Getting at the Heart of Christianity
First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
The 2nd Sunday after Epiphany – January 16, 2005
Rev. Carrie Kreps Wegenast
[Texts: John 1:29-42]

This morning I will be continuing our sermon series on Getting at the Heart of… with Getting at the Heart of Christianity.  As the title suggests we will be looking at the core, the center, the heart of Christianity.  For some, myself included, this might be a sensitive journey. 

The term Christianity has baggage.  Let’s be honest.  Wars have been fought in the name of Christianity.  Actions of hate and Christianity are not always far apart.  Christianity has its share of liberals, conservatives, evangelicals, fundamentalists, and middle of the road.  We have our Christmas and Easter attendees and our once a decade pledgers.  We have our fast 'til you drop, pray 'til the knees are soar, and damn all to hell Christians.  We also have our “I’m open to everything.  This is my religion and it fits me.  If it doesn’t fit you that’s okay.  I’m okay with that.  I’m okay with you,” type of Christians

Each one of us sitting here has our place in this the spectrum called Christianity.  It adds for interesting discussion and I invite that discussion at Sunday Symposium following the service.  For now, though, let’s get to the heart of Christianity.

My husband and I had dinner together this week as I was struggling with this topic.  He asked me what I thought was the center of Christianity and I told him, Jesus Christ.  I would reason it’s hard to have a faith tradition called Christianity without the Christ. 

“Okay,” he said, “why is Jesus Christ at the center?” 
I responded, “Well, his life, teachings, and actions are at the core of what and how Christians believe.”
“And, what’s the core of Christ’s teachings?”  He asked.
 “Jesus says, ‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’  And, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
(Mark 12:28-31)”
“Right…”
“And, that is how Christians are suppose to act based on Christ’s teachings.” I added.
“I’d agree, but I’m not sure that is the heart of Christ’s teachings.  Carrie,” Markus asked me, “Why are you a Christian?”

This is the question I was trying to avoid.  In my sermon prep I was sticking to the question, “What is Christianity?” not “Why Christianity?”  In our conversation I came to the conclusion that the questions are connected.  “Why Christianity?” answers the questions of “What” in a very personal way. 

During my junior year of college I decided I did not want to be a Christian anymore, and I’ll tell you why.  I grew up in a family active in a Christian community.  Sunday was dedicated to church activities.  We took turns praying before meals and it was not unusual to have ‘church’ related conversations as a family.  My parents were open about their faith.  My mom worked for the church leading Bible Studies and Adult Education.  My father is a pastor and thus very involved with every aspect of the church.  I remember my mom prepping her Bible Studies at the kitchen table while we worked on our homework.  We were a family grounded in Christianity and that was fine with me.  I loved talking about God, Jesus and faith.  I loved driving my Sunday school teachers nuts with all of my questions. 

Camp was a huge part of my faith formation.  Every summer my dad would take us to clown camp for a week of clowning for Christ.  From a young age I would help plan and lead worship as a clown.         

Sometime during my later years of high school my mom was at a luncheon with the chaplain of one of the United Methodist universities in Ohio.  They got to talking and my mom learned that the school had a Clowns and Mimes ministry that traveled around the state leading worship for local congregations.  Days later I received a packet in the mail with information about the school’s chapel programs and I was sold.  That was how I wanted to share my faith and continue my formation as a Christian. 

You could say that as I walked onto that campus as an eighteen year old I was Jumping for Jesus.  I had huge expectations for the faith nurturing I would receive while at college.  There were so many options, including a group called N.C.F. that held weekly worship services and Bible Studies. 

I was in before the first week was out.  This group represented what I had always desired – people my age living in Christianity.  It wasn’t long before I was wearing a WWJD bracelet and singing praise songs with my hands lifted high. 

The first snag came during one of our daily prayer meetings.  Someone asked for prayer for a professor who was teaching New and Old Testament Bible at the school and who was not teaching it to “save” people.  Okay, I thought.  These people know what they are talking about.  I won’t think this guy is doing the right thing either.

The second snag was a bit harder to swallow.  Why can’t we talk about other religions?  Why do we just say they are going to hell if they do not accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior?  I did not remember this type of judgment from our discussions at home.

I started to ask questions.  First, I asked those in my prayer group.  They were my friends and I trusted them.  Soon I found the answers unsatisfactory.  I talked with the leaders of the group.  Made an appointment to see the advisor.  Each person sent me back to the Bible and told me if I have faith God will reveal the answers to me from the Word. 

I thought I had faith.  People told me they thought I had faith but the answers were not coming and I kept asking questions. 

I wanted to know what’s wrong with other religions?  Don’t we all worship the same One God?
I wanted to know why all homosexuals were going to hell?
I wanted to know why abortion wasn’t a Christian option?
I wanted to know what happens to the person who may not think Jesus is the only way to heaven?
I wanted to know if baptism is mandatory and what happens to those who are not baptized before dying?
I wanted to know if Christians could suffer from depression?
I wanted to know why good people die young and the unsaved die old?
I wanted to know why Christian girls are raped?
I wanted to know why ministers get cancer?
I wanted to know…

One night I could tell something was going on with my friends, all of whom where in this Christian group.  I asked them to come over so we could talk about it.  In our discussion it came out that they were worried about me and had gone to one of the group’s spiritual leaders.  He suggested (there were no female leaders or even Bible study teachers) that I was demon possessed and the demons should be exercised from me before I could be a real Christian.  So that night I experienced my first and what I hope will be my last exorcisms.  The group prayed over me, made signs for my dorm room that said “Satan get out,” chanted, danced, and refused to let me sleep in my room until it had been cleaned out by playing Christian music in it for 24 straight hours. 

The next morning I called home.  I had had a chance to think and I was in tears as I told my parents the story.  My dad assured me that I was not demon possessed.  He suggested I go to the University chaplain who assured me of the same.  I later learned that I was not the first causality of the group.  Others had asked too many questions and had strayed too close to the edge of their idea Christianity to remain in the group.  I let myself out of the group but not before I was told, “Without this group you will not have Jesus!”

The next step for me was to pick up the pieces of my faith in God.  I did this by studying the world’s religions.  I started with Islam, but had trouble with the inaccessibility of the sacred text.  Muslims are not encouraged to look into the deeper meanings of the Qur’an because the Qur’an, in Arabic, represents the true revelation of God to humans.  What God said is what we are to understand.  I also stumbled over the role of women in Islam.  As you may have noticed I do not do silent and submissive very well.

I moved to Buddhism.  I really liked the meditation aspect of Zen.  I visited a Zen center and enjoyed clearing my mind and becoming centered in the moment.  When encouraged to meditate on the statue of Buddha at the front of the room I lost it.  I remembered God saying, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

In Hinduism I experienced the same problem.  It had too many gods.  I had not lost my faith in the one true God.  I was just looking for a way to get to that God.  Hinduism was not it for me. 

Native American religion seemed like a good alternative, with its emphasis on one Spirit, until I thought about being pierced in the sun dances.  Too much pain for the gain.

Judaism could have worked but I had grown up believing the Messiah had come.  I found it difficult to fathom that he had not. 

So, returning to square Christianity I decided to do some deeper study.  Academic courses on the New and Old Testament (taught by the teacher the group rejected), Christian thought, and some study in spiritual practices brought me back to Christianity.

In my journey I learned something very important.  I need grace and Christ is the only one who offers it.  Salvation in Islam is found in living the four pillars of practice - prayer, fasting, giving Charity, and the Hajj pilgrimage.  Grace is non-existent.

Same in Buddhism.  People strive for their own inner peace but what happens if you don’t make it in this lifetime?  You have another opportunity next lifetime.

The other religions are the same.

At the heart of Christianity is Christ’s grace.  If we want to talk about Getting at the heart of Christianity, and we do, we need to focus on Christ’s grace.  Christianity is more than “the religion founded on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus Christ.”  It is about a group of people accepting and living in grace. 

The author of the Gospel of John captures this core in the dialogue between John the Baptist and Jesus.  “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)  John the Baptist recognized Jesus’ purpose.  Jesus came to say, “Yes, you are imperfect but I love you anyway.  I offer myself as a Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the people.  Come to me and I will give you forgiveness.  I will cover you with grace.” 

“Why am I a Christian?”  I am a Christian because of Christ’s grace.  In my imperfect state of being I need to know that there is hope. 

I am guilty of trying to do things by myself.  Markus sometimes yells at me when I try to carry all the laundry to the laundry room in one trip all by myself.  Sometime I make it and something I have to back track to pick up dropped socks and shirts. 

Imagine living a life in which we were each responsible for our own sins.  Imagine the guilt that would weigh upon our shoulders like boulders.  Imagine having to do everything by ourselves.  A contemporary German scholar writes this, “It is only in following the Christ who was raised from suffering, from a god-forsaken death and from the grave that it gains as open prospect in which there is nothing more to oppress us, a view of the realm of freedom and of joy.”  It is as if we are traveling through a dark tunnel with only the car’s headlights to guide us.  In the moment of the resurrection the darkness is lifted, revealing the light and freedom from the dark’s oppression.

The Heart of Christianity is a promise.  It is a promise of grace given to each one of us by God’s own Son.  Each one of us is invited to live within this grace.  To accept the grace offered so that there is hope that sin is not on our shoulders but with the one who loves us with his whole heart.

Let us pray,

Lord, in the midst of our struggles, hear our prayers.  You give us freedom to explore and the courage to find.  Guide each one of us on our journey as we ask ourselves, “Why a Christian?” or “Why not Christianity?”  Help us to seek out the Heart of our faith in you in the assurance that the grace offered to each one of us by your Son is available and a source of hope.  We lift up these things in the name of your Son who gives us grace, Amen.      

 

1 Donald K. McKim, “Christianity,” Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.

2 Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1967, 19-20.