Taking Jesus Seriously

Last updated on: February 7, 2017 at 7:00 am by Amy Butler

Taking Jesus Seriously 2017-02-06T23:49:45-04:00 Amy Butler

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

If your church follows the Revised Common Lectionary you will know that in these weeks after the Epiphany we are hearing parts of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ famous teachings from the gospel of Matthew, chapters 5-7. Last Sunday in worship, instead of preaching a sermon I had written, I decided to “preach” the entire Sermon on the Mount—two full chapters with no breaks, the words of Jesus.

In coffee hour after worship, several people came up to me to tell me they really did not like or agree with some of the parts of my sermon that day.

Two chapters. Read from the Bible. The words of JESUS.

Most of us really like certain parts of the Sermon on the Mount—the parts about the lilies of the field and where your treasure is there will your heart be also. But there are lots of other parts of the sermon, and frankly, many of them are quite onerous. There’s the love your enemies part, direction about not being a hypocrite, hard words about divorce, and a warning against religious leaders who smile too much. If you listen to the whole thing instead of picking and choosing the passages you like, I will guarantee you’ll feel uncomfortable…

…which is not something we in America like very much.

For that reason, among others, we have been guilty of watering down Christian faith, turning the practice of following Jesus into a tepid list of suggested behavior, or a fool-proof recipe for wealth and happiness or, worst of all, a license to exclude or even hate people who don’t believe exactly as we do. In short, American Christians have presented the world with a distorted picture of Christian faith.

This is not a new trend in America, but on day sixteen of the Trump presidency, this fact—like so many other hard truths Americans need to face—has become blatantly obvious. We have watched incident after incident of outrageous rhetoric, terrifying action, and discriminatory policy rolling out of this White House, all endorsed with the self-righteous piety of recognized Christian leaders. And this current, cheapened Christianity has now become both the face of and the justification for behavior that, by any objective judgment, is non-Christian. We don’t even know what it means to be a Christian in America anymore.

Walter Bruggemann says it this way: “The crisis in the U.S. Church has almost nothing to do with being liberal or conservative; it has everything to do with giving up on the faith and discipline of our Christian baptism and settling for a common, generic U.S. identity that is part patriotism, part consumerism, part violence, and part affluence.” (A Way Other Than Our Own, p.3)

We can talk until late in the night about the character and actions of our new president and his cohort, about whether they are Christians or not-really-Christians and what that might mean for America. But when we engage in that kind of conversation, we’re deflecting the real work of this moment, the work of asking ourselves some very hard questions about our identities as Americans and our claims to Christian faith. Some of those questions are as serious as these: Are we so far gone that the test of Christian faith is whether you say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”? Is the way we treat each other incidental compared to party loyalty? Have American Christians started a totally new religion?

Jesus said it loud and clear in the Sermon on the Mount and on several other occasions: all God’s rules for human living are summed up in the direction to love God and love our neighbor. Everything else springs from this work. To be a Christian in the way of Jesus we will, in fact, have to swim upstream in today’s American culture, because even a new president can’t change what Jesus had to say in that sermon up on the mount. Share what you have with anybody who needs it. Love your enemies. Live generous lives. Tell the truth. Act toward each other the way God acts toward you. Sacrifice something big for something good.

My guess is that Jesus came down from the mount for coffee hour that day and several people told him they did not like or agree with some of the parts of his sermon that day. It just flew in the face of the Middle Eastern culture to which they were accustomed. I can only surmise that Jesus looked them straight in the eye, as he certainly would us, and said, “Yes. That’s the point.”

Originally Posted on Baptist News Global.

Practicing Discipleship

Previous Post

January 29, 2017

Executive Order

Next Post

February 12, 2017 Magical Thinking

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Answering the Call Being the Church Curating Wisdom Laughing Out Loud Living in Relationship Practicing Discipleship Reclaiming Baptist Speaking from the Pulpit Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005

Search for:

Taking Jesus Seriously

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

Who was high priest when David ate the consecrated bread?