Becoming Christian

John Wesley famously preached a sermon entitled, “The Almost Christian.” Kevin Watson summarized that sermon as follows: “While an almost Christian lives an outwardly Christian life in every way, an altogether Christian adds to this love for God and neighbor, and genuine faith (trust and confidence) in God’s love for them through the merits of Jesus Christ.” (“John Wesley’s Sermon “The Almost Christian” A Brief Summary”) It is that second point that jumps out at me as key to understanding the first of that sentence. To be a Christian requires we evidence love for God and for neighbor as our highest priority.

Wesley was well familiar with people who went through the motions of expressing the Christian faith. He saw people going to church. He saw people preaching and listening to preaching. He saw and heard people praying and reading the Bible. He watched people participating in the sacraments of the church, in worship, and wearing the sign of the cross or other religious symbols. He also knew that many of the same people did not exhibit a life that was in any visible way transformed by the love of God as expressed in Christ Jesus.

It recalls Isaiah’s opening words, “Bring your worthless offerings no more, your incense is detestable to me,… your appointed feasts … have become a burden to me. Though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are filled with blood. … Stop doing evil! Learn to do right. Seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:13-17) Jeremiah has the same basic message, “From the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain… Your burnt offerings are not acceptable to me, nor your sacrifices pleasing to Me.” (Jeremiah 6:13, 20.) Amos repeats the essence of this message, “I despise your feasts! … Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen… But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:21-24.)

What Wesley was getting at is that going to church does not make one a Christian. Wearing a cross, singing Christian lyrics, wielding the name of Jesus to justify our actions, claiming God’s blessings and promises, and attributing good things to God does not make on a Christian. A Christian is one who actually follows the example of Jesus. For Isaiah and Amos, that meant working for justice, more specifically, economic justice for the poor, the landless, the immigrant, the stranger, the ones with no claim to land, the ones who had no recourse to plead their case in court. For Jeremiah, it was the basic sin of greed that claimed the heart of the nation and turned it from God’s requirements of economic justice for all.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Micah, and others point to justice as the essential expression of this love. God’s creation was designed to meet the needs of all creatures. It was designed for abundance. From our earliest histories, however, we have treated this abundance as precarious. We have deigned ourselves of greater importance than others. We have relegated others to a second plane of importance and share in the abundant provisions of God. We have adopted the sin of Sodom, considering that we are more worthy than those beyond our circle. Rather than sharing God’s blessings with them, we would rather mistreat them to demonstrate our superiority.

A lot of what passes for Christianity today sounds much more like Sodom than like following in the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus was interested in healing people at no charge. Jesus was interested in feeding people simply because they were hungry. Jesus was interested in the forgiveness of debts. Jesus was interested in welcoming even those we would consider an enemy people. Jesus was interested in setting aside the very definition of enemy as irrelevant, loving them instead. Jesus was interested in shifting our perception of God to One who loves all of creation unconditionally.

That’s not what I hear is so much of what passes for “Christian” radio. It’s not what I hear from voices seeking to wield political power to advance their religious priorities and positions on this and other nations. It’s not what I see in those who take to the streets to protest communities they hold as anathema. It’s not what I see in those seeking to ban books, curtail parameters for education, and restrict the autonomy of persons outside their circles. That’s because nothing in the gospel of Jesus teaches us to treat others as less than ourselves, to push our agenda on others, or to condemn those who do not follow in our band.

What it means to be a Christian is to shift our focus from power to love. It means shifting from greed to generosity. It means shifting from navel-gazing to recognizing the needs of those whose life experience is far beyond our understanding. It means setting aside condemnation to embrace everyone we encounter as a precious child of God, whether they know it or not. It means inviting Judas to the table and washing his feet along with the others. It means echoing Jesus’ words, “I do not condemn you.” It means loving one and all as God has first loved us. When will we become worthy to bear the name Christian?

— ©Copyright 2023, Christopher B. Harbin 

http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

My latest books  can be found here on Amazon