What is a Christian?
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43
One day little Johnny went up to
his mother and asked 'Mummy, where did I
come from?' His mother sighed and thought that it was probably time to explain
the facts of life. So she talked about how two people come together who love
each
other, and the start of life in the womb, and how babies are born--the whole
story. All this time Johnny's eyes grew wider and wider.
When his mother had finished, there was a pause. Then Johnny said, 'That's
amazing. It sure beats my friend Joey. He told me he comes from
Birmingham.'
Some
questions lead us to surprising places.
The answers aren't always what we are expecting. This morning I have a simple and a
complicated question to think about: What is a Christian? It’s a difficult question to answer straight
away on a Sunday morning. The answer to
the question of course is fundamental for us, because how we define ourselves
as Christians not only defines our own personal ideas, but our worship, our
mission, our approach to the body of Christ, and of course our approach to
those who would not necessarily call themselves Christians. And after all, if we don't know what a
Christian is, then we probably don't really know what we are doing here,
meeting as Christians.
First
a little caveat. I remember having at
chat with two clergy colleagues and I asked one if there were many Christians
in the University of Bristol. "Why
do you want to know that?" one of
them asked me. "I am not
interested in knowing who is and who isn't a Christian." I understand my friend’s motivation in not
wanting to draw boundaries between people-religion is at its worst when it
seeks to do this, and results in bigotry, and that is something we would all
want to avoid. But to answer the question
"What is a Christian?" is not
to open the door to bigotry, and to putting up walls between people. If there's one thing Christianity uniquely
shows us it is that God loves all people, that we are all made in his image,
and all of value. However, to go down
the road which says that what God revealed about himself in Christ has no absolute claim on our lives,
and no significance about the way we approach others and the world is to my
mind silly. What we are talking about
here is not a lifestyle option, but the truth about the purpose, meaning and
direction of every human being. I am
extremely interested in how each person responds to the question, "What is
a Christian?"
So
let's try and answer it. We are going
to think about three Christians. It is
interesting to note that the first Christian was a condemned criminal, someone
who admitted that he had deserved his punishment of crucifixion: we are getting
what we deserve for our sins, he said.
Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom." He replied, "Truly
I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." The first Christian had done nothing in
himself to deserve joining Jesus in paradise.
This has got to be our starting point.
Condemned criminals, undeserving people, are the ones to whom the door
of Jesus’ kingdom is open.
This is hard to swallow for us more respectable souls. The book we studied last term in the home groups "What's so amazing about Grace?" told the story of Jeffrey Dahmer. He was a mass murderer who abused and then killed 17 young men, cannibalising them and storing body parts in his refrigerator. He was arrested, but in November of 1994 was himself murdered, beaten to death with a broom handle wielded by a fellow prisoner. Television news reports that day included interviews with the grieving relatives of his victims, most of whom said they regretted his murder only because it ended his life too soon. He should have had to suffer by being forced to live longer and think about the terrible things he had done. But two weeks before his death Dahmer gave a television interview in which he told of his recent religious conversion. He had been baptised in the prison whirlpool and was spending all his time reading religious material given him by a local Church of Christ minister. The camera switched to an interview with the prison chaplain, who affirms that Dahmer had indeed repented and was now one of his most faithful worshippers.
If someone like this claims to be a
Christian, then what is this Gospel about?
Would his claim fit in with what the Bible tells us being a Christian is
about? Perhaps the question we need to
be answering is this: What do we need
to make us a Christian? Someone once
wrote:
"If our greatest need was for
information, God would have sent an educator.
If our greatest need was for technology, God would have sent a scientist.
If our greatest need was for pleasure, God would have sent an entertainer
If our greatest need was for money, God would have sent an economist.
But since our greatest need is for forgiveness...
God sent a Saviour...a Redeemer."
Our greatest need is for
forgiveness. This is the qualification,
the criterion. How does Paul describe
those who are saints in his letter? Are
they those who have succeeded? Are they
those who are good? Are they those who
are respectable? Not according to
Paul. He says of Christians: he has
rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of
his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Jesus has reconciled to himself all things,
including us. Rescued, forgiven,
reconciled. These are the words which
describe Christians.
For our third story about a Christian a little context is necessary. Two centuries ago slave trading ships would anchor off the African coast. There African tribal chiefs would bring to the ship men and women of rival tribes that had been captured or taken prisoner during tribal wars. In exchange for the captives, tribal chiefs would be given weapons, ammunition, metal, and liquor, trinkets and cloth. Then the captives would be loaded in the ship’s cargo hold where they were kept below decks, chained together to prevent suicides. To save space, the slaves were laid side by side, row after row until as many as 600 men, women and children were packed in the cargo hold of the ship. In Black Slaves in Britain, Shyllon states, "Chained two by two, right leg and left leg, right hand and left hand, each slave had less room than a man in a coffin." After the human cargo was aboard, the ship set-sail for what would eventually become America. As many as 20%, or two out of every ten slaves aboard the ship died as a result of the harsh treatment. When a slave became ill during the voyage, he was tossed overboard, still alive, to prevent the spreading of any infection. If the slave died of natural causes, he or she could not be claimed for from the insurers, but if thrown overboard, then the value of the human being could be recouped. Our third Christian presided for many years over a ship like this. He showed no compassion, and swore so profusely that even the other hardened crew members asked him to cut it out.
However, on a homeward voyage in May
1748, this slave trader was caught in a storm which threatened to sink the ship. When he thought that the ship was about to
go down he found himself saying, "Lord, have mercy upon us." As soon as he had uttered it he wondered to
himself, "What mercy can there be for me?"
That day was a turning
point for John Newton and, although it took him a long time to understand his
faith, and he had many difficulties to face, this hardened slave trader wrote a
song which is on everyone's lips, and which best expresses what it means to be
rescued, reconciled and forgiven.
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was
blind but now I see.”
So
we have a gospel for criminals. At this
point you may be thinking, “It's good to be reminded of this but it's not
something I didn't know already.” Well,
perhaps we do already know this in theory, but we need to keep returning to
this Gospel of radical grace because it is actually a hard message both to
accept and share with others. I often
hear it said that being a Christian is basically about being good. Particularly at People's funerals those I
meet will say, "He never called himself a Christian, but he always lived a
good life. He lived as a Christian." Here is a challenge to us. We want to say that of course living a good
life is a good thing. Everyone should
have an ethic, we should all be good to each other. But being a Christian is far more profound than this, it's far
more far reaching. Being a Christian is
not about whether you have been a good person, but how you respond to the man
hanging on the cross. Ask our criminal,
Dahmer or Newton. What then is a
Christian? The Christian is someone for
whom the death of Jesus is the main fact of their lives, the primary
reality. The forgiveness of Jesus is
the foundation on which we stand. Good people and criminals can both stand at
the foot of the cross, and both need to.
The cross is the primary reality, the doorway to God. It's not a trick you can learn, it's not
something you can earn-it's the ground on which we stand.
What do we have to bring to Old Town? To our neighbours? What is our purpose and our mission? Is it to show people how to be good, how to get along with
others? Or is it to share with the
world that forgiveness is possible, that grace abounds to us, that the cross is
the place where God and human beings, whoever and whatever we are, can
meet. As Christians, we only live, we
only move, we only even give on gift days because of that miracle. Rescued, reconciled, forgiven. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that
saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see. Only because of the cross, only because of forgiveness can we say
with the criminal, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom." Only because of this can
we claim to be Christians.