a use for that kind of power, if I saw an advantage in it, I might be attracted to Jesus. I might even be a fan. I might follow along with other disciples and be included in their life.
Can you think of who in the gospel story was attracted to Jesus authority and power? [Judas, others who saw in Jesus the power and authority of a political mover and shaker]
As A Fan I Would Admire His Teachings,
I might admire some of Jesus’ teachings. As a fan, I would probably appreciate certain of His sayings over others. I could live with “Blessed are the poor” perhaps. I wouldn’t know what it means, but it wouldn’t, perhaps, particularly bother me. I could live with “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted”.
I would be comforted by those words.
I would appreciate “Come unto me all who are weary and I will give you rest”.
I would dig "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”, because I would think that God lives to serve me. All I gotta do is ask and He’s gotta do it.
Those and a selection of others among Jesus’ saying would appeal to me if I were a fan. I would admire His wisdom. I would enjoy His comfort. I would appreciate a certain amount of mystery in His words.
If I were a fan, I would tag along, perhaps like Judas. Perhaps like some others who saw personal or political advantage in being in some proximity to Jesus.
If I were a fan, if my motive for liking Jesus was all that I’ve described, and I were told to say some words and say some certain prayers in order to be part of the group, I might just oblige those who thought I should.
And if I was told I could I might even take on Jesus’ name, the name of His followers. I might accept being identified as a little Christ. That is what ‘Christian’ means, after all. But there is a huge chasm between being a fan or a follower. It is night and day. They are two very, very different things.
As a Follower I am in Reverent Awe of His Authority and Power
As a follower, I would be in reverent awe of His authority and power. Perhaps even some fear, which is after all the starting place for wisdom [Psalm 111:10: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;].
I would likely spend a lot of time being amazed at His authority and power – and, realizing that Jesus’ miracles on earth were just a tiny sampling of His creative power in creating and sustaining the universe (Hebrews 1:2-3: but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.], I would be awed by His coming).
I would spend much time in my head and heart trying to grasp that all of that authority and power came personally to this planet. All of that power Jesus never used for His own advantage. He used it to transform other people.
And when He could have used His power to save Himself from the cruelest of deaths at the hands of men, He chose to let Himself be beaten and abused and humiliated and murdered.
On one hand, that would make no sense whatsoever. Who, with the authority and power to stop it, would even think of letting that happen?
On the other hand, the sense it did make would be deeply troubling at one level and deeply, deeply inspiring at another.
It would be troubling as I realized that He suffered because of me.
For my sins He bore such personal horror and calamity. It would be inspiring as I realize that despite my sins and my complete unworthiness to receive His gift, in fact BECAUSE of those things (Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.] He did it for me.
He died for me. He poured out his life for me. He…thinks…I…matter…that… much.
As a Follower I Stand Amazed at His Power
As a follower of Jesus I stand amazed at His power, not because His power is so huge. You expect God to have huge power. Not because His reach is so vast.
Unless you have a very anemic and tiny view of God, you expect that the God of the universe could control vast arrays of distant galaxies at the same time that he notices a sparrow fall or one of the many hairs fall out of my head.
I stand amazed at His power not because God is limitless in His understanding of things, not because He can do absolutely anything He wants.
I stand amazed at His power, as a follower of Jesus, because He exercises His power according to His limitless love, which cannot be measured in height nor depth nor potency.
There is no scale by which God’s love could be measured. The best human measurement is this – the distance His arms stretched out both in the agony of sinless suffering, but also in infinite welcome to you, to the entire human race to join Him as His followers.
As a Follower My Attitude toward His Teachings is that I Surrender My Life to Him: His Lordship and His Way
Jesus said very strange things. Things that to His detractors seemed like madness:
Love Your Enemies, Do good to those who hurt you
Luke 6:27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
Jesus challenged some of the most basic human responses, insisting that in Him it is possible to not look to vengeance or to hate or to alienation as the way to deal with those who stand opposed to us. I say ‘insist’ because Jesus often speaks in commandments, like “Love your enemies”. That phrase alone is enough to set Jesus apart from all other voices out there and all internal responses that we might have.
You see Jesus is not interested in us blindly following His Way. How do I know that? Well, He says things like this that, which if we think even just a bit about it, makes us look into our hearts, our motivations, our internal state.
We do not follow blindly. Luke 10:27 He answered: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’"] all of our heart - all of our emotions and passion; all of our soul – the breath of life that is within us; all of our strength – all of our ability and might; and all of our mind – our best, deepest and most thorough thinking.
Jesus challenges us to live in such accord, in such peace with God that we will choose always to do the hard, hard work of living at peace with people. The shalom of God – deep and lasting peace-within-relationships, will always occupy the follower of Jesus.
And not only peace. As we looked at more closely a few weeks back, Jesus came, anointed by the Holy Spirit of God, to [PPT – Luke 4:18-19 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."]
preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
(John 20:21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.)
In the same way Jesus was anointed and sent, He sends us out in to the world to
(Micah 6:8). And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.)
Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. (Maryellen has that verse permanently written in her wrists)
An abiding concern for justice, a deep love for mercy, and a character grounded in humility (an accurate assessment of one’s self) will always define a follower of Jesus.
It should be obvious by now, but I’ll say it anyway that all of Jesus’ teachings and the Way He calls His followers to live, absolutely requires complete dependence upon the Spirit of God, who works all these things in the lives of Jesus’ followers.
The murder of Osama Bin Laden, or my layers of response to it that I described earlier, shows me that I have some growing to do. I have some deeper thinking to do.
I have some need to go deeper into God so that I can simply do what God says: Love my enemies. To follow Christ, I choose to not enter into debates in which following the commands of Christ become subject to some ‘higher’ law that excuses me from following those commands.
There is no higher law than the law of Christ. There is no greater Way than the Way of Jesus. If I want to be a follower, not a fan, I must NOT decide for myself which of Jesus’ teachings I will obey and which I will ignore.
I will not toss the hard ones out, keeping only the easy. I will not seek ways to alter the meaning of Jesus words, finessing them into something that is pleasing to my ear or the world’s ear.
I must follow, and when I fail, when I fall, I must reach out for the hand of Jesus in full confidence that He is there, waiting to transform me again into the person, the follower of Christ, that He wants me to be.
