Only One Original – 2 Corinthians 11

Podcast

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here today

We are happy to be together again today
Happy to see each face
Giving hugs
Handshakes
Smiles and laughter
Thank you for this.

Grant us the gift of continuing to grow as a community
Engaged in each other’s lives
Pulling us together
Knowing and sharing each joy
Each fear
And every sorrow.

Help us to find ways to serve each other
And to serve others together.
Let this be our joy
And our shared life
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Intro: It’s STORY TIME

Pastor Allen was a preacher in Small Town, U.S.A. Relaxing at home one evening he settled into his recliner, pushed his reading glasses up to the bridge of his nose, and reached over to his side-table for something to take his mind off of work. He could have picked up one of the magazines lying there, or a novel with a bookmark where he left off, or if all else failed the TV remote. 

He accidently grabbed his Bible.
Normally, when worn out in the evening, all he wanted was a distraction; anything that didn’t require exertion. The Bible, however, was “work.” He was never able to read it in a light-hearted way  or for entertainment. The Bible required a serious attitude. One needed to come to it with reverence, humility, and focused attention.
His inner voice told him, “Read this.”  So he chose to glance at a couple verses and move on. Without looking for any particular place to begin, he let his Bible fall open wherever it would, only being careful not to land in the Old Testament. Looking down he found himself in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 8. Skipping to the red letters, he began to read and heard Jesus saying,
    “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
He stopped, closed his Bible over his index finger to not lose his place, and drawing a slow deep breath he stared into nothing. Pastor Allen allowed the verse to enter his mind and create its own impression. Then he read it again.
“Well,” he thought to himself, “this isn’t the first time these words have bothered me. The sons of the kingdom being the rightful heirs will be displaced in favor of outsiders.”
His thoughts then went to the many Christians he had known who boast with smug assurance that they will walk the streets of gold. “I take the promise of life after death as seriously as anyone. But it’s not something I worry about.” And after a brief pause:
“Perhaps I should  worry. At least a little.”
He continued his introspection, “There’s a faith that’s child-like, and a faith that’s childish. I’ve avoided the childish faith, because I find the beliefs and behavior of that type of Christian embarrassing. But maybe I’ve been mistaken. Maybe there’s a wholesomeness to a childish faith that doesn’t question Jesus, but places its complete trust in Jesus--always.”

That’s our story time for this morning – now this:
I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:1-4 and 12-13

I’ve mulling over Paul’s letters to the Corinthians the past three weeks

This week it occurred to me that the church in Corinth,
– was a lot like what the church in America has become
• the Corinthians fancied themselves well-informed and independent thinkers,
◦ as if they didn’t need Paul’s help
• at the same time, they chased after new and exotic teaching
◦ as a result, they had no stable theology
• their sense of entitlement and egoism were undeserved and out of control
• they made bad choices regarding their loyalties,
◦ following whoever told them what they wanted to hear
• and they were more interested in charisma and unfettered zeal,
◦ than a life of solid faithfulness to Jesus and his teaching
– the culture of Corinth had a lot to do with shape of their church
• but how did we get where we are today?

I was raised in Christian Fundamentalism

From the start, Fundamentalism was a reactionary movement
– Bible-believing Christians felt threatened by three modern developments
• first, the rise of science during the Industrial Revolution
◦ Darwinian evolution challenged long standing notions of creation
◦ Freudian psychology challenged long standing notions regarding the human soul
• second, the sinfulness of popular forms of entertainment
◦ especially the saloons of the wild west, that included:
◦ burlesque shows, gambling, alcohol, dancing, and prostitution
• third, the rise of higher criticism in the study of the Bible
◦ especially in Germany, theologians were using new tools to research the Scriptures
◦ archeology and ancient Semitic cultures including their languages and religions

Conservative Christian scholars took a stand against these trends
– they stressed what they considered the fundamentals of Christian belief
• above all, they emphasized the reliability of the Bible
• not just on matters of faith, but science, societies, and just about everything else
– Fundamentalists saw themselves as the true Christians,
• the guardians of “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints”
• and, it became the most popular brand among low and middle class churches

Something that a lot of people miss

Fundamentalism in America is not just about religion
– it also became a subculture within larger national culture
• its tendency was to be combative, legalistic, and self-righteous
– Fundamentalism was defined culturally by what they opposed and did not do
• in our case, as children we weren’t allowed to: go to movies or dances, or play card games
◦ these were carry overs from the late 19th and early 20th century, as I mentioned above
◦ in the Fundamentalist mind set, these were related to burlesque, flirtations, and gambling
• and women weren’t allowed to wear slacks or make-up (like those “painted ladies” in the saloons)

By the mid-20th century, Fundamentalism was becoming irrelevant
– a new Christian movement rose out of it: Evangelicalism
• it loosened the legalistic emphasis
◦ and relaxed some of the doctrinal rigidity
◦ and it influenced a wider segment of the population
– it was named “Evangelical” because of its emphasis on “evangelizing sinners”
• by the mid-1970s Evangelicalism was becoming less relevant
• but as a subculture it had made significant progress
◦ it had built large and well-funded institutions that would be around for years to come
◦ but it demonstrated a shift in emphasis to increasing political influence
– in the 1980s I became disillusioned with Evangelicalism
• it’s not that I totally disagree with its theology,
• but the subculture has drifted from its spiritual center

This is what I hear in Paul’s message to the Corinthians

He worried that they were losing their spiritual virginity
– rather than having a “sincere and pure devotion to Christ,”
• they were being lured away to “another Jesus”
– how this very thing may be happening today is worth exploring

In our nation, “another Jesus” may be:
– a “marketable Jesus”
• an entrepreneur hears something about the Lord, and says,
◦ “This will sell!” – the marketable Jesus is useful make money
◦ books, music, a clothing line, jewelry, and other religious and nonreligious odds and ends
• related to a marketable Jesus, but not quite the same is:
– a “Hollywood Jesus”
• even if this is done well, is entertaining, and we enjoy it,
• this Jesus will always be a god we make in our own image
– a “conceptual Jesus”
• this is a thoroughly constructed theology of Jesus
• our “Christology” becomes a perfect idea rather than a person
(see “The Idolatry of Ideas” in John Mackay’s, Christian Reality and Appearance (John Knox Press)
– a “political Jesus”
Francis Schaeffer warned Christians of this danger in 1971. He explained how promoters have used Jesus as a symbolic figurehead to influence and manipulate people. “Words like Jesus are separated from all reason and have no real base. So what is the word Jesus? A [banner without content] which men take and say, in effect, ‘Follow me on the basis of the motivational force of the word Jesus.’”
– an “my imaginary friend Jesus” (a slight twist of this is a “storybook Jesus”)

Conclusion: I worry that so many believers have lost their way

But we need to tend to our own garden
Let’s make certain we don’t fall for a knock-off Jesus
Let’s not settle for anything other than the original, one and only Lord Jesus Christ