sermon july 8 2018 religious but not spiritual · with the help of god’s spirit we turn to...

Sermon July 8 2018 Religious But Not Spiritual Rev. Aaron N. SchnellSt. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, Spruce Grove Page � of �1 12

This is week 2 of a 3 week preaching series on the First Letter of John.

Yes, I apologize again, you’ll have to wait a couple weeks

for the third instalment as I look forward to my vacation -

A little review on the background for the book of 1st John.

We don’t really know much about the author.The author of 1st John and the other John letters

is not John the Baptist,nor the John who wrote Revelation.

It is likely not even the same John who wrote the Gospel of John.

John was a popular name,much like Mary or Jesus were popular Jewish names.

The themes in the letters of John are very similar to themes in the Gospel of John,

so it is likely that they came out of a faith community deeply rooted in John’s Gospel,

written only 10 or so years later.

So to understand 1st John, we ought to remember what John’s Gospel is about:


Belief that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of the living God,

and that through believing in Jesus Christwe may have life in his name.

1 John is about God’s love, God’s truth,

God’s way, God’s life

Embodied in Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified Christ.

1 John also makes a strong presumption,one that we continue to believe:

God is at work in the world. So what does that mean?

What might God be up to?

With these questions in mind,Let’s turn our hearts to God’s Word for us today:

1 John 4:1-6 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. 4 Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

God is at work in the world! We hear that, we believe that.

Not long ago we collected some of the examples that people wrote down of the ways we have experienced God.

So how do we know if these were really God nor not?


Not everything that happens is God’s will. Someone dies tragically, and you might hear someone say; “God needed another angel! It was God’s will”

Or someone injures themselves in an accident “God willed this so you can learn something!”

If you’re going to claim to speak for God, you’d better be right! God doesn’t need another angel. God does not put you to the test, God does not cause you to suffer so you can learn something.

But God does show up in tragedy. God is with us in our suffering.

If not everything that happens is God’s will, then our call is to discern God’s will.

To discern the things of God, to discern what is God and what is not, we look at Jesus Christ and him crucified. We look at the thing or things that happen through the lens of the cross.

Discernment is all about pointing to Jesus Christ and him crucified. It might sound simple enough, but it is not. Not everything that seems to be about Jesus is really about Christ and him crucified.

Sometimes to understand what is pointing to Jesus, we need to know what the opposite might be.

In today’s reading, the word used is … antichrist.


Now, when I say antichrist, don’t think about this so much as a personified antichrist. Many have been called the antichrist - popes, presidents, preachers, you name it!

For what it is worth, these images top the google search for antichrist. It’s not about these people. This is not about an end-of-times political leader.

The term antichrist, particularly in the time this letter was written, is a term for those who are against Christ, or better, act as a substitute for Christ.


According to Craig Koester, “The writer uses the term “antichrist” for a form of the gospel that circulated in his own time. It is “against” Christ because it offers a thoroughly spiritualized “substitute for” Christ. And the writer notes that the world finds the disembodied message more appealing than the incarnate one. Yet the passage says that believers “overcome” or “conquer” the power of the antichrist. Note that there is no description of apocalyptic destruction. Instead, victory is won wherever faith is professed and lived out in love.” 1

The disembodied message of Christ was more appealing than the incarnate one. An incarnate message of Jesus Christ is a message of Emmanuel, that Jesus of Nazareth is God with us in the flesh. The antichrist problem then is that some people were more attracted to a disembodied Christ, a not-incarnate message.

Think of it like faith in Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, and him crucified vs. a generic spiritual ‘faith.’

or better, think of it like a belief you hear all the time today: “I’m spiritual, but not religious.”

I’d like to show you a clip from Ultra Spiritual, Ultra Woke Internet mogul J. P. Sears that might help us understand what it means to be spiritual and not religious.

Click Here For Video - J.P. Sears https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kDso5ElFRg

https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=37041

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kDso5ElFRg


After watching this, I’m convinced it is better to say “I’m religious, and not spiritual!”

Spirituality wont bring you back from the dead; only The Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ and him crucified can. Spirituality wont make you right with God; only The Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ and him crucified can. Spirituality wont forgive you when you mess up - and you will mess up - only The Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ and him crucified can.

Thus our call by God’s grace, guided by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God is to discern the Spirit, To discern that which is of God and this which is not.


When discerning God’s Spirit, with the help of God’s Spirit we turn to God’s Word, and, when in doubt, I would recommend using Luke chapter 4 as a strong biblical text to use.

This is the story at the outset of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus enters the synagogue in his home town and reads from the Isaiah scroll, God’s Word from centuries before; “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And (Jesus) rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”


Jesus was willing to be hurled out of town over this. Jesus was willing to be killed for this. It would have been far easier for Jesus to avoid the call in scripture to embody God’s peace, to embody God’s justice, God’s shalom. Discerning the Spirit means asking does this point to Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, crucified and risen The one who does not avoid the truth, but is willing to suffer for the truth.

Sometimes it is helpful to consider WWJD - What Would Jesus Do when we discern what God is doing. When we think to the life of Jesus Christ; Who did Jesus minister to? Who did Jesus show favour to? Who did Jesus accept and welcome? The widow, the orphan, the prostitute, children, the sick, the outcast, the dying, criminals. Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. Let the little children come to me. Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone. Talitha Coum - Little Girl, rise. That’s Jesus. That’s who Jesus was, that’s who Jesus is, that is what God is doing still today.

So the church has not discerned the Spirit when she merely tells people how to act. The church has not discerned the Spirit when she turns away the homeless person on her steps because she may be turning away Jesus embodied in that person.


The church has not discerned the Spirit when she tells people to stay within her walls to avoid offending others or to avoid being offended. The church has not discerned the Spirit when she is no longer a gathering of redeemed sinners who are fed at the Lord’s table but rather a gathering of the morally upright who want to get something out of it.

The church has not discerned the Spirit when she no longer works tangibly for the poor, the widow, the homeless the orphan, or the outcast. The church has not discerned the Spirit when she figures out what she is called to do and then calls it a day without actually doing it. The church has not discerned the Spirit when she stays quiet when asylum seekers, children, widows, orphans, sick, homeless, persecuted alien outcast, are being detained and deported and separated from each other. The church has not discerned the Spirit when she has clean and abundant water for baptisms but remains silent about First Nations people who don’t have clean drinking water in their homes. The church has not discerned the Spirit when her faith is disembodied. The Church is called to faith that is not disembodied but incarnate - in the flesh.


Ours is not a flimsy faith, nor a superfluous faith. Ours is not a generic “everything will be alright” faith. Ours is not a disembodied faith. Ours is an embodied faith; a physical faith, a tangible faith an active faith. Ours is a faith in Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, crucified and risen; pouring out abundant water at the baptismal font, feeding God’s broken and redeemed people with the bread of life, Our faith is in Jesus Christ who takes that which is dead and raises it to new life - in and through us.

Ours is a faith in the God who shows up in our neighbourhoods, in our churches, in our workplaces and living rooms, not in some abstract way, but in a good news to the poor way, in release to captives in sight to the blind in freedom to the oppressed proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favour, the Lord’s acceptance.

Ours is a faith that simply trusts that God keeps God’s promises, and that God is still doing this today.

God embodied love, God embodied truth and justice and peace in Jesus of Nazareth.


This same Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, our Saviour who rose from the dead, bringing all God’s people newness of life. So are we called to embody the love, presence and truth of the same Jesus Christ today.

My dear family in Christ - you are God’s beloved. You are forgiven. You bear God’s image. You are the baptized - you are accepted, God has favour on you, you are forever claimed by our God, forever loved by our God, forever saved by our God. So do not lose heart.

In a world of spiritual but not religious, in a world of border walls and heightened security and dangerous polarization: a world of anti-Christ you are the peace of Christ. You are filled with the Spirit of Truth. You are shalom for a world that needs shalom; deep peace with justice. God is at work in you - trust it. believe it. Do it. But discern it. In whatever you do, ask yourself - is this about Jesus Christ and him crucified - or is it about me?

Let us pray, Guiding God, You are greater than the one who is in the world and from you flow grace, truth, and love. By your Holy Spirit, give us the gift of discernment, that we might turn towards that which confess Jesus Christ and him crucified as Lord, and turn away from that which does not. Forgive us when we make our lives all about ourselves. Move us to be your peace, to do justice, to love kindness, and walk humbly with you, our God. Amen.

sermon july 8 2018 religious but not spiritual · with the help of god’s spirit we turn to...

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