Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

Reclaiming Your identity: Show So You Can Tell

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

You know, if things weren’t bad enough for my home state of Michigan, it seems that they’re getting even worse. I grew up just outside of Detroit and, recently, a group called Freedom from Religion has been posting billboards around town.

Take a look at the first billboard they put up. “Imagine No Religion.” It kind of sounds like a John Lennon song, doesn’t it? The second one gets better, though. The second one says, “Praise Darwin. Evolve beyond belief.” And if that’s not enough, let’s just have one more that they put up around town, “Beware of Dogma.” Freedom from Religion is a web-based group that is antireligious and it sees as its mission to wipe out all forms of religion in our country but I think you can tell by the style, they seem to be targeting Christianity.

My point is we’re no longer a Christian nation. We’re slipping away from being just neutral about Christianity. We have moved into an anti-Christian hostile world. I don’t know if you noticed or not, the Supreme Court has a new case that has been put before it just this past week. As you can imagine, it has a long history, years worth of litigation into it. It all centers around the World War I memorial that is in the Mohave National Forest out in California.

Some 75 years ago, a group erected a large, wooden cross in honor of World War I vets. A park employee took offense at that being there, a religious symbol on nationally-owned property, and so he brought, like every good American, suit against the federal property, the park system, saying that it was an infringement upon his First Amendment right, that it was not a separation between church and state and that the cross needed to be taken down. He won that case.

So the National Forest took the land and deeded a small portion of it to the local VFW so they could care for the cross and, therefore, it’s no longer on federally-owned land. This same individual, with the help of the ACLU, brought another suit. This suit says you can’t do that. You can’t take this little piece of land that’s in the middle of the forest and put it to a private organization. He won that suit as well which, of course, in our country, means that there’s more litigation and, I’m not sure if I have this one right, but I believe what the suit says now is that it’s illegal to sue the national government over things they have on national land. They’re trying to block it so the cross can stay in place.

It has worked its way all the way up through the system that now the Supreme Court will make a ruling on whether you can bring suit against a national entity and the fixtures of whatever kind it has on that land. In the meantime, though, take a look at what has happened to the cross. We have to cover it up, lest anyone be offended.

That’s just in the last couple of weeks in our country today. I don’t want to get into an issue of First Amendment rights. I don’t want to talk about separation of church and state. My point is that 50 years ago, 40 years ago, I dare say 30 years ago, you wouldn’t see stories like this. It simply would not be an issue. Our country is founded on Christian principles but we have quickly gone away from being a Christian nation. No longer are we even just neutral about Christians. We have definitely gone over to the side of being hostile towards Christianity.

Our world is not much different than the world that Peter addressed in his letters to the churches that had scattered abroad. They weren’t living in a world yet where they were killing Christians. They were living in a world where they were afraid of them, saw them as a threat. And they were very, very hostile towards them. And that’s why the message that Peter delivers to the churches then is the most relevant message to our church today.

Last week, Peter said the overarching message is that we have an identity in Christ. We’ve been chosen by God, grace statement. We didn’t earn it, motivated only by love, God chose us to be His people. We live as strangers and aliens in this world. We long to go to our permanent home but, in the meantime, we live and we operate in this world. And living and operating in this world, then Peter has several pieces of instruction for us.

The first one came today, Chapter 2, when he said, “Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that He visits.” He’s echoing the words of Jesus, is he not, from Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before men so they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” What God is telling us through Peter is that we are to let our identity in Christ, our chosen-ness, the fact that we operate on a different set of rules, that we live our lives differently, let that speak for itself to the world. Let it be a witness to the world, an invitation to the world, to enjoy the hope and the peace that we have in Christ.

It all centers around our identity because our identity separates us from the world or it should. We are in the world but we are not of the world so we should be different from the rest of the world. But my question is I wonder how well we’re doing on that. How well have we separated ourselves from the world?

For instance, I don’t know if you know about it, there is going to be a book burning. It’s going to be at Asheville, North Carolina on Halloween this year. The books that are going to be burned: Bibles, anything written by Mother Theresa and, just for good measure, anything written by Rick Warren. Tossed in the fire, let’s have a marshmallow roast. Is this an anti‑Christian group that’s going to be burning the books and a group of Christians is getting together to block it? No, I’m afraid not. It’s the local Baptist Church. Now I don’t want to say anything about Baptists in general but this small, 14-member church led by Pastor Mark Gizzard, yeah, I know what you’re thinking, I’d like to know the genealogy of that name, too, Pastor Gizzard says that the only true and infallible word of God is contained in the King James version of the bible. King James version only. All the rest need to be burned. Anything from Mother Theresa, anything that has a hint of the Pope, Rick Warren, all of it, thrown onto the fire. Let’s have a weenie roast. We’re going to destroy it. That’s his statement that he stands out from the world, that he’s a stranger and alien here.

I don’t believe that’s what God intended when He said, “So let your light shine before men.” That’s not what Peter meant when he said, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, even though they criticize you, they see your good deeds.”

If we’re to live among the unbelievers, how can we even earn the right to speak to them with such outlandish behavior of burning bibles? We don’t agree with the world, but there has to be compassion on our part. There has to be a willingness on our part to listen to the world, not to give the impression that we agree with the world but we need to at least listen to the world. I guess what I’m saying is what Stephen Covey said when he said, “Seek to understand before you seek to be understood.” How can we ever speak to the world if we go so radical that we close all doors, we close all communication and we have book burnings to make our statement, to say that we’re different from the world? That’s not what Peter is telling us. We’re to live among the world, open up opportunities that we can speak to the world.

Now you’re probably saying to yourself, “Well, yeah, I’m not some religious nut.” In fact, I think most of us probably go to great lengths to show to our friends and our neighbors that we’re not different than they are. In fact, I wonder if we even go a little bit overboard on showing to our friends and our neighbors that we’re no different from the rest of them.

Last week, it was pointed out to me that the graphic that we’ve been using for this series and, unfortunately, the one that’s on the screen doesn’t have the full graphic there, underneath the shirt, it says “Chosen by God.” I know it wasn’t intended this way when the office put it together but isn’t it unique that it’s on the undershirt so you have to unbutton your shirt to show that you’re chosen by God, to give the impression that most of the time, it’s all buttoned up. We just keep it to ourselves.

Don’t we do that sometimes? Don’t we, so we are not associated with the nuts that are burning bibles, that we’re not associated with the bible thumpers, that we go to the other extreme and we want to show to people, “Hey, you know what, we’re no different than you are. We can party just like you party. Yes, sir, we can curse and we can swear and we can do all those things just like you do and we’re going to show you that we’re not different.” And if that’s our goal, two thumbs up because we have attained it. Study after study shows that there is no difference in the behavior of Christians and non-Christians across the board as far as activities. Crime rates, divorce rates, pornography, you name it. Across the board, no difference between a Christian and a non-Christian.

Is it any wonder they call us hypocrites? It shouldn’t be a surprise because we don’t live any different. That’s not what God says. It’s not what Peter was saying. “Live such good lives among the pagans that even if they criticize you, they see your good deeds, which leads to the praise of the Father.”

We are to be strangers here. We have a different standard. We have a different ethic. We have a different code of conduct that we live by. God’s word leads and directs us and that means we don’t fit in with the world and we don’t live like the world. We don’t go to the extremes of being a religious nut nor do we go to such extremes to show that there’s no difference because there is a difference. There should be a difference. Our identity in Christ shows that we’re different.

And what God is telling us this morning is that the identity in Christ is an opportunity to share with the world the hope that is within us. Now this is important. I don’t want you to miss this. Our identity in Christ is what gives us hope. I know I talked about that last week but everything flows from this. We can’t miss this. Our identity in Christ is what gives us hope. It’s the gospel message. It’s the fact that God says, “I’ve chosen you,” and that’s a grace statement. We can’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. God, motivated by love, chooses us and claims us to be His own. You can’t overemphasize that enough.

And Peter does that throughout his letter. Before he calls us to action, before he calls us to holy living, he always predicates it by saying, “Remember the grace statement of your identity that God has chosen you.” Take a look in Chapter 1, if you’re with me with your bibles, we’re going to take a look at Verse 18, “For you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver and gold, that you were redeemed.” No, no, no, no. “But with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without defect or blemish.” Flip over to Chapter 2. Take a look at Verse 24, “He Himself bore our sins and His body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By His wounds, we have been healed.” Everything flows out of this. Whenever He calls us to holy living, first and foremost, it’s because of your identity.

You see, God says. “Be holy as I am holy.” We’re not holy. We don’t even come close but the grace statement that God says, “But I declare you holy. I sent my Son into this world and He bore the punishment of your sins in His body as He hung upon the cross.” He took our guilt, He took our sin. He took it upon Himself so that we could be declared holy, so we could be given this new life, this identity of being His people. And now flowing out of that identity, flowing out of that grace statement, He calls us to holy living.

Just quickly, if you take a look at 1 Peter, if you read it again, go through the entire thing, you’ll see that before Peter calls us to any kind of holy living, he always predicates it with the gospel. So if you look at Chapter 1, he talks about all that Christ has done for us. When he gets to Verse 13, “Therefore, because of that, prepare your minds for action. Be self controlled.” Go over to Chapter 2 or still in Chapter 1, he predicates it by saying, “Now that you’ve been purified,” purified by the truth, okay, “then have sincere love for your brothers. Love one another deeply.” Each time throughout it, as you’re walking through it, he says first and foremost, flowing out of the grace statement of your identity, now he calls us to holy living.

He takes the next step this morning when he says, “Now use that holy living as an example to the world.” In other words, our identity serves as a way that we give witness and it does it in two ways. Our identity, first of all, serves as a way of passing judgment against the way the world lives but also as an invitation to join us in how we live.

What I mean by that is when we’re living differently from the world, when we’re living in step with God and the world is not, they look at us and they are convicted. They may not let us know but they’re convicted. That’s why they’re reacting harshly. That’s why there is this push against Christianity. God says that He placed His law in the hearts of every man and woman and so we know, at least on a gut level, what’s right and what’s wrong. When we live our lives according to God, it convicts those who are not. But it also serves as an invitation to join us in that way of life.

Let me try to give you a real life illustration of that. Now if you’ve been listening to me for awhile and, some of you, yeah, quite awhile, you know that I sort of have a tendency to have a heavy foot. I’ve talked about it in other messages. I sort of stretch the limits a little bit or I push the envelope. Alright, my name is Ron Burcham and I’m a speeder. I know it’s not right. I have a friend of mine, though, who is an Urbandale officer and I’ve never known him to exceed the speed limit. And I don’t believe that he does that because he’s an officer but I will tell you this, it does put a positive light for me on the entire force because he’s a law-abiding citizen. Now that serves as a conviction for me because each time I’m with Mike and he doesn’t exceed the speed limit and we seem to get there at an okay pace, I think to myself, because I know God’s word. God says that I am to obey the civil authorities, that I am to obey the laws of the land, which means I shouldn’t speed. That’s sinful and it’s wrong. But it also serves as an invitation because, you know what, he seems to get there on time and he doesn’t have to worry about getting caught or each time that he sees a light, saying, “Ooh, check the speed and make sure I’m okay,” it serves as an invitation. So it’s a judgment and an invitation.

The same thing is true when we live out our lives. There is a judgment that happens there when people see us live our lives differently. Now when I say judgment about that, I don’t mean get in your face and say, “You dirty, rotten sinner. You’re going to hell in a hand basket if you keep living that way.” No. Not once has my friend gotten in my face and said, “You know, Ron, you keep talking about speeding and you shouldn’t do that.” He doesn’t need to. The life speaks for itself.

We don’t have to convict. God convicts. But when we live according to God’s standard, it’s God who ends up convicting the hearts. So that means when you’re on the business trip, you hold your integrity intact. It means when you’re pulling down that deal, you don’t compromise on your morals and your ethics, even if it’s legal to do so. If it’s not the right thing to do, you won’t do it. Now some of your colleagues might not appreciate that because they’re being convicted, because they know what they’re doing is wrong.

It means that you don’t sit around the neighborhood and gossip with everyone else or at the office and talk about some other department or your boss. Or even at church, to stand in the narthex or in the parking lot and take and trounce the Eighth Commandment about bearing false witness. But you walk away and refuse to talk about it.

You don’t preach a sermon on the evils but, through your actions, through your life of your identity in Christ, God brings conviction. But there’s also an invitation. There’s an invitation to join us. Now that has some implications, though. If our lives are being an invitation for unbelievers to join us, then we can’t live our lives begrudgingly. In other words, we can’t walk around saying, “No, I can’t go. The church says that’s not a good thing.” “No, I’m not going to do that. God says that’s the wrong thing to do.” Or “I don’t like it but this is how I’m supposed to live so I guess that’s how I’ll live.” It has to flow, I’m going to back to it, out of the grace statement, you’re chosen by God, flowing out of that in joy. Just a natural way in which you now live for Christ.

And when people see that is a natural part of your life, they’re going to want a piece of that. They’re going to want to know what that’s all about. One more verse from Peter, we’re going to skip over to Chapter 3 this time, Verse 8, “Finally, all of you live in harmony with one another. Be sympathetic. Love as brothers. Be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult but with blessing.”

Something as silly as no retaliation, no insult for insult, no revenge but to repay it with blessing. If you do that with joy in your heart, people are going to want a piece of that. They want to know what you have. It’s why Peter says, “Use your identity to live such good lives among the pagans that even if they criticize you, your deeds will speak volumes and will lead to the glory of the Father.”

Now more than ever, we need to live as strangers in this world. Our nation is becoming increasingly anti-Christian. They’re at war with us. We live here as aliens and strangers awaiting for our final home but, as we live and as we operate in this world, God’s encouragement is that we let our identity in Christ serve as a witness and an invitation to the world. Amen.