Sunday, June 16, 2019
Religion is about rules. Christianity is not a religion, it’s a
relationship. What an absurd
statement! When you look at the census
form, where it says “religion,” Christianity is right there as one of the
choices. Doesn’t Christianity have
rules?
What
does Jesus say about this?
When
asked what commandment (a/k/a “rule’) was the greatest, Jesus went straight to
the rule book – the Law of Moses found in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
and Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible.
A Pharisee lawyer asked Jesus,
“Teacher, which commandment is greatest” (22:36)? Jesus responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind.” This was not
originally from Jesus. He got this from
Moses. He doesn’t say anything about relationship. This is a rule. According to Jesus it is the rule, and if we want to follow him we are commanded to obey
it.
Then, he adds a second rule which he
says is like the first. “Love your
neighbor as yourself.” Again, this is
not a Jesus original. He’s quoting the Law
of Moses here, Leviticus 19:18. God says
there, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” That’s the rule. Why?
God is Lord, Master, and God says so.
That’s all the reason we get.
A
lot Christians kind of ignore much of Leviticus because the instruction is a
set of guidelines for sacrificing animals in worship. We don’t do that. Because Jesus was the sacrifice to end all
sacrifices, we don’t kill animals and sacrifice them to show our devotion to
God. So, Leviticus is disregarded only
to be read by the zealous Christians doing one of those
read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plans, and they read it quickly so they get to
more interesting stories in Joshua and Judges.
When Jesus was asked what matters most, he quoted Leviticus and
Deuteronomy. He gave rules, rules that were already in place: love God and love
neighbor.
So
is Christianity a religion of rule, specifically these two rules? So many Christians base their faith on their
relationship with Jesus. Is it a
relationship? Is it both?
The
final core commitment of the Growing Young approach to church ministry is where
we will find resolution to this tension.
Our church is committed to the Growing Young idea. We’ve spent the last month looking at the core
commitments of churches that are growing young.
1.
Shared
Leadership
2.
Empathy
3.
Take
Jesus Seriously
4.
A
Community of Warm Relationships
5.
Prioritize
Young People Everywhere
6. Be Good Neighbors
Growing
young churches involve young people in leadership. They empathize with the struggles young
people face. They prioritize the
teachings of Jesus, about Jesus, and the relationship we have with God in
Jesus. They foster an environment in
which people can develop deep, true relationships both with peers and
intergenerationally. They prioritize
ministries to young people in all areas of church life. And finally, today’s core commitment: Growing
Young Church are good neighbors to the community. This means we strive to help people in our
community thrive. We hope many
unchurched people will come to our church.
We hope many unbelievers will encounter our ministry and through that
encounter decide to put their trust in Jesus.
Whether they do or not, we want to be a force for God’s good in our
community and in the world.
In
many ways we are already doing this.
Earlier this year, we built a ramp for a family living about a mile from
here. We do ramp projects like that
almost every year. The middle school a
block from here uses our parking lot when they need overflow parking, like this
past Thursday when they had 8th grade promotion. We are also the school designated site in the
event that an emergency would cause them to evacuate students. Numerous churches in our community use our
facility for funerals and banquets. We
do charge for some, not all but some, of these building uses, but those who pay
are glad to do so. They say our fees are
among the most reasonable in Chapel Hill and they love using our space. Our helping hand ministry is there for people
in financial emergencies.
These
are just a few of the ways we try to be good neighbors. Young people and unchurched people pay
attention to the words we speak about Jesus when they see us doing good in the
world. Helping kids in Ethiopia get an
education and job skills; sending backpacks loaded with needed school supplies
and gifts to extremely poor families in Appalachia; hosting big events like
Vacation Bible School and the Chinese New Year celebration and inviting the
community; inviting the community to our Christmas Eve and Easter services;
hosting the mobile dental clinic so low income families can get free dental
care: in all these ways we strive to obey Jesus’ command to love our
neighbors.
We
can improve the way we do many of the things I’ve mentioned. We might add ministries, but even if we just
did a better job of maximizing what we already do, it would magnify our
effectiveness in showing our town what God’s love is like. All these good works are examples of us
trying to obey Jesus’ command to love our neighbors.
When
love happens in a way that makes peoples’ lives easier, relationships start to
happen. So there it is. Obeying the command is following the rule,
but it leads to relationship and in the first place we try to be obedient
because of the relationship we have with Jesus.
So, Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. Right?
It
doesn’t really matter to me how it’s defined.
I categorize our faith as the Christian religion. I participate in this religion through ritual
like the Lord’s Supper and baptism, a holy book (the Bible), and regular
worship. I try to show religious
devotion to God.
In
this religion, which I believe is the
path to God, I have found that because my sins are forgiven, I have been
adopted as a child of God. God is my
Heavenly father, therefor I have relationship with Him. My relationship with
God is more important than any other relationship or loyalty in my life. I am my best self as a husband, dad, brother,
son, friend, and pastor because of who I am in Christ.
Because
of who Jesus is, I want to follow Him. I
want to understand and obey when he says, these commands are the most
important. The words he speaks in
Matthew 22 come in a series of confrontations that Jesus had with religious
leaders in Jerusalem in the week between Palm Sunday and his crucifixion on
Good Friday.
Different
powerbrokers in the government and in the temple felt threatened by Jesus. They tried to control people’s lives and to
an extent they succeeded. Then Jesus
came along and severely criticized them.
Sadducees, Herodians, and Pharisees were kind of like political parties
vying for the soul of the nation. They
exercised influence through control of the temple and synagogues and through
their knowledge of the Law of Moses. Jesus
knew the law better than they did. He
saw these leaders manipulating people with guilt and threats of expulsion from
houses of worship and he wouldn’t have it.
Jesus
helped people find their way to God. Through healing, driving our demons, and
teaching about the law in new ways, he drew his listeners close to God whereas
the leaders who contended against him came between people and God. If we are to be good neighbors, if we as the
body of Christ are to help people come to know Jesus, we have to love our
community as Jesus loved those who came to him.
When
he quoted the Deuteronomy command to love God, he wasn’t talking about a
feeling. This was not love as an emotion
or impulse. He meant love as a
decision. To love God meant – and still
means – to give oneself to God with one’s entire person.
Do
we do that? How much of you does God
get? How much of me does God get? Loving God in this way – the way commanded by
Jesus – is a lifelong pursuit. It’s
difficult to give oneself entirely to anything: a profession, a romantic
relationship, a pastime. He’s passionate
about golf. Maybe. To be “passionate” about something is to love
so much it hurts. Does he love golf so
much it hurts? Do we love God so much it
hurts? Are we giving absolutely all of
ourselves to God? That’s what Jesus says
is the most important of commandments.
There’s no option to follow him and have Christianity be a small part of
our lives. Loving God the way Jesus says
we must is all-consuming.
It
is also directly tied to the second great command: love others. Love your neighbor as yourself. Again, the verb Jesus used to describe love
indicates love is a responsibility. When
we follow Jesus, we have to give ourselves fully to the care of our
neighbors. We do this as a community and
as individuals. Jesus illustrated the
point with his Good Samaritan parable.
Anyone you or I come across is our neighbor, one we are commanded by God
to love. Loving in this way gets us to
“the essence of the way God created humans to live.” We give ourselves to God and others to
fulfill God’s purpose for us as the crown of creation.[i] We were made to be in relationships of
self-giving love with God and with people.
It’s why we exist.
When
we come together as a group of Jesus-followers and together commit to love our
community in this way, we will show our neighbors Jesus. Seeing Him, some will see their own need for
Him and turn to Him in faith. We’ll be a
“Growing Young Church.” More
importantly, we will be a faithful church and each one of us will meet Jesus in
this gathering. We will see Him in this
place.
Pray
for our church. Ask God to help us grow
young and help us increase our love for each other, for him, and for the world
right outside our doors.
AMEN
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