When he
was a young man,
Mohandas Gandhi read the Gospels.
He
studied the life and teachings of Jesus,
and he said “Sign me up.”
Gandhi
found everything about Jesus compelling.
But he
rejected Christianity, he said,
because of Christians.
The
humility, the compassion, and the beauty
he read about in Jesus, he did not see
in Christians.
Instead
of leading people to Jesus,
Christians
blocked his path.
Like
the disciples telling the parents
to keep their children away,
Christians discredited Christ in Gandhi’s eyes.
The
business of Christians is simple.
We show Jesus to people
–
not just tell people about Jesus.
We show
people Jesus.
If we
show them a true picture of Jesus and they say
“count me out” – then that’s on them.
But if
we don’t show them Jesus – or worse yet –
if we show them a false picture of
Jesus,
then we have a lot to answer
for.
The
vast majority of people in Nevada have no ties to any faith community.
Christians
make up a small minority.
Episcopalians
are less than a fifth of 1% of the population.
Nationally
the number of Christians is decreasing
while the number of people with no
religious convictions,
not even atheism, is on the rise.
The
Jesus we are showing people isn’t getting much traction.
And
that’s ok. If people say “no” to Jesus, that’s ok.
But
only if we have told the truth about Jesus.
St.
Paul says that we as the Church
are the Body of Christ on earth.
We are
the continuing incarnation.
500 years ago in Spain, St. Theresa of Avila said,
“Christ has no body now but yours,
no hands, no feet on earth but
yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks
compassion on this world.”
The
saying goes:
“You may be the only gospel someone ever reads.”
When people see St. Paul’s, Elko,
what each of you does in daily life,
and especially what all of you do as a
group in this community,
that’s the picture of Jesus
you are painting.
The
picture of Jesus most of us are painting isn’t popular
and that’s ok -- so long as it’s true.
But if
we have misrepresented Christ to the world,
that’s a big problem.
So who
is this Christ we are to represent?
The
more I study about the historical Jesus,
and the more I study the Gospels,
the clearer it gets that Jesus really
and truly meant
what he said in today’s
lesson.
After
this Baptism, as he began his mission,
he told us straight out what he was
doing.
It
isn’t subtle or vague. He said:
“The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the
poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to
the captives
and recovery of sight to the
blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor.”
We are the
Church because the same Spirit
that filled Jesus at his baptism filled the Church on Pentecost,
enters our hearts at our Baptism,
and is renewed in our lives
every time we receive Holy Communion.
The Spirit of
the Lord is upon us
because he has anointed us
to bring good news to the
poor.
He has sent us to proclaim release to
the captives
and recovery of sight to the
blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor.”
That’s what it
means to be the Body of Christ on earth.
That’s our
mission in the world.
If we are not
doing that mission in the world
and in our local communities,
if we are not helping and speaking out
for the poor and hurting, the outcast
and lost,
then we are not telling the
truth about Jesus.
Recent surveys
asked16 to 29 year olds the top words
they would use to describe Christians.
91% said ant-homosexual,
87% said judgmental,
85% said hypocritical,
76% said old fashioned.
Does that sound
like the Jesus in today’s lesson?
Does it sound
like the Sermon on the Mount?
Does it sound
like the Jesus who fed the hungry,
healed the sick, forgave the guilty,
and stood up to the rich and
the powerful?
After my mission
trip last year,
I met a young man at the luggage repair shop.
He asked me what
I had been doing in Kenya.
I told him about
our church’s work to save young women
from genital mutilation and forced
marriages.
He said, “Where
is your church? That’s a church I’d go to.”
When I went to
help clean up a community center in Las Vegas,
several young people said, “Where is
your church?
If you’re here, we want to be
there.”
I went to
community organizing training in Texas this year.
All of us trainees
who were over 50 were church folks.
The ones under
30 were not.
But two of them
said, each in their own way,
“if I’d known Christians like the
ones here
I’d still be in the Church.
In fact, I’m going to give it another
try.”
Last year, I
struck up a conversation with a young sales rep
for Cox Communications.
I told her about
our work with Nevadans for the Common Good
to combat child sex trafficking.
She said, “I’d
like to get involved.”
So I sent her to
one of our churches to help.
I told them she
was coming.
I asked them to
help her get involved.
They ran her out
of there in no time flat.
They thought she
was trying to take their money from fellowship dinners
and use it to rescue children from modern slavery.
So they ran her
out.
Is that telling
the truth about Jesus?
On the other
hand, last Monday,
St. Catherine’s congregation visited a
homeless shelter
to teach people how to use crock pots.
The homeless
people saw that. But they weren’t the only ones.
The next day, it
was in the Reno Gazette-Journal,
because when Jesus shows up, that’s
news.
If we show
people the Jesus we see in today’s Gospel
and they reject him, that’s on them.
But if the Jesus
we show unchurched people
just goes to meeting on Sunday
morning
for feel good worship and fellowship,
and they say “I’ve got better things to
do”
then, brothers and sisters,
that’s on us.
Today we are
baptizing and confirming.
We are making
Christians.
They are taking
vows and we are taking vows with them.
We are making a
serious life commitment.
We are
undertaking to be the Body of Christ on earth.
We give our
hands to be his hands,
our feet to be his feet,
our eyes to be the eyes with which he
looks
compassion on this world.
