Sermon on 18 May 2008 Religion can be dangerous!

Sermon delivered on Sunday 18 May 2008 in Lobatse.

There was the story of the old farmer that very seldom, or never came to church. But after he bought himself a brand new bakkie, the pastor was surprised to see the old man in church every Sunday! After a while the pastor asked the farmer why he suddenly stepped up his attendance. He answered that the salesman at the garage told him that he had to take the bakkie for a service regularly, and that is precisely what he is doing.

Although this is often told as a joke, it is sad that many church members and churchgoers are not much better of than that old man. They have been going to church for years, but for the wrong reasons. And therefore they often could not understand why the church is so boring to them! They just could not comprehend why they do not get anything out of the church service!

There is a story of a brilliant student who just attended one meeting during the year, and still got 95% in the exams. When the professor asked him how he managed to do so well he replied: “If it was not for that one class, I could have had 100%!”. In the same way that this student viewed the professor’s classes to be a waste of time, and even to be detrimental, some people who call themselves Christians, will even become adversaries of their local church. They will scorn the pastor and the church, for amongst other, the following reasons:

Some will say that the churchgoers are like witch-hunters who just wait for somebody to put a foot wrong. They will live by a list of do’s and don’ts, and even view God as a God of wrath who is pointing with his finger towards man like an angry father. Whenever somebody would fall into sin, they start gossiping, without making an effort to assist such a person to realize his sin and to stand up straight again.

Such people will complain that the pastor is always stepping on their toes when he preaches. There is the joke about the little boy who was asked what the pastor preached about. He answered that the pastor talked about sin. His mother asked him what the pastor said about sin. He said that the pastor surely did not like it!

Some people will also say that churchgoers are being puffed up, ready with all the answers, without really listening what the questions are. An example of these people are often found in the call-in programs on radio, where people are even cut-off for their insulting language, and for quoting a lot of Bible verses, just condemning, instead of also proclaiming God’s grace.

A third reason why people often scoff the church, is because religion often makes people to do stupid things. If we think of the South-American evangelist, Jones, who poisoned and killed 9000 church members with cyanide, the long battle between the Catholics and protestant in Northern Ireland, it is a pity that church leaders can sometimes motivate people to do the most stupid things in the “name of Christ”. We often find today that people are encouraged to abandon all medicine and medical treatment, because “God will heal them”.

The psychologist Sigmund Freud alleged that religion is enslaving people. He said that religion is making people slaves of church laws, that it takes away their creativity, and freedom of behavior. According to him everybody who is thinking “out of the box” is seen to be a liberal in the church.

Yes, brothers and sisters, if we do real introspection about our local congregation, and our church in Botswana, then we must acknowledge that we are not blameless in this regard. Also in the DRCB Lobatse these ways of being church are often visible. And therefore I believe that we must take a fresh look at Colossians 2 again.

In the letter to the Colossians it is evident that this letter is also directed against people who are also ruling the church by human regulations. People are warned against witch-hunters who judge people by what they “eat and drink”, and the way that they celebrate religious festivals (vs 16). People are warned against them who seem humble, but who “puff themselves up” by keeping unspiritual and idle notions (v. 18).

People are also warned not to do stupid things. In verse 23 it says that these people have a self-imposed worship, a false humility and a harsh treatment of the body, but that that does not help to nourish the spirit of a Christian. The Colossians are warned against those who take them captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world (vs. 8).

But what are the principles of the true church? From verse 2 and 3 it is clear that Jesus Christ is at the centre of our faith. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of our faith. Furthermore Jesus is the Cornerstone from where we must build our faith, being rooted in him (vs. 6&7). In Christ’s death and resurrection we have received deliverance from every worldly power, and we received redemption for our sins at the cross. Christ is the reality of the being of the church, not only a shadow. He is the Head of the church, and the whole body comes together in Him (vs. 17, 19).

Therefore we need to do introspection, and ask Christ to take hold of our lives, and to give everything to Him. Therefore we need to claim his redemption over our whole lives, and look up to him as the Saviour in everything we do. Let us therefore look again at our lives as Christians. Let us make sure that we have the discernment of Christ and the Holy Spirit, to really follow God (1 Cor 2:12).

AMEN!