Sermons
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Sermons |
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Sermon preached by John Cooper at Christ Church on 14/9/03. It was on the topic of Non-conformity in the Growing Church and was given at the morning service. The day's Bible reading was from chapter twelve of the book of Romans and reading from verses 1 to 13. |
Bible
Readings: Main
Themes: In some Christian circles the expression 'being church' [1] is in vogue. This has come about as a two-fold reaction against the idea on one hand that the church is a building and on the other that it is an organisation. At the heart of the church there are two sets of relationships [2]: vertically to God and horizontally to one another. And these relationships, if the church is functioning properly, should produce spiritual growth. Christians are merely forgiven sinners [3]. By Jesus dying on the cross the punishment for our sin is paid, but it does not automatically change us into sinless people. For that we need a lot of prompting by the Holy Spirit [4] and mutual support from fellow Christians. But there is still more to Christianity than even that. It is not primarily about our own spiritual well-being. Christianity is not a passive religion where we spend our time measuring our spiritual temperatures. God wants not mere followers but disciples [5] who forge out into a decaying world. Thus the church should be like a garage where we fill up on the Holy Spirit in all His goodness, warmth and wisdom so we can go into the outside world. Of course if we change the metaphor into a meal table instead of a garage the symbolism is already powerfully present in the Communion Service, where we can be spiritually refreshed. Our mission is to change the world [6]! How often have I heard Christians criticised at work because they are so busy going to church meetings that they never mix with the rest of humanity. Going to church is not an end in itself. Worship is not just done on Sundays! So what is true worship? According to verses 1 and 2 it is offering our bodies, in other words our very selves [7]. And we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. So at the heart of true worship there is a rational process going on. Our thinking needs to be moulded along God-driven lines. Then we will know what God's will is for us. For far too long worship has been merely thought of as repetitious chorus singing but this is a very simplistic view of worship. So many Christians think that worship requires a mindless emotional state. Let us look at how this happened historically: For the ancient Greeks there was a division of truth into two types with the one above the line as being seen as the more important: Irrational Of course the ancient Greek religion was irrational. This unfortunately was carried over into the mediaeval world and became: Faith Faith is thus portrayed as separated from reason. This is wrong [8]. For example it is not irrational for us to believe that the Son of God could walk on water or rise from the dead. Then in turn we have: Emotion Emotion is thus portrayed as more important than reason and so our spirituality becomes a search for emotional highs. Finally we have: Singing
= worship For many Christians the closeness of God thus boils down to the emotive force of the music. This strikes me as more akin to Hindu trances. I am not saying singing is wrong but the emotion it creates can have nothing to do with spirituality as at the Last Night of the Proms. And so we have the reverse of what this passage is saying: reason is actually more important than spiritual emotional peaks. True worship, according to this passage, is not emptying our minds but using them to find out what God desires for us to know. Notice we are no longer to conform to the pattern of the world (see verse 2). Currently the Church in England is being driven by the wishes of society whose members do not want to be part of the Church. Instead it needs to be driven by God's will and how do we know what that is? By studying scripture [9]! A church, any church, will not be very effective in changing peoples' lives unless it takes the Bible seriously. We must have a total transformation of our view of the world. No longer must we view life in terms of the world's priorities. Now I am not saying everybody needs to go to Bible College but I am saying that we need to read the Bible as though it has something to say to us [10] and we need to listen when we hear it explained. I believe in preaching but I do not think Bible preachers and teachers are better people than other church members. It is quite conceivable that we might not be. It is just that supposedly we have the gift of teaching whereas other members have other gifts [11]. Indeed it is important to remember that those who do the more humble jobs like cleaning and making coffee or working on church lunches also contribute to church life as well as those who have "up front" roles. Verse 3 says "We must never think of ourselves more highly than we ought." We are the body of Christ; we all have a job to do and we must do it cheerfully and to the best of our ability. Paul is calling on us "not to conform any longer to the pattern of this world" (verse 2). Worldly values for the most part are self-centred and materialistic. The world judges a person by what he or she has achieved or acquired, their style of dress, the institution in which they were educated, their status in their workplace or whether or not their children are high achievers. Such standards have no place in a church community [12]. We need to remember that we are what we are through the grace of God and not by our own efforts. We need to be aware of other people's situations, not in an intrusive way, but so that we can be sure everyone is cared for, feels loved and valued, and prayed for. God has a plan for each one of us but when we are going through times of suffering or hardship we wonder if and why God has singled us out for this experience. Then, particularly, we need the support of fellow Christians. We need the resources of each other for the church to be an effective force. There is no room for arrogance no matter what the gift a Christian might have. Paul is critical of the Corinthians in his letters because they are arrogant over having a number of spectacular spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and prophecy. No, not everybody will have the same gifts but all should show the developing fruit of the Spirit in their lives [13] i.e. love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and gentleness (Galatians 5:22). An increase in these along with a reliance on scripture should be the marks of a growing church. If we can achieve all this, other things will automatically fall into place. We will be caring for others [14], we will be praying for each other and our church will grow because our prayers will come from loving, giving hearts. Our love and sincerity will be so obvious that others will gravitate to our community's love and warmth. We will be outward-looking and militant, using the resources of each other. Then, through God's grace, we will be able to change our own lives and the lives of others. We live in this world, but we are nevertheless no longer of this world. So we must renew our minds so that we can recognise and put into practice God's will for every situation we face. God has not given Christians a set of detailed commandments to guide us but more a set of principles and examples in the Bible. And He has given us His Spirit [15], who is working to change our hearts and minds from within, so that our obedience to God might be natural and spontaneous. And then, and only then, might the Christian Church be a positive force for change in this needy world. ref: 03/4
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Web page last updated 24 Oct 2006 |
