Respecting God and Humanity

Proverbs 1: 20-33

Mark 8: 27-38
 

A little boy walked into class on the first day of school wearing a “Jesus loves me” bracelet on his wrist. When the other boys noticed, they laughed and pointed. The little boy felt ashamed because all of his friends thought he was a big dork for having a bracelet that let everyone know he went to church and loved Jesus. He took it off when no one was looking and hid it in his pocket so no one would laugh at him anymore. But when the boys noticed he had taken it off, they made fun of him even more. “Guess you really DON’T love Jesus, do you?!” the one boy sneered at him.

Upset, angry, and on the point of crying the boy ran into the bathroom and took the bracelet out of his pocket. He stared down at it for a second, crushed in his tiny, sweaty fist, and then angrily threw it into the toilet and flushed it down. He thought to himself, “Now no one will ever make fun of me again”, and he’d never again have to feel this way.

That little boy made a choice that day which would affect the rest of his life. He developed a disdain for people who went to church and loudly proclaimed to love Jesus. They drew attention to themselves and allowed others to make fun of them and they just kept talking about how much Jesus had done for them. He didn’t get it. Jesus allowed his friends to make fun of him when he just wore a bracelet. Why would these people let complete strangers belittle them and treat them so horribly? Was anything or anyone worth being treated so bad and feeling so awful about yourself? He couldn’t imagine Jesus would do the same thing for him.

There are thousands of people outside of these walls that have felt the same way. Perhaps you are one of them. Talking about going to church and attending Sunday school sometimes feels like a socially unacceptable thing to do. When we mention God or Jesus or faith, people seem to shut down on us. They begin to fidget and look away; they will pull out their phones or check their watches, say something inane and then change the subject. It always seems like they are thinking, “I can’t believe they brought that up.”

Such reactions are disheartening and after awhile, we put up barriers. We deliberately do not say anything about our faith and going to church, and we definitely don’t mention what we learned in Sunday school or something the pastor might have said during the sermon. If we want to keep our friends and not be considered strange or one of those crazy, fanatical Christians, we know that there are only certain people we can mention church too.

Today is Invite a Friend to Church day in many churches around the U.S. I have to wonder how many new people are going to attend. Unfortunately, not only are church-goers hesitant to bring up Jesus and invite a person to church, but getting a person to actually want to go is even harder than trying to talk about it. We come up with a thousand excuses not to mention Jesus or church, and this bible passage calls us out. It reveals our hesitancy, reminding us that we are not to feel ashamed about our love for Jesus Christ and if we are, then Jesus will surely have something to say about it.

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, but forfeit their soul?” That is the crux of it all. We may have a million friends because we hide a part of who we are, but in the meantime we lose a piece of our soul every time we ignore Jesus in favor of talking about anything else that will please the people we are with.

I mentioned a couple sermons ago that one of my very best friends does not believe in religion, but believes in God. Do you know that him and I talk more about God and AGREE than I do with some Christians? Sometimes we have arguments about my belief in Jesus, but I am proud to say I have never once belittled his faith. The point is to create a discussion, and if he didn’t live three thousand miles away, I know I could get him to come to this church once in awhile to hear what I have to say. We have created a place in our friendship where we are allowed to agree and disagree about God and our belief.

We all need that. We all need to be able to have people we can discuss our faith and belief with outside of these church walls. We need to be thinking about God more than just on a Sunday morning. God is with us every single moment of our lives, and yet we barely give God a moment throughout the week to be recognized. Too often we hide our faith in Jesus behind a laugh when someone makes a religious joke. We pretend that we don’t really believe that prayer changes things, when we have experienced it in our own lives. We talk about the ride we took on Sunday or the football game we watched, but not the great lesson our Sunday school teacher prepared that day.

“What can anyone give you in exchange for your soul?” There goes Jesus, once again asking the hard questions and making us realize where we have gone wrong. We only get one life to live. We only get so many moments where we may proudly proclaim ourselves to be God’s children. Some are little moments, but others are more momentous. Each of us has faced a time when we could choose God or we could choose to ignore God. We have times when we feel shame and fear to expose ourselves as Christians, especially in a hostile environment.  

I cannot help but think of the people killed in Libya a few days ago. They were killed because they were Americans and an American had made an awful video depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed as a violent, evil person who did despicable things to men, women, and children. It wasn’t right that the protestors of the video killed those four people. It also wasn’t right that a person would create such an awful video that they knew would cause chaos and anger and pain. There is so much distrust between Christians and Muslims that the actions of a few cause a world-wide ripple.

The Christian pastor that burns a Koran on September 11^th, and the Muslim leader who kills an American – there is an utter lack of respect for other people’s beliefs and thoughts and feelings. There is a lack of dignity being paid to each side. We are all human beings and God has created us all. Jesus reminds us that we are to love everyone and that includes not only the Christians of the world, but the Muslims and the Buddhists, and the atheists.

When we react with such hatred, anger, and fear toward other people, it is just another way of ignoring God and turning our back on what we are taught in church and Sunday school. It is easy to be angry and mistrustful – it’s much harder to be understanding and loving. Jesus tells us, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”  

There are times when we unconsciously show our shame and disdain for Jesus. For instance, when we pretend not to be an avid church-goer around our friends and acquaintances at work, when we hate other people with more passion than we love Jesus – we show shame in what we have been taught by God.

When we deliberately ignore all we know to be true, we disrespect our Lord and His teaching. We, like that little boy, put God in our pocket to hide Him and our faith from the world and there are times that we also throw God away so that we can act and feel and think in ways that we know Jesus would disapprove of.

God is not just for Sundays. Jesus loves you every day, every moment of the week. It is time we showed our love for God and others every day, and every moment of the week as well. It is time we respect all of humanity for God created us all in God’s image.

Amen.