St. John’s United Church of Christ
August 24, 2008
A Sermon by the Rev. John Krueger
A Community of Non-Conformists Romans 12:1-8
Forty Percent. Traditionally in this country, that is the average of people in a given community who take the Church of Jesus Christ seriously enough to become involved. 40%. Not a majority of us, but a sizable minority.
That changed in the late 1940’s and 1950’s when that percentage moved up to almost 60%, a new national high water mark. Since 1963, the year I graduated from seminary and began in ministry, that high percentage has gradually decreased until now it has settled at the “normal” of about 40%. This means that every year I have been in the Christian ministry the percentage of people in this country who take the Church of Jesus Christ seriously has declined. I don’t think I am personally to blame, or my classmates, so there must be some other factors at work here.
In most congregations like this one, the numerical high water mark was probably around 1964 and most have been slipping ever since. Most surveys have found that the great majority of Americans say they believe in God, but only a minority go to church. We may say we are a Christian nation, as many do, but most Americans will not be attending worship today.
It is helpful to make a distinction between practitioners of the Christian faith, conscientious followers/disciples of Jesus Christ, and the Civil Religion that passes as religion. Civil Religion is the veneer of religious symbols and jargon and practices that is so interwoven with the rhythms of our national life that one scarcely knows where one ends and the other begins. For example, there are people who strongly advocate for prayer in our schools but who never pray themselves, never attend any church. There are people who want the Ten Commandments posted in class rooms and public buildings but they could not recite those commandments, nor do they understand how these commandments of the Old Testament relate to the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.
There are people who are suspicious of higher education, who think Charles Darwin is a threat to the Christian faith and who see the theory of evolution as undermining religious truth, but they happily accommodate most of our latest inventions and enjoy eating an ear of corn that is only slightly related to the corn we ate 60 years ago.
There are people who see some atheistic threat to the stability of this country if someone questions the inclusion of the inscription “In God We Trust” on our coins or license plates, or the phrase “Under God” in the pledge of allegiance, yet they conveniently ignore the teachings of Jesus regarding the demonic nature of wealth, the warning about divided allegiances and loyalties or the reminder of the supremacy of God in all things.
I am convinced that those who seek to follow Jesus Christ will always be a distinctive minority. Following Jesus may offer the gift of eternal life, but it is a rigorous way to organize your life in the meantime.
The Apostle Paul introduces us to this stark reality as he begins the second section of his letter to the Romans. In the first 11 chapters he gives us the clearest understanding of his theology, what he believes about God’s mighty acts in Jesus Christ. What a person believes ought to have a direct relationship to how one lives one’s life, so in the next chapters Paul gives us his ethics, how he plans to live his life based on his theology.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
The pressure to conform to this world is immense, pervasive and constant. We value teamwork, everyone pulling together in the same direction, being a willing member of the group to achieve the objectives of the group. That’s what makes the grit to be a non-conformist such a rare trait.
This is not being a non-conformist for the sake of being different, just to stand out and draw attention to yourself. No, it is being a non-conformist out of the deep conviction that following Jesus will necessitate such a stance.
By the act of baptism and then church membership most of us became part of the Church of Jesus Christ. I doubt if many of us thought that by doing so we would be joining a non-conformist community. Most of us assumed that being a Christian and participating in a civil community would nicely coincide. Rarely, if ever, would we need to feel conflicted between what we have come to know as the way of Jesus and the norms of our community or our nation.
However, I personally think the Christian faith and its followers were better off in England before King Henry VIII made himself the head of The Church of England, melding church and state together. I think the Christian faith was better off in Russia before it became the official religious expression of the country under the Tsars.
I think Christianity was better off in East Germany following World War II and the division of Germany, where it had to struggle to survive without any sort of governmental sanction or subsidy, than in West Germany where it was undergirded by governmental taxation and public support.
I think we here in this country are better off when political leaders do not try to co-opt religious support and when religious leaders are wary of political agendas. In other words, I think we are better off, we church people, when we see ourselves as part of a Non-Conformist Community, even a minority community, perhaps 40% or so, than being too cozy with either political party and its partisan agenda. We should be careful to not be too eager to quickly defend what we know as our American way of life.
As an example, I believe one of our most pressing, defining issues as faith people is how to respond to the rampant materialism and consumerism that I think is infecting our society. Jesus said as much about the seductive nature of wealth and money as he did about any other subject, save prayer. But we have found multiple ways of ignoring his teachings, smoothing off the rough edges, taming the intent of his teachings and diverting our attention to things that seem less troubling or that talk about the failings of others.
In the classic short book by C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, there are delightful conversations between the devil person, Uncle Screwtape, and his young nephew, Wormwood The theme of those letters is to find ways to divert the attention of the God people from being God people to some other things that would occupy their time and interest. Be clever, be subtle, but always try to dilute the ardor of Christians from true faith and practice to something less.
Well, while Jesus talked about the seductive nature of wealth, how things can easily become gods and distractions, not many preachers today are preaching controversial sermons that would call into question the materialism and consumerism that is all around us. Instead, we divert our attention from subjects that affect us to subjects that deal with someone else, or at least do not put us in the cross-hairs of scrutiny.
The gap between the wealthiest among us and the poorest grows wider every year. The laws and rules are most often made by those who have benefited the most by the wealth of our nation, and so the disparity increases.
We are constantly urged to want more and to have more. Conspicuous consumption is evident in our homes, vehicles and toys. The end result has been a housing market that is out of kilter, our choice of vehicles has become skewed, the incidents of fraud and manipulation are more common, and the appetite for more is never quite quenched.
But the Prosperity Gospel some preach today is so much more appealing than the teachings of Jesus. We divert our attention from our fascination with things, our place on the economic ladder, to other issues like prayer at civic meetings, issues of human sexuality, and a politician’s worship attendance.
Do not be conformed, but be transformed, by the renewing of your minds. Jesus calls us, as his disciples, to be a Non-Conformist Community, distinctively Christian and unapologetically Christian. We are challenged to be a faithful minority voice in the best tradition of Christians all through time.
That may not have been what we signed up for back then, when we first called ourselves Christians, but that is where he journey has taken us. And it is the best journey we could ever want, followers of Jesus.