Dare To Be Different
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Readings
Series II, Cycle A
Object:
A true story tells how the two sons of a ninety-year-old Fort Worth, Texas, woman were worried about her safety. "We are going to get you a pistol, mother, so you can take care of yourself. There is too much violence out there." So they bought their mother a gun, which she dutifully packed in her purse. One day, when she left Ridgmar Shopping Center to get into her car she found two young men sitting in the front seat. She took out the pistol, pointed it at them, and said: "Get out of that car or I'll shoot." They jumped out and ran off. She got into the car, put the key in the ignition, and it did not fit. Then she realized it was not her car. She said she would have apologized to the two young men, but she could not find them.
The one thing that makes that story tell-able is the fortunate circumstance that no one got blown away; what a tragedy it could have been! And what a powerful illustration of how we all go into situations armed with presuppositions and stereotypes that may blind us to things that should be obvious. It was obvious to that ninety-year-old that two young men must be up to no good, but that assumption turned out to be wrong.
It was obvious to many of the first Christians, as it is still obvious to many Christians today, that differences within the Christian community -- different beliefs, different lifestyles, different worship, and devotional practices -- were bad. What was needed, they were saying, was unity and uniformity. The apostle Paul responded, "Well ... yes and no." In Romans 13 and 14, Paul was sounding a clarion call for these early Christians to "Dare to be different" based on a central teaching of Jesus: "Love your neighbor."
In Paul's day as in ours, many people were "good" -- morally upright -- because they didn't want to get caught being bad. It was often said that people conformed to decent behavior during the light of day but anxiously awaited nightfall when it was party time! "Reveling and drunkenness ... debauchery and licentiousness ..." to use Paul's words.
This whole lifestyle of hedonism, Paul argued in Romans 13, was based on one single factor: selfishness. Individuals lived for themselves and their own pleasure. Other people were used, abused, or exploited for pleasure. It cannot be that way for believers in Jesus Christ; you cannot love others and exploit them at the same time; you must dare to be different! So Paul came up with a new image that was precisely the opposite of the day and night illustration. "Let us then lay aside the works of darkness," he wrote in Romans 13:12, "and put on the armor of light." Totally unlike those who could hardly wait for the cover of darkness, Christians would live as children of light even in the darkest times: They would dare to be different.
We admire people who walk as children of the light. We admire those righteous Gentiles who sacrificed so much -- often life itself -- to help their Jewish neighbors during the Nazi holocaust; or those whites in South Africa who for thirty years resisted apartheid; or people in our own country who speak on behalf of the disenfranchised even when it means alienation from their peers or ostracism from those in positions of power and influence; or those students who pass up a big night of partying so they can arise early to work with Habitat for Humanity or at a soup kitchen or shelter. They dare to be different. Unlike those who wait for nightfall when they can live a life ruled by selfishness, these people of faith have lived consistent, upright lives fit for the light. They display the primary Christian virtue: selflessness, love for neighbor.
As you look at today's lesson, it is striking that Paul is speaking, as he so often did, corporately. Because he mentions sinful behaviors that we tend to think of as individual or "victimless" sins, things like reveling, drunkenness, and sexual immorality, we imagine him addressing individuals -- other individuals at that. But that is not so. Look at the reading again, bearing in mind that the "you" found in verse 11 and implied in verse 14 is the plural you, like the southern "y'all":
Besides this, y'all know what time it is, how it is now the moment for y'all to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near [for us]. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and [let us] put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, [y'all] put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.Besides this, y’all know what time it is, how it is now the moment for y’all to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near [for us]. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and [let us] put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, [y’all] put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
It is an amazing affirmation of the corporate nature of Christianity and a reminder that ultimately there is no private sin. My selfishness will inevitably impact others. Within a group selfishness can be manifested not only in exploiting and abusing others, but in excluding them by insisting that our way is the only way; that our opinion is the only valid one. The purpose of Christian community, Paul argued, is not to achieve total homogeneity, but to accommodate a wide variety of persons into the household of faith. Now the challenge to "dare to be different" is not just to be different from the surrounding pagan world, but to be different from one another in matters of belief and lifestyle, while still accepting and supporting each other as sisters and brothers in Christ. That is part of what it means to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh," with its selfish and contentious nature.
Paul continues his argument in chapter 14 with two examples that are not in the lectionary but are amazingly contemporary: one dealing with a lifestyle issue, the other with a religious practice. Both were much bigger issues than we may realize. Some people are vegetarians, he says, while others eat anything, and it doesn't make any difference as far as their Christian faith is concerned. Paul was talking about more than diet. He addressed the underlying issue in detail in 1 Corinthians 8. Many of the pagan religions of the time offered sacrificial animals to their deities as part of worship. After the ceremonies, the meat was commonly resold and served in homes. Some scholars have suggested that this practice was so widespread that most meat had thus been previously sacrificed. This presented a dilemma for some Christians and Jews who felt that serving meat that had previously been offered to an idol might be interpreted as an endorsement of those pagan religions by non-believers or recent converts. What to do?
In both 1 Corinthians and Romans 14 Paul said that it was a difficult judgment call. Some asserted they were being strong in their faith by not eating meat, and thus not even presenting the opportunity for confusion. Others contended that they were being strong in their faith by eating meat since that proved they knew the idols were just hunks of wood or stone. Paul concluded that in some contexts either could be correct. "Should a Christian serve wine at a dinner party?" the question arises today. "Of course," some say. "In fact, having a single glass of wine with my spaghetti and not over-indulging is a sign of my maturity as a person and a Christian." "No," others argue, "alcoholism is such a problem in our day that any drinking irresponsibly opens the doors to potential addiction. This is the more mature and strong position." Paul's conclusion seems relevant: "Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them." Sometimes agreeing to disagree takes the most strength of all. Y'all putting on the Lord Jesus Christ means refusing to indulge in quarrelling and jealousy, even over so important an issue. Instead, we must be different from the world in our behavior.
Similarly, in Romans 14 Paul raised the issue of some believers who observed certain days, fast days perhaps or maybe continuing to worship on the Jewish sabbath; while he would not have had them in mind, his argument could certainly apply to later generations of Christians who began to observe special days like Christmas and Easter and holy seasons like Lent or Advent, which we begin today. Again, Paul acknowledged that some found such practices useful, while for others they were a stumbling block. But the important note is: "Let all be fully convinced in their own minds." Matters of personal preference should not become cudgels with which to beat others over the heads or standards of exclusion. There are more important things at stake and, as Ann Landers used to exhort her readers, we must wake up and smell the coffee!
It is here that Paul emphasized his whole point: The real issue was not what foods were to be eaten or what special days were to be observed, but how each group of Christians viewed the other. As long as each group did what they did "for the Lord," they should be respected -- or at least tolerated -- by the other. How one group lives is not as important as why they live. Neither group can live for themselves; both must do what they do for the Lord: "If we live," Paul says, "we live to the Lord" (Romans 14:8). That is what happens when we "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 13:14). It is as simple -- and as difficult -- as that. Those who lived within the world, acting good in daytime and partying it up by cover of night, were living selfishly, only for themselves. By adopting a judgmental attitude and looking down their noses at one another, Christians were falling into the same selfish and self-centered trap.
In the old, war-horse musical, Annie Get Your Gun, Irving Berlin had sharpshooter Annie Oakley engaged in a battle of one-upmanship with Buffalo Bill Cody. "Anything you can do," they sing louder and louder, "I can do better; I can do anything better than you!" The upbeat spirit in that song can easily degenerate into a self-centered worldview in which we assume that we really can do anything and because we can, everybody should agree with us. A friend of mine receives fundraising letters from two different ministries serving the same small midwestern campus and periodically contributes to both. He once mentioned that he thought it was sad that each newsletter is so narrow in its focus that you would never guess there were any Christians outside that group or programs other than theirs. He's right; it is sad; but sadly typical.
For over five centuries, Protestants have often found it easier to create new congregations and new denominations than to tolerate genuine diversity. Unable to agree to disagree, we have sometimes even made a virtue out of our divisions. "Anything you can do." The list of disruptive topics runs the gamut from sublime to ridiculous, from whether or not women must wear hats in worship to whether one human being may own another. You know the list of issues that divide Christian groups today: abortion, gay rights, economic vitality versus environmental issues, the role of women in the church (including their ordination), arguments between "creationists" and "evolutionists." These are important and divisive issues, as was eating meat previously offered to idols. How one structured one's devotional life was also very important.
Does not Paul's advice call us to work to find a place for a variety of "Christian" convictions even on these hard issues? One thing is very clear in Paul's teaching: All Christians are united by Christ's death and resurrection, and that common belief should outweigh honest differences of opinion. As Christians, we need to be united against a dark world where selfish, exploitive, and judgmental behavior rules the night. But within the body of Christ, we need the kind of diversity that can only grow from selfless love. When everybody is busy trying to be just like his or her neighbor, only a little better of course, the diversity necessary for a vital Christian community is lost. It represents the kind of passing of judgment that Paul specifically forbids. It is the antithesis of loving one another in Christ.
Bishop Woodie White, the retired United Methodist bishop, tells about the chaffinch bird, a little reddish-brown bird found in Europe. The chaffinch sings like a canary, but there is something unique about this popular songbird. When people take them into their homes, the little birds soon forget how to sing. When they forget how to sing, they get sick. Eventually, they become depressed and die. Unless, of course, they are taken back to be with other chaffinch, in which case they congregate and relearn how to sing and are well again.
Sadly, we live in a society that is characterized by polarization. We keep telling ourselves there is no middle ground; that we are right and they are wrong, whoever we and they are. It is certainly true that as Christians we need to dare to be different than those who subscribe to selfish and self-defeating behaviors. But if we are not careful, we may forget how to sing the Christian song, a song of forgiveness and humility. A song that resounds with a chorus not of, "Anything you can do, I can do better; I can do anything better than you!" but "Both in our living and in our dying, we belong to God, we belong to God." We need to see each others' strengths, accept one another's differences, and celebrate our unity in Jesus Christ. Because the need is urgent and because our time -- yours and mine -- is short, we must "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." We must dare to be different. Amen.
The one thing that makes that story tell-able is the fortunate circumstance that no one got blown away; what a tragedy it could have been! And what a powerful illustration of how we all go into situations armed with presuppositions and stereotypes that may blind us to things that should be obvious. It was obvious to that ninety-year-old that two young men must be up to no good, but that assumption turned out to be wrong.
It was obvious to many of the first Christians, as it is still obvious to many Christians today, that differences within the Christian community -- different beliefs, different lifestyles, different worship, and devotional practices -- were bad. What was needed, they were saying, was unity and uniformity. The apostle Paul responded, "Well ... yes and no." In Romans 13 and 14, Paul was sounding a clarion call for these early Christians to "Dare to be different" based on a central teaching of Jesus: "Love your neighbor."
In Paul's day as in ours, many people were "good" -- morally upright -- because they didn't want to get caught being bad. It was often said that people conformed to decent behavior during the light of day but anxiously awaited nightfall when it was party time! "Reveling and drunkenness ... debauchery and licentiousness ..." to use Paul's words.
This whole lifestyle of hedonism, Paul argued in Romans 13, was based on one single factor: selfishness. Individuals lived for themselves and their own pleasure. Other people were used, abused, or exploited for pleasure. It cannot be that way for believers in Jesus Christ; you cannot love others and exploit them at the same time; you must dare to be different! So Paul came up with a new image that was precisely the opposite of the day and night illustration. "Let us then lay aside the works of darkness," he wrote in Romans 13:12, "and put on the armor of light." Totally unlike those who could hardly wait for the cover of darkness, Christians would live as children of light even in the darkest times: They would dare to be different.
We admire people who walk as children of the light. We admire those righteous Gentiles who sacrificed so much -- often life itself -- to help their Jewish neighbors during the Nazi holocaust; or those whites in South Africa who for thirty years resisted apartheid; or people in our own country who speak on behalf of the disenfranchised even when it means alienation from their peers or ostracism from those in positions of power and influence; or those students who pass up a big night of partying so they can arise early to work with Habitat for Humanity or at a soup kitchen or shelter. They dare to be different. Unlike those who wait for nightfall when they can live a life ruled by selfishness, these people of faith have lived consistent, upright lives fit for the light. They display the primary Christian virtue: selflessness, love for neighbor.
As you look at today's lesson, it is striking that Paul is speaking, as he so often did, corporately. Because he mentions sinful behaviors that we tend to think of as individual or "victimless" sins, things like reveling, drunkenness, and sexual immorality, we imagine him addressing individuals -- other individuals at that. But that is not so. Look at the reading again, bearing in mind that the "you" found in verse 11 and implied in verse 14 is the plural you, like the southern "y'all":
Besides this, y'all know what time it is, how it is now the moment for y'all to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near [for us]. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and [let us] put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, [y'all] put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.Besides this, y’all know what time it is, how it is now the moment for y’all to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near [for us]. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and [let us] put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, [y’all] put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
It is an amazing affirmation of the corporate nature of Christianity and a reminder that ultimately there is no private sin. My selfishness will inevitably impact others. Within a group selfishness can be manifested not only in exploiting and abusing others, but in excluding them by insisting that our way is the only way; that our opinion is the only valid one. The purpose of Christian community, Paul argued, is not to achieve total homogeneity, but to accommodate a wide variety of persons into the household of faith. Now the challenge to "dare to be different" is not just to be different from the surrounding pagan world, but to be different from one another in matters of belief and lifestyle, while still accepting and supporting each other as sisters and brothers in Christ. That is part of what it means to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh," with its selfish and contentious nature.
Paul continues his argument in chapter 14 with two examples that are not in the lectionary but are amazingly contemporary: one dealing with a lifestyle issue, the other with a religious practice. Both were much bigger issues than we may realize. Some people are vegetarians, he says, while others eat anything, and it doesn't make any difference as far as their Christian faith is concerned. Paul was talking about more than diet. He addressed the underlying issue in detail in 1 Corinthians 8. Many of the pagan religions of the time offered sacrificial animals to their deities as part of worship. After the ceremonies, the meat was commonly resold and served in homes. Some scholars have suggested that this practice was so widespread that most meat had thus been previously sacrificed. This presented a dilemma for some Christians and Jews who felt that serving meat that had previously been offered to an idol might be interpreted as an endorsement of those pagan religions by non-believers or recent converts. What to do?
In both 1 Corinthians and Romans 14 Paul said that it was a difficult judgment call. Some asserted they were being strong in their faith by not eating meat, and thus not even presenting the opportunity for confusion. Others contended that they were being strong in their faith by eating meat since that proved they knew the idols were just hunks of wood or stone. Paul concluded that in some contexts either could be correct. "Should a Christian serve wine at a dinner party?" the question arises today. "Of course," some say. "In fact, having a single glass of wine with my spaghetti and not over-indulging is a sign of my maturity as a person and a Christian." "No," others argue, "alcoholism is such a problem in our day that any drinking irresponsibly opens the doors to potential addiction. This is the more mature and strong position." Paul's conclusion seems relevant: "Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them." Sometimes agreeing to disagree takes the most strength of all. Y'all putting on the Lord Jesus Christ means refusing to indulge in quarrelling and jealousy, even over so important an issue. Instead, we must be different from the world in our behavior.
Similarly, in Romans 14 Paul raised the issue of some believers who observed certain days, fast days perhaps or maybe continuing to worship on the Jewish sabbath; while he would not have had them in mind, his argument could certainly apply to later generations of Christians who began to observe special days like Christmas and Easter and holy seasons like Lent or Advent, which we begin today. Again, Paul acknowledged that some found such practices useful, while for others they were a stumbling block. But the important note is: "Let all be fully convinced in their own minds." Matters of personal preference should not become cudgels with which to beat others over the heads or standards of exclusion. There are more important things at stake and, as Ann Landers used to exhort her readers, we must wake up and smell the coffee!
It is here that Paul emphasized his whole point: The real issue was not what foods were to be eaten or what special days were to be observed, but how each group of Christians viewed the other. As long as each group did what they did "for the Lord," they should be respected -- or at least tolerated -- by the other. How one group lives is not as important as why they live. Neither group can live for themselves; both must do what they do for the Lord: "If we live," Paul says, "we live to the Lord" (Romans 14:8). That is what happens when we "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 13:14). It is as simple -- and as difficult -- as that. Those who lived within the world, acting good in daytime and partying it up by cover of night, were living selfishly, only for themselves. By adopting a judgmental attitude and looking down their noses at one another, Christians were falling into the same selfish and self-centered trap.
In the old, war-horse musical, Annie Get Your Gun, Irving Berlin had sharpshooter Annie Oakley engaged in a battle of one-upmanship with Buffalo Bill Cody. "Anything you can do," they sing louder and louder, "I can do better; I can do anything better than you!" The upbeat spirit in that song can easily degenerate into a self-centered worldview in which we assume that we really can do anything and because we can, everybody should agree with us. A friend of mine receives fundraising letters from two different ministries serving the same small midwestern campus and periodically contributes to both. He once mentioned that he thought it was sad that each newsletter is so narrow in its focus that you would never guess there were any Christians outside that group or programs other than theirs. He's right; it is sad; but sadly typical.
For over five centuries, Protestants have often found it easier to create new congregations and new denominations than to tolerate genuine diversity. Unable to agree to disagree, we have sometimes even made a virtue out of our divisions. "Anything you can do." The list of disruptive topics runs the gamut from sublime to ridiculous, from whether or not women must wear hats in worship to whether one human being may own another. You know the list of issues that divide Christian groups today: abortion, gay rights, economic vitality versus environmental issues, the role of women in the church (including their ordination), arguments between "creationists" and "evolutionists." These are important and divisive issues, as was eating meat previously offered to idols. How one structured one's devotional life was also very important.
Does not Paul's advice call us to work to find a place for a variety of "Christian" convictions even on these hard issues? One thing is very clear in Paul's teaching: All Christians are united by Christ's death and resurrection, and that common belief should outweigh honest differences of opinion. As Christians, we need to be united against a dark world where selfish, exploitive, and judgmental behavior rules the night. But within the body of Christ, we need the kind of diversity that can only grow from selfless love. When everybody is busy trying to be just like his or her neighbor, only a little better of course, the diversity necessary for a vital Christian community is lost. It represents the kind of passing of judgment that Paul specifically forbids. It is the antithesis of loving one another in Christ.
Bishop Woodie White, the retired United Methodist bishop, tells about the chaffinch bird, a little reddish-brown bird found in Europe. The chaffinch sings like a canary, but there is something unique about this popular songbird. When people take them into their homes, the little birds soon forget how to sing. When they forget how to sing, they get sick. Eventually, they become depressed and die. Unless, of course, they are taken back to be with other chaffinch, in which case they congregate and relearn how to sing and are well again.
Sadly, we live in a society that is characterized by polarization. We keep telling ourselves there is no middle ground; that we are right and they are wrong, whoever we and they are. It is certainly true that as Christians we need to dare to be different than those who subscribe to selfish and self-defeating behaviors. But if we are not careful, we may forget how to sing the Christian song, a song of forgiveness and humility. A song that resounds with a chorus not of, "Anything you can do, I can do better; I can do anything better than you!" but "Both in our living and in our dying, we belong to God, we belong to God." We need to see each others' strengths, accept one another's differences, and celebrate our unity in Jesus Christ. Because the need is urgent and because our time -- yours and mine -- is short, we must "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." We must dare to be different. Amen.
