So, You Call Yourself A Christian But Are You A Poser?
Text: John 8:46-59
In the
name of Jesus: Amen.
I have
a confession to make. One of my favorite hats to wear while working outside is
my Boston Red Sox hat. When I wear it out in public and am asked if I am a Red
Sox fan, I will typically respond that I am. However, here is the confession: I
have only been to Fenway Park in Boston once, and I have not watched the Red
Sox play on TV in the last 8-10 years.
In fact, I have no idea who their manager is, and if you were to read
their players to me, they would all be foreign to my ears – their names would
sound strange. And if I heard the Red Sox
fan chant, it would be unfamiliar to me.
So, with that said, am I a Boston Red Sox fan? The answer is no! I’m a poser!
I am a fake! I am a wannabe! If I say that I am a fan, well, let’s be
honest, I would be lying because Red Sox fans follow the Red Sox, watch the Red
Sox, and know the Red Sox. A poser, like
me, does not!
And
yet, there is this temptation with all of us to have our cake and eat it too,
as they say. As a poser, we all try to fit into certain profiles to play a
part. We work so hard to convince
ourselves that we are one thing when, in reality, we really are another. We see this so clearly from our reading in
the Gospel of John.
In
John’s Gospel, Jesus was debating a hostile Jewish crowd. This Jewish crowd were not a bunch of Red Sox
fans but were indeed a bunch of posers.
That is to say, the hostile Jewish crowd was convinced that they
belonged to the house of God. They were arguing with Jesus adamantly that they
were descendants of Abraham, making them children of God. Now, that sounds fine and dandy on the
surface; however, in reality, and as already mentioned, they were posers. They
were fakes. They were wannabes. They
were liars.
You
see, if they were children of God, they would not have only loved Jesus but listened
to Him as well. The reason being, Jesus and
the Father are one. Jesus did not come
on a mission of His own with his scheming and devising, but God the Father sent
Him. And so, because Jesus and the
Father are one, that Jewish crowd could not say that they were children of God while
simultaneously rejecting Jesus. They could
not have it both ways unless they were posers.
Dear
friends, unfortunately, this same phenomenon exists today. 65% of Americans polled recently state that
they identify themselves as Christians.
However, as we have learned, that does not mean much of anything. You see, we must keep in mind that many
individuals will call themselves Christians but will do so because of all sorts
of reasons. For example, you may call
yourself a Christian because that is what is expected from your family and
spouse. The family pressure may be so intense to be a Christian that not calling
yourself a Christian will exclude you from Grandma’s Christmas dinner. Or, perhaps you may call yourself a Christian
because the church is a way for you to promote your business – you know, attend
church on Sunday to get business on Monday.
Or, maybe you call yourself a Christian due to the good name
Christianity has or because your friends call themselves Christians as
well. The point being, there are many reasons
why a person calls themselves a Christian – finances, votes, donations, social
status, family, peer pressure, and so forth.
Now regardless of the exact reason given, the fact remains, none of
these explanations are legitimate reasons why you and I are a Christian. Being a Christian has nothing to do with your
status, gender, ability, heritage, nationality, or accomplishments, but it has
everything to do with listening to Jesus.
And
so, if you call yourself a Christian because that is what is expected of you,
yet you refuse to listen to Jesus, well… repent, you are a poser. If you call yourself a Christian to prop up
your business, yet your ears are closed to Jesus’s Word, repent, you are a
wannabe. If you call yourself a
Christian because that is who your friends are while refusing to listen to
Jesus, repent, you are a fake. If you
call yourself a Christian and come to church twice a year for sentimental,
nostalgic reasons, while Jesus’ Word is strange and unfamiliar to your ears,
repent, you are lying to yourself.
Now, with
that said, just in case you are among those clever individuals who claim to be
a Christian while starting every spiritual conversation with, “Well, my Jesus certainly would not do that.” Or, “the
Jesus that I follow is certainly not into that,” beware for you are not
very clever but are playing with the same fire that the Jewish crowd played
with some 2000 years ago. If you can
recall in our Gospel reading, the Jewish crowd wanted to claim all the rights
and privileges of being God’s children while simultaneously rejecting God’s
Word. They rejected Jesus because they
did not like what they heard from Him. And
the same thing happens today when we want to maintain the label of Christian
but do not like what Jesus Himself is saying.
And so, what happens is that we reject the real and Biblical Jesus to create
a pretend Jesus in our minds – a pretend Jesus to prop up our pretend Christian
faith. It is a dark and dangerous
game. As a result, we not only become a
poser like those first-century Jews but cut ourselves off from the Lord and
align ourselves with the devil himself. And
to make things worse, when we are confronted about our idolatry and poser games,
well, we get just as angry as those first-century people and pick up rocks to
throw at anyone who would dare challenge our religious make-believe-land.
Dear
friends, please listen! Being a child of
God is not about being a pseudo-fake-pretend Christian. Being a member of God’s house is not about
being a poser. Being a Christian is not
about being a Christian in name only. But
instead, being a Christian means that you are one that listens to God’s Word. Being a Christian is to be a hearer of Jesus’
Word.
What
is really at the heart of today’s Gospel reading is the Third Commandment. We are being shown that we should not neglect
the preaching and teaching of the Word while claiming to be Christian in name
only. But instead, we should hold God’s
Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
But what does this mean more specifically? It means that hearing the Word will indeed
make our posing hearts uncomfortable. It
means that Jesus’ Word will challenge our fake games. The Lord has power in His Word, and that Word
shreds our lies and shapes and forms us – often different than the going trends
of culture. Indeed, the Word – the
teaching and breath of Jesus - is sometimes painful for us to hear, but make no
mistake; it is also good.
Being
a Christian means that as you listen to the Word, you are continually being
brought to a conviction of sin. Through
God’s Words of Law, you are shown where you have erred. The Word breaks through our foolish facades
and misguided-fairytales-of-pretend-comfort to show us where we have believed
the lies of the evil one.
Being
a Christian, means that you are given ears to hear. And so, hear this: through God’s forgiveness,
life, and salvation, you are not a poser, a fake, or a wannabe. You are Baptized and declared a Saint – a
Saint who belongs not to lies but to Christ. Hear this and hear it often, through
the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ you are not a poser but a Christian
– one who belongs to Jesus. You are one
whom Christ died for, and considered it worthwhile.
As a Baptized
Saint, you have been given ears to hear; therefore, hear the Word of God,
accept the rebukes from Jesus’ Word when sin has been committed, and most
important of all, hear the Gospel. Yes,
hear the Gospel and hear it often, and don’t let go of it, for the Gospel is a medicine
against eternal death.
And as
you continually hear, receive, and cling to the Word, know that the Promises of
Jesus cannot fail you but the Word is the sure and secure promises of the great
‘I Am.’ And the great ‘I Am’ (who is
Jesus) cannot be conquered by death, which means that you will not be conquered
by eternal death as well.
Blessed
Baptized Saints, posers do not listen to the Word, but you do and have this
day. Do not waver and never stop
listening to the Word for the Word is for you.
You are captive to the Word. The
Promises of God keep you from eternal death.
You are forgiven; salvation is yours; you have life in Christ, because Jesus
bled, died, rose…because He says, it is so.
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