What are you standing for?
Communicating God's Love
Object:
Here's a definition I found a few days ago: "Courage means taking a stand that can get
you into trouble."
Like all definitions, this one has limitations. In the first place, let's admit that our courage is not the only thing that gets us into trouble. We also get ourselves into trouble because of our egos, our greed, our ignorance, our failing to think things through, our carelessness, our addictions, and our various other human frailties.
However, as the definition says, taking a stand for something that can get us into trouble does take courage.
Jesus certainly got himself into plenty of trouble because of stands he took. It started at the very beginning of his public ministry, back in the synagogue at Nazareth, the day he read from the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
Hometown folks were proud and couldn't stop bragging on Jesus until he told them that God didn't just love them and people like them. God even loved Gentiles, who were also God's children. Once he took this stand, the hometown folks were filled with wrath and led him to the brow of a hill on which the city was built. They intended to throw him headlong down the hill to his death, but Jesus courageously passed through the midst of them and went away.
During the forty days when Jesus was in the wilderness seeking God's guidance, the devil tempted Jesus to satisfy his own appetites and the crowds' appetites -- to use sensationalism to win support -- to go along so he could get along. Jesus never weakened in his stand against the devil.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus stood up to people in power on behalf of people who could not stand up for themselves and were being exploited -- such people as the poor, physically disabled, and social outcasts.
For three years, the most powerful religious leaders and the most powerful political leaders of the day picked away at everything Jesus said and did. They accused him of being a wine bibber, hanging out with outcasts like tax collectors and prostitutes and other sinners. Despite all they could do to stop him, Jesus kept making courageous stands that assured people who were down and out that God loved them.
Finally, his critics succeeded in getting Jesus convicted on trumped up charges and crucified. But, even when he stood before Pilate, even when he hung from the cross, Jesus continued to take a stand, declaring to all that God loved them.
Philip Yancey, in his book titled The Jesus I Never Knew, says he grew up thinking of Jesus as a man who was kind and reassuring, someone a lot like one of his heroes on television: Mister Rogers. Yancey says when he became an adult he began to wonder: "How could telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo?" He concluded that Jesus was not a wimp.
Yancey was right. Jesus was courageous, as well as compassionate. In fact, it seems to me that Jesus could not have been so compassionate if he had not been so courageous. It takes courage to care enough to die for others.
Before his ascension, Jesus called his disciples to be his witnesses. They took their calling seriously. Their stands got them in trouble, too.
When we study the history of the Christian church, we read with pride about martyrs who were fed to lions, set on fire, and killed in other barbaric ways. We read about Martin Luther in the 1500s taking a stand against corruption within the church and about John and Charles Wesley in the 1800s taking stands against the exploitation of children, mine workers, prisoners, the poor, and other social outcasts.
Many of us vividly remember the 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr. was taking his stand for the civil rights of African Americans, a stand that kept him in trouble and finally killed him. Dr. King's dream has yet to be fulfilled, but his stand already has torn down some barriers that were holding millions of vulnerable people captive.
These and other heroes of our Christian church, along with thousands of heroes never written up in history books, took stands that got them into plenty of trouble. Because they took those stands, the world is a much better place for us than it would have been if they had shied away from taking stands.
Approximately half-a-century ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick preached a sermon titled, "What Are You Standing For?"
Fosdick said: "We all have it in our power to stand for something, and the way we use it determines, as hardly anything else does, our personal quality."
He didn't tell other people what to stand for, but he encouraged them to identify with high principles and worthy causes greater than themselves.
"For myself," he declared, "I shall try to stand for Jesus Christ as the interpreter of spiritual life. In this world with its cynicism, its disillusionment, often its disheartenment, how men and women are needed to stand for him with the intellectual, personal and social implications of his gospel!"
The question Dr. Fosdick asked his generation is a question you and I need to ask us today. What are we standing for?
When was the last time my congregation stood up for an unpopular cause or a vulnerable person? Isn't it about time our church did something courageous again? When was the last time I stood up for an unpopular cause or a vulnerable person? Isn't it about time I did something courageous again?
As pastors and other church leaders, we often experience complex and controversial situations. Sometimes, our congregations and our communities look to us, asking for guidance.
Some of us find clever ways to avoid taking a stand. We fear that if we take a stand we will offend some big givers and they will get mad and leave the church, taking their money with them. So we dodge questions, delegate decisions to colleagues, defer action to committees. We waffle and wiggle.
Later, when people complain because the church hasn't provided leadership, we blame somebody or something else. One of our common excuses is, "We didn't have the money to take a stand." The truth is: We weren't just short on cash, we were short on courage!
In many situations, the only way we can communicate God's love is by taking a courageous stand. Even if taking that stand gets us in trouble. Let us stand for something beyond ourselves. Let us be witnesses for Jesus Christ, not just with pretty and pious words but also with hard and hazardous work.
Dr. Boyce A. Bowdon, a United Methodist minister and writer, is author of several books, including "A Child Friendly Church."
Like all definitions, this one has limitations. In the first place, let's admit that our courage is not the only thing that gets us into trouble. We also get ourselves into trouble because of our egos, our greed, our ignorance, our failing to think things through, our carelessness, our addictions, and our various other human frailties.
However, as the definition says, taking a stand for something that can get us into trouble does take courage.
Jesus certainly got himself into plenty of trouble because of stands he took. It started at the very beginning of his public ministry, back in the synagogue at Nazareth, the day he read from the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
Hometown folks were proud and couldn't stop bragging on Jesus until he told them that God didn't just love them and people like them. God even loved Gentiles, who were also God's children. Once he took this stand, the hometown folks were filled with wrath and led him to the brow of a hill on which the city was built. They intended to throw him headlong down the hill to his death, but Jesus courageously passed through the midst of them and went away.
During the forty days when Jesus was in the wilderness seeking God's guidance, the devil tempted Jesus to satisfy his own appetites and the crowds' appetites -- to use sensationalism to win support -- to go along so he could get along. Jesus never weakened in his stand against the devil.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus stood up to people in power on behalf of people who could not stand up for themselves and were being exploited -- such people as the poor, physically disabled, and social outcasts.
For three years, the most powerful religious leaders and the most powerful political leaders of the day picked away at everything Jesus said and did. They accused him of being a wine bibber, hanging out with outcasts like tax collectors and prostitutes and other sinners. Despite all they could do to stop him, Jesus kept making courageous stands that assured people who were down and out that God loved them.
Finally, his critics succeeded in getting Jesus convicted on trumped up charges and crucified. But, even when he stood before Pilate, even when he hung from the cross, Jesus continued to take a stand, declaring to all that God loved them.
Philip Yancey, in his book titled The Jesus I Never Knew, says he grew up thinking of Jesus as a man who was kind and reassuring, someone a lot like one of his heroes on television: Mister Rogers. Yancey says when he became an adult he began to wonder: "How could telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo?" He concluded that Jesus was not a wimp.
Yancey was right. Jesus was courageous, as well as compassionate. In fact, it seems to me that Jesus could not have been so compassionate if he had not been so courageous. It takes courage to care enough to die for others.
Before his ascension, Jesus called his disciples to be his witnesses. They took their calling seriously. Their stands got them in trouble, too.
When we study the history of the Christian church, we read with pride about martyrs who were fed to lions, set on fire, and killed in other barbaric ways. We read about Martin Luther in the 1500s taking a stand against corruption within the church and about John and Charles Wesley in the 1800s taking stands against the exploitation of children, mine workers, prisoners, the poor, and other social outcasts.
Many of us vividly remember the 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr. was taking his stand for the civil rights of African Americans, a stand that kept him in trouble and finally killed him. Dr. King's dream has yet to be fulfilled, but his stand already has torn down some barriers that were holding millions of vulnerable people captive.
These and other heroes of our Christian church, along with thousands of heroes never written up in history books, took stands that got them into plenty of trouble. Because they took those stands, the world is a much better place for us than it would have been if they had shied away from taking stands.
Approximately half-a-century ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick preached a sermon titled, "What Are You Standing For?"
Fosdick said: "We all have it in our power to stand for something, and the way we use it determines, as hardly anything else does, our personal quality."
He didn't tell other people what to stand for, but he encouraged them to identify with high principles and worthy causes greater than themselves.
"For myself," he declared, "I shall try to stand for Jesus Christ as the interpreter of spiritual life. In this world with its cynicism, its disillusionment, often its disheartenment, how men and women are needed to stand for him with the intellectual, personal and social implications of his gospel!"
The question Dr. Fosdick asked his generation is a question you and I need to ask us today. What are we standing for?
When was the last time my congregation stood up for an unpopular cause or a vulnerable person? Isn't it about time our church did something courageous again? When was the last time I stood up for an unpopular cause or a vulnerable person? Isn't it about time I did something courageous again?
As pastors and other church leaders, we often experience complex and controversial situations. Sometimes, our congregations and our communities look to us, asking for guidance.
Some of us find clever ways to avoid taking a stand. We fear that if we take a stand we will offend some big givers and they will get mad and leave the church, taking their money with them. So we dodge questions, delegate decisions to colleagues, defer action to committees. We waffle and wiggle.
Later, when people complain because the church hasn't provided leadership, we blame somebody or something else. One of our common excuses is, "We didn't have the money to take a stand." The truth is: We weren't just short on cash, we were short on courage!
In many situations, the only way we can communicate God's love is by taking a courageous stand. Even if taking that stand gets us in trouble. Let us stand for something beyond ourselves. Let us be witnesses for Jesus Christ, not just with pretty and pious words but also with hard and hazardous work.
Dr. Boyce A. Bowdon, a United Methodist minister and writer, is author of several books, including "A Child Friendly Church."
