I Don't Want to Be Part of a Liberal (or conservative) Church!

This week I was in Market Basket grocery shopping.

I ran into a bunch of people from the community and church.

And one of the people I ran into was a former member of Concordia Lutheran Church.

He said something that really irritated me.

I had to challenge him on it.

He called our church, "A liberal church".

It made me upset.

Because I don't want to be a part of a liberal church.

Not that I have anything against liberals.

I don't want to be part of a conservative church either.

Not that I have anything against conservatives.

It pains me to think that we have let the world's dividing lines define churches.

Because I want our church to be a Church of Jesus Christ.

I want it to be a place where we come together to know the love of God given to us in Jesus Christ.

That is my only purpose here.

I didn't become a pastor because I had lots of liberal views and I wanted to impart them on people on a weekly basis.

In fact, for a long time I didn't want to be a pastor at all.

I fought against it.

But God's will is stronger than mine.

And here I am.

I became a pastor because Jesus Christ saved my life.

Jesus Christ changed my life.

I don't mean that in some Jesus saved me so I can go to heaven some day kind of way (although that is true too).

I mean it literally.

That my life was a mess.

It wasn't going well at all.

I was lost and out in the wilderness.

I was headed for jail, or something worse.

And then God found me.

In the lost place.

God's grace came to me and lifted me out of the miry bog. and set my feet upon a rock.

And my life hasn't been the same since.

The way that I see the world, the way that I understand people and myself, comes from God saving me.

Part of that story is about John 3:16.

I remember the moment I first heard these words.

I was in a cabin at Camp Calumet.

I was a counselor in training.
I was there that summer against my will.

My parents were making me go.

It was devotions at the end of the day.

It was dark.

The counselor stood in front of the cabin with all the lights out and only a candle.

He read the text and said, "God loves all of you here more than you will ever know."

And the Holy Spirit in that moment touched my heart.

I saw God for the first time in this way.

I had other experiences that summer that only cemented for me this relationship with God.

I am wondering about you today.

What was that moment when God hooked you.

When you realized how much God loves you.

When you changed, or saw something from a different perspective?

It is that I want us to see every Sunday.

That is why I am pastor.

I want to share that with everyone.

And it doesn't matter what your politics are.

I want you to understand what Nicodemus doesn't.

I want you to be able to see the world from above, or new, or again.

I want you to see it through God's eyes.

And what God sees when God sees us is beloved.

God sees us as people needing saving.

Jesus tells us that God doesn't come to judge us, but to save us.

That is grace.

That is God.

That is what our church is about.

Isn't it sad to any of you that merely to say that God loves everyone without condition is somehow a liberal idea?

Why is being pro LGBTQ+ a liberal idea?

Where in the Bible does it tell us that God loves LGBTQ+ people less than any of us?

Where does it tell us that we should love our gay neighbor less than our straight one?

To me that is not a liberal or conservative idea it is merely the Gospel.

We have let the world infect our brain.

We have let greedy politicians tell us that we should somehow like people who we don't agree with less.

I spent some time this week thinking about when this started.

And I realized the answer.

November 1970.

That is when Lutherans in America ordained the first woman, Elizabeth Platz.

That is when the division began.

According to the former member the beginning of our liberalism was that our denomination allowed women to be pastors.

Because according to him that is also when we started to accept homosexuals.

Women ruined the church.

I want to ask again.

What is so liberal about having women preach the Gospel?

It was women who were the first to preach the resurrection.

(To men who didn't believe them!)

It was Phoebe, Prisca, Aquilla who St. Paul calls a fellow preacher of the Gospel.

Why does it matter what gender you are?

If you can tell the good news of Jesus Christ who cares?

You see the world in John's Gospel is anything that is against God.

It is anything that is hostile or hate filled.

It is anything that isn't full of grace and forgiveness.

It is anything that isn't full of love.

And I want to suggest this morning that we have let the world infect the Church.

We have let it tell us that God's love isn't for everyone.

It is only for a select few.

I reject that interpretation of the Bible, or any theology that is exclusive.

I suppose that is what makes us liberal.

I don't think that is a liberal point of view, unless you want to make it one.

It is a God's point of view.

I want to end this morning with an apology to all of you.

This isn't the first time I have heard someone who used to attend here tell me they left because they thought our congregation was too liberal.

I apologies if I let my personal political beliefs seep into my preaching or teaching of the Gospel.

I hope you will forgive me.

I also want you to know that it was never my intention.

My intention is only one thing…preach the Gospel.

To help us every week have that same experience I had that night at Camp Calumet when I heard John 3:16 read.

I want us to grow in our faith in Jesus Christ.

I want us to change so that we are filled with the Holy Spirit and ready to share God's love with the world.

That is what I want our church to be known for God's love for the world.

I don't believe that is a liberal message.

It is God's message given to us through Jesus Christ.   

Amen