"I don't like you, I don't like your God"

This is the message i preached today in Watts Chapel at seminary. It is footnoted for those of you who do not live near or attend Union-PSCE...

John 20:19-21

The disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, and on the evening of that same Sunday they locked themselves in a room. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the middle of the group. He greeted them and showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they became very happy.

After Jesus had greeted them again, he said, "I am sending you, just as God has sent me."

Luke 10:25-37

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?"

And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live."

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.'

Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?"

He said, "The one who showed him mercy."

And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

The Message...

“I don’t like you. I don’t like your God.” When I was in seventh grade, I read Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. It was horrendous. I don’t remember much about the book except that Defoe has a penchant for semicolons and sentences that stretch on for days. Picture a boring version of Castaway. It did have it’s redeeming value.

Crusoe is marooned on an island and he befriends a native. After awhile, Crusoe decides that it’s time to tell this man about God. This native has very little interest. He has his own god, a crocodile god whom he can actually see. He has no interest in the ethereal, improvable God that Crusoe presents. Crusoe becomes frustrated, angrily telling him that the proof of God is in this Bible he has and that “God is LOVE!” The native becomes thoroughly angry at Robinson Crusoe’s increasingly obnoxious lecture on God. He tells him, “I don’t like you. I don’t like your God.”

This man has lived a life devoid of the God he’s being introduced to. He perceives no need for him. And then along comes Robinson Crusoe and informs him that he’s been wrong his whole life. Not only is he wrong, but he’s stupid. He tells him that God is love and throws a book at him as proof.

Jesus tells us, “I am sending you, just as God has sent me.” What does this mean for us as disciples of Christ? God has sent hundreds of prophets and judges, wise rulers and royal counselors. God has guided his people through priests and dream interpreters. We believe as Christians that Christ came and died for our sins. But we also believe that he led a life of example, of servitude, of humble teaching. He spoke truth and fought for justice and joined them on the Emmaus way… He spends his time in teaching, in preaching, in loving, listening, healing, praying, eating, and partying… with people… in relationship… with people.

“I am sending you, just as God has sent me.” Jesus is telling his followers, and telling us that we are being sent in the same manner as he was sent to us. If Jesus came to be in relationship with his disciples, then for us to teach or preach or heal or feed or love anyone… means that we must be in relationship with them.

“I don’t like you. I don’t like your God.” We will spend all of our ministry and vocation amongst people who are just as deeply and beautifully flawed as we are. [For example, as you can see, I accidentally wore my navy blue suit pants today with my black suit jacket] We will be the ones who bear the love of Christ to those in need, both believers and non-believers alike. How often do we live in such a way that our friends and neighbors may say, “I don’t like you. I don’t like your God.”

How do we live our lives in relationship with others so that our God is not the petty small god-in-a-box that no one wants us to share?

David Bailey sings a song about a modern Good Samaritan. A young man broken and bleeding is passed by, first by a priest and then a skater boy. Keisha, a young waitress, stops to help him and get him to a shelter. David said once that he was singing this song in Birmingham. He said he often wonders how people will take this song in modern context and worries each time he sings it. Well, as he was finishing this song, a woman got up and walked out. He thought, “well, can’t win ‘em all.” So after the performance, he asked the minister if he had offended the woman.

The minister answered, “No, no, not at all. That’s my wife. You see, on the way in, she saw a homeless woman in the parking lot with a shopping cart full of her belongings and she went to take her to the Laundromat and to get her a meal.

David said then, “The thing was, while I was sitting there singing, and looking down on the woman who left, she was out doing something… And I had seen that woman too on the way in. And I had done nothing.”

“I don’t like you. I don’t like your God.” You see, brothers and sisters, we all know that to live in relationship with others is no easy task. To live in relationship with others in our community means knowing who our neighbor is… as well as whose neighbor we are. Am I a neighbor to a fellow student? Am I a neighbor to my professor? Am I a neighbor to a staff member? Am I a neighbor to the man who cleans this worship space? Am I a neighbor to the woman who serves me food in Lingle? Am I a neighbor to someone who lives in the nearby neighborhood and isn’t welcome in either building because he might be trying to get warm or ask for money? (see footnote)

There are days that I hope no one believes in my God. If what I do and say are examples of the words and deeds of a disciple of Christ, then why would anyone want to get to know my God?

We are a people called to be in relationship, sent as God sent Christ. If this idea is to shape our ministry and to shape our discipleship, then we must always ask ourselves… Whose neighbor am I? And: with whom am I called to be in relationship with?

I can’t think of anything that will confirm you in your call more than for someone to say to you, “I love you. I want to know your God.” Alleluia, amen.

Footnote: Union-PSCE is located on the center of Seminary Ave, in the up-scale Ginter Park neighborhood. This is a neighborhood with half a million dollar houses in it. It is also beside one of the lowest income and highest crime areas in all of Richmond, along Chamberlayne Ave. Chamberlayne Ave has a lot of low income housing and group homes, full of impoverished and disabled children of God. There's an ongoing struggle on campus about how to provide a safe campus to students and how to provide our brothers and sisters in Christ with love and care in meaningful ways. This is often a difficult struggle and is ongoing. i don't believe many if any of us have any real solutions, but acknowledging this struggle and trying to keep it at the forefront of our thoughts as a community is a major concern for many of us.