T-Shirts
‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ This is where we get the song, “They will know we are Christians by our Love.” These are Christ’s words that he describes as a new commandment, a commandment that is based on a much more ancient commandment to Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus puts a clarifying touch on this commandment though. He says that we should love one another just as he loved us.
This love is not simply the love between friends or people who depend upon one another, it is self-sacrificial love. Agape. It’s the love that Jesus exhibited throughout his life and ministry, and on to his death on the cross. Sharing meals with the outcast and the marginalized; not only associating with (which was a big no-no at the time) but also blessing and healing people from other religious backgrounds; and also by humbling himself to the role of a servant as he showed the disciples by washing their feet.
This was the call to the disciples and the call to all Christians since then. So… how are we doing… how is the church living up to that charge?
Well, locally we may have our struggles but we also have wonderful blessings and love exhibited through the people of this congregations… but nationally… things don’t look so great. Diana Butler-Bass gave a lecture at the seminary’s Festival of Theology last month. She has been conducting research on mainline denominations for some time and has a great amount of research to support her claims.
In her lecture, she quoted the American Religious Identity Survey that indicated that since the 1990s, there has been a significant decline in the number of people who identified as Christian (15 years ago, it was around 86% of Americans, this year it fell to 76%).
The report also showed that there was an increase in the number of people in other religions, but the greatest increase (nearly doubling from 8 to 15%) was in the number of people who identified as “none of the above” including atheists, agnostics, and those who said they were spiritual but not religious.
Is this because people are leaving Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal Churches? No , Dr. Mohler down the road is just as concerned because these declines are across the board. None of the mainline denominations have experienced an increase… not even the Baptists. In Newsweek, this week, Mohler expressed a concern that this stems from the secularization of America, removing prayer from schools and the like… well, that’s possible.
However, Diana continued to share information from surveys and results from the hundreds of people she has interviewed. What she found was that although people like the idea of a religious heritage, and though they liked the stability of a robust denominational affiliation… what they didn’t like was quarrelling Christians. What!? We quarrel? I know that’s hard to believe. But it wasn’t just the debates that go on between denominations or within our General Assemblies that were of concern.
Christianity has a bad reputation and it’s a reputation that we have kind of earned. If you were here last week, you heard Pastor Ken mention a rumor that he heard from a certain seminary-attending waiter he knows… that wait-staffs around the Midwest all concur the meanest most demanding customers AND the ones that leave the worst tips regardless of service are the after church brunch crowds on Sunday mornings… and also people who come in wearing T-Shirts with Christian slogans on them like “Jesus… he’s the real thing” inside a Coke logo.
Oh yes, it’s true. We advertise our allegiance to Jesus and then exhibit poor behavior. I once had a pastor who would wince when he saw people in his church drive off with a fish on their car or a catchy Christian slogan like, “Caution: In case of rapture, this car will be un-manned” Oh, it’s great to profess your faith and to have no shame for our faith in Christ. Don’t get me wrong. But there have been more than a few times that I have been cut off in traffic by a fish car. So yes, express your faith to the world but do it as Jesus commanded… by your love. Outward symbols are like talk… talk can be cheap. We need to put our words into action.
Derek Webb has a song that recognizes this. It goes
They’ll know us by the T-shirts that we wear
They’ll know us by the way we point and stare
At anyone whose sin looks worse than ours
Who cannot hide the scars of this curse that we all bare
They’ll know us by our picket lines and signs
They’ll know us by the pride we hide behind
Like anyone on earth is living right
And that isn’t why Jesus died
Not to make us think we’re right
They’ll know us by reasons we divide
And how we can’t seem to unify
Because we’ve gotta sing songs a certain style
Or we’ll walk right down that aisle
And just leave ‘em all behind
Now the refrain of this song calls us back to our scripture. It goes like this:
But love, love, love
Is what we should be known for
Love, love, love
It’s the how and it’s the why
We live and breathe and we die
What a clear conviction of our struggle and a clear condemnation of some of our more visible poor behavior.
So what is there to do? We can see there is a problem, but what do we do about it? Diana suggests that we need to go back to Christ’s example. What was it that Jesus was doing? Ah yes, washing his disciple’s feet. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get out the basin and towel. This action was symbolic of how we are to live. By washing their feet, Jesus humbled himself to do the gritty dirty jobs that the lowest servants of that time would do. He made it clear that he was their Lord and Master but he also made it clear that this position of leadership comes with a responsibility to be the servant of all.
Let us strive daily to accept the call to be servants, to humble ourselves to others, and to show the love of Christ to the world so that the world might know we are Christians, NOT by our T-Shirts or bumper stickers, but by how we
• Strive to open up dialogue with other faith traditions
• work toward peaceful solutions in our homes, work, and public lives.
• pray for our enemies
• work to end world hunger
• tutor needy children
• volunteer at food pantries
• or if we are unable to directly affect the lives of those in need, to contribute to organizations that seek to end hunger, provide clean water, and offer education to people with the goal of bringing them out of poverty.
Because love, love, love
Is what we should be known for
Yes, love, love, love
It’s the how and it’s the why
We live and breathe and we die
Let us go into the world and show Christ’s love.
Thanks be to God.
