Christianity-Dangerous Business

Mark 6: 14-29

June 16, 2006

Christianity-A Dangerous Business

There is not just a little Walter Mitty in me. I remember just enough about Walter Mitty from my high school English literature class to believe he and I have some things in common.

Walter was an average Joe, a non-descript guy, a man who worked at a desk in an office building Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., moving papers from his in-basket to his out-basket. It would probably be an overstatement to say that Walter was not the most exciting person in the world.

Ah, but he had the most exciting imagination. Walter Mitty, much to the consternation of his boss, was a day-dreamer, and in his day-dreams Walter could imagine himself to be much more important than he was: a jet test pilot testing the very boundaries of the earth's atmosphere, a world-famous medical researcher who finds the cure for cancer, or the inventor of cold fusion unlocking the secret of cheap, clean, and unlimited energy for the world. Walter Mitty could imagine himself infinitely more important than he was.

I do that. Sometimes I fantasize about going to Afghanistan and capturing Osama Bin Laden. But more often for me my day-dreams take the form of sports. I imagine myself having a special power. Not that I am Superman – strong with the ability to fly. That isn’t realistic. No, I imagine the ability to see everything in slow motion. I am the football running back. I’m not fast, but I can see tacklers in slow motion and avoid them. I am the baseball batter watching the fast ball come so slowly that it is easy to hit. I am the golfer who can see his club head approach the ball so slowly as to be able change its angle a fraction of an inch before contact. Please forgive me for saying this, but, being a pastor just doesn't seem to measure up. In comparison, being a pastor, preaching God's word, just seems so boring.

I suspect that you think the same. Not that you necessarily think that being a pastor is boring, or that I am boring (although some of you hint as much), but that you think being a Christian is boring. Certainly society, by in large, believes that. Conventional wisdom says that Christianity and the church are for women and children. Real men go to football games or go hunting. Sitting in the pew this morning you may not go this far—after all you are here; you aren't hunting or watching football - but very few of you, very few of us, could give a cogent or convincing answer to the question, "What's so exciting about being a Christian?".

I don't think Christianity itself is boring, but I do think we have made it boring and that may be one of the greatest sins of all. We have tamed God's word. We have sanded smooth the edges of God's word that it might not cut us. We have so shaped the Christian message that it conforms nicely to the society to which it is suppose to witness. We have made Christianity into a lap dog of unconditional love which, when we are lonely or afraid, warms us with its presence.

If you think that is what speaking God's word is intended to be, read again what speaking God's word did for John the Baptist. This is not one of those Bible stories you will want to read to your child at bedtime. This is a story of God's word confronting political power and the consequences to the one so speaking.

King Herod had arrested John for criticizing him for marrying his sister-in-law Herodias, his brother's wife, while she was still married to his brother, Philip. On Herod's birthday, in the middle of a grand banquet, where no doubt copious amounts of alcohol and food were consumed, Herod, captivated, by the seductive dance of Herodias' daughter, now Herod’s step-daughter, promises to give her anything she wants. The girl asks her mother what she should ask for, and her mother says, "Ask for the head of John the baptizer." The girl rushes back to Herod and, adding her own ghoulish touch to her mother's advice, says, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the baptizer on a platter." And within the hour the deed was done, the head presented to the girl on a platter, and the rest of John's body collected by John's disciples and placed in a tomb.

Tell John the Baptist that God's word is boring. Tell John the Baptist that there is little intrigue or danger in speaking God's word. His experience was otherwise.

God's word confronted political power and its bearer, John the Baptist, lost his life. Jesus came preaching God's word and, while it may have been Jewish religious authorities who pushed for his arrest, it was ultimately the Roman civil authorities who put Jesus to death because Jesus represented a kingdom so radically different from the prevailing Roman one that it was judged a threat demanding its early destruction.

Does God's word still carry that potential? Does God's word still have that capability so to offend the established order, so to confront political power, as to put its speakers or adherents at physical risk, or as far as that goes, at any risk at all?

We have evidence from the Civil Rights movement of the 1950 and 1960s that it does. God's word, invoke by the Civil Rights movement, so offended the established order, so confronted political power, as to put its speakers at risk. Men and women, clergy and lay, marched to the capitals of states and nation and said of government supported segregation laws, "This is not God's will. This offends God." These men and women, citizens of this country, nevertheless said to this nation, "We are citizens of a higher kingdom and are subject to laws higher than yours, divine law over human law, and we come to you with this word: Stop! Stop dividing us on racial lines! That is against God's law." There were terrible consequences for many of those who bore that word of God. Many lost their jobs. Others lost their homes. Some, imprisoned, lost their freedom. And a few, as in the case of Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King, Jr., lost their lives. So much did these men and women offend the established order as to move those who opposed them to violence.

When Jesus came calling disciples, he didn't come asking for them to give him their hearts and souls. He came inviting them (and us) to come forward and be part of a kingdom. He came preaching, "The kingdom of God is at hand." And the all inclusive demands of being a citizen of that kingdom may put us at odds with our citizenship of this earthly kingdom.

The U.S. Constitution, in its first amendment, provides for a separation of church and state, by which is meant that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." And while politics may not mix in religion, Christianity is forever mixing religion with politics. Civil law cannot violate divine law and where those two conflict Christians can expect to be in danger.

Where today are the flash points? Who today are the John the Baptists facing beheading, or the Jesus followers today facing crucifixion? What parts of our earthly kingdom need to be confronted by the word of God's divine kingdom?

Here I must "wimp out" on you. I am not certain enough on local or national or global issues to preach "thus saith the Lord." I am uneasy in the prophetic role. There are issues where I personally see the earthly kingdom in opposition to God's kingdom and where in my personal activity I might oppose them. I cannot speak for you.

But God’s “kingdom word” does not only confront governments. Christianity is dangerous business not only for the risks its speakers face from those it opposes. Christianity is dangerous business because that same “kingdom word” that confronts society and government can cut painfully into our own lives as it exposes our own actions, words, and motives as contrary to God’s word. Because of our fallen nature we know that those “kingdom resisting” inclinations are there. With God’s guidance and discernment you will recognize them and it will take great courage to confront them.

It is in these encounters where earthly demands oppose God's will that your witness in word and deed is such a significant exercise. You don't have to live like Walter Mitty imagining a life far more significant than it is. You can live the dangerous and courageous life of a Christian speaking to and living God's word in a world that will oppose it and in your personal lives where temptation makes it hard to resist. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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