ahora

This past Sunday I heard a sermon preached by Howie VW, a guest preacher at River Terrace CRC, on 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. He talked about the more recent trend of marketing the Christian faithto the point that it is no longer the Christian faith. But what about the cross...the electric chair of the 1st century...and the fact that our God died upon it...for us...people who mock him and turn our backs on him daily??? And the Holy Bible - I'll bet none of you have books with the word 'holy' used as an adjective for it. And the incarnation...a transcendent God becoming a human with flesh and bones and yet, some how, was still God...how does that work? What does that mean? Oh yeah, it means that Jesus gave us an example of how we are to live in this life when we are surrounded by pain, wrong-doing, anger...sin. So, if we look to Christ's example, how do we market the faith? How do we sell taking up our crosses and following him? How do we get people excited about turning the other cheek when somebody wrongs them? How do we convince people that there is only one Way to heaven in a pluralist society that tells the world that every way works just as good as another?

On another note, how can we make our faith appealing to a rational world when so much of what we believe sounds rediculous: God tells Noah to build a humongous boat so that he could carry 2 of every kind of animal when it rained enough to destroy the rest of the world around him...he told the Israelites that, if they were going to conquer the city of Jericho (with HUGE and extremely thick walls), all they had to do was march around it and blow their trumpets...yeah, right - sounds "believable." Oh, and then Laman is told that if he is going to be cured of leprosy that all he has to do is dip into the dirty Jordan River. Hey, it could happen, right? And then there's this guy, Jesus, who dies on a cross, lays dead in a tomb for 3 days and then comes to life again? And then what's more is that he ascends into heaven?? What?? Ok. Sure.

If you have grown up in the Christian faith, it may not sound that strange b/c you've heard it your whole life, but for someone who has never heard these stories before...it sounds rediculous. So how do we grasp this whole thing? Howie gave these 4 points:
(1) Embracing the Christian faith is a step of faith, not rationality - it's recognizing that it is too big for us to get into our minds.
(2) The power of the Holy Spirit enables that step of faith.
(3) Having courage in the Christian walk to stand for the message of the cross - Howie likened making public profession of faith to joining the army...it is a serious decision to make in which one has to daily fight for peace, for shalom.
(4) The Christian faith does not equal being popular - we are not here to be popular, we are here to be counter-cultural and to fight against the lies that society tells us. When we fight against these lies, the kingdom of darkness slowly but surely looses power. It has already been conquered through Christ's death and resurrection, but until Christ returns, it can still overcome us.

I could go on, but I will leave it at that. The sermon was very good and reminded me of what I am called to be and how I am called to live as a Christian in today’s world. I humbly praise God for sending his Son Jesus to die on the cross for me. I don't completely understand it, but I know I don't deserve it...but he did it anyway - not only for me, but for you, too, no matter what...isn't that amazing??

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 3:28 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.