July 3, 2005 Sermon

NLCC V: Authenticity
John 8:12-20

Jesus called himself the light of the world. Only those who follow him can walk in the light. This claim started an argument on the spot. People still argue about it. Is faith in Jesus really the only path to God? Do all people who do not believe in Jesus walk in darkness?

But we must not get sidetracked by such questions. They are vital, life or death questions for millions of people. We do not happen to be among those millions. We know about Jesus. We therefore have the responsibility to choose to walk in his light. A different set of questions applies to us: Will we accept the truth of Jesus? Will we walk in his light? Will our walk match our talk?

Walk truly with Jesus. Let your faith be (or become) authentic.

Jesus called himself the light of the world as he stood in the treasury, a part of the courtyard of the great temple in Jerusalem . I like to imagine he spoke after dark. He had come to town for the Feast of Tabernacles. During this feast temple priests lit huge golden lamps. Jesus might have been surrounded by these beautiful, spiritually evocative lamps as he spoke. They might well have thrown dark shadows in the corners behind his listeners. And he said, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

A group of Pharisees heard Jesus call himself the one, true light. They understood this as Jesus intended it: a hidden reference to himself as the Son of God, the Messiah. The Pharisees had already decided he could not possibly be the Messiah. He did not fit their image of God’s Son. They did not see the light. So they complained, “You bear witness to yourself; your testimony is not true.”

This seems a reasonable objection. What court would render a verdict solely on the basis of the accused’s own testimony? Jesus argues that the Pharisees do not understand. “Even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is true.” He knows where he comes from and where he’s going (God), but they do not. Indeed, they cannot understand. Which of us can? Jesus and God are one. Somehow God sent Himself into this world, yet all the while remained One.

Our feeble, human brains struggle to grasp this truth. God and Jesus are One. Jesus is the one, true light because he is God among us. Follow Him and you cannot go wrong. All this talk about how he and the Father make two witnesses so we can accept his testimony about himself can get confusing. But if we focus on walking in the light, we will stay on the path to God. Jesus really is the Messiah. Walk truly with Him.

The Northern Lakes Community Church has a mission statement. Near the end of it comes a deceptively quiet little sentence: “We pray that all we do will reflect the love of Jesus and be scriptural, authentic and of the highest possible quality.” Today I preach on one word in that sentence: authentic. Jesus claimed to be the authentic Son of God. At NLCC we call upon ourselves to follow him authentically. We aim for honest faith. We aim to walk our talk. We aim to be a no-frills, no-gimmicks, no-slick-advertising-or-glitz, authentic church.

As Jesus acted authentically, so we seek to act authentically as a congregation. We have chosen not to do what so many churches do: build upon a false foundation. We will not try to entertain people into heaven with over-produced worship services. We will not try to guilt people into heaven by telling them they’ll go straight to hell if they don’t buy our version of the truth. We will not try to sell people into heaven by getting them to part with ever more money so we can build palatial buildings and run fancy programs that make other churches jealous.

No, we want walk in the light of Christ. But just saying it will not get the job done. When we talk about authenticity we had better walk authentically. So what would being an authentic church actually look like?

First, we would worship Jesus in spirit and in truth. We pray that our worship services would have authentic spirit. We have kept our worship services simple. We want the music, the prayers and all other elements of our services to call attention not to themselves, but to Jesus Christ. Eight years ago, before we began holding worship services, we did a careful study of the people living in this area. We purchased two professional demographic reports. We discussed how we could best reach the people in our “target area”. We prayed. We settled on a simple, unassuming worship style because we believed that would reach the literally thousands of people nearby who used to go to church.

Other churches worship in other styles. Many of those styles have validity and authenticity. They reach different kinds of folks. Praise God for that! Meanwhile, we worship as we do because we believe Jesus has called us to authenticity. We believe he has called us to sing simple praise songs without a flashy praise band. We believe he has called us to keep our extended greeting time in the service. We believe he has called us to preach the truth cleanly and clearly. We believe Jesus was and is down-to-earth, real and approachable. In order to walk authentically in his light we must also be down-to-earth, real and approachable.

We further believe that in order to walk authentically with Jesus we must serve the real needs of real people. We must minister to them both near and far. Jesus preached compassion for the poor and he fed them. Jesus talked about easing others’ pain and he healed them. Jesus advocated for the acceptance of all kinds of people and he went out of his way to embrace women, foreigners, despised rich people, and those with infectious diseases.

How can we as a church do any less? Our faith in Jesus means nothing if we do not back it with action. Praise God for our deacons, who minister with the aging, the sick and the disabled in our own congregation. Praise God for our support for the food pantry in Interlochen. Praise God for our youth, who labor to help people at home and far away.

We must serve the real needs of real people both near and far or we fail the authenticity test. I cannot accept the idea of pastoring a church that talks about mission but does nothing to make it real. If I were a lay person I would never consider belonging to such a church.

The Northern Lakes Community Church has made a written commitment to walk authentically with Jesus. This commitment to walk our talk must cover every aspect of church life or it means nothing.

We have no room at NLCC for the music director at another church who once told me, “As a professional, I can’t allow any music written after 1875 into the church services. Everything since then has been too shallow and popular. I don’t care what people want; I just can’t do it.” Musical snobbery has no place in an authentic church. The only meaningful test for music—or any other element of a worship service—is this: does it bring people into the spiritual presence of the risen Jesus Christ?

We have no room at NLCC for the pastor who once told me, “Our people love to give money to support overseas missionaries, but I have learned not to ask them to do anything here in town.” (You might be amazed to learn how pastors feel this way—and how many churches deserve this judgment.) If we fail to walk our talk, if we fail to make the love of Jesus real for people, we do not walk in the light of Christ.

The NLCC is an authentic church. Pray to God it remains that way. Walk truly with Jesus, the One who showed us the real path to God the Father.