Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube^[1], June 2021]

We are called to be distinctive, but what does that actually look like? How can we strike a balance between operating ourselves off from society, and becoming too much like society? How do we know if we’ve got it right?

Last Sunday we started a new teaching series ‘Back to Basics’ where we look at those values that we want to exhibit as a church, as we go forward into this new new era of of being church. This last Sunday we looked at the value of being distinctive, being different, but my question is “Well, how do I do that? How do I navigate this world and remain distinctive? How can I, as the Bible says, be in the world but not of the world?”

You see, life is a lot easier when there are rules and regulations, when things are black and white, when you know what to do and what not to do because then it’s simple, isn’t it? You know the course in life that you need to follow. But things get difficult when those rules, those regulations are taken away, when black and white becomes a mushy grey colour. That must have been what it was like for those early Christians, those followers of Jesus Christ as they moved away from their Jewish roots and became a separate faith in its own right.

Those early Christians would have been pulled in two opposing directions. On the one hand, there were the Judaisers, the circumcision group, those people who said to those Christians: “Yes, we’re saved by Jesus; yes, we’re saved by grace, by faith not by works” but you still need to follow all of these Jewish rules, circumcision being one of them. I mean that’s enough to put anyone off becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.

On the other hand there was the culture around them. There was the background for many of these new Christians which was Hellenistic, it was Greek in its style and the way it viewed sexuality and life and how it revolved around idol worship and temples. These early Christians had to walk this fine line, this tightrope walk between on the one hand being very black and white, very rule-focused, about separation, and on the other hand there was this kind of, well, anything goes really – we just go with whatever the culture believes and values that you find yourself within.

It’s not that much different for us these days. There are Christians who live out their faith by separating themselves. They wear different clothes, they don’t associate with people who aren’t like them, who aren’t part of their group; and some people go to extremes, the Amish being one of them, but there are groups similar to that in the UK, in Horley. Actually, there’s Christians in most mainstream churches that feel that way.

I know that I err towards that kind of black and white view of faith in Christianity, separating ourselves off, because of my conservative Christian upbringing but on the other hand it’s very easy for many Christians to kind of compartmentalize their faith to such an extent that their faith really only expresses itself through Sunday morning and maybe occasional midweek group. Beyond that, outside of that framework, their faith and their values are pretty much exactly the same as anyone else in the world; you wouldn’t be able to spot the difference between them and the world around us.

So how do we navigate that, how do we strike a balance between being segregated and separate and rule based, and on the other hand being no different to the world around us, not being as Jesus said, salt and light.

Well the first thing I think is resist rules and regulations. It’s so easy for us, particularly me, to add on conditions to our salvation, to our faith: that actually to be a follower of Jesus Christ we need to do this and this and this and that this way and behave this way and dress a certain way. We need to resist that. In fact, Paul said in his letter to the church in Galatia which was struggling with these sort of problems, particularly with the influence of that Jewish group; the only thing that matters is your faith expressed through love, the only thing that matters is your faith expressed through love. That means that we serve people humbly, we stand up against injustices. So often the churches, unfortunately in this country particularly, are the last to stand up for those injustices that we see around us.

So resist rules and regulations, love people, serve people. stand up against injustices; but also ask yourself the question: “Am I any different in my values, about the way I think about sexuality, the way I think about money, the way I am on a Friday night if I’m out on the town? Am I any different to my non-Christian next-door neighbour, my non-Christian work colleagues?” We are called to stand up and to stand out. The people will know that we are different, not because of the way that we look, not because of the way that we separate ourselves off, but because of the way we view life, and that requires conversations. It requires us to explain why we don’t watch this particular thing on TV, why we don’t go out and get drunk, why we’re not spending all our money on holidays, on our credit cards.

Are you different in that way? I think both of those groups – whether it’s the separating yourselves off or blending in, is a way of self-protection. It’s a way of escaping any form of persecution, any way that people can pick up on us. Either we close our ears and separate ourselves off from society so we don’t hear the jeers and the jaunts, or we merge in so much that no one notices any difference and therefore there’s nothing to complain about.

You should be persecuted. We are called to be persecuted just as Jesus was persecuted, just as those early Christians were persecuted, because we are different. We have different values; we are salt and we’re light, we show the darkness for what it is. We show those injustices, we show the ways in which culture around us is broken and sinful and wrong; and you know what, when you do that people don’t like it. So I think the litmus test really is are you getting flack for your faith? Because if you’re not then maybe you’re not different enough.

[1] YouTube link: How can I be distinctive?
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