Our "Alien" World

(The following sermon was preached at First Lutheran Church, May 23 & 24, 2009.)

Scripture Lesson: John 17:6-18

When I was on my internship I was in charge of running the confirmation program. In our confirmation program, we actually required that our students over the course of the year do a little more than show up for an hour on Wednesday evenings. We asked that they help out with a worship service a few times a year, that they hand in a couple of biblical reflections, and that they perform some sort of service to the community two times a year in order to get confirmed. Our thinking was that the faith lives of our youth is an important element to their life in general. One evening, I had a parent who came up to me and informed me that they were pulling their child out of the confirmation program. When I asked why, the response was hardly surprising.

“It’s too much work,” she stated. “My daughter has homework and diving practice… and let’s face it, those things are going to get her much farther in the world than the church ever will. That’s the reality of the world.”

I’m sad to say – this mentality was not relegated to this one mother. She is not the only parishioner in the Christian church who views their faith life as a secondary point in their daily lives, who find the hour on Sunday morning sufficient food to sustain them for the week…or in some cases the month or even for the year.

And… really, no wonder. We find ourselves in the middle of a society and a culture that measures success and social status by the careers we have, the money we earn and the things we own. Christians are just as guilty of being sucked into living their lives by these “worldly” standards as everyone else.

But Jesus knew a little something about “the world” in which we live and the way in which it seeks to conform us to its ways. When Jesus speaks of “the world” he is not talking about creation – for creation itself God has declared is ‘good.’ Instead, he is talking about those things and people that are in opposition to God – all those things that get in the way of our relationship with Him.

“The world” hates those who don’t live according to its rules – “the world” seeks to punish them and make life difficult for those who have different priorities.

Especially here in America, we’ve been sold a particular bill of goods – that our worth is measured by our bank accounts, careers, and 401k’s. We’ve been lulled into a false sense of security, a false sense of trust in not only our own abilities that go along with the American Dream, but also in the man-made institutions that we set up in an attempt to secure for ourselves what we felt was “the good life.”

In fact, this weekend we celebrate Memorial Day weekend, honoring the lives that have been lost in order to preserve the freedoms we enjoy in this country – in particular, the freedom to practice our faith openly. Of late, the question I have found myself asking is how have we spent that freedom? By living that freedom out to its fullest extent and taking advantage of our ability to be FREE builders in God’s Kingdom, of creating community that holds all things common and makes God known to those we encounter? Or have we instead used that freedom to build up our individuality, our own personal goals and ambitions and focused on what best serves my needs rather than my neighbors?

The reality of that false world, of those messed up priorities, of that misspent freedom, have come crashing down around us. For a while, it seemed I couldn’t turn the television or radio on without hearing how someone had killed themselves due to the economic crises, that yet another business mogul had swindled the American people out of billions of dollars and killed themselves when their deceit was discovered. People who lost their jobs were going on shooting sprees, killing their families and then themselves because they had been so enmeshed in the lie that “the world” had perpetuated that they saw no hope. They saw no future beyond their bank accounts, they saw no future beyond the homes they had lost. This, unfortunately, is what “the world” apparently has to offer us. This is what we’ve done with our freedom.

Jesus has a different vision for his followers, however. In fact, Jesus goes so far as to claim that for the Christian – this world, the world of material gain and success, is an alien world. It is a world that has been deceived, and it is not a world that the faithful belong to. Because we have been “born anew” – born not only of water, but of spirit as well. A spirit that connects us and points us to relationship with God and Christ – that we might “abide” or “remain” in Christ, and not in the world.

But as alien as this world is to the Christian life, we are still called to live in the midst of “the world.” It’s a tricky business being a Christian in “the world.” Because if we actually start living our faith lives in such a way that our faith comes first, we begin to see the state of the world and its messed up priorities, and how in opposition to God’s glorious image of what the future should entail our world actually is. So we tend to desire nothing more than to be rescued from it, to be pulled out of it. And in fact, many Christian denominations have come up with theologies that propose exactly that – that Christians at some point will be whisked away from the trials and tribulations of this world, that our faith will remove us from the ugliness that we see before us. You’ve probably heard this term before – of “the rapture” of Christians, where we’ll be removed from this alien world of pain, suffering, deceit and fear and will leave behind the inhabitants of the world to fend for themselves, without the Christian witness and testimony.

But Jesus says no – in fact, to quote Jesus, he states, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world.” Gee… thanks a lot Jesus. Leave us here to deal with the mess and the challenges of the world. And just when we thought we’d devised a pretty good escape plan.

But he’s left us here in this world for a specific purpose – it’s not to amass wealth or worldly riches. We remain in “the world,” we continue to live our lives in “the world” so that we might be witnesses to others who are currently in “the world.” To those who are blinded by all the temptations the world has to offer. “As you have sent me into the world, now I send them into the world.”

Christ was sent into this world for a specific purpose – to make God known and to deliver a promise. Jesus refers to that promise as “eternal life.” Now, we probably all have a lot of different ideas regarding what eternal life means. Most of us probably think of it as the “next” life that just goes on and on forever. And to a certain degree, that is true.

But Jesus outlines a slightly different definition. Our lectionary starts at vs. 6, but it really should also incorporate vs. 3 in my view. Jesus states: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

Eternal life is all about relationship. It’s about a relationship that knows no boundaries, a relationship that overcomes this world, a relationship that overcomes even death itself. Eternal life is not attained any other way – it is attained through knowledge and relationship with God and Christ.

As Christians, we have been sent by Jesus to be his witnesses and to continue to deliver that promise to “the world” that we do not wholly belong to. We witness to that promise in many different ways. We witness to it in how we live our lives, by obeying God’s commandments, of loving our neighbors, of living our lives in the knowledge that our relationship with God, our faith in our Lord and Savior, transcends the lies of the “evil one” of this world, and transcends even death itself.