Have you noticed how many different US & THEM mindsets there are in the world today?
There are many ways to set ourselves up in US & THEM categories aren’t there! Where we’re from, what language we speak, skin colour and race, age and education, faith and religion, even differences between and within Christian denominations as we know. Also politics, who we vote for, sports as well > AFL people and NRL people, the biggest ever ‘Q Clash’ was on last night, pitting the Brisbane Lions and the Gold Coast Suns against each other! Maybe Broncos vs Dolphins or Titans or State of Origin are ones you might be more invested in…
The theme coming out of the next 3 weeks is this mindset that we can find ourselves with in church > this US & THEM mindset, this CHURCH & WORLD, CHRISTIAN & NON-CHRISTIAN, BELIEVER & NON-BELIEVER mindset. This is how we can categorise people, we might do it consciously or sub-consciously. Not only in church, happens in all spheres of life!
In church we can even take this distinction, this separation further where it becomes US versus THEM, CHURCH versus THE WORLD, CHRISTIAN versus NON-CHRISTIAN, we can think it’s US against THE WORLD as we do church in our current context.
A question to start with:
We might have an understanding of what church is and what it’s meant to be, but if we step out of our own shoes for a moment and into someone else’s, what does THE WORLD have to say about church, how is the church perceived, how are we perceived as church-going people, by the outside world?? That’s one question, have you ever thought about this?
Another question:
Do you ever feel like it’s US against THE WORLD in terms of church vs everyone else? I think we do feel that sometimes – If you do, what makes you feel that way?
Is that actually a good position to work from though?
Let’s see what Jesus has to say about these things…
John 17:15, 16, 18 – ‘My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it… As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.’
John 14:27 – ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’
2 key things here in John’s gospel > we are IN the world not OF the world, and Jesus does not give as the world gives. Putting these verses together, is there an US & THEM mindset or is there something else going on here…
In our gospel reading (Luke 15) we hear about a ‘man who eats with sinners,’ isn’t that terrible! Who would do that, why would you do that? > These are the sorts of questions the religious leaders have of Jesus, not only questioning but accusing him of doing the wrong thing.
This same man speaks about REJOICING over a sinner who repents, saying there is more rejoicing to be done over one repenting sinner than there is over 99 righteous people who do not need to repent…
It’s funny I saw an interpretation of who Jesus is during the week, from the editor of a magazine I get email newsletters from > this is a magazine about music, culture & skateboarding by the way.. This editor has just turned 30, so they are thinking about their life so far and they say this:
‘Christ was 33 when he died which means I’ve only got three more years to be as culturally impactful as he was, which is a time-crunch that my aging shoulders can certainly feel the pressure of, especially in this position as a mere Editor in Chief of an international culture magazine. If I’m going to be remembered as vigorously and ferociously as that guy was, I need to start following in his footsteps [here’s the interesting/maybe controversial part!] I need to hang out with more prostitutes, destroy more centres of commerce, and drink more wine… but most of all I need to repent.’
What do you think of that?!
This editor comes up with all sorts of wild and wacky stuff in their emails, but this one is a very interesting take on the person of Jesus > and I don’t think this editor would expect a pastor to be picking up on what they’ve said let alone referring to it on Sunday in church!
I can say I’ve had an element of the same thoughts here, as in I’ve just turned 34 so I’m now older than Jesus was in his earthly ministry > for me that’s a new one, don’t know if you’ve had a similar experience over the journey but interesting the ways we might try to measure up to Jesus, or to other people we’ve known, what age were they when they did this/did that for example.
And the other part that stands out here is the things Jesus did > is this editor on the right track? The company Jesus kept aka sinners, that time he went into the temple and was not happy with it being used as a marketplace, and of course everyone talks about how he turned water in wine (but we don’t know how much he drank of it, if any! That’s not the point).
The ‘repenting’ part is also really interesting! That people know about the repenting part – the turning back to God to ask his forgiveness part – is a sign of the impact of Christianity across our culture and society that is still very much there. People DO know about some of this stuff, even if they don’t go to church or believe in any of it, it’s still part of the culture, there’s a lingering impact of Christianity outside of the church in our world today. Might be negative associations out there, maye some positive… Definitely something for us to work with!
Let’s check what we know about repentance > what does it mean to repent? The Hebrew sense is to ‘return,’ and the Greek sense is ‘rethink,’ so we can take it to mean to turn back to God in heart, mind, body and soul, and what’s the result of this? Not REBUKE but REJOICING, that’s what Jesus says > he REJOICES over those who repent, those who turn back to him, and that means we can REJOICE too! When we repent, we turn back to our heavenly Father who loves us and forgive us, of course we get some REJOICING too, not REBUKING but REJOICING. There is JOY in repentance – have you ever thought about it like that?
Here we can see Jesus ‘welcomes sinners,’ but he doesn’t leave them that way! A repentant sinner goes to Jesus and becomes a forgiven child, by grace through faith, a serious transformation that goes on there. No small thing, a transformation WORTH REJOICING about!
So we can see that parts of the world do actually know a bit about this Jesus guy – maybe not entirely accurate but there is some knowledge, some awareness! They know a bit about what happens at church, they know a bit about what a Christian is > but what do WE – as people in church – what do WE know about the world?? That’s a very interesting question.
There’s an important dynamic we need to be aware of here, when we think about US & THEM in terms of CHURCH & THE WORLD >
Who is being sent to who? Who is charged with sharing the good news of Jesus? Who knows about the good news of Jesus and gets to live in the freedom and hope of the gospel every single day?? That’s us! That’s the church, that’s our part in this, empowered and carried by the Holy Spirit.
If we expect THE WORLD to figure it out on their own, if we expect THE WORLD to somehow come to the realization that Jesus is king as we know he is, if we expect THE WORLD to walk on in to church next Sunday of their own accord > we are going to be severely disappointed. Yes the Holy Spirit can and does work miracles, but if we’re just sitting around waiting for miracles to happen, we are actually wasting what God has given us. We are missing one of the most important aspects of living the Christian life: sharing it with others, the two-way street of community with others.
Because for us to know it, it had to be shared with us didn’t it.
For us to know we could live in the freedom and hope of the gospel, it had to be shared with us.
For us to know Jesus has died for us someone has to tell us about it, someone has to walk with us on the journey, someone has to be there for us when we have questions and aren’t sure what to do. We’ve all had people who’ve shared the good news with us and walked alongside us.
And of course Jesus is the ultimate sharer of good news, and more as we know, who came to us a man who would welcome sinners like us. Who would eat with sinners like us, who would give his own flesh and blood for sinners like us. He would do all that for sinners like us, but he would not leave sinners like us stuck in our sin.
This is what Paul’s talking about today > he went from a self-confessed ‘blasphemer,’ ‘persecutor’ and ‘violent man’ who acted in ‘ignorance’ and ‘unbelief.’
That might sound like some pretty serious issues there, things that would very hard to come back from, but this is not only about how far Paul has come.
This is how far we have come too, we have been all those things, and we have been SHOWN MERCY, just as Paul was.
What did Jesus come into the world to do?
To hang out with righteous people who didn’t need to repent (those people don’t exist by the way do they!)? To hang out with ‘US’ crowd and point the finger at ‘THEM?’ Did he come to look down on ‘THEM’ and show favour to ‘US?’
He came to welcome sinners and eat with sinners, aka sinners like you and me, both US & THEM.
Not to be OF the world himself but IN the world, bringing new hope and new life to the ignorant and unbelieving.
For the very reason that we are sinners > that’s right where Jesus meets us > he shows us mercy, he displays his immense patience Paul says for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.
Jesus came not only for US, not only for THEM. He came for US and for THEM, to save sinners and pour out his abundant grace for all //
Tom Kitson 