Message: One Prayer Lord, Make Us Salty (Distribute bags with two crackers in them as people come in.) Are any of you aware that this is a presidential election year? (Pause.) As of yesterday, we know for sure who the democratic candidate for office will be. Senator Clinton officially ended her candidacy and endorsed Senator Barack Obama. On a side note I am proud of this moment in our country s history where women and African Americans are being considered for the presidency of the United States. That s encouraging. Senator Obama s challenger on the Republican side is Senator John McCain. Near the end of last year, Senator McCain was doing an interview with beliefnet.com, where he made the following comment: "The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation. He clarified that it is a country that welcomes all people to its shores, but that it is a Christian country. Wow! Did that ever create a stir! By the way, if you have a party or family gathering that s gotten a little boring or stale, here s how you can fix it. Have everyone around the table or room answer whether they think the USA is a Christian nation and why. For extra fun, you might want to have some boxing gloves handy! Or you may wish to go online and do a google search on the question: is America a Christian nation. Check out a few sites that come up, and you ll get a feel for the kind of passion that this question raises. So, what do you think? I actually considered having you share your answer with the person next to you, but I decided against it, and not for the reasons you re thinking. I decided against it, not because it could cause a riot, but because it would be a waste of time. For one, no one know exactly what a Christian nation is anyway. Secondly, the question is a bit of a tossup; you can make a pretty strong case either way. But the third reason why it would be a waste of time is this: It s the wrong question. The right question is this: Does Jesus even want the U.S. to be a Christian nation? Does God want His followers to make their countries Christians countries? I believe the right answer is NO. God wants something far better and greater. God has a wish for his church, for His followers. He wants a different kind of nation. God describes His dream for this nation in 1 Peter 2: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (The Bible, 1 Peter 2:9-12 NIV)
To his church, God says. You are a chosen people; you are adopted into the family of God. You are wanted; you are chosen; God chose you. You are a royal priesthood. You are free to offer spiritual sacrifices to God: thanks, praise, generosity, obedience, surrender. Once people in darkness, you are now in the light. Once under judgment, you are now under mercy. Then he says this: You are a holy nation. What is this holy nation? This is not a reference to the U.S. or to Saudi Arabia. This nation isn t a country with national boundaries; it is a different kind of nation altogether. Some of you will have to forgive me for this analogy, but the nation he refers to is something like Red Sox nation. (Yankee fans, please stay with me here; I m not trying to make us a Red Sox church. I m just trying to make a point.) What is this Red Sox nation? Some of you may never have heard of it. It is a term used to describe the people who are devoted followers of the Red Sox, people who love everything Big Papi, Manny Ramirez, and Daisuke Matsuzaka. It is made up of all kinds of people. If you go on the Red Sox website, you can become an official member of Red Sox nation. People all over the world are a part of this nation. There are official members in more than 45 countries: Venezuela, Singapore, Finland. There has been a significant surge lately in Japan! Red Sox nation isn t a country; it s a people, people with a passion for everything Red Sox. This holy nation that God speaks of is not a country; it s a people, a people with a passion for everything Jesus. It is the growing group of people being radically changed by the grace and love and power of the King, Jesus Christ. The term Jesus used often was the kingdom of heaven. It is the people worldwide who have turned to Jesus as their king. You could perhaps call it Jesus nation. It is made up of people in countries worldwide: Venezeula, Singapore, Finland, Japan, and even the U.S. It is people who have moved from the darkness of emptiness, loneliness, and guilt to the light of love, peace, and hope. God wants His kingdom to grow like wildfire on American soil, on African soil, on Asian soil. Our calling is not to make America Christian but to call Americans (and people of every nationality) into this amazing, life-altering, hope-giving kingdom of heaven. There is a big difference. Our focus in not on our national identity, but our kingdom identity. We have a national identity which is great but God highlights our kingdom identity. By its very nature, it unites people across ethnic boundaries. We are called to be a unique people in our world. God wants more and more people each day to be a part of this Jesus nation. Why isn t this happening more in our part of the world? Why aren t more people moving from the darkness to the light? Why does darkness seem to be gaining? This is a pivotal question. I hear all kinds of answers to this question. A letter in my mailbox claims that the darkness comes from non-believing university professors. Someone tells me it s those activist Supreme Court justices. A televangelist insists that it is homosexual activists. Some radio talk show host says that it is liberal democrats.
Jesus, however, point to an entirely different group of people who intensify the darkness in our world. Here s what Jesus says to His followers: "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (The Bible, Matthew 5:13-16 NIV) Who is the cause of increasing darkness in our world? If I hear Jesus correctly, it is His followers. For our purposes today, it is those of us in this room. You see, darkness doesn t have its own power. Darkness cannot intensify on its own. What would cause the darkness in this room to increase? Let s find out. (Have the tech team dim the main auditorium lights to near blackout.) What did our lighting staff do? They dimmed the lights. They didn t turn up the darkness intensifier switch. There isn t a darkness switch. There s only a light switch. I m telling you what you already know: darkness only increases as light diminishes. So, if the darkness in our country or world is increasing, why is it? It s because the light is fading; the light is covered up. It is because followers of Jesus like us are not as bright as we ought to be. Using the second analogy of Jesus, it s because we aren t salty enough. We are too bland. I want you to do something for me. I want you to open the clear plastic bag, pull out the unsalted cracker inside, and take a bite. How s that for taste, huh? Yummy, right? Not so much, at least not for me. What s the point of an unsalted cracker? It s just blah; it s bland. It s something I just want to chuck. Well, that s what Jesus says about unsalty Christians; people just want to chuck them. Jesus says that it s possible for His followers to be bland, uncompelling, and without influence. Part of the reason our world is dark is because we aren t as bright as we ought to be, because we aren t as salty as we ought to be. Which leads us to a second critical question: How do we increase our saltiness? How do we intensify our light? What do you think? This is a huge question and I caution you not to answer too quickly. We have this tendency to offer quick answers, be it the answers we ve heard all our lives or the answer of someone we respect. One of the quick and pat answers I hear most frequently is this: We ve got to speak out more boldly about sin. We need to name specific sins and call people out. The theme seems to be: We re not saying enough or we re not loud enough. We need to talk more about how sinful people are. Being brighter lights means talking more about sin.
I know people mean well, but this is not the answer Jesus gives at all. In fact, he is very specific about what it means to shine a brighter light. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. You shine your light by living out the heart and ways of Jesus more fully, by loving others as you love yourself, by serving people. You do it before men, meaning basically among people. You don t distance yourself from people; you spend time with them and passionately and sacrificially live out the heart and ways of Jesus. Peter says the exact same thing. It s clear that he s saying what he heard Jesus say. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Among non-believers. Here s the same theme. Don t distance yourself from others who don t call themselves Christians. This, I m afraid, is one of the dangers of the God wants America to be a Christian nation thinking. It tends to create this unhealthy us-them mentality that sees people who aren t Christians as enemies. I ve gotten forwarded e-mails from Christians, e-mails claiming America is a Christian country and that atheists or muslims or liberals can just get out if they don t like it. I don t know whether to cry or pound my fist. That s the same tragic twisted thinking behind the Crusades: follow our Jesus or else get out. That s not the dream of Jesus, to guilt or coerce or threaten people to Jesus. What kind of nation would that be? If people are ever going to come to know and trust and praise the remarkable God Who loves deeply broken people, they are going to have to be deeply loved by His children. It s God s heart that they see how God can radically change deeply broken people like you and like me. So, God says: Live such good lives among the unbelievers. What does that mean? It means doing what Judy Lawson did. She was a believer in Jesus involved in her church, involved in prison ministry. Life was going along pretty well until she got word that her son was dead. He had been killed by a guy named Richard Wine, who was sentenced to life in prison. Her anger toward Richard Wine was consuming, but she came to a point where she knew that she must forgive him. As a part of that, she sent him a letter in prison telling him that God could forgive him and that she was praying for him. He read it and threw it away, but she kept sending letter after letter after letter. That s a bright light. That is compelling saltiness that soaks deeply into people s hearts. So, it s unthinkable forgiveness. Astounding generosity Staggering acceptance Costly sacrifice Deep gratitude Pervasive hope
Uncompromising integrity Humble teachability Non-condescending serving Unconditional love Non-judgmental grace Racial unity Being a brighter or more visible light is not yelling more loudly about sin. It is not pointing out the sins in others more; it s turning from our own sinful desires more. It s not about avoiding broken people more; it s about loving people more people who are almost as messed up as we are. That s what it means to be brighter; that s what it means to be saltier. When we live this way, what happens? People around us are impressed by God. They thank Him. They consider Him. Remember Richard Wine, the murderer? Unsettled by those gracious letters from Judy Lawson, he began to read the Bible. He began to believe he could be forgiven, and he turned his heart over to God. And Jesus nation grew by one more person. When we radically love and follow Jesus, not only does the light increase, it spreads. When we radically love and follow Jesus, not only does our saltiness increase, the salt increases. Our world gets closer to its original glory and the kingdom of God spreads and advances. And we get one step closer to the grand dream of God, that all would come to Him to find hope and peace and life. That friends, is my one prayer: That we would be gracious, non-judgmental, generous, honest, forgiving, authentic, sacrificial, people who compel people to deeply love and praise God. Lord, please make us salty. Reflection Here is the interesting thing: You can help answer my prayer. You can help make the dream of God a reality. You can become saltier. If you d like, I ask you to take out that salty cracker. As you eat a piece of it, I want you to ask God where you need to live out his heart more fully, more deeply, more radically. (Reflection time) East Hampton Bible Church