Viral Faith

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 22, 2010, the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

The internet has given us much. (Sorry, that’s not drool, that’s dripping sarcasm.) One of the many unintended things it has given us is viral video. A viral video is an often humorous or unintentionally humorous scene. Some are several minutes long like a music video. Others are a brief “slice of life” caught on camera. The way viral videos become popular is through internet sharing, typically through video sharing sites like YouTube or social networking sites like facebook. In fact this is why they are called viral; they spread across the internet like a virus. With the abundance of less expensive better quality cameras and camera phones, viral videos are here until the next generation of technology makes them obsolete.

There is a “slice of life” video that has become very popular among my facebook friends. Timing in at 33 seconds, you can watch it a dozen times, get a dozen laughs, and not waste but five minutes, making it possibly the perfect internet video.




Let me set the scene: Someone is shooting video of two buddies skateboarding; trying to do tricks and not doing them very well. Suddenly in the background, you hear the squeal of a car coming to a sudden stop. The videographer turns and sees a little old lady standing in the middle of the street right in front of an expensive convertible. The young man driving the car revs his engine a couple of times and honks the horn six times in quick succession. Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep. The little old lady takes a couple of steps, turns, and swings her bag into the license plate of the convertible, setting off the air bag right into the young man’s face. The old woman scurries off, the skateboarders laugh, and the rich young man gets out of his expensive car. This is “Watch Out for Granny Airbag.”[1]

You know, the worst thing about this is that it took me longer to describe it than it takes to watch, and you didn’t get to see the guy’s face. Surely, you can see why this has spread across the internet like a virus.

Of course, there is the more detrimental virus that spreads across the internet, a virus that invades a computer via the internet or by sharing files. These are the sort of viruses that make computers sick causing them to miss a couple days of school or work.

One of the more notorious types of computer viruses is the “Trojan Horse.” Built like the Trojan Horse of Virgil’s epic story about the Greek and Trojan War,[2] this kind of virus sneaks its way into your computer by looking like something you want. Then, in the middle of the night, it unleashes its terror against the insides of your computer. Sometimes they vandalize your computer, sometimes they pillage information; often they do both.

Often they come in what computer folk call “malvertisements,” mal- as in “malevolent,” or more simply “bad.” You may have seen them pop-up on your computer with messages like:

“Make your computer faster!” or
“Is your computer at RISK?? Run our free security scan!”

But waiting inside these offers too good to be true are an invading digital army.

Virgil’s epic is the source of the old expression, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” It could just as well be reinvented for the internet generation as “Beware of geeks bearing gifts.”[3]

Today we read that we have to beware the message we share in the light of the Holy Messenger.

Jesus is teaching on the Sabbath, nothing new there, when suddenly appears a woman who has been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. Now that’s new. She was bent over, unable to stand upright. Jesus saw her, called her over, and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” Then he laid hands upon her and she stood upright praising God.

Everyone would have lived happily ever after until the leader of the synagogue became indignant because Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Well, he may have been indignant with Jesus healing the woman, but his words were directed at the crowd, not the Lord. “There are six days on which work ought be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” Sure, he was ticked, but he couldn’t be ticked at the Rabbi so he took it out on the crowd.

Jesus exclaims “You hypocrites!” This word has a wonderful history. In ancient Greek, this was the word used for actors, people who portrayed characters. The familiar “comedy” and “tragedy” masks were used to hide the faces of the actors and help display proper emotion. Add the fact that roles for women were portrayed by men, and we get a sense of what this word meant to the ancients.

Ever since the time of Jesus though, this word was used in a negative way. It was meant more as faker than actor. He was calling them posers instead of performers. He was calling the leader of the synagogue a pretender. You hypocrite, you pretend to know God’s will but you do not.

Jesus reminds these fine upstanding keepers of the faith that they too work on the Sabbath; feeding and watering their livestock. So Jesus asks if they will care for their flocks on the Sabbath, isn’t it better to bring a daughter of Abraham back into the flock of the great shepherd anytime, including on the Sabbath? Jesus reminds them that a spirit had bound this woman for eighteen long years, so this woman ought to be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day.

If this were a melodrama, we would be cheering the Lord and hissing the synagogue leader, but let’s not condemn the synagogue leader so quickly, he’s following the law. He is doing what he is supposed to do, maintaining the sanctity of the meeting place. He’s interpreting Levitical law and making a judgment. He’s telling the assembly what is supposed to happen, what pleases God in the words Moses brought to the people. But it is not the words that Jesus has an issue with, it’s the one interpreting them. This too is nothing new and the more things change the more they stay the same.

The church is infamous for harboring hypocrites, or at least that’s what many believe. We need to ask ourselves “Why do people believe that?” What experiences have people had with Christians that would lead them to say, “You’re nothing but a bunch of pretenders”?

“UnChristian,” a book based on the findings of a Barna research study, sought answers to those questions. The authors, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, polled young adults outside of Christianity, those who may or may not ever engage our faith communities, about their perception of the church and Christians today. The title of the book comes from the sobering survey results, unChristians find us unchristian!

Eighty-five percent of young outsiders say that Christianity is hypocritical — saying one thing but doing another. Instead of being a voice against the image-is-everything mentality, the outsiders believed Christians worked just as hard as they did to preserve an image of strength and put-togetherness.

Asked another way, 84 percent of those polled had a personal relationship with a Christian. Only 15 percent thought the lifestyles of those Christians were significantly different from the norm.

Another Barna study from 2007 showed that lifestyles of “born-again Christians” were statistically equivalent to those of nonbelievers. When reporting activities from their previous 30 days, both groups were equally likely to gamble, view pornography, take something that didn’t belong to them, physically fight or abuse someone, get drunk, use an illegal drug, intentionally lie, seek revenge or gossip.[4]

The point is clear: Hypocrisy is a valid critique of the church. What we say we believe does not equal how we behave. The roles we portray and the ways we act differ. Eugene Peterson, author of the bible paraphrase “The Message,” once said: “There’s nobody who doesn’t have problems with the church, because there’s sin in the church. But there’s no other place to be a Christian except the church.”[5]

Peterson’s quote goes on to mention other institutions that are loaded with hypocrisy; but in this case Jesus’ words were not for other institutions, they were for Christians and for the Church. So let’s not worry about the pretense and hypocrisy of others, let’s stay with the church. What is the lesson for Christ’s people? What is the lesson for Christ’s church?[6]

Let’s begin with the small things; small things can make a huge impact. We can never underestimate the huge impact our small choices can make on those who are linking their perception of Christianity with our lives. That means our mind-set needs to be radically missional. Every moment is potential evangelism, even that moment yesterday as I was heading back to town from Eureka Springs and got cut off not once but twice on the four lane section of Highway 62, my hand finding the horn like a young man facing a little old lady.

We don’t need to worry about sharing Christ with others by engaging in heavy theological discussions. Remember, life is evangelism. Even the smallest acts of our public life can have a positive or negative impact on other’s perceptions of the church and of Christ.

And if words are necessary, remember the words of the call of Jeremiah, God will put the right words in our mouths too.

Next we must choose authenticity. Genuineness. Integrity. Transparency. They’re buzzwords in younger churches today, but for a reason. People are tired of Sunday-only Christianity. If Christianity isn’t true and wholly transformative, then there are plenty of other things to do with our time.

In the place of hypocrisy, many churches are going with honesty, publicly saying who we are and who Christ welcomes into the church. One such church is Grace Presbyterian in Little Rock. At the beginning of Sunday worship they say and on the front of their web page they write:

Welcome to Grace Presbyterian Church!
Welcome to all who have no church home or are seeking a new home.
Welcome to young and old and to all ages and ethnicities.
Welcome to singles, to couples and to families of all shapes and sizes.
Welcome to those who are joyful and to those who are sad.
Welcome to those who are grateful and to those who are angry.
Welcome to those who are broken and to those who are whole.
Welcome to believers and to doubters and a special welcome to doubting believers.
Welcome to all who come seeking God and to all who come seeking merely to appease someone in their household.
Grace Presbyterian Church is a house of God.
Come just as you are.
Everyone is welcome.[7]

Whatever it takes, we need to reject hypocrisy and lead with honesty; imperfect, in-process, in-grace honesty.

Next we must not fight with Jesus or anybody else who agrees with him. We must also be careful when the Lord uses the unbeliever as a prophetic voice. Does it strike anyone as a bit ironic that nonbelievers and Jesus share the same harsh opinions toward the church’s hypocrisy? That is a great evangelism piece. So whenever we hear the hypocrisy argument from nonbelievers, we should tell them they sound like Jesus and we should mean it. We should tell them about Luke 13. We need to implore them not to let something small like agreeing with Jesus keep them from exploring faith.

Finally we must apologize often. Bumper-sticker theology is almost always wrong. Really wrong. But some well-intentioned souls get close when their cars tote the message “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” After exposing Christianity’s hypocritical street reputation for the better part of a chapter, the authors of “UnChristian” offer a new perspective for us, Christians must be transparent about their flaws and act first, talk second.

What better way to prove and spread this message than by apologizing to nonbelievers? Regularly. Not just cheap excuses or phony apologies such as “I’m sorry you felt that way” but real, relationship growing contrition like, “I need to ask for your forgiveness.” We need to say aloud “I really made a mistake on this one and I’m deeply sorry for how it affected you.”

We must take the steps to radically live and believe the exact same things. Jesus was concerned enough about such integrity that he put his own into question by bucking religious conventions and breaking rules. That must have been a fun way for him to live perfectly, and it’s a great model for us as we live imperfectly.[8]

As for what this means to us, this morning, if we take nothing else, let us take these words from our reading of Hebrews: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.” So let us not share God like a virus that injures, but worship with a viral faith that spreads everywhere.

[1] “Watch Out for Granny Airbag” YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8TNdub8esU, retrieved August 21, 2010.
[2] Virgil’s “The Aeneid”
[3] “Mal-Ads Damage the Church” HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93040548, retrieved August 19, 2010.
[4] Barna information Ibid from HomileticsOnline.com.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Unless otherwise noted, the four lessons for the church are a paraphrase from “Mal-Ads Damage the Church”
[7] Grace Presbyterian Church (Little Rock) Homepage, http://www.littlerockgrace.org/, retrieved August 21, 2010.
[8] The four suggestions are taken from “Mal-Ads Damage the Church.”