Is Church Dangerous (Ecc. 5:1-7)

Watch your step! If I say that you assume that there must be some impending danger and I need to proceed with caution. What would you think if we had people at the front door who said something similar…like maybe warning you before going into a Haunted House…like you need to sign a waiver…be careful…watch your step…you are about to go into a church building.

Would that be appropriate?

This is Caring Well Sunday. The second one ever within the SBC. It’s a date marked off by the SBC to acknowledge the reality of abuse. Physical, sexual, and spiritual abuse.

And I’ll be honest that I did not plan the sermon title or even what passage we would be in here so as to correspond with Caring Well Sunday. That uhmmm…just so happened...

Our sermon title today is “Is Church Dangerous”? And sadly, I think given the many statistics and prevalence of horrendous things like clergy sexual abuse, spiritual abuse, and just some of the not good things that happen within our churches, and the hiding and cover-up, and so many things…I think we might be inclined to conclude…why, yes, yes it is dangerous.

And sadly, many people do approach coming to church with this kind of caution…it really could be a house of horrors. And for many coming to church isn’t the scary part but being the church, living out what that means and entails---nah, that is where the danger is at. And it can be hard to argue with that painful reality for many.

For others, you might entirely balk at such a question. No, church isn’t dangerous. It’s where i find life. It’s where I find meaning. It’s where I hear God’s Word and where I’ve found salvation. And we cannot argue with this either. Both are true…and for some people, like myself, church is both the place of deepest joys and deepest hurts.

But I must confess when I ask that question about whether or not church is dangerous. I mean something quite different. In fact, I think because we don’t answer THIS question correctly is why we have failed to answer the previous question correctly. In other words, horrible things like abuse happens because we have not reckoned with the actual question I’m asking today.

Is Church Dangerous?

When I was in college there was a posture that I have now that I did not have then. It’s that hands on your hips, gazing intently at something, thinking about what kind of shape your back and knees are in…assessing…how bad is this going to hurt in the morning. I’m not sure if what’s wisdom or just being older.

But the Quester is a wise dude and so he’s looking at going into the temple…into the house of God…and he’s sizing it up. Is this safe? Like is this something I ought to be doing. His real question is more…am I at all safe to come into the house of God…to come into God’s presence?

Let’s listen in and see what he concludes...

Ecclesiastes 5:1–7 ESV

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.

Is church dangerous? Is coming into God’s presence dangerous? Yep.

Now we could read this in a couple different voices. One voice would have the Quester as a wise old dude saying, “going to the temple is a great thing but don’t approach it like an idiot…here are a few parameters”. You can approach God but be sure to do it in the right way.

The other voice has him a bit more skeptical. You know I’m not sure that this is even something we ought to be engaging in…far too dangerous…but if you do go…if you must…at least do it this way.

It really hinges on how we take his understanding of “God is the one you must fear”. How does he mean that? Is he meaning it similar to Proverbs where it is an awe and a reverential fear? Possibly.

It’s also possible, and given the rest of the book I’m kind of inclined this way, that he is viewing God as distant, his actions hard to understand, and from a human standpoint all we really have is to fear.

Either way we take it, I think he’s telling us that this church stuff, this being around the holy is a dangerous business. And he might say, if you don’t believe me ask Uzzah…(that’s the guy who touched the Ark and was struck dead on the spot).

And really this is the story of the Old Testament is it not? We should not be surprised by this…we have this story that God is loving, wants to be with humanity, created us for rest, rule, and relationship. He enjoyed walking in the cool of the garden with Adam. He is self-giving. He lives in community. He constantly reveals Himself to us. He has his eyes set on showing His glory to the nations. You know that redemption is happening....

But we also get this idea that God for us…in our present state…and with how unbelievably foolish we can be…well, he’s not exactly safe or approachable. You don’t just march into the holy of holies. Religion is a dangerous business…and I think most sane people in the Quester’s time would have nodded their head in agreement.

Well most people..and that’s one reason why this is dangerous business. It’s dangerous because of the people there and how religion can actually bring out the worst in humanity instead of the best.

He says, “to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.” I don’t think we should read that as ignorant innocent but rather blind ignorance.

His point here is that people who think they are religiously clean are some of the most dangerous people you can find. Or those who believe they are doing the bidding of God are quite dangerous.

There is a thing called moral licensing. On a smaller scale it’s where you have a great day on your diet and so you feel justified in having that big ol’ piece of chocolate cake. On a larger scale it is something like letting one African-American into your club and then shutting the door behind them…you can now say, “see look, I’ve got a black friend. I can’t be racist”. We like to point to a good thing we do and then give ourselves license to do untold wickedness....

Listen to the adulterous woman in Proverbs 7:14-15

Proverbs 7:14–15 ESV

“I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows; so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.

Oh awesome…she’s all cleaned up. Slate is empty. Her and God are tight. Moral licensing.

But you see something else which Jesus spoke of in John 16:2

John 16:2 ESV

They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

That’s the sacrifice of fools. The religious leaders making sure they don’t break some of the Sabbath laws while they are plotting the death of Jesus. There is a special kind of danger attached to those who believe themselves religiously untouchable and having God on their side.

That’s why they aren’t drawing near to God to listen. They just come to do the religious duty, get themselves back to that point of zero, and then go about doing what they wanted to do. Not seeking to learn or change or grow or actually have an encounter with God.

And yeah such a person is quite dangerous in a church setting—because it’s all about that religious experience. You get in the way of that experience, get in the way of being able to just slip in, pay their dues, and leave—well all that we read in Proverbs about being near a fool comes to bear. And so church can be quite dangerous because it’s a ready place for fools to make sacrifices.

The Quester continues and says not to be rash with our mouths. Which implies that many when they come into the house of God are rash with their mouths. I like what Zack Eswine says here...”Fools possess the religion of the unstoppable mouth.”

Recovering Eden: The Gospel according to Ecclesiastes A Closer Look at the Weeds

Furthermore, foolish churchgoers assume that what they think and feel is synonymous with what God thinks and feels. If they think it, they must say it. If they feel it, they must relieve it by means of orality. Dreams, those day and night imaginings and goals, are always from God and never indicative of something potentially illusory within them. They are first-draft people, living daily on unmeditated speech. Patience is a nuisance. Taking time to think is a waste of time. Plans must be made. Visions enacted. Great things must be quickly done. For them, haste, constant talk, and busying oneself identify the hallmarks of those who should be in church (Eccl. 5:2–3).

Again…it’s quite impossible to argue with someone who has “been told by God”. Well, that friends is the definition of being rash with our words…just saying willy nilly, “God told me...”

Let your words be few, the Quester says. We should be better about listening than talking.

And then he talks about vows and how when we get before God and have some religious experience, or we’re just struck by awe and majesty we can’t keep our mouths silent and so we make some big vows. And that either puts us under a burden of having to do something which really isn’t necessary…and then living under that guilt…or we just go back on the vow and as the Quester says here then make God angry with us.

Again, we need to be careful here and know that he does not have the last word on all this…Jesus does…but we do need to reckon with what he’s saying here. That we’re going to be around all of these kinds of people when we are at church. Church is dangerous because of who you find there...

And then we have to look at this through another lens…and realize wait, this isn’t talking about other people. He is talking to me. I have beating within my own chest a heart that wants to just make a religious show of things. To make a quick sacrifice…do what I’m supposed to do…check it off my list—feel better about myself…maybe even be super religious and become a pastor.

And to be rash with my mouth and make vows and visions and be driven by the wishes and desires of others and talk about doing this and that and dreaming and then being constantly chased down by all of these dreams and what not…and then never just honestly stopping and listening…I mean let’s be honest with myself here, it’s dangerous being a pastor and a writer when God says “let your words be few” and you’ve got a word count.

We need to think about all of the promises we’ve made through all of the years of interacting with God at places like this one. And all the times we’ve just by habit dragged our carcass into a church building, not really wanting to listen but wanting to talk and critique. Or maybe we’ve come and had a phenomenal experience and made big promises on Sunday and blew them by Sunday afternoon.

What I think the Quester would have us to say is that coming to the temple is dangerous business for us.

But you’ve maybe noticed something here. I keep talking about the temple…and then I start saying church…and just using them interchangeably. And you might be, rightly, thinking…pastor you shouldn’t do that…we’re not coming into the temple anymore…the veil is torn...

To which I have to say, “yes, and amen.” We come into God’s house much differently don’t we. And we must not think of this as “God’s house” in the same way…as if this building is somehow the exclusive place where God’s presence dwells…and we are the church…and we gather together…and this is a building on Monday but when we gather to open the word, sing praise, engage in the ordinances, etc. well it becomes something quite different.

And so we have to say that perhaps what the Quester says here isn’t entirely true for us today. That maybe we say, and along with ol’ Uzzah, that in the Old Testament, yeah it’s quite dangerous to come into the temple. You can’t just come into God’s presence...But we’re in the new covenant and the blood of Jesus means we have an audience, we have acceptance with God, perfect love casts out fear. And so the blood of Christ is like an immovable door stop into the throne room of God...

And so maybe we have to say that church isn’t dangerous quite in the same way because of what Christ has done.

Are we prepared then to say that church is not dangerous but it is rather quite safe…and when we gather together and we seek refuge in God and come into His arms…we are quite safe, regardless of how other people around us at times might be quite curmudgeonly or unhelpful, or even our own foolishness, ultimately as we gather together in the presence of God we are indeed quite safe.

Maybe...

But what do we do with some of the words of Jesus when he talks about our call to die to ourselves. And that the gospel brings a certain kind of death to it. And that our God is a consuming fire…

I remember reading a little book a few years ago by a guy named Wesley Hill. He is a guy who struggles with same-sex attraction but battles for purity in that area…he wants God to change those desires…man, it was one of the best books I’ve read on sanctification (of what it means to follow after God). In that book he said this:

British theologian John Webster speaks of “the church facing the resistance of the gospel,” meaning that if the gospel brings comfort, it also necessarily brings affliction. The gospel resists the fallen inclinations of Christian believers. When we engage with God in Christ and take seriously the commands for purity that flow from the gospel, we always find our sinful dreams and desires challenged and confronted. When we […] Christians bring our sexuality before God, we begin or continue a long, costly process of having it transformed. From God’s perspective, our [sinful] inclinations are like “the craving for salt of a person who is dying of thirst” (to borrow Fredric Buechner’s phrase). Yet when God begins to try to change the craving and give us the living water that will ultimately quench our thirst, we scream in pain, protesting that we were made for salt. The change hurts[1].

[1] Hill, Wesley. Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2010. Page 67

I think what Hill is saying is that the gospel…being gospel-centered well it’s a bloody mess. I think here of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan is the great king and ruler of Narnia…when the children in the story first hear of him they aren’t sure what to think:

Aslan is the rightful king and ruler of Narnia and he is not to be trifled with. When the Pevensie children first hear about Aslan, they are unsure what to think. Should they be afraid?

“Aslan is a lion---the Lion? Ooohhh...Is he—quite safe?” I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion” – Susan

“If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.” – Mrs. Beaver

“Then he isn’t safe?” – Lucy

“Safe? . . . Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King I tell you.” – Mr. Beaver

I don’t think safe is really the right word to speak of Jesus. At least in one sense. There is throughout the Bible the idea that God is a refuge for people who trust in him…that we are completely and totally and 100% safe in the arms of Christ…and secure…and all of these words to describe that. And if you’re heavy laden and weary and need to rest…oh man, here is where you find safety. Where you find peace. Where you find shalom.

But there is another sense in which he is indeed a lion. Christ isn’t safe in that when he calls a man he bids him to come and die. He’s not safe in that grace isn’t safe…because grace tends to draw in all the riff-raff and others who aren’t in themselves safe and it calls us to love and risk and do things which put at least part of us in a spot that is not safe at all.

Later in the Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis said it this way:

“People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.”

In Revelation 5 we have this beautiful..well terrifying I suppose…scene. There is this scroll and nobody can open it…and it’s the scroll to move history along…and everybody tries and it just won’t open…and wrapped up in this scroll is all of our redemption.

Then steps in the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Lion…fierce…and he can open it...

And so, we need to realize that lion’s don’t bring redemption with unicorns and butterflies. You’re never going to be “safe” in a certain sense when you are in the presence of a lion.

And so what happens when we don’t think that Christ is a lion…and we do in fact come into church with a fool’s sacrifice…well it’s quite dangerous in another way. I have a book in my office…(well I think Nikki might be reading it at home)…it’s called Dangerous Calling. It’s about how there are so many dangers around pastoral ministry.

I happy to have a first edition and on the back of that book are little blurbs from pastors who said, “this book is amazing!!!” and 3 of the 4 of those men have now either walked away from the faith or had a big moral failing....and I think something Tripp said there is true for all of us…

When we are in constant contact with divine things we can lose our awe. He says it this way:

It's all become so regular and normal that it fails to move you anymore; in fact, there are sad moments when the wonder of grace can barely get your attention in the midst of your busy ministry schedule. Artists talk of the dynamic of visual lethargy, that the more you see something, the less you actually see it. The first day you drive to work you take in all the sights and sounds. You notice the beautiful grove of ancient trees and cool modern duplex on the corner.

But by your 20th trip, you've quit noticing, and you're wishing the traffic would move faster so you could get to work.What happened seems inevitable, but it's not good. You’ve quit seeing, and in your failure to see, you’ve quit being moved and thankful. The beauty that once attracted you is still there, but you don't see it, and you can’t celebrate what you fail to see.

Oh, great Lion, rouse us....and yeah…when he roars it’s a dangerous thing. But it’s a good kind of danger. A danger that rips away all the things which rob us of joy and keep us from seeing beauty…and suddenly when the Lion does this work and opens the scroll what do we see...

Revelation 5:6 ESV

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

A lamb…the lion turns into a lamb…a standing lamb…a victorious lamb. The lion conquers by His death…church is especially dangerous for the lion of the tribe of Judah....But it is also where victory is found…and the Lamb is standing having one our victory.

Church is dangerous…but it’s where we come to gather and to celebrate and meet with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah....who is still transforming and painfully redeeming us....at great cost to us but a greater cost to Himself.

And it is where we come to worship together the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain! And it’s where we come to gather filled with awe and clinging to grace with one another.

Yes, church is dangerous. And it can be a bad dangerous…or it can be a glorious dangerous. But some day we will be fully and finally safe…and redemption will have done it’s work and no more crying, or tearing, or fearful things…the ocean will be no more. Chaos calmed. And we spend eternity

Revelation 5:9–14 ESV

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.