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"Worship is Counter-Cultural"
Pentecost 6 (special
series on
worship)
July 12, 2009
Two statements:
Despite our prayers and work for justice and peace, our planet has always known war and unfairness. For generations we have treated the earth, and the creatures of the earth, as if they belong to us and we can do anything we want with them. Sin and evil are everywhere. Pursuit of the false gods of money, pleasure, and power cast webs far and wide -- war, hunger, disease, wealth for some and destitution for others -- entangling us, sometimes even benefiting us, even when we are not intentionally or willingly involved. We listen to or read the news and it seems there is far more bad news than good. Sometimes all the bad news, which seems to travel so much faster and broader than good news, makes us feel helpless, gives us cause for despair. So why do we gather here to worship God on weekends? Is it because, as we are sometimes accused, we are trying to escape “the real world”? Is it to medicate our struggling souls with feel good religion and a strong dose of optimism? Are we all just religious little Pollyannas, playing “The Glad Game,” trying to find something to be glad about in even the most dismal situation? No. We gather as Christians in worship to proclaim that “the earth is the Lord’s and every-thing in it; the world and those who live in it are the Lord’s;” and, Jesus is that Lord. In Jesus, the Kingdom or reign of God broke into this world in a particular and profound way. How many times did Jesus say to someone he had healed, to crowds of people to whom he had proclaimed the unconditional, eternal love of God: “The Kingdom of God has come near to you.” Think about this for a moment: the “kingdom” of God, the “reign” of God isn’t spiritual, pie-in-the-sky-when-we-die language. The “kingdom” of God, the “reign” of God is political language, isn’t it. It is declaring who is really in charge. Jesus’ detractors knew Pilate could care less who the Jews’ god was as long as it didn’t challenge Roman power and authority. So they brought Jesus to Pilate, accusing Jesus not of a religious crime, but of a political one: treason. “This man says he is King of the Jews.” Pilate asks Jesus if he is, indeed, “king” of the Jews. Jesus simply answers, “You say so.” John records in chapter 19 of his gospel: “From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor." Treason. Politics. But for all of Pilate’s failings in allowing Jesus to be crucified when he knew that he (Pilate) was being manipulated, he got in trouble for putting a sign on Jesus’ cross, written in the three primary languages of the day so all the world could read it, “This is the King of the Jews.” Remember? According to John the chief priests demand that Pilate change it to “This man SAID, I am King of the Jews.” But Pilate responds, “What I have written, I have written.” Politics! We proclaim, we even sing in one of our most beloved hymns, “Beautiful Savior,” that Christ, and Christ alone, is King of creation (the earth and everything in it), Lord of the nations – ALL of them, not just ours. No matter what culture you’re in when you sing that hymn or hear that affirmation, it is counter-cultural. The earth is the Lord’s and everything and everyone in it belongs to the Lord, not to the person or the nation with all the power – but to Jesus, who is that Lord. When we follow that affirmation further, it implies that we are citizens of God’s kingdom, subjects of God’s perfect and holy reign, a declaration which takes us beyond humanly set borders and allegiances. If Jesus’ coming ushered in the Kingdom/reign of God, what happened? Why isn’t it here, now? Oh, but it is! Every time we baptize a person, proclaiming God’s adoption of that person into the family of God, into the reign of God, we are declaring that the earth is the Lord’s and everyone in it, that Jesus is that Lord -- and the Kingdom breaks into our world a little more. Every baptism! Every time we gather in the presence of death to worship God and commend our loved one to God’s eternal glory, we are declaring that the earth is the Lord’s and everyone in it, including the dead, and that Jesus is that Lord -- and the Kingdom breaks into our world a little more. Every funeral! Every time we forgive someone who has wounded us, when social practice and even the law says we absolutely do not have to do so – we have our rights, you know -- we are declaring that the earth is the Lord’s and everyone in it, including sinners, that Jesus is that Lord -- and the Kingdom breaks into our world a little more. Every time we forgive! When we lay our sin before Jesus, when we accept his invitation to dine with him at the Lord’s Supper, and hear and eat and drink forgiveness and the very companionship of Christ, we are confessing that the earth is the Lord’s and everyone in it, including ourselves, that Jesus is that Lord, and the Kingdom comes more fully in YOU. Every Lord’s Supper! Worship – so much of what we do, almost everything we say, and much of what we believe – is counter-cultural. We know that outside these doors, nothing comes easily, nothing comes free. Our culture has sayings like,
Someone has said that by the time worship is over and we’re ready to leave the building, we’ve already sinned again. So what do you do each day or each week to earn the invitation to be Christ’s guest at the Lord’s Supper, to deserve the forgiving presence of Jesus in, with, and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion? Talk about a free lunch. And we are so steeped in culture, that when we hear that Christ suffered like we do, and died, though sinless himself, for us; that there isn’t a thing we can or ever will do to earn God’s lavish love; that God loves us unconditionally and did all of this for us while we were dead in sin, culture would tell us, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” In other words, “Don’t believe it. There’s gotta be a catch.” But worship is counter-cultural, so we are bold to stand up and in a united voice confess this outrageous, counter-cultural faith, this biblical hope that is within us, in the words of the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed: I BELIEVE IN GOD…creator
of heaven and earth;
I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST…God’s only son and our LORD (another word for Master); I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT…in the forgiveness of sins, in life everlasting. Paul recognized how counter-cultural this new faith in Jesus was as early as the 1st century. In his 1st letter to the congregation in Corinth, verse 23, he writes: “But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block” to the world. The Greek word there is actually way stronger than “stumbling block.” It is “skandalon” – literally meaning, “We preach Christ crucified, a scandal to the world. Neither the Christian faith nor our worship is about optimism, dark clouds with silver linings. Neither the Christian faith nor our worship is about wishful thinking. Neither the Christian faith nor our worship is a religious version of The Glad Game. The Christian faith is about the earth being the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and those who live in it, and Jesus is that Lord. It is good news, in fact, our and most other cultures around the world are in desperate need of hearing; it is announcing that God’s “kingdom,” the reign of God, which knows no national boundaries, has come near, and continues to break into the world – through us. Let it be so. Amen. Rev. Joan Gunderman, Senior Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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