The More 'Religious' the More Securely Ours.

In my early years as a soldier the officers and warrant officers would always say “Darby if there is one thing I hate about you it is that constant smile, why can’t you just be like us? Why can’t you see that sometimes there is no hope.” Then I would respond that my hope doesn’t come from the size of our problems but from my relationship with Jesus. Regrettably, as friends died, and as things got darker I started to take sides. And there were sides to be had whether you supported and recognized the war effort in Afghanistan or not, and I was taking the side of being willing to fight these individuals in Afghanistan and it was turning more and more into the wrong reason to go. I had become so incensed that my identity as a soldier started to take over, and I began to walk like a soldier and talk like a soldier, there was no clear difference between me and anyone else. Others would look at me going along and they would not be able to pick me out from the row on row on row of soldiers. To me, my duty to Queen and country had become a primary defining feature. It had become such a feature that I had to insert my worldly convictions into the Bible rather than let the Bible convict me. The shame that came from this is I looked so much like a soldier and acted so much like a soldier, that Christ’s likeness was no longer beaming through me.

You may have never been pressed into the mould of a soldier, but I can guarantee that you have been pressed into other moulds… you’ve identified yourself by your occupation. You’ve identified yourself as a Rider fan. You’ve become consumed by what started as a hobby. You’ve worked to present the perfect image on social media. You’ve sacrificed something of who you are for just one more follower. When we are passionate about things we often, without realizing it, put blinders on our eyes to what we are really called to. We become so distracted by our passions we forget to afford God the time he deserves and commands.

I’ve seen people become passionate about far more insignificant things like sports. It does not matter whether you cheer for the BC Lions, the Riders, or the Blue Bombers. I have seen people get into fights over whose soccer team is better than the other. We all know the age-old argument of are you a Dodge Person or a Ford person. But our identity often pushes much deeper than a brand. We see this spanning across generations. We become so caught up in who we are to the world around us to those we identify and relate to that it starts to make us, us. If you are trying to start a social media brand you begin to learn what brings in views and what doesn’t and the thing that doesn’t bring in views even though it defines you better you sacrifice it for more views. Or maybe you played sports once, you took pride in the fact that you always played a clean game, but then there was that one time you grabbed onto the opposing player’s jersey in such a way the ref couldn’t see it and it slowed him down so he couldn’t be involved in a play. Maybe you take a hard stance against certain lifestyles, and so you won’t offer your business to people who you perceive to be in those lifestyles essentially driving a wedge between you, them and consequently God. Maybe you are a freshman at college and you are trying to fit in with the crowd and you have to battle that same peer pressure you thought you left behind in high school. Or how about do you invest in crop insurance, or some new fertilizer, or new equipment, or do you work with what you have? We become so passionate about the things we love, and the way to accomplish certain things; that our loves and ideas make us who we are. It can be seen in our identities. Do people know you as a Christian? Or do they know you as a staunch supporter of (fill in the blank):

-Conservative or Liberal?

-Farming as natural a way you can or Farming using cutting edge tech and chemicals?

-BC Lions or Riders?

-Canucks or Leafs?

-Diesel truck or Gas?

This is where you have to be honest with yourself and ask yourself that hard question. It may not be pleasant but it is important. Christians tend to dislike self-examinations due to the risk of “navel-gazing” or unintentionally establishing how awesome we are. I’m not asking you to navel-gaze. I’m asking you to evaluate yourself in the light of Christ. Who are you in Christ? Are you so in love with Jesus Christ that this is what makes up who you are? The Pharisees would tell you that they honestly believed they were doing what God called them to do. The problem is they were what they loved, they loved the law and they held it above their fellow Jews, even at the expense of their fellow Jews. Jesus came in and this didn’t exactly fit what their expectations were. This created a perfect situation for the devil to come in and cloud their minds. Sometimes this is the same with us, as situations arise within the world around our church. Sometimes the world calls us to take a side, and we become so distracted with taking sides we unintentionally turn our gaze from Jesus. In the military, we used to practice different tactical movements which included flanking. The idea is you distract the enemy with a significant force from a certain direction; so much so that they don’t realize you are mounting attack from the other side as well. The enemy, the devil, does the same with us “what the enemy can’t destroy, he’ll distract.” As Pastor Jon put it “The devil distracts us into fighting the wrong battles.”

This fall the youth and I are going to be reading C. S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters.” In the introduction, Lewis tells us that this correspondence between two demons mysteriously fell into his hands. It’s a work of fiction of course, but with man, sometimes fiction hits hard. It can show us things that are true about ourselves and the world. I would like to read you part of a letter in which a more experienced demon gives some advice to another. To give you some context, this was written during the period of WWII and when Screwtape writes “the Enemy” he is, of course, referring to God. Who naturally demons would identify as “the enemy”.

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“...All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them. Any small coterie, bound together by some interest which other men dislike or ignore, tends to develop inside itself a hothouse mutual admiration, and towards the outer world, a great deal of pride and hatred which is entertained without shame because the "Cause" is its sponsor and it is thought to be impersonal...

...Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating Patriotism or Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of a partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the "cause", in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of Pacifism. The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours-and the more "religious" (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here,

Your affectionate uncle

SCREWTAPE

C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: Harper Collins, 1996), pg 31-35.

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Lewis does a great job at grabbing onto some very real truths throughout this book. I’m especially caught by that last paragraph, specifically the words “Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours - and the more "religious" (on those terms) the more securely ours.” What does C.S. Lewis mean, erm I meant Screwtape mean when he says “once you have made the World an end, and faith a means”? Well, this is kind of answered, it is whatever worldly end we may pursue while making Faith a tool to prop up our wordly opinions. This is exactly why we are warned multiple times in the Bible “to be in the world and not of it.” Throughout history we have faced this dilemma of being pushed into worldy moulds, whether your a football player, soldier, dancer, actress, or even farmer. The world comes to our doorstep and puts proposition in front of us and we got a choice follow Jesus or take the path that seems to have worked for others who are successful in the lifestyles we are trying to live.

1st generation Christians faced similar issues we see today. They were faced with cultural acceptance, they were faced with personal vices, confusion, and difference in opinions on how to go forward with “strange new ideas” and as they were facing these difficulties and tripping over themselves the unknown author of Hebrews reminded them in

Hebrews 12:1–3 NLT

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.

Do you hear the message here? We are called to fix our eyes on Jesus. Jesus disregarded the worldly shame that others saw in the cross and with the joy set out before Him He took hold of it and bore it for you and me. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, he is what makes up our faith. When we put aside all differences and choose to walk in the ways that he walked; we become his workers in the field fervently working in the harvest. Jesus is the pioneer the perfecter of faith, we need to submit to the His ways.

When we allow our differences to build up between us, to weigh us down, we become distracted. But when we submit to Jesus we can go out into the world with missional hearts, and we can form relationships with the lost and the weary and when they ask us “what gives us hope.” We will be able to answer them. So we need to remember to “turn our eyes upon Jesus” then we won’t become burdened with our own vices, we won’t become weary, and we won’t give up.

Lets Pray

Suggested closing song: Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus by Helen H. Lemmel

Communion:

Today we will be having communion Paul says this about communion in

1 Corinthians 11:26–32 NLT

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again. So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

It is clear we need to make sure, through self-examination (verse 28) that we are honouring the body of Christ. So before we take the bread together or take from the cup we will have a moment where we can come before God and examine ourselves in the light of the holy spirit, this is a time for you and Jesus, repenting to God is easy but if you need to make this good with a brother or sister before taking of communion be sure to think of this as well. We invite all who love the Lord Jesus, who have repented of sin and who have decided to follow Christ in newness of life to come to this Table. It is the Table of the Lord.

-The Bread

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 NLT

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

-Deacon Pray

-The Blood (read verse 25)

1 Corinthians 11:25 NLT

In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.”

-Deacon Pray

-End (read verse 26)

1 Corinthians 11:26 NLT

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

Benediction:

Hebrews 12:28–29 NLT

Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.