“Is The Message Getting Through

“Is The Message Getting Through?”

Text: 1 Peter 1:17-23

© April 6, 2008 by C. Edward Bowen at Crafton United Presbyterian Church.

Some of you might remember an old TV game show called “Name That Tune.” The basic idea was that contestants would hear just the first few notes of a song, and then they had to figure out and try to guess the name of the song. Well, let’s try a little variation of “Name That Tune” here this morning. What I’m going to do is tap out the tune of some familiar song – some song that you know – and let’s see if you’re able to figure out what song it is. That doesn’t sound too hard, does it? So here we go. (Tap on the pulpit the song “ London Bridge.”) Does anyone have a guess?

Recently some researchers did an experiment rather similar to what we just did. They gave one group of people a list of 25 common, well-known songs, like “Happy Birthday to You” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And they paired each of those people up with someone else, and they asked the people with the lists of songs to tap out the tunes on the table in front of them, and have their partners guess what the songs were. But before they started, they asked the group that had the lists how often they thought they would be able to successfully communicate the songs to the other person. And they said that they thought they’d be able to get the message through about half the time. Well, when they actually sat down and started tapping, it turned out that they didn’t get their message through anywhere near half the time. No, it turned out that their partners were able to guess the song correctly only about 1 time in 40.[1]

A real question we need to be asking ourselves is: Why isn’t God’s message getting through? Here in the church God has given us the greatest message imaginable, the good news about Jesus – the good news that our sins are forgiven, the good news that by putting our trust in Jesus we can share in eternal life. But why is it the case that quite often that message isn’t getting through to people outside the church?

And we shouldn’t kid ourselves: by and large, God’s message isn’t getting through. Consider this – recently they did a major survey of thousands of young people across the country, young men and women from 18 to 25, and they found that about 20 out of every 50 of them had a bad impression of Christianity. And what’s worse, one of out of three of them said that they had such a negative image of Christianity that they wouldn’t even consider being associated with the Christian faith.[2]

What’s happening? What’s wrong with that picture? Quite often we in the church point the finger of blame at those outside the church and say that it’s their fault, that people nowadays have changed, that people today just aren’t as interested in God as they used to be. But is that true? Is that really where the problem lies? Or does the problem really lie with us? Could it be that God’s message isn’t getting through to people, not because there’s some problem outside the church, but because there’s some problem inside the church?

But if that’s the case, what’s our problem? Well, as we look at the reading that we listened to today from the letter in the New Testament known as 1 Peter, we’re forced to ask ourselves if we’re as holy as God wants us to be. I can imagine some are thinking, “Holy? Who wants to be holy? Being holy – doesn’t that mean not laughing, not dancing, not smiling, walking around with a Bible in your hands, praying all time? Being holy – doesn’t that mean spending all your time looking down on other people and trying to separate yourself from sin, and from sinners?”

It’s like a group over in Russia that’s been in the news during the past week or so. Thirty-five men, women, and children associated with a sect that broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church barricaded themselves in an underground cave. And they said they did that because they believe that the rest of the world has become too sinful, and moving into that cave is the only way they know to separate themselves and to keep themselves holy.[3]

But even though that’s what some people think of when they hear the word “holy,” that’s not what the word means in the Bible. Instead, the essence of “holiness” is summed up here in this passage where it says, “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart” (1 Peter 1:23). In other words, being holy isn’t a matter of looking down on other people and trying to separate yourself from them. Instead, being holy is a matter of seeing the love that God has for us, and then showing that love to the people around us. That’s what it means to be holy.

One day a fellow was asked, “Why does your friend Bill go to church?” The man said, “He goes to talk with God.” “Well, why do you go to church?” The man replied, “I go to talk with Bill.”

Our goal, though, as Christians, shouldn’t be one or the other. Our goal as Christians shouldn’t be just to have relationships with one another, or just to have a relationship with God. Rather, our goal as Christians should be to put both of those together – to have a living, loving, vital relationship with God, which then leads us to have living, loving, vital relationships with the people around us. And if we do that, if we work at building a meaningful relationship with God and if we work at building meaningful relationships with other people, that’s how God’s message is going to get through.

You’ve probably seen the reports where experts say that children who regularly sit down and eat dinner with their parents have fewer behavior problems. In particular, children who regularly sit down and eat dinner with their parents are less likely to smoke, less likely to drink, and less likely to use drugs.[4] But why is that? What is it about eating together that has such an effect?

My guess is that it’s the emphasis that those families are putting on relationships that’s making the difference. My guess is that families that put an emphasis on eating together see how important it is to teach their children who they are – who they are as members of that family – and what it means to live a life that’s worthy of that family. And so when those children later find themselves in situations, at school or with their friends, where they need to choose between right and wrong, they’re guided not just by a set of rules – don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal. No, they’re guided by something more than that. They’re guided by a desire to live in such a way that they’re going to bring honor and respect to their family. They’re going to have a desire to live that way, because the relationship they have with their family matters to them.

And in the same way, as Jesus invites us to sit down and eat with him here today in the sacrament of communion, Jesus is reminding us of just how important our relationship with him is. Because as we spend time with Jesus – through prayer and Bible reading and meditation – we come to see more clearly who we are – who we are as children of God and as members of God’s family – and what it means to live a life worthy of that family. And so when we find ourselves in situations where we need to choose between right and wrong, we’re guided not just by a long list of commandments and rules. Instead, we’re guided by something more than that. We’re guided by a desire to live in such a way that we’re going to bring honor and respect to God and to God’s family. We’re going to have a desire to live that way, because the relationship we have with God and with God’s family matters to us.

Is the message getting through? Is God’s message getting through – to us, and to the world around us? If that message is going to get through, the only way that’s going to happen is if we pay attention to and nurture the relationship we have with Jesus. Because it’s through that relationship that we come to see that no matter who we are, we are loved by God. And it’s through that relationship that we come to see that our mission in life is to take that love and to share it with the world around us.