CAUTION: CHURCHGOING MAY BE
HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH
May 31, 2009
John 16:12-15
Acts 2: 1-21
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
Today, Pentecost, is known as the Birthday of the Church. On this day, not long after Jesus’ resurrection, something incredible happened to the disciples while they were meeting together in an upper room in Jerusalem. You’ve heard how the book of Acts describes it: the sound of a rush of a violent wind, perhaps like the sound of a hundred tornados.
Outside the room on that day, in the city square, were thousands of Jews who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate what was really a minor Jewish feast called Pentecost. The people were from all parts of the known world.
What happened next was just as mysterious and incredible as the rushing sound. The Bible says the disciples were filled with what is known as the Holy Spirit of God. And this Holy Spirit enabled them to speak in the languages of all of the pilgrims in the city square so that everyone understood what the disciples were saying about Jesus Christ. What’s more, on that day thousands became convinced Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and the new invention of God – the church was begun!
It was the birthday of the church. From that point on the church began an explosion in size reaching to the uttermost parts of the world. Today there are more than 2 billion Christians in the world. Think about it: No Pentecost, no church. No church and we aren’t together today.
In nearly 2000 years since this event this church has found itself at turns faithful and unfaithful. This church has wrought much good in the name of Jesus Christ. It also has found itself compromised and been responsible in whole or part for much harm.
Many books have been written about what this church universal is really all about. I guess I’ve probably read several dozen of them. I am fascinated about what God intended with the church in the beginning and what God wants from the church now. I will spare you my lifelong progress in thinking about this. But, in sum it has come to this:
The church of Jesus Christ is at the heart of the Creator God’s plan to save the earth, to save humanity, to save anything and everything worth saving.
To put it another way in contrast: the church, this church and all churches that by definition understand themselves as Christ’s body – the church -- is not just another socially useful group with which to associate, like the PTA or Rotary. Rather, the church born on the day of Pentecost long ago is divinely made and divinely sustained for a divine, unique purpose. For as heralded by Jesus Christ, God has called a people, a body, out of artificial collections like nations, or even families, to be a distinct group of people called church.
Is the church flawed? Oh my heavens, yes, from the beginning. Is it, are we underachievers? Oh, yes. From the beginning. And still!
Nevertheless, it is now clear to me if it hasn’t always been, that the church, one by one and all around the planet, is God’s unique creation to help God save anything and everything worth saving.
All this wonderful ecclesiology, however, comes with a price – doesn’t everything good! So, this morning, placing my tongue in my cheek – in other words, this isn’t like any other sermon you’ve heard me preach – placing my tongue in my cheek, on this birthday of the church, I want to note some dangers of churchgoing.
For there are great dangers in churchgoing. In the spirit of full disclosure of the truth, here are some things folks should know about churchgoing.
To begin, if one goes to church very much you’re liable to discover that God loves and accepts you. Not for what you’ve done or will do, but simply because God loves.
However, there is a caveat within this caveat. And that is, if a person goes to church only occasionally, say only a few Sundays a year, that person will probably think he or she hears more negative stuff than positive stuff.
Sin. All an occasional church-goer needs to hear is the word, “sin” and the whole experience may be tainted. Plus, if you hear the preacher talk about particular sins that you are very fond of, you’re going to squirm a little and be uncomfortable, particularly if your spouse jabs you in the ribs as if to say, he’s talking about you!
In fact, I’ll bet that there are a lot of folks not in church this morning who just got tired of being embarrassed by having their sins, their short-comings shoved in their face week after week. Safer to stay home.
But, if a person stays with it, keeps coming to church, learns to tolerate the jabs to the ribs, then something like a light bulb goes on. You come to learn that you’re no worse than anybody else. More amazingly, you’ll eventually come to learn that “better” and “worse” aren’t even words used by God.
Now, can you see the danger here? If you go to church enough and hear enough about God’s gracious, unconditional love, you’re liable to come to believe it. Which, as I mentioned, is only the beginning of your troubles. Because if you believe God really loves you, then your values, attitudes, and practices will change.
The Bible calls this transformation, becoming a new creation. Which means the old you is passing away, slowly but surely. What is actually going on in this transformation is that all that talk about love, forgiveness, justice, compassion and peace begins to get under your skin, begins to become a part of you. Begins to become you.
In fact, you find you’re influenced more by the people in the church than the people at the diner or the plant or the office or who live on your street, or even your own family. You may not always notice this shedding of the old and the becoming of the news, but it’s sure to happen.
And, in a similar way, you find that all this church-going, worshipping and praying and serving together gives you profound new, godly insight regarding decisions you have to make in your life. My goodness, what is happening to me, you may ask. I used to be ruthless, used to make decisions solely on the basis of what’s in it for me, and I’ve changed! I’m different! I didn’t mean for all this to happen!
Then, too, you may find your old prejudices just don’t have the steam they used to. You just sort of forget to be prejudiced. Have you ever caught yourself thinking differently than you used to think about people different from you? Caught yourself realizing, “You know, I used to think all white people or all black people or all Asian people or all Hispanics were thus and so. But, you know, I don’t think that way at all anymore.”
See! How about that? Isn’t that amazing? Holy Spirit Religion! Transformed again. This, then, is another danger of churchgoing and you should know about it.
Yet another danger of churchgoing is that we may grow to care more deeply for others and want to deny our own druthers for their sake. Talk about caveat emptor! What an inconvenient interruption it is in an otherwise calm life to find yourself unable to be apathetic in the face of other people’s sufferings. It can be just awful to have your peace of mind disturbed by the injustice happening to others.
This is quite the opposite of churchgoing as a kind of protection from the mean, cruel world out there. Indeed, this result of church-going is where you find yourself unable to keep your religion out of your every day life. Heavens!
You may even come to really believe that other peoples’ happiness is just as important as your own. That even though you’re safe and secure and fat and happy, because others aren’t, you can’t be. And, more, you may decide you’ve just got to do something about it.
Now, be warned: This particular danger of churchgoing is very great because it has serious implications for your checkbooks and calendars. In fact, you may find yourself giving away more money in a year than some people do in a lifetime; and your calendar will hardly ever have a dull moment in it. You’ll be thinking how much can I give away and still have enough to live on, instead of the opposite, how little can I give and not feel guilty. You may find that you just don’t have enough time in your life to do all the good you want to.
These can be big problems, and as the pastor, I need to tell you about them.
One more danger of church-going. And that is you’re liable to begin seeing the world around you as through God’s eyes. Just as two long married people know with great accuracy how the other feels about things, so those in love with God for a while come to know pretty much how God feels about more and more things. And, boy, then does life begin to change. You just can never get away with blind self-interest again.
And so it is that, for example, your political outlook is bound to be altered. You no longer vote just with your own pocketbook in mind, but you actually seriously consider the needs of people you’ll never even meet. In fact, you’re likely to come to view yourself as a citizen not just of a city and a state or even a country, certainly not just as a member of a political party, but more as a citizen of the world where the leader is God.
Truth is, when you see as with God’s eyes you see fewer categories of anything. Boundaries between artificial things like nations become less important than aiming to live together in God’s world. Ethnic differences are celebrated with the mutual recognition that no one is better than any other, and that each has much to add to make life richer for all.
In sum, you tend to see and think in terms of what’s loving and what’s not; of what’s going to gladden the heart of God and what will break God’s heart.
I could go on. But, I think you’ve gotten the idea.
A little religion can be a pretty dangerous thing. But a lot of religion, a lot of Holy Spirit, Pentecost religion, plus a lot of churchgoing, can REALLY be hazardous to a person’s way of life.
So, watch out! You keep going to church and God’s going to get you. You keep going to church, and you’ll never be the same again!
You’ve been warned!