Sermon 3/20/2011 A2Lent
You must be born again. What, exactly, does that mean?
I was at a party once, during my seminary years, and a friend of a friend approached me and asked, “So you're in seminary?” “Yes,” I replied. “So you've been saved, right?” “Yes, I believe that I was.” “So when were you born again?” Now at this point I knew that what was expected of me was to tell a story about how I was living a life of sin and then something happened and I had a revelation and at a certain time and place and moment I could name, that then and there I made a decision to turn my life over to Christ and in that moment I was saved.
But that's not my story. That's not my answer. So when she asked when I was born again I said, “Somewhere around the year 30, outside of Jerusalem, Jesus was crucified for me and that's when I was saved.” I knew, before I started, that this answer would be deemed unsatisfactory. “No, that's not what I meant,” she protested. “I mean, when did you make your decision for Christ?” I said, “That doesn't matter in the least. I make decisions for Christ all the time. I can't save myself by deciding anything. I was saved when Christ made a decision for me!”
At that point the conversation ended. She decided that I was the poorest excuse for a Christian because I didn't have a cookie-cutter salvation story to tell that matched the parameters of her myopic vision.
Are we Born Again Christians? It all depends on what you mean by that? Nowadays that term is almost like a brand name. Most people use it to mean one specific thing although, technically, we are all Christians who understand ourselves to have been born again in baptism.
Evangelical is another tricky term. Nowadays it's commonly used as a brand name. Evangelical actually means one who shares the Good News. The Greek word for gospel is evangel. We are all Evangelical, technically, although we wouldn't consider ourselves that, according to the way most people now use the term. To say Christian Evangelical is redundant. But newscasters use it to mean a certain demographic and we're all supposed to know who they mean. It's what people say when they don't like the sound of “Fundamentalist.”
There have been two waves of Christian Fundamentalism. The first was during the 1920s and 1930s. Women had just received the right to vote. Churches were all but devoid of men. You couldn't find enough men to teach Sunday School or preach so women started doing it and when that happened, there was a tremendous backlash. Men decided that they had to reassert control over their uppity women. The Jesus who had been emasculated by exhibiting too much love and tenderness, was hijacked by the frightened men and made over into a butch cartoon of Jesus, 8' tall and wearing boots. In fact, Jesus was largely replaced by an angry and vengeful picture of God. This was when many of the “blood, blood, fountains of blood” hymns were written. It's when militaristic marching hymns became popular.
One of the main features of the first wave of fundamentalism was an idolatry of the Bible. Bible, Bible, Bible. Well, that alone doesn't sound so bad, until you realize that by focusing the saving power in the Written Word you can greatly de-emphasize the Living Christ. If you believe that you're saved by the Bible and you live and die by the Bible, then the control freak preaching the Bible suddenly has all kinds of power over you. Ironically, it was a woman who began preaching this message-- Amy Semple McPherson, a California tent preacher whose life wasn't so much fraught with scandals as it was one long continuous scandal!
The rise in Christian Fundamentalism is linked with the rise of women's power. The second wave of fundamentalism was essentially 1975-1985. And what happened in the late '60s and early '70s? The sexual revolution, MS Magazine, the Equal Rights Amendment, the N.O.W., bra-burning feminists in the street! It's the Whore of Babylon! (Do you know what a feminist is? A feminist is one who believes that women are fully human and fully adult. Jesus believed that.)
And while the worst of that whole episode of popular fundamentalism may be over, there is still more than enough of it to go around: the use of the Bible as a weapon, the down-playing of the role of Christ in salvation, the general put-down of women... Personally, I have never met a self-described fundamentalist who:
- could tell me what the fundamentals of Christianity are.
- knew the difference between prophecy and prediction;
- could name anything older than 20th century ideas that were being conserved in his/her conservatism;
- understood that the Biblical portrait of “family” includes almost every imaginable configuration except the modern nuclear family;
- understands that no one, none of us, has a right to life. We always receive life as a gift;
- understood that there is no such thing as a literal interpretation of the Bible. No two fundamentalists agree. Poetry does not allow literal interpretation, nor does prophecy, or parable, nor anything translated from another language. Categorically, it cannot be interpreted literally, if it is interpreted... at... all.
- Understood that his/her arrogant nationalism bears a frighteningly uncanny resemblance to the nationalism of Israel, just before it was over-run, just as the prophets had warned.
- whose primary orientation to life was not one of fear-- fear of being “left behind.” Fear is what draws people to demagogic leaders who profess to offer clear, black-and-white answers from a magical, infallible rule book. Now, I am sometimes afraid. I have compassion for those who are afraid. We live in a world where there's much to fear. Fear, however, is not a Christ-like lifestyle or message. (It is no way to run a church!) Jesus was not fearful, nor was he a manipulative fire-and-brimstone preacher who sought to control people. Jesus' primary orientation to life and the world was one of love, not fear. Jesus taught that love casts out fear.
So we're in a strange place when we try to talk about ourselves and what we believe. We are born again, but we are not Born Again. We are evangelical, but we are not Evangelical. We practice the fundamentals, but we are not Fundamentalists. Our congregation belongs to a very liberal denomination that understands that God is not done speaking yet. The acts of Bible Study and preaching still reveal more and more about the Living Christ who can be found in the Written Word. We are invited to discuss, disagree, argue, agree to disagree – to walk with each other in love as together we prayerfully seek a life together under the saving cross of Christ.
It's all about trusting God, walking humbly, respecting each other, giving each other the benefit of the doubt when it comes to adequate belief. It's about being honest about our own limits and giving God the glory. It's about having the guts to look at each other without belittling and judging. It's just like it's always been: the hardest thing for us is to unclench, to open up, and to let the love of God in.
Every time we let that love in we are born again.
