"Disobeying Jesus"
a condensed version of the sermon delivered by Rev. Kirk Moore on Sunday, February 15, 2009 at Union Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Somonauk, Illinois.

PODCAST of "Disobeying Jesus"

Don’t Tell Anyone About This:

Jesus healed a man with a skin disease. This man was restored back to health, and he was warned by Jesus to keep quiet about the healing and to go to a priest so that he could be restored to the community – the community that he was outcast from because of his disease. The man didn’t listen. He went out and started telling anyone who would listen, "I’ve been healed! I’ve been healed! Jesus healed me!"

But Jesus told him not to say anything to anyone.

So did the man, who was healed of his skin disease, and then proclaimed it freely, mess things up for Jesus?

This week’s Bible reading kind of says that. It says that Jesus couldn’t openly go into the towns anymore – and instead he stayed out in the country. Other places in the Bible we know say that folks still found him – when Jesus was hiding – when Jesus was trying to be out in the outskirts people would gather to hear him speak . . . to ask that he would heal them.

So, I have a question:

• Do you think that this man was the only one who talked?
• Do you think that he was the only one who knew of Jesus’ healings or had experienced them personally?
• Do you think that Jesus really expected folks to keep quiet about the stuff that was going on when they were healed?

I don’t either.

Do you think there’s more to this story than meets the eye?

(You’re not nodding – you’re just looking at me – as if to be mesmerized by my dulcet tones.)

Yeah - I do, too.

"Show Yourself to the priest," Jesus said.

Why would he say that?

"Go through the proper channels so that you can be restored." And the man didn’t go through the proper channels.

Why do you think he didn’t go through the proper channels?

Was he so excited to be healed that he was bubbling over – "I’ve gotta tell somebody!"

But eventually he’d go to the priest, wouldn’t he? He’d say "I’ll tell everyone – and then I’ll go to the priest and be restored."

But there’s no indication that he went to the priest. He just talked about it and talked about it. He didn’t go through the right channels.

Why not?

Could it be that the priest, who had pronounced him ‘unclean’ had judged him . . . had cast him out . . . had made it so that he was not a part of the club? Made it so that he was cast out – he was on the fringe.

Why would you go to the person who threw you out to show that now you can come back in?

"I wanna join your club now – because look – I’m OK. I’m so sad that you kicked me out of your club, but I really like you and I want to be a part of your club."

No – he didn’t do that – He was more likely to say "You kicked me out of the club."

"I’m not going to go to the person who kicked me out – I’m just going to tell people that I’ve been healed. Look – I don’t have a skin disease anymore.

The priest failed this man.

The Bible is clear here – about the Pharisees and about the priests and how they failed the people and that Jesus came to set things right.

But it seems that we are still in an age where we fail people all the time.

There’s a writer named David Kinnamon. He’s the president of the Barna Group. One of the polls that the Barna Group did started off with qualitative research that said, "Give us your impressions of the Church." And then people would write stuff down.

That was it – there weren’t any leading questions: Just "Tell us about Christianity."

Then they took those answers and they made more of a check off survey – agree or disagree to statements about Christianity.

So David Kinnamon and his writing partner Gabe Lyons took the results from this survey and wrote a book called unChristian.

Did I tell you that the people surveyed in this poll were people who are outside the church {atheists, agnostics, those affiliated with a faith other than Christianity (such as Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Mormonism, and so on), and other unchurched adults.}?

What do folks outside the church think of the church? What do folks outside of Christianity think of Christianity?

So – the tagline for the book . . . It didn’t come out so well for Christians.

"Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong."

Because the statistics that are reported say that

• In 1996, 85 percent of young outsiders were favorable toward Christianity

In more recent results:

• 38 percent have a bad impression.

The three most common impressions of Christianity by young folks outside:

• Christians are antihomosexual (91 percent)
• Christians are judgmental (87 percent)
• Christians are hypocritical (85 percent)

Top positive impression:

Christianity teaches the same basic idea as other religions (81 percent)

The man who was healed told his story.

He told everyone who would listen that he had been healed. He didn’t go to the authorities because the church had failed him.

And I fear that one of the reasons that Christianity is a shrinking religion in the US is that we have failed people.

It is thought that the reason Christianity grew in Europe and in the United States is that the people who stayed behind during plagues. . . there were two kinds who stayed behind:

1. The hospital workers who really felt a desire to help people.
2. People who didn’t have enough money or were too weak – they were just abandoned there.

And not everyone who was abandoned died

Many of the people who cared for them were Christians who cared for them out of a love for God and for neighbor.

So when they got better – and a lot of people got better—all they really needed was bed rest and care to get better. They survived and asked, "Why did you help us?"

"We thought it was the right thing to do. God says to love God and our neighbor."

"I want to be a part of that!"

And nowadays the impression of the church is "Anything but that!"

But we know that Christianity teaches that – Christianity says, "It’s time to love God and to love our neighbor.

And we fail at doing that all the time.

I know God forgives us when we fail. But I wish we were as bold as the man telling his story. And I wish that we were also the place that he wanted to go to tell the story of being healed – because he didn’t feel like he was cast out or rejected by us.

Yes – we have Hansen’s disease nowadays. It’s treatable. We go to the hospital and nobody is cast out of their church for having a skin rash.

But we have plenty of other reasons why we cast people out – whether we know it or not.

Whether I preach about a radical inclusivity or not – we have ways that we cast people out – that we make people feel unwelcome. And when people who feel unwelcome finally find a reason . . . "I’ve been healed!" They don’t go back to the place that rejected them.

Maybe someone would out of spite. "Ha! I’m fine now and you didn’t help!"

Christianity has an image problem. We have created our image problem.

We can blame the movies and other media all we want.

But Christianity has an image problem that we’ve created by being judgmental and hypocritical.

I don’t even know if I’m going to go into the antihomosexual one. That’s a hot button topic – even in the UCC. Here in our congregation we’ve got folks on all sides of that one.

Let me just say this. Remember that a person who is gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual is a person.

That’s it – they’re a person.

(I get emotional because this is a big issue for me because of people I know in my family who have felt rejected, and people I care deeply about who break down an orientation into an issue and say, "You can’t be that way.")

And I hang out in circles that are more mainline or more liberal and I hang out in circles that are more conservative and more fundamentalist – and sometimes we have great conversations, but all the time it still boils down to the issue – and we forget about people.

GLBT seem to be the modern-day lepers. Because they can’t get clean . . . according to the church. There’s no way.

So here’s a challenge for this week. Pay attention to these things:

One is being bold in telling our story -- that’s a little reversal from what I’ve been talking about back to the man who was healed. God has done great things in our lives and we have reasons to share it.

But then on the other side:

• Think of only positive things about any GLBT folks you know.

Every person is worthy of God’s love and every person is worthy of good thoughts

Then think of anyone in your neighborhood -- especially people that you don’t like.

Only positive things.

• Stop from judging a person before you judge.

This is one that is difficult for me. I want to say, as it relates to GLBT stuff – "Those fundamentalists don’t get it and I hate them for doing that!" It’s easy for me to judge.

Remember that every person is a person – not an issue.

• Don’t be hypocritical. I don’t have any magic way to do that. Just don’t be hypocritical.

Those are three things we can take from being negative to being positive.

Additionally, let’s do this:

• Start thinking about and writing down your story.
• Where have you been? Where are you now? Where are you going?
• What is it that is helping you to grow in your faith?
• What is it that you’d like to share about your faith with someone else?
• How does your church help you to grow in faith?
• How does God speak in your daily life?

(Take a look at ucc.org/calledbyname for more ideas and questions to ponder)

As Christians, we do have a publicity problem. We have an image problem.

But God has given us a richness of blessing and an ability to make a difference in the world.

When we pray for peace – do you think that God ever says?

"Okay – now go do something about it"

When we pray for the hungry do you think God says,

"Go get some food and give it to a hungry person."

Little whispers as God speaks to us . . .

It is time to help change perceptions. It’s time to share a positive story. It’s time to do what the man who was healed did. He disobeyed Jesus. Oh that we would be so bold in telling our story.

Close with prayer.

© 2009 Union Congregational Church, All Rights Reserved