Does This Offend You?

August 18, 2002

Recently Ginny Gray shared an e-mail she received that she thought I would be interested in. It was a copy of a letter from a man who wrote to ABC television complaining about one of their shows which portrayed sexual immorality as a virtue, and also portrayed those who objected to this immorality as morons. He complained that there seemed to be some agenda at work within the network, because so many of their shows have this same theme- exalting sexual immorality and demeaning those who challenge or even question it.

The reply he received was not at all a response to the content of the show, but a vicious attack on him as a person. The ABC web master who wrote back to him began by saying, “How about getting your nose out of the Bible, which is only a book of stories compiled by people hundreds of years ago, and read the Declaration of Independence. Or better yet, try thinking for yourself and stop using an archaic book of stories as your lame crutch for your existence.”

He later received a second letter from Daren Benzei at the ABC Network apologizing for the way he was treated, and stating that the man who wrote that response was not representative of ABC, and had been fired. But then he went on to say, in typical form letter legalese, that they were confident that ABC’s programming is fair and balanced, “thoughtfully reflecting social issues existing in our present society.”

After reading this, I gave a deep sigh. I laid the e-mail aside and left it in a pile of papers. I get so tired of dealing with this, but as my Baptist preacher friend once said, “It isn’t going to go away.” No, it isn’t. It’s going to come after us with a vengeance, and for me, it didn’t take long.

Last week I had my own personal reminder that the world we live in does not share our biblical world view, and will attack us for standing on God’s Word. It’s a story that I need to share with you. On advice of legal counsel, I am telling this story in a very controlled way. I am not violating any confidential information. I am not telling you anything about another person that is not already public knowledge. And I am not using this person’s opinions or words for the purpose of holding them up for ridicule. Having satisfied those conditions, I am allowed to tell my story, and this is it.

It began two weeks ago with two people who are not a members of St. George’s, who came to St. George’s asking for a sacramental ministry that I, as a matter of conscience, could not give them because of their way of life. I explained my reasons for not being able to do what they had requested, and my reasons were entirely from God’s Word, and from our liturgy in the Prayer Book, which is based on God’s Word. I offered resources for ministry, not only from St. George’s and the Order of St. Luke, but from some international Christian ministries that could deal with this specific need.

Last Tuesday I received a letter from these people. The letter was not a response to my decision, but an attack on me personally. In the letter, the writer expressed outrage that I could be so out of touch with modern reality. In fact, the tone of the letter was remarkably similar to the e-mail that I shared earlier, though it was from a completely different person in a different situation. As in the e-mail, so in the letter I received, the person suggested I get my head out of the Bible and take a look at “the real world”. They were greatly offended that I even suggested that their way of life was not acceptable to God, not Christian, and they said that I should learn some tolerance. They made it clear that they had come to the church looking for a particular ministry, with no expectation of changing their life.

I think this person has put a finger right on the very pulse of the problem. It is a problem regularly documented by Christian ministries all across the country, and the problem is becoming more aggressive, more angrily in-your-face. People come to church today, if they come to church at all, looking for what they want on their own terms- a friendly fellowship, some words of comfort and affirmation, some sacramental sign that God approves of them. They don’t come looking for a change of heart, which is the biblical definition of repentance. They don’t come looking for the power of the Holy Spirit to change their hearts, or in the words of Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Isaiah, to write God’s Word upon their minds. They don’t come looking for the power to say no to themselves, to forsake their sins- in fact, they don’t even want to use the word “sin” any more. They would rather talk about “lifestyles”, “diversity”, “tolerance”, “hangups”, or perhaps, “dysfunction”, but we are not to talk to them about sin.

After reading the letter, I was troubled. I need to say that. I don’t want you to think that just because I am a preacher and have spent some considerable time dedicating myself to serving God that it means I don’t feel the weight and the pain of being attacked. I do feel it, just like any other human being feels it when they are criticized and their beliefs are thrown aside.

What did I do with this letter? I set it before me, and I prayed. I asked God to show me, give me a sign, whether I was in some way wrong in my approach to this situation. I don’t want to be heavy-handed. I do fear the danger of becoming judgmental. I don’t want St. George’s to become a self-righteous cult where we simply mouth doctrines to convince ourselves that we are right and everyone else is wrong. That’s not the point at all. If that was our purpose, I’d quit right now!

I challenged myself in prayer. “O Lord, have I made life bitter for the people of this church? Have I taught only law without mercy? Have I become a Pharisee, having only the letter of the law but not the Spirit of it?”

I asked God to show me whether in fact this Church is a place where the presence of God, is being honored, the power of God being experienced to change lives, the Word of God being taught faithfully, and humbly, the joy of God being seen in us.

I also renewed my pledge to God to stand on His Word, and His Word alone. And I asked for a sign, some confirmation that would tell me what to do. With that, I put the letter in the correspondence file, and I closed the drawer.

An hour later the confirmation came. It was a phone call from a person who had recently visited St. George’s, and called to say what a joy it was to be here on Sunday. The specific comment that I recall was, “I can’t remember when I ever enjoyed being in church so much!”

It is possible to hear the Word of God and enjoy it! But that will depend entirely on how willing you are to received it. One of my seminary professors taught us that it is the passages of the Bible that trouble you the most that you need to be studying the hardest. The world is saying exactly the opposite to us. They are saying, “We don’t want to hear your Bible verses that offend us.”

What about you? Does the Word of God have a sweet sound in your ear, or is it an offense to you? Here is what I have been hearing from God and praying about since Tuesday.

The situation is this: the whole society we live in, from the media to the public school curriculum, is based on the assumption that there is no such thing as sexual immorality. It is simply a variety of choices from which you may take what you want. And when the church complains about the sexual agenda, particularly the homosexual agenda, there is usually this response from the homosexual community: “You are being hypocrites. You tell us homosexuals that God will not accept what we are doing, yet you have plenty of heterosexual couples in your church who are living together without being married, and you never say anything to them.”

They are absolutely right. I’m sorry to say that is a true statement, and I am as guilty of that as anyone in ministry today. How many times have I looked the other way when there was sexual immorality going on in this church? It has to stop.

And I’m not talking about couples who may be living together, who come to the church looking for a church to join and be married in. If they are trying to do the right thing, we should welcome them and help them in every way we can.

The problem I am talking about is long term members of the church who know better, and who are in situations they know are not pleasing to God, and they are not doing anything about it. This is a problem! The situation must change.

Some of you will be receiving a call from me. Some already have. This is no easier for me than it is for you, but we have to begin somewhere.

On Thursday morning as I was reading some verses from John, God showed me another piece of this picture. John 6:45- Jesus said, “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me.” As I read that verse it seemed to leap off the page. Wow! There it is. The key to the whole mystery of knowing God.

Listen, I don’t care what your religion is. I don’t care what your denomination is. I don’t care what your philosophy of life is. This verse is for you. And this is what the Lord is telling you. If you truly seek God with all your heart, you must eventually come to Christ.

Do you see how different that is from saying, “To be acceptable to God you have to be like us.” No. We aren’t trying to make little clones of ourselves. That would be dangerous, because we are all sinners. If you clone a sinner, all you get is another sinner! But there is something very unique about the Gospel, something very distinct, compelling, and exclusive about the claims of Jesus- something we should not be shy about, and should not compromise. He comes to change us.

- He came to this earth to show us what living for God really looks like

- He gave His life to break the power of sin

- He rose from the dead to give us the hope of eternal life

- He sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to live the same kind of life He lived

In short, His presence must change everything about us. And if His presence has not changed everything about us, then all we are doing is playing at religion.

Again: Jesus said, “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to me.”

QUESTION:

And so, my question of the day is this: Church, do you believe this? Do you believe that everyone who truly desires to know God must eventually end up walking into the arms of Jesus?

Do you see it? Do you believe that if a person’s heart is truly set on serving God, they will end up doing exactly what Jesus taught? Do you see that if a person is truly committed to honoring God, then there is not one word of Jesus that will offend them?

And do you see the other side of the picture? Do you see that if a person is not seeking the Father’s will, the Word of God will offend them. They will be angry. They will attack.

You see, it isn’t about where you start out. It’s about what you seek, what you’re willing to let go of for God’s sake, and where you end up. Jesus is telling us that all who are truly seeking the Father from their heart will end up at Him- Christ. Whether they start out as Buddhist, or Moslem, or Hindu, or New Age, or agnostic, or no particular idea about religion at all- whether they start out with problems of addiction- whether they have been involved in crime- whether they have been involved in sexual immorality- whenever a person gets it in their mind to seek God, all of that must break loose and fall away. Then they are on their way toward Jesus.

I had a moment of anguish last week. The sad state of the Church brought me to tears. I wept for the church in America today, so compromised in its teaching, so embarrassed by its scandals, so apologetic for having a message that is not politically correct. I wept. For the first time in a long time, I wept for the foolish, misguided souls who think that they can use religion as a battering ram against the Word of God.

I wept because I know that pain all too well. I remember the futility and frustration of my own life before I accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. I know the anger and the rage that I once felt against those who had accepted Him because the very living of their lives was a constant rebuke to me. I remember how I despised them, these Christians. Even while I longed to have what they had, I hated them for it. You see, I really hated myself.

But when I realized that Christ died because of my sins, when I finally understood what my rebellion against God had done, it broke my heart, and it changed everything.

This is all I know how to do. This is all the message I have to preach. And I warn you: If you are looking an easy acceptance of a sinful life, you have two choices. Either get out of this church, or speak to the Vestry about getting me fired, because I do not have easy, politically correct answers to give you. I only have the Word of God. The only counsel I can give you is to submit your life to God on God’s terms, and there is nothing easy about that!

Bringing my sinful, rebellious, prideful self to God, and submitting my will to the revealed will of God was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But if I had not done it, I would be dead now! And that battle is not over yet. I have to recommit myself to is every day. Every day I have to make a choice between my will and God’s will. As Oswald Chambers puts it, “Being a Christian does not mean that I am incapable of sin. It means that I do not have to sin.” Before I knew Christ, I had no choice. Sin was driving me the way a racer drives his car. I didn’t even know what sin was because it was so pervasive in my life. I had no more awareness of sin than a fish has of water. But when Christ became the center of my life I received power- the power to know what sin and righteousness are, and the power to choose.

What about you? Are you carrying some burden in your life that you don’t know what to do with? You don’t want to continue carrying it, but you don’t know what to do with it.

I have very much enjoyed reading JRR Tolkein’s books, The Lord of the Rings. It is a story packed full of Christian messages. It is the story of a group of people who are chosen for a great mission. The power of evil is rising over their land. The evil one is searching for a special ring into which he put much of his power. That ring was lost for long ages. If the dark lord can recover his ring of power, he will become invincible, and darkness will cover the world.

But now the ring has been found, and it has come into the possession of a very simple unassuming character named Frodo. Frodo is chosen to carry the ring because he seems to be the only one humble enough to carry it without being seduced by its power. Every other man who comes in contact with this ring of power is immediately seduced by thinking he can use its evil for good. Only Frodo can be trusted to carry the ring. He must take it to Mount Doom and cast it into the abyss of fire where it was formed. This is the only way it can be destroyed. Eight others are chosen to go with him. They represent all the races of creatures that live on the earth. They are mighty warriors, proud men. But only Frodo, the smallest, humblest of them, can carry the ring.

It is a long, difficult, perilous journey against many enemies. All along the way, Frodo feels the weight of the ring increasing, dragging him down. Frodo’s companions cannot fully understand his agony from the burden he bears. They can only try their best to comfort him, protect him, and help him continue the quest to the end.

There is one moment when Frodo sits down by the road, utterly exhausted, and feeling some real despair that his quest can ever be accomplished. One of his companions has already been killed in battle, and there are many more battles still ahead of them. He turns to his mentor, wise old Gandalf, and says,

“I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”

Gandalf: “So do all who live in such times. But that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.”

It’s a brilliant bit of analogy, a parable of the Gospel, and of our times.

What are you doing with the time that is given to you? We too live in evil days. Dark clouds loom over the landscape. Truth is daily ridiculed in our media, and immorality exalted as virtue. Violence, hatred, dishonesty, perversion, adultery, and the vilest filth are protected as “free speech” while the Ten Commandments are removed from the court house wall, and children are forbidden to even mention God in school. Chastity is no longer taught to our children. It isn’t even considered to be possible. So all we offer our young people any more are contraceptives and teaching about “safe sex”, and then we take them to the abortion clinic when the contraceptives fail and they learn the bitter lesson that sex is never safe.

When I look at the mess our world is in today, and how it is destroying people’s lives, I confess, I often feel like Frodo. I find myself saying, “I wish none of this had happened.” I wish I could go back to a time when immorality was not allowed to be flaunted on prime time TV, a time when children respected their parents and teachers, and you didn’t need metal detectors at the school door. A time when the church was expected to preach God’s Word without compromise, and no one would have ever thought of asking a pastor to pronounce a blessing on sexual immorality. But you cannot go back. You can only go forward.

Jesus accomplished a great quest for us. He carried the burden of our sins. No one else could do it for Him. He had to take the sin of the entire world upon Himself, and He had to carry it all the way to the cross. And there, he poured out His blood- His blood- the only thing in all Creation that had the power to cover those sins and finally destroy their power to kill us.

Likewise, you and I have been called onto a great quest by the Lord Jesus Christ. We are called to bring ourselves to the cross of Christ. We must do it ourselves. No one else can do this for you. Even God will not do this for you. You must bring yourself to the place where sin has been dealt with. You must finish the work that Christ began for you. You are asked to bring your pride. It is your very heart and soul that is being asked for now, and it must be given freely.

If you would know the glorious liberty of the children of God, you must bring yourself to Him, all that you are, and lay it down at the foot of the cross. All of your stubborn, man made notions, all of your plans for life lived on your own terms, all of your refusal to yield to the will of God. You must lay it down, lay it down in the precious blood at the foot of the cross. Why? Because that is the only place where its power over you can finally be broken. In the words of that old hymn,

What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Oh! Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.

No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

I’m not here to judge you, but I am here to call you. I can’t give you everything you want, but I can point you to what you need. You need to know that Jesus Christ has power to turn you away from sin, and to work in you the will of the Father, if you will let Him. Will you let Him?

I want to pray again that beautiful prayer that we began with this morning, the Collect of the Day. Let us pray.

“Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life....”

Stop right there. Let’s pray on this. Meditate on this. Are you serious about this? What would it mean if you made it your quest in life to “follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life.” Is that even something you want, because don’t pray this prayer if you don’t mean it.