Sermon Cloud

That's our role, right? To fix people's screwed up lives. And man are there a lot of screwed up lives around us. Our country is going to hell in a hand basket. Look at all the stuff on tv, what you hear on the radio. You've got Hillary running for president. The Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl. Seriously, things are screwed up. And we've gotta let people know how screwed up they are, right?
If there was ever a group of Christians who knew the need the point out sin, it was a small group of believers at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon. Reed was a pit of sin and liberalism. Christians were hated. There was a popular bumper-sticker that read "too bad we can't throw Christians to the lions anymore." Professors loved making life miserable for the Christians.
And at the beginning of each year, there was this big campus wide party called Ren Fayre. I could explain it, but this service is only rated PG-13, not R. On Friday night, kids got totally drunk. Saturday night was about the drugs. They had stations set across campus to enhance mushroom trips. The school would bring in a medical group that specialized in treating bad drug trips.
This small group of Christians decided to set-up a confession booth on Saturday night of Ren Fayre. On Friday night, two guys dressed like monks and walked around campus telling everyone about the booth. "Come confess your sins. We'll have a confession booth for you."
On Saturday night, with people running naked across campus, with the sound of rave music thumping in their ears. They set up the booth. Painted a big huge sign that read "Confess your sins."
That's what we're to do, right? Coerce people to confess, let them know how bad they are.... Begin photo story Protestors enter sanctuary
Matthew 7:1-6 - Andy reads from congregation, but not on screen hold last image of photo story up until Andy's done reading
Gospel Response
Why do Christians think it's their responsibility to tell everyone else how wrong they are? Shouldn't Christians - "little Christs" be reading the words of their namesake? Shouldn't we be following the example of the one we're following? I'd like for anyone to find one time in the gospels in which Jesus gets in the face and condemns someone blatantly living in outright sin? But Jesus did get after some people who were much better at hiding their sin, perfuming their own stench so to speak but we'll deal with that in a few weeks when we ask "Who Would Jesus Damn?"
Christians aren't the only ones who make a habit of condemning others. It's normal human practice. But to be Christian means to live counter-culturally. There's something inside of us that wants to manage and control others. This world would be a much better place if others would just take our advice. We have such wonderful solutions. We have an overabundance of confidence in our ability to straighten others out. But they won't listen. So we have no choice but to force it upon others. And if they still won't listen, we'll lob whatever conversational handgrenade necessary to end the discussion by assuring them we are right and they are wrong. Who has done this? We ALL do it! And to be honest, I just might be the worse at it.
This short passage is a part of a larger sermon in which Jesus is teaching what it means to be people who are at home in the Kingdom of God. Who are allowing the rule of God to become a reality in their own lives. A couple verses later, Jesus gives us a picture that's the exact opposite of what we just read. 7:12
Can you see how this whole "do not judge" section acts as a foil to verse 12? People who treat others the way they want to be treated are living out the kingdom of God. Their whole demeanor says "this is the life. This Jesus guy is worth giving your whole life to. The Christ-following life is where it's at." Not made that decision...?
If we want to become people who make the Christian life attractive to those around us, especially those who are closest to us. The people we're most likely to want to manipulate. We must abandon that deep rooted human practice of condemning. "You are wrong." And when we start living that way, the love of God will be free to flow through us.
We convince ourselves that by condemning someone's behavior, we're really looking out for their best interests. In all of his wisdom, Jesus knows that it doesn't work that way. Condemnation communicates to the condemned, "you are bad. You are unacceptable. You deserve to be rejected. You are among the lowest forms of human life. You are screwed-up all the way to the core of your being." Condemnation is the exact opposite of this - Vs. 12
Protestors, all you defenders of righteousness and truth, stand back up.
Signs
That's what people hear. I can just imagine Jesus holding a picket sign. Can you see Jesus pointing to all those disconnected from God and the church "you're wrong. I condemn you!"
Now I've gotta' admit a tension in this message. There is a time to keep our mouths shut and there is a time to call a spade a spade and call out sin. We interact differently with those within our community of faith and those who aren't. People who claim to follow Jesus and those who make no claim.
There is an entire disgusting movement of Christianity, just makes me want to both cry and vomit. That says "Even if people don't want to be Christians, we're going to make laws that make them live like one. We will conquer this country for God in Washington DC. We're going to force people to live this way, and doggone it if they won't, we're at least going to call names on the way down."
There are entire Christian ministries committed to fighting what they call the "culture war?" You've heard that language. It wasn't from Jesus. And they send out newsletters to scare you about all the evil in the world, so you'll give them money and vote Republican. Not counting the Fred Phelps hate groups of the world, these groups are well-intentioned people who really love Jesus. But their condemnation is damaging and polarizing our country. Pitting groups against each other. And they're turning people away from the love of Jesus in droves.
There was a phone survey of nonChristians. Word association. The most common response to the title Christian was "one who hates homosexuals." Christian - little Christ/ hates homosexuals. Boy did that title get turned around.
But there is an appropriate place for confronting sin - it's within our own community of faith. Within the church, there is to be accountability and repercussions for sinful behavior. Apostle Paul in the NT is very clear about this. 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 And Galatians 6:1 Now before you declare yourself the enforcer of this verse, Paul gives us 4 qualifications for calling someone out. 1) Certainty. You'd better know they committed the sin. You're probably going to have to man up and confront, "did you do this?" 2) Maturity Do you possess the spiritual maturity to correct another believer? 3) Restoration What's your motive? Do you just want to put that person in their place, or do want to help them heal? 4) Humility Let's carry this load together because I'm just as prone to sin as you are. I could be there, too.
Paul is very clear, within the Christian community, within this church we don't give up on accountability. We must have the guts to blow the whistle on the sin that's destroying a person's life. We can be lovingly discerning. But we do this without attacking their worth as a child of God. We avoid slapping labels on people; rejected, impossible, hopeless case.
Here's something else to keep in mind; a person is better than the worst sin they've ever committed. Our low points do not define us. You are better than the worse sin you've committed. God's love and grace makes that possible.
But now pull back out of the Christian community and look at our role as Christians in the broader world. A lot of Christians believe they're on a mission from God to run around, pointing fingers "You suck. Now become a Christian so you can tell other people how much they suck." How's that working for us?
Vs 3-5 How does Jesus know there's a board in the other person's eye? What if that person is really doing their best to live right? Is it just the fact that no one is perfect, everyone has issues and until you're perfect you should never point out sin?
When you pointed fingers as a kid, did you ever have an adult remind you that 4 fingers were pointing back at you? And the smartalec kids would say, "one's a thumb." Jesus knows that if you're the type of person who feels the need to condemn. If you've got a habit of regularly pointing out the sin in others. The log is the actual act of condemnation. The act of condemning others points back into your heart, exposing the anger, contempt and self-righteousness.
The inner state of our heart blinds us from seeing beyond the actions and down into the soul of the other person. We can't help them because we can't really see them.
Getting the board out of our eye is becoming a person who does not reduce another to the sum total of their actions. It's becoming a person who can see past the sin to the potential.
But if you're still not convinced this is the way to live, there's still a loophole. Vs. 6 Jesus is really clear here, there are some people that just aren't worthy of your advice. Don't waste this great message by throwing it to a bunch of pigs. They aren't worthy, they're depraved, they're not worth the effort.
That's how some people have interpreted this verse. But that way of thinking stands in direct opposition to the teaching and spirit of Jesus.
The issue isn't worthiness, it's helpfulness. Pigs can't digest pearls anymore than a dog could digest a diamond necklace. When you're trying to manage other's lives, you're wasting your own money and resources and you're hurting other people.
We know what's best for people. If I could just try one more time to get my point across, you'd have to agree that I'm right. Contempt, self-righteousness, condemnation, impatience slip into this well-intentioned advice and we harm people by pushing them farther away.
It's like trying to feed your dog your paycheck, when you should go cash that paycheck and buy them dog food. The pigs will turn and eat you because at least you're meat. They could digest you.
People who are far from God don't need your self righteous finger. People need a heart full of love. Warmth, acceptance, comfort.
If someone is living in sin and don't want out, you can't force them out. But if someone is looking for hope, your condemnation is going send them right back into despair.
Can we give up our need to control everyone around us?
What if we stopped telling people who make no claim to follow Jesus that they must live by Christian morals? What if we stopped trying to legislate Christianity? Now I don't mean we give up on the ideal of laws that protect us and cultivate good citizenship. Laws are meant to create a country of good citizens, but they're not meant to create a country of Christians. But what if we decided to stop bullying others around us, telling them they need to live by the morals of a book they don't give a rip about?
Christianity was born into a culture that had some very sick and twisted social norms. It was okay to leave your newborn baby girl out in the wilderness to die. It was considered healthy and natural for a grown man to take a young boy to bed. Rather than trying to pass a bunch of laws through the Roman senate, Christians decided they were going to live counter-culturally. The quality of the Christian lifestyle convinced people who had never before heard the name of Jesus that he was someone worth knowing. That his love could transform, forgive and bring meaning.
The message of Jesus has seen it's most explosive growth in society's that are hostile to Christianity, places like China. It's not about creating a Christian country, it's about spreading the love of Jesus!
If there is any opportunity for followers of Christ to demonstrate that we're different. That the love of Jesus compels us to rise above the natural human tendencies. It's in choosing not to condemn. Offering love and accept with open arms. We love you, you're welcome here, no matter what baggage you're dragging behind. If you came to church this morning with a bunch of baggage, well, prop it up next to everyone else's.
Derin - I may cut out this story about Ted Haggard and just go to the final story about Ren Fayre
Most of you are probably familiar with the news story that broke in November about Ted Haggard, the pastor from Colorado who was president of the National Association of Evangelicals. The term "evangelical" refers to Christians who stress making your own personal decision to follow Jesus. But because of groups like National Association of Evangelicals, the term has come to mean "a republican who hates liberals and gay people." Haggard was leading that groups efforts to ban gay marriage in his home state of Colorado.
But last November, the news broke that Haggard was in the middle of a 3 year relationship with a male prostitute in Denver. Mass chaos was the result of this sin being exposed. And some Christian leaders were publicly worried about how the news would affect the election, sickening.
An evangelical professor and preacher, Tony Campolo was interviewed on MSNBC the day after this news broke. The anchor asked him, "how do evangelicals get through this and how do they recover?"
"We need to go into a time of self-examination. We need to stop projecting this image of piety and deal with our own sin. We need to stop focusing upon just the sins of abortion and homosexuality and we need to follow the biblical mandate to feed the poor and care for the environment. We need to hop off our high horse and admit that we're all sinners who have been transformed by the grace of God."
I was pumping my fist, "yeah, preach it, Tony!"
But then I couldn't believe my ears. The news anchor was dumbfounded. She kinda' stuttered, shocked. She said, "I have never heard an evangelical talk like that."
Why? Because too many of us are busy running around telling everyone what to do.
Several hours into the Saturday night/ early Sunday morning of Ren Fayre on Reed College, the guys wearing monk robes sitting in the confession booth got their first customer. His name was Jake.
Jake sat down, spoke to the ‘monk' behind the curtain, "I'm here to confess all the stuff I've done during Ren Fayre, right?"
The student taking the confession said, "nope. I want to confess to you."
This really caught Jake by surprise, "you don't need to do that, man."
"No, I really do. I apologize for the crusades. For genocide. For killing south American Indians in the name of Christianity."
The monk went on, "I'm sorry for televangelists. Forgive me for our selfishness. For forgetting to feed the poor and needy. For misrepresenting Jesus on campus, for looking down on those who didn't share my views. For forgetting the central message of Christianity. I'm sorry for getting in the way of Jesus."
The monk went on until finally Jake stopped him. He had tears in his eyes, "Okay, I forgive you. But other people need to hear this." Jake went and got his friends and this went on for hours until early Sunday morning.
And for this small group of Christians on the campus of Reed college, things started to change. They started leading discussions raising awareness of poverty. They lead groups of students to volunteer at local rescue missions. They lead public forums where they apologized more for all the unChristlike behavior. And they lead Bible studies for students who specifically considered themselves anti-Christian.
The ‘monk' in this story was an author named Donald Miller (nice name), in his book Blue Like Jazz. Miller wrote that when they took the confession booth back down on Sunday morning and he walked through the campus lawn that was wet with dew, he paused for a moment to look back. He saw students passed out on the ground, couples making out on the lawn, could still hear some rave music. But he knew that things had changed. His confession had set him free. Jesus was relevant on the campus of Reed college.
What if we gave up our role as the moral police of the world? And instead took a posture of humility. We're done telling people what they're doing wrong. Done telling people how to vote. Instead we'll admit our own sin and trust the power of Jesus Christ to be the one that transforms lives.

As we prepare to celebrate communion together this morning, I want us to pause for a moment and confess our own sin. Silence
Prayer
Servers - 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
If you've confessed sin and you want to live a life of following Jesus, I invite you to come and receive the elements and at the same time to give of your offering in the baskets up here. If you're not ready, that's okay, we appreciate your honesty.
Explanation, communion and offering