When I served at Tapestry Church several years ago, the first place we met was a bar. We had to show up early to set up our equipment, and that meant changing the bar into a place of worship. We weren’t perfect at doing that. I preached one Sunday on being the light of the world, never realizing that a Miller Lite sign was still hanging right behind me. Oops.
The agreement with the owner was that they would clean the place before we arrived on Sunday morning. One Sunday that didn’t happen. There was a 21st birthday party the night before, and no one had cleaned up after. I can’t describe to you what we faced. If you can imagine the mess at a bar, including the bathrooms at that bar, after a party made up of a bunch of 21-year-olds, you might come close. It was disgusting.
We got it cleaned up, and later, during the band’s practice, a young man walked in. I spoke to him, and he told me that he was the 21-year-old whose birthday party was the night before. He had come by to see if he could help clean.
We had already done the cleaning, but I invited him to stick around, and he stayed because he liked the music coming from the band. At one point, he said, “You know, I like God, and I want to know God, I just don’t like the church very much.” Before I could ask him about that comment, he asked, “So what kind of church is this?” I looked at him and said, “We’re a church for people who want to know God but don’t like the church very much.”
He then explained that the only experience he had with Christians and the church was that Christians seemed to be a bunch of angry people who were against everything. I remember him saying, “I’d like to hear more about what the church is doing to make things better, not so much about everything they think is wrong. All I hear from the church is ‘don’t do this and don’t do that.’”
Whether his view of the church was accurate or not, he was sharing his experience from the heart. It’s an indictment against us when our love doesn’t show through.
For someone like me who grew up in the Bible belt, it’s difficult to accept, but the church in America is operating more and more in a place where our influence is less and less. We live in a culture that is increasingly hostile to Christianity and the church.
Instead of being a people of love, we’re seen as people of hate because we dare to stand up for biblical truth and morals. Simple, innocent posts on social media stating your support for beliefs held by the church for centuries can get you fired or keep you from landing a new job. You can be “outed” as a person of hate simply for stating a truth clearly taught in the Bible. We’re forced to go through training in our jobs to teach us compliance to what the world says is right.
The early church faced this same kind of opposition. At first, the persecution came from within Judaism, as Jews who rejected Christianity looked on this new movement as a heretical sect among themselves. Later, the Romans recognized Christianity as a religion distinct from Judaism, and, especially beginning under Nero, Christians were severely persecuted.
After all, Christians refused to worship the emperor or the Roman gods, so they were considered atheists and enemies of the state. Once Christianity took hold in an area, worship at pagan temples dropped, and since lots of business took place there, the growth of Christianity hurt the local economy. Christians, by their lifestyles, also exposed the horrible immorality of the culture.
The Apostle Peter wrote his first letter as a word of encouragement to people who were suffering and facing persecution for their faith. He begins the letter like this:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles… (1 Peter 1:1)
Peter, the one who loved Jesus, followed Jesus, walked on water with Jesus, denied he even knew Jesus, and would eventually lose his life for Jesus, reminds his readers right at the beginning of the letter that this world is not their home. We are only exiles here, and we may suffer for our faith in this world that rejects our faith, but there is more to life than this life. God has elected us, and because he has chosen us to be his, we have all the strength we need to live in a world that doesn’t know him.
So how do we, as Christians, navigate our way through a world that is dismissive of Christianity, even hostile to our faith? How do we stand our ground on what we know to be truth without alienating the people who need to hear it? Most importantly, how do we share the love of Jesus with others without embracing the immorality that the world celebrates?
I’ll be exploring those questions in future posts because I believe it to be a vital subject today.
I want to close, however, with more words from Peter. He reminds us that, regardless of what life is like here, we need to keep one eye on our future.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)
No matter what you’re going through today, no matter what you may face tomorrow, if you are a Christian then you know that one day you will spend eternity with your Savior. If you do nothing else today, pause and thank God for saving you, his child.