March 25, 2007 Sermon 2 of 2 in mini-series on suffering. Focus on "active suffering" as different than passive suffering everyone is subject to. What does "active suffering " mean in separating Christians from the rest of the world? What effect does it have? Is it "worth it"? Do I have a choice, really, to decide whether it is "worth it" or not? Engage paradoxical reality that Jesus (and by extension, Christians) are conveyors of light and truth, and though they bring the message of freedom through faithfulness, the world often responds in violent and destructive ways.

Source Scriptures: Psalm 27, John 3:16-21, John 15:9-19,

Comments on tying up some loose ends from last Sunday and what “Reign over Me” made me consider: the depth of loss, the wound carried from traumatic experiences…

Psalms often represent movement from lament to confidence (we often think this happens right away…have we ever stopped to consider this movement might take a lifetime? Consider exiles and desperation over a period of 70 years of living in Babylon (unfaithful looked at economic opportunity, faithful lamented the end of something beautiful)

Psalm 27 confidence, lament and cry out (breathing out violence against him), back to confidence (wait for the LORD…not finding salvation in himself)

Psalms enter into depth of human experience where faith and doubt collide (weave in Abby's experience or see if she's willing to share her story of this collision and the messiness of walking through that intersection?)

Themes of darkness and light, love of God

John 3:16-21

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,^[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.^[b] 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."^[c]

John 15:17-19

“This is my command: Love each other. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Caecilius:

“(The Christians) are a gang…of discredited and proscribed desperadoes who band themselves against the gods. Fellows who gather together illiterates from the dregs of the populace and credulous women with the instability natural to their sex, and so organize a rabble of profane conspirators, leagued together by meetings at night and ritual fasts and unnatural (meals)…a secret tribe that shuns the light, silent in the open, but talkative in hid corners…Root and branch it must be exterminated and accursed. They (the Christians) recognize one another by secret signs and marks; they fall in love almost before they are acquainted; everywhere they introduce a kind of religion of lust, a promiscuous “brotherhood and sisterhood” by which ordinary fornication, under the cover of a hallowed name, is converted to incest.”

Members of a “secret” and “silent” movement (they were-of necessity because of persecution)…it was this secrecy that led Caecilius to misunderstand what the Christians were doing behind closed doors

“band themselves against the gods.” (The movement opposed the accepted public religion that served the ends of the Roman Empire)

“gather together illiterates from the dregs” of society, engage in “unnatural meals,” “fall in love almost before they are acquainted” call each other brother and sister (socially scandalous as wealthy to eat meals with poverty-stricken (disgusting to think of), give women identity as humans rather than property, religious clubs were supposed to be exclusive to only to those like you, but each and every one is not identified by their status in society, but are equally brothers and sisters)

It wasn’t that Christians were irrelevant, their way of meeting and scandalous view of equality among all was dangerous to the proper operation of society, and so Caecilius paid them the compliment of suggesting they be “exterminated and accursed.”

Faced sporadic and intense persecution at the hands of the state for this activity, and until 312 A.D. when the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, Christians could not speak in public about their faith unless they wanted to die; in fact, the only ones who spoke in public were those at their execution. No seeker-sensitive worship, because non-believers were barred from the Christian community in worship. And even if you showed yourself to be truly and intensely interested in committing your life to Christ, if you were not baptized yet, you had to leave at a certain point in the worship gathering before members shared Communion together. Any growth that took place happened because people were so radically shaped by their commitment to Jesus and his church that their character and integrity shone out in society and their lives and relationships with others were so attractive that people asked questions.

And the church did grow…how much, do you think (using 3,000 as a base number post-Pentecost), in light of the fact that most historians now agree that at the time of the legalization of Christianity, 10% of the Roman Empire were followers of Jesus, and in order to reach this number, in the previous three centuries the church statistically grew at an average of 40% per decade?

3,000 30 or so A.D.

5,880 50 A.D.

31,626 100 A.D.

170,095 150 A.D.

914,811 200 A.D.

4,920,070 250 A.D.

25,061,316 300 A.D.

35,085,843 310 A.D.

Just after 200 A.D. Tertullian, one of the early church leaders, said, "We [Christians] multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed" (Apologeticus, 50). And 200 years later St. Jerome said, "The Church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it" (Letter 82).

Maybe this is easy for us to look at, because it seems like a load of numbers, but consider this reality. You know someone who is almost certainly a Christian in your neighborhood, and their lifestyle and behavior just shows something fundamentally DIFFERENT to you, something beautiful, something meaningful that exposes the emptiness in your life. But you know if you walk down this road, you will more than likely face intense persecution and maybe death. What would you do?

On a theoretical level, all that growth sounds nice. The church was exploding in growth. But practically speaking, how was this happening? I would suggest this was happening because their conversion had a radical impact on three major areas of life: their beliefs, their behaviors, and who and what they belonged to.

Belief: One of the most central things that drove people to pursue Christ was the belief that because Christ had conquered death, they did not need to fear death because they would be with him on the last day.

They also centrally believed that a life centered on God was much more fulfilling than a life centered on themselves or those most like them.

And it wasn’t just intellectual belief alone that sustained them. (there was divine power…people possessing gifts of healing were encouraged to use those gifts, and people noticeably got better, often came into direct confrontations with the demonic)

Behaviors: Christians displayed transforming lives (not perfect, but growing)

How? Before Christians were baptized, they often went through a year of instruction about what it meant to commit to Christ, and if they thought they couldn’t go through with it at any point, they were asked to leave. Also, they recognized upon baptism that they were members of a church that was bigger than the Roman Empire (visited prisoners, fed poor, freedom to women, served all regardless of nationality)

Recognized that most people decide to follow Christ because the lifestyle Christians exhibit is attractive to them.

Belonging:

Candidates for baptism recognized that joining the church changed everything. They would no longer live by the values of the dominant society, or find their basic identity anywhere other than the church (even over against families and friends)

And, centrally,

What was this commitment to Christ founded on practically?

Christians live in their own countries, but only as resident aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. (Epistle to Diognetus early 2^nd century)

The biggest political statement then, and what should be the biggest political statement now, is this: Jesus is Lord. Not just Lord of my life, Lord of everything and everyone. But as a Christian, I have consciously said knelt before Jesus and acknowledged him as Lord. Remember the song we often sing here at church? “One day every tongue will confess you are God, one day every knee will bow.” (Not because they want to, but because they will have to on the day of judgment). “Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose you now.” We willingly place our trust in the God who loves us and tells us what life was meant to be about.

By 390, the Roman Empire saw Christianity as so much of a threat to its rule that the Emperor at the time, Theodosius, made Christianity the official religion, and overnight everyone became Christian. Along with that came strong pressures for those in society who were not Christian to become Christian not because they truly desired God, but because the empire offered imperial benefits for church leaders (including not having to serve in public duties), your career in the government advanced much more quickly if you were a member, and you were a respectable member of society only if you attended church. It became impossible as a pagan to get a job, only “Christians” could be in government, and in 529, the Emperor made conversion compulsory, and all infants were baptized into the church. (Muslims, Goths, Brits, Egyptians, etc “converted” at swordpoint)

Movement from persecution (and freedom in discipleship) to legalization (and state-enforced conversions or severe social penalties if not Christian)

Movement to Reformation (Luther, Calvin, etc)

- salvation does not come through being a citizen of a state, but through faith in Christ

- but still baptized babies, poverty-stricken members of Western Europe in Thirty Years’ War could on any given day be Protestant or Catholic depending on which the prince of their territory was)

- Anabaptists chose to return to early church roots and roots of radical belief, belonging to the kingdom of God first, and behavior that shows one’s commitment as completely as possible (in addition to intense persecution, 1,200 killed between blah and blah (show Martyr’s Mirror)

Back to secular state (and freedom in discipleship that has real costs as well as real joys)

- America founded under the same idea that everyone is Christian and simply needs to be “awakened” to do it better

- Socially speaking: those who were “respectable” attended church, etc etc…ensured social status…moving away from that now

- What are “costs” we will face for standing up for Christ in society today? Everything from tension in relationships (accountability) to possible death

People attracted to Christ by early church because in the midst of persecution, they loved God and others with joy

John 15: 9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

(paradox: darkness so dark they can’t see the light even when it’s right in front of them…nevertheless, we shine the light, even if they try to extinguish it…and in the shining we find joy)

Song Lord of the Dance shows Jesus’ willingness to dance and love and serve even in the midst of intense suffering

Compare cost of discipleship with toll of nondiscipleship (dallas Willard)

None of us would pick suffering, but I’ll tell you this; if the choice is suffering or comfort made possible because of unfaithfulness, as a follower of Jesus called to quake in the presence of God’s holiness, I’ll take suffering (though this suggestion on my part, as suggested by Miroslav Volf, “stinks of the suburbs”)