(Delivered at Trinity School for Ministry Chapel, Ambridge, PA on April 15, 2010)
Did you know that Christianity caused the economic crisis? It's true! According to the secular journal The Atlantic. People who had bad credit and were given loans anyway rushed into church and praised God. “I had bad credit and I got a loan anyway and now I'm a homeowner!” And they encouraged others to use God's magical power of blinding loan officers to bad credit. It's all Christianity's fault.
Other recent news: An Atheist Rapist successfully had his Christian cellmate evicted from the cell. The Christian inmate made the Atheist Rapist uncomfortable. The warden was happy to oblige.
Other news: Mother Theresa is going to be on a postage stamp this August on her 100th birthday—maybe. The Freedom from Religion foundation is trying to make sure that doesn't happen.
Finally, a British publisher has just forced a young adult writer to remove Christian references from his new book before it could be published. The publisher was reluctant to publish a book with an overtly Christian hero. Here ends the depressing news.
Well, what's the first thought that came into our minds? My mind? I thought: Ouch, what did we do wrong? How can we make it up to them? Obviously some Christian screwed up somewhere.
That's why this passage in John 15 is so comforting. Jesus says, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.” The world hates Jesus first. Did Jesus bumble through his ministry, screwing up left and right? Like Jerry Lewis? No. He did everything perfectly. And yet the world still hated him.
We gotta stop beating ourselves up. I'm not saying we don't screw up, but the World is going to hate us. Actually it sounds like that's how we can tell if we're doing it right. If we're living the Christian life correctly. Does the world hate me? No? Now, what am I doing wrong?
Also, we can't strain ourselves trying to figure out why the world hates us. At the end of our passage, Jesus says the world hates without reason. Without cause. Irrationally. Well my news stories had reasons, didn't they? Political reasons: separation of church and state stuff. No, that's the excuse. The hatred is irrational.
Here's an example: my Atheist buddy. I love my Atheist buddy. Everyone should have one. He pads my sermons nicely. Atheist Buddy is really into board games. I'm into board games, too, but he is REALLY into them. He likes those big sprawling games that take ten days to play, they have a thousand figurines on the board, and you move one at a time and roll dice and spin a wheel and flip a card... Board games are his idol. He worships them. So, he's online and finds this game he really wants, and it's an expensive game, but he finds it really cheap. He is so excited. He is ready to make his purchase. Then he suddenly sees something in the seller's logo. It's a little fish. The Christian symbol. No! I really wanted this game! Awww. He cancels his order. And then he writes a lengthy, vitriolic email to the seller, telling him that he just lost a sale because he was a Christian, etc. etc. etc.
I asked him what happened next? Well, the seller sent an email back. What did it say? I don't know. I just deleted it. I didn't care. Irrational hatred. I still wonder what the seller said. You know what the email probably said? It probably said something like, “What did we do wrong? We're so sorry. Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?” We can apologize all we want. The world will still hate us without reason.
Why does God let this hatred of us go on? Today's Psalm (18) answers that: so we will call on him. So that in our distress we will cry out to the LORD. He rescues us from our powerful enemies, because our foes are too strong for us. The Lord is our strength. The Lord is our rock. Our fortress. Our deliverer. Our shield. Our salvation. Our stronghold. We need to stop apologizing and call on Jesus' name. He is worthy of our praise. And he saves us from our enemies. He knows what we are going through.
The world hated him first.
Amen.
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That's great Fred. Although it is no excuse for stupid things the church does, it doesn't mean that we have to attend to authors and lecturers who are constantly telling the church why the world hates it..."if you only did this right or acted this way instead of that way then the world would love the church." Apparently not.
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