THE CHURCH
BEFORE THE WORLD
John 18: 33 –
38; Revelation 1: 4 – 8
By: Rev. Brian
Gee
It is the middle of the night.
Jesus stands before Pilate.
Pilate is cynical.
Pilate is impatient; he has a lot on his mind.
Pilate has many other crucial concerns.
What are these fanatical Jews doing, twisting their religion out of shape?
Who is this pitiable person they have put before him?
They say he is some kind of trouble maker.
Pilate doesn’t see a very troublesome person.
Yet they told him he called himself the King of the Jews.
“Oh…. Are you the King of the Jews?”
“What have you done?”
Jesus talks about a kingdom not of this world.
“Oh….So, you are a king?”
Jesus talks again about testifying to the truth.
Pilate is cynical.
Impatiently, he asks with a sneer, “What is truth?”
It is the middle of the night.
Night is coming on.
The
The world is afraid that night is coming on.
The world is cynical. It has a lot on its mind.
The world has many crucial concerns.
Global warming. Flu pandemic. Global Terrorism.
What are these Christians talking about, twisting their faith out of shape?
The Rapture. Armageddon. End Times. Left Behind. The DaVinci Code.
What is this other collection of pitiable looking Christians before the world?
“You are still talking about a kingdom not of this world?”
“You say you follow the King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of Peace?”
“You deluded people are still talking about truth.”
“What is truth?”
“Better read the book entitled ‘The God Delusion.’ ”
“Maybe there is more truth in that book than in your Bible.”
The world is afraid and cynical.
It fears that a night of cosmic proportions is coming on.
Where does
this leave us this morning here at
Let’s get back up again. Listen to this supreme nugget of insight that I came across many years ago. It is almost worthy of being included in scripture itself. Listen to it, and look at the church in the long stretch.
“The Church is an anvil that has worn out
many hammers.”
It helps us to stand tall again, ready to keep going. I repeat:
“The Church is an anvil that has worn out
many hammers.”
And if we are being hammered again—and we are—somehow we will make it, but very likely at a cost. The cost is called “crucifixion.” Christ the King knew all about crucifixion. And he also knows about “resurrection.”
There may well be hard times ahead for the church. There may well be crucifixion of sorts. The church is at its best when its times are tough. All our foolishness is stripped away. We remember who we are, and like Jesus before Pilate, we are here to testify to the truth of God in this cynical world—not to dismiss the world, but to save it—the same world God loved so much that God sent his Son into it. That is the resurrection that follows the crucifixion.
Remember also
that behind all we are as the
“I am Alpha and Omega,” says the Lord God,
who is and who was, and who is to come—
the Almighty.
We are always wrapped around in the swaddling clothes
of God’s love and grace and peace—unending.
There is no “God Delusion” about that!
This is the truth to which we testify.
Stand tall! The Church of Christ the King stands before the world,
a world full of fear and violence, judgment and cynicism.
God is with us—Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.
Long before Jesus stood before Pilate, he had sorted out who he was and what he would do. Therefore Pilate didn’t scare him or intimidate him. Jesus kept his cool and maintained his integrity in the face of earthly power, even with the sure prospect of his own death in a matter of hours. Jesus was not unnerved. He was firmly connected—heart and soul—with God, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Long before that night, Jesus had it all figured out who he was and what he would do.
The same cannot often be said for Jesus’ church as it stands before the world. When the arguments mount up against us that we are pitiable examples of humanity, that we are a deluded bunch, that we are brainwashed into our beliefs, that put together we are a dangerous and even evil lot—all of which Richard Dawkins says about us in his book, “The God Delusion,”—we are mightily unnerved. We don’t keep our cool.
One of the things I have noted about Richard Dawkins, from what little I have read about him, is that he is as uncompromising, dogmatic, and self-assured as any Christian fundamentalist he despises. There is nothing gentle or sympathetic about him. He is an “atheistic fundamentalist.” And along with other cultured despisers of the Church of Christ the King, we let him trouble us. We let the whole lot of them unnerve us.
Rather than maintain our integrity as we stand before the world, we run off this way and that way, trying to make ourselves acceptable in this world. Jesus never set out to make himself acceptable. He wasn’t abrasive like John the Baptist, but he stood his ground. His people skills were good. He had a vision and a mission, and he never let the world around him bend that mission and vision into its shape.
Jesus sorted
out all this soon after his baptism, in his three temptations, ever before he
came into
Three times he was faced with some very attractive and quite workable suggestions about what to do and how to do it. Three times Satan said, “Jesus, I have some great suggestions, so let’s make a deal.” Three times Jesus said to Satan, “I want to talk to you about God.”
Jesus lived in a time of great misery. Look at the parade of sick, demented and marginalized people that populate the gospels. The rich were very rich and the poor were very poor, and it’s mainly the poor we see on the gospel pages. As well, everyone lived under the heel of Roman military power. That was the background to the gospel accounts. Poverty and militarism: how often they go together.
“Bread” meant life. That’s what Satan genuinely believed. So he said to Jesus, “Jesus, turn the stones into bread. Jesus, give the people some relief. Jesus, you’ll have a following if your raise the standards of living for the people. Jesus, these are very real justice issues in our society. And isn’t your church supposed to be involved in justice issues?”
“Good idea,”
Jesus replied. “You are right up to a point. But once you’ve given people a
lift, you still haven’t dealt with the real reason why we are here. A better
standard of living? Yes. Close the gap between rich and poor? Yes. Get tough on
crime? Yes. And good
By the way, I’d like to go on record for saying that Satan was a good guy! Don’t you think so? We’ve been schooled to see him in the worst possible way. Red. Forked tail. Sinister. Masculine. Cunning. Horns on his head. Real bad guy. But his suggestions are good. Look at them. Satan was on Jesus’ side alright. He wanted Jesus to succeed. He had some good ideas. Satan was a good guy. Did you ever think of Satan that way before?
Satan didn’t give up when Jesus wouldn’t turn stones into bread.
“Jesus, see that high hill over there? You get a great view from there. Come with me. I want to show you something.”
So over they go, Jesus and his new cheerleader—Satan himself.
“Jesus, isn’t this just grand? See all these nations before us? I know them so well. I know the people. I know their wants, their beliefs, their potential. I have the ear of the Prime Minister in that country over there, and the President of that country down there listens to me. I sit at several cabinet tables. I worship with any number of Bishops and Moderators. I know their thinking, their fears and their hopes. Jesus, you gotta agree that I am well connected. Just put your faith in me, and I’ll get you anything you want. I guarantee it. Remember, you’ve got to get religion into politics. You’ve got to get control of the public agenda. You’ve got to get some good Christian people elected to office. That’s the sort of thing I can do for you.”
Jesus looked aghast at Satan. He could see that Satan meant everything he said. And then he said, “Satan, that would mean that I would be worshipping you and all you stand for. Not on your life, or mine for that matter. You’re leaving God’s perspective out of this. It may be convenient for you to do that, but I’m not going to. It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ So that cuts you out of the picture.”
Satan didn’t have a come back to that one right away as they trudged down the hill—Satan muttering to himself all the way, “He’s always quoting the Bible! He always quoting the Bible! Well, I can do that too. Just you wait for the next time, Jesus!”
So Satan tries another tack. “Jesus, let’s go over to the temple. After all, your mission is a religious one, and the temple is a good place to launch it. And while you’re there, you’ve got to show the people that you’re with it. Why don’t you begin by jumping off the top of the highest pinnacle? That will get their attention. You’ll be safe. God will look after you. It says so right in the Bible. You’ll be so relevant that people will say, ‘Now there’s someone I can believe in!’ Jesus, you’ve gotta get in sinc with the people to get a hearing. You gotta test the waters. You gotta see which way the winds are blowing. Know what I mean?”
Jesus turned around to Satan and said, “What’s all this relevancy business? Do you think I’m here with just a bag of tricks? Do you think God is not in my mission? Am I supposed to make my mission easy and comfortable, and not hide the true cost from the people? Relevancy! Tricks! No cost faith! Satan, it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test!’”
Satan knew it was time to quit—right then and there.
Satan left … for the time being.
Jesus had shown Satan, and the rest of us, that none of these suggestions take seriously how God looks at what is going on in this world. All of them merely tip the hat to God. All of them—social activism and better living standards, religion lusting for power in public places, and the yearning to be relevant and with it—all of them are carrying on according to the measurements and values of this world, begging and hoping all the time for God’s approval.
Jesus knew that it was all too cheap for a God who loves us.
That is why, when Jesus stood before Pilate, he was not unnerved.
That is why, when we the Church of Christ the King, stand before the world God loves, we are not unnerved.
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