Walkie-Talkie Christianity
Walkie-Talkie Christianity
Apr 24, 2022
Matthew 7: 12 - 29
James 2: 1 - 9, 14 -20
How do you do Christianity? What do you do – just show up for worship most Sunday mornings? Oh, yes, tithe – well, maybe not 10%, but give some money to the Church each week. What else do you do? Are you really doing Christianity?
Pastor Anna, talking to the children, made it clear that simply telling children that they are your friends is not enough. You have to treat them all like friends. You must do friendship, not just talk it.
That is certainly true of marriage. If you simply tell your wife that you love her and then abuse her, you are not doing marriage at all.
If you are a natural athlete but don’t bother to condition yourself or practice, you won’t end up being much of an athlete. You have to do athletics.
If you call yourself a student, but don’t really study; you are no student at all.
For many years my sermons have emphasized doing what the scripture lesson addresses rather than “believing” what it says. Said another way, I don’t ask the congregation to believe the word; it is from the Bible which is already a basis for belief. I urge us to do what the scripture lesson presents.
As I have been studying the biblical texts more carefully and listening to what some of the more progressive scholars are writing, I am becoming even more convinced that the Historical Jesus was talking about the way we live and treat each other. Jesus was a teacher and prophet of the Christian way of life; the Gospel of Mark references the early Christian movement as “The Way.”
When asked which was the most important commandment in all the scriptures of that time, Jesus said, love God and love your neighbor. Jesus did not say go to the Temple or synagogue regularly. He didn’t say that formal worship was bad; it just wasn’t most important. He didn’t say give your tithes; it just wasn’t most important. He didn’t say believe the right creedal statement; it wasn’t most important. The very most important commandment is to love God. And the second “is like unto it,” as the older translations put it, which means that it is equally important: love your neighbor.
That “love your neighbor” is easy to understand – especially after Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan: the neighbor is anyone in need of love. A hated Samaritan was the one Jesus identified as loving his Jewish brother at a time of need. So, whoever needs our love or assistance is our neighbor; that might be the Ukrainian people or the North Korean people. It might be a Democrat or a Republican; it might be a Protestant or a Catholic, a Muslim or a Jew. It might be someone on your part of town or someone on the other side of town. That’s what Jesus taught us. And, generally, we know how to love our friends and family; that is how we are to love our neighbors.
Loving God is harder to understand. We cannot treat God in any way that we normally call loving. We can’t say how beautiful or handsome the Sacred is. We can’t give the Sacred personal presents or flowers or an engagement ring. But the Story of the Last Judgment in the last section of Matthew 25 gives us a hint about loving God. In verse 40 the “King” says, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these . . . you did it to me.” And, if that isn’t clear enough, in verse 45 the King says, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
That is enough thinking about the concept of doing Christianity. Let’s get to some specifics from the lessons that Nancy and Alexandra read a few minutes ago.
First, in verse 12 of the Matthew lesson, we get a very general instruction: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” Matthew adds that this is the Law and the Prophets – a summary of the Hebrew Bible at the time. That is pretty easy to understand, except that it makes my treatment of other people subject to my own personal likes and dislikes – if I happen to delight in limburger cheese and super-hot horse radish, I probably still shouldn’t give it to other people simply because that is what I would have them give to me.
Verses 15 – 20 urge us to beware of false prophets. “You will know them by their fruits.” Or “You’ll know who they are by what they produce” (Scholars Version). So, listen to me only if my life (generally) reflects Jesus’ teachings. And such is the test for everyone else speaking or writing about Jesus and the Church.
Verses 21 – 23 really make this passage clear. Matthew writes that Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven, which is what Jesus is teaching – isn’t it? It goes on, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name? Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, go away from me, you evildoers.’ Evildoers, those who do not do the will of God; isn’t that what Matthew writes?
Verses 24 – 27 puts this in the positive form. Matthew writes that Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man (or woman) who build his (or her) house on rock.” You know the rest of that paragraph: the house on the rock stands during the storms; the house built on sand falls, and great is its fall.
That is pretty clear. Build your life on Jesus’ teachings and stand – or ignore Jesus’ teachings and fall, greatly.
Matthew adds one more comment: Jesus taught as one having authority. We need to listen to him.
The usual way that church folks summarize their talk about these teachings is to say that we need to talk the talk and to walk to walk. As I reflect on this lesson, I think that those phrases should be reversed. We need first to walk the walk before we try to talk the talk. Then we will bear good fruit, building our lives and ministries – professional, personal, and/or congregational – on solid rock.
Let’s look quickly at the reading from the book or letter or sermon attributed to James. In the first paragraph he warns us not to make distinctions among people, but to treat everyone equally. So, our City Council members who are here (Bregetta Fields, (Nathan Field), and James Spadola) get treated just like Carol and Leroy who have been here all or most of their lives. Our Superintendent, the former pastors, and the present Pastor get treated just like Frank, Dave, Neil, Sherron, and Nancy. Mrs. Bessie Speers, head of the Tower Hill School, is treated just like Angel. If God is our Father, then we are all brothers and sisters together with no distinctions. As James puts it, 9“If you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”
James is pretty clear. Any questions?
James makes it even clearer in the next paragraph. 14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them “Go in peace: keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Do you have any doubts about what these passages are saying? If you do, I don’t think that you are using either your ears or eyes. Talking the talk is secondary to walking the walk. Indeed, we all know that if we don’t walk the walk that we talk, no one will listen very long to our talk -- we are just clanging cymbals. And that is why our critics call us hypocrites.
Let me try to phrase this so it is easy to remember. We all remember those little walkie-talkie radios we used have. Well that is my lesson. We Christians – all of us – need to walk the walk of Christianity before –and during – our talking Christianity. We need to be walkie then talkie Christians, letting our walks overshadow our talks.
As we rebuild this congregation, we need to be walkie-talkie members, friends, and pastor. We need first to love our neighbors – all our neighbors without distinction – and especially, as Matthew puts it, the least of these many neighbors -- in order to love God.
So, let’s learn to be walkie-talkie Christians. Then we will not be hypocrites as critics claim. Then we can be free to minister to our neighbors and to become catalysts in creating God’s dream for our human community right here in the Highlands.
Let’s not be all talk but let us walk our faith. Let us do Christianity. Let us be walkie-talkie Christians.
Amen.
Sermons\Mt7_12-29.4d22