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Sunday Sermons
5-4-08, Easter 7
Pastor Phil Lee
Title: "Thermometer or Thermostat?"
Text: John 17:1-11 (20-21); Acts 1:8
Theme: Living our faith means changing our culture by the witness of our words and actions, not accommodating injustice, evil, and sin.
Introduction
I’ve heard it said that there are four ages to life: Stage 1 is when you believe in Santa Claus; Stage two is when you don’t believe in Santa Claus; Stage 3 is when you are Santa Claus; and Stage 4 is when you look like Santa Claus!
I think I’ve entered Stage 4! But, I want to speak about Stages 1 and 2 today. I want to address the subject of belief…faith. Specifically, I want to address the subject of our professed faith in Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior.
After all, our faith is really all about what we do after we say “I believe…”
Point
In John 17, we have part of Jesus’ High Priestly prayer to God the Father, where Jesus is praying for his first disciples and also “for those who will believe” in him through their witness. (v.20 not in today’s Gospel text)
In today’s first lesson from Acts 1, just before his ascension, Jesus tells his disciples that they will receive a unique power from the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses in the world. And so, in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ early followers put their faith into practice.
In a sermon preached 2-7-99, the Rev. Canon James G. Bingham, Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento, CA, told the following story: “When I went to college, I began to meet people who were unlike those that I grew up with. They weren’t pious…but they were lively and alive [and they were] searching for a way to be connected to something beyond themselves.
One of these was a young man named Jonathan. He was funny and fun. He had an inquiring mind and was in love with life [and was] looking for something more.
After graduation Jonathan decided to go to seminary. But these were the 60’s and this country was embroiled in the great debate over civil rights…Jonathan decided that he needed to be connected with what he saw as the spirit of God moving in human history, and he decided that he needed to link his life to what he perceived as God’s moving in a new way in the world.
And so he…went to the South to work in a quiet meaningful way to demonstrate what he believed the people who believed in God needed to do…he went not to be a protester but to work in an interracial daycare center for children…a clear symbol of what many feared and even hated. And so one evening after leaving work, Jonathan was killed by a shotgun blast in the middle of the main street.
Jonathan had connected his life to God’s purpose. No longer would his life simply point to himself, but it would serve as a light to show what God was and is doing. He had come to see that simply being good was not the point, but that he was called to lead a life that points to God.”
Jonathan understood that, for Christians, living our faith means changing our culture by the witness of our words and actions, not accommodating injustice, evil, and sin. We are called to live lives that point to God. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we are Jesus’ witnesses, even to the end of the earth!
Problem
Imagine if Jesus’ first disciples had done nothing in response to Jesus’ call to follow him. People would never have heard of the good news of new life though faith in Jesus Christ, and they would have remained in bondage to sin and death.
But, Jesus’ disciples did put their faith into practice. Living their faith meant changing their culture by the witness of their words and actions, not accommodating injustice, evil, and sin.
Some years ago, a curious British poll revealed that 88% of respondents said they believe in Christianity and 76% said they believe in God. (Eric Jacobs and Robert Worcester, We British: Britain Under the MORIscope, 1990)
Apparently a lot of folks don’t understand that there is a fundamental link between believing in God and being a Christian!
But let’s not miss that vital link – as Christians, we believe in God. And as Christians, we believe that God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. And as Christians, we believe that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world – and by faith in Jesus we have forgiveness of our sins, a redeemed life, and the promise of eternal salvation.
And as Christians, we understand that the risen and living Lord, Jesus Christ, calls us to not only live in this world and culture, but Jesus calls us to live out our faith by changing our culture through the witness of our words and actions, instead of accommodating injustice, evil, and sin. (“Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”)
But, do we really believe these things? Do we act on them? Let’s not miss the obvious link that our Lord makes between faith and action. We are called to impact and change our culture, not to accommodate it!
Power
In John 17, Jesus prayed for the unity and protection of his disciples, and that others would come to faith through their witness.
And that’s exactly what happened! That’s why we gather in worship today. We come here to express our faith in worship, and we go back out into the world to make Christ known.
In his sermon entitled “Transformed Nonconformists,” preached in 1961, Martin Luther King talked about courage. His words seem like they were written yesterday, when he writes: “In these days of worldwide confusion, there is a dire need for men and women who will courageously do battle for truth…We must make a choice. Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability, or will we, listening to the beat of a more distant drum, move to its echoing sounds?” He continued, “More than ever before, we are today challenged by the words of [Scripture – Rom.12:2]: ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’” And then, quoting Paul’s letter to the Philippians, King urged believers to establish a “colony of heaven” here on earth – not to be content as “thermometers that record or register the temperature of majority opinion,” but to become “thermostats, that transform and regulate the temperature of society.” (CT, 1-04, p.80)
It’s been said that people may not live what they profess, but they will always live what they believe. We believe in God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; God, Who is Creator, Savior, and Giver of life. And we believe that Jesus has called us to put our faith in him and follow him. But, are we living what we say we believe?
In the month of May we are living in mild springtime weather when we often turn the thermostat off and just go with the natural temperature. The cold days are behind us, and the hot days not here yet. We needed the thermostat to regulate the heat during winter, and in California we used it to regulate the air conditioning in the summer. But now, in the temperate springtime, we often go with the natural temperature around us.
Is that true of our faith? Is that true in our ethical/moral decisions? Do we just go with the temperature around us? Do we just go with the flow?! God forbid!
Living our faith means refusing to be thermometers that simply record the moral temperature and accommodate injustice, evil, and sin. Living our faith means becoming thermostats that regulate and change the moral temperature of our culture through the witness of our words and actions, as we follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Am I a thermometer or a thermostat? Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? Let’s pray about that. And as we pray, let’s remember this: Jesus opposed injustice, he renounced evil, and he died and rose again in victory over sin and death! Jesus was a thermostat! He changed the moral temperature and transformed lives!
May we never be content to be “thermometers that record or register the temperature of majority opinion.” Instead, let’s become “thermostats that transform and regulate the temperature of society” in Jesus’ name and for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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