Sermon Text: John 17:11b-19
A Christian Paradox
Up is down, left is right, reality is fantasy, and fantasy is reality. These are a few examples of a paradox. Statements, or pairs of statements that are self-contradicting, which taken separately cannot both be true. As logical beings, paradoxes are troubling. We want there to be one right answer and one wrong answer. A true and false question shouldn’t be able to be answered with “yes”. Take the picture on your bulletin as another example of this. The shape it makes shouldn’t be possible. A triangle where sides are simultaneously going up and down, over and under. And yet, here it is. Paradoxes, we learn, are more common than we care for them to be, especially when it comes to faith. In the Christian faith, we would love to say that this is the right way all the time, or that is the wrong way. We want things to be straightforward and simple. But guess what? Life isn’t that simple, and neither is our faith. For we regularly have this tension where two contradictory statements must be held in paradox. God alone saves us, but man condemns himself. Good works aren’t necessary for salvation, but you won’t be saved if you don’t have good works. And well, we have one more paradox which comes up today. It’s a question which the church has tried to answer for centuries. How are we, as Christians, to relate to our culture? We know that the world is full of sin and evil and is opposed to God and thus means we should avoid it. But God also desires we go to the sinful, evil world and show them love and compassion.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus gives us this tension between isolating ourselves off from the world, and yet still being a part of it. It’s a paradox of how our Christian faith interacts with the world around us. For so we shall learn today:
CHRIST HAS SANCTIFIED US FROM THE WORLD AND SENT US TO THE WORLD!
I.
When it comes to the culture wars in our society, it’s easy to get the wrong idea about how we should be involved, or not involved for that matter. We often look at our world and see nothing good. I’m always talking about all the ways in which the world is opposed to us as Christians and the dangers it presents to our faith. The world hates us because we follow Christ and thus offer them no power over us. As we hear Christ pray, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world,” John 17:14. We aren’t of this world. We come to realize that we’re different, even separate from the world in which we live. Because of this, when we look at the culture wars, our first response always seems to be, don’t get involved. Ignore it. Run away from it. So long as we have our own church culture, that’s good enough for us. It’s the old error of monasticism, monks and nuns. It’s the idea that if we separate ourselves from the world, insulate ourselves from the sins and evil in our world, then we’ll be protected from falling into those sins and evil ourselves. But experience doesn’t agree. Even separated from the world, we still run into the same trouble. For separating ourselves from the world isn’t the answer.
This leads us to the other typical response. We must dive headlong into the world and Christian-ize it from the inside-out. Many church bodies have tried to do just that. They’re front and center in our world, seeking to embrace all the latest trends, the fads, even the political agendas. For just as Christ says, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world,” John 17:18. Christians have thought that if we become so ingrained within our world, that if we fight the culture wars, then we can make the world more Christian. We can make the world resemble Christ and improve the world we live in. Yet, experience again offers another tale. When we embrace our world, we never win. By embracing the culture, the first thing in the church to go is Christ. Embracing the culture turns the church into just another social club, political movement, or self-help society. Embracing the world will always taint the church and destroy her teaching of salvation in Christ alone. We can’t be deceived to think we’ll ever win the culture wars. That doesn’t mean we should never engage, but that we can’t believe that simply “winning” will ever be the actual solution for the world’s problems.
II.
If running away from the culture isn’t the answer, and embracing the culture isn’t the answer, what is? It’s a paradox. It’s a third path that seeks to walk a fine line between both options. It’s holding the tension between these two truths: we must remain separate from the world, and we’re sent into the world by Christ. So, Christ says, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one,” John 17:15. As Christians, we’re in the world, but not of the world. For let me give you this example. Think about bowling as a child. The side rails were always pulled out to keep you from going in the gutter. For the first time you bowled, you accidentally threw it to one side and hit the left rail. Your next throw, you overcorrected and threw it against the right rail. And every successive throw, you tried to keep correcting, bouncing off one rail or the other, until you could throw the ball down the center. So too, the Christian life. We know we won’t be perfect. In one situation, we might mess up and run too far away from the world and go off on that side. In another situation, we might overcompensate and engage too much in the world and begin losing our faith. But it’s this experience of bouncing back and forth that teaches us how to walk on the straight and narrow.
For as we walk this third path, we do so only by the grace of Christ. It’s for this reason that Christ prayed. Christ knew the challenge of balancing our life in his name with our life in the world. This is the true answer to our paradox. It’s Christ. It’s his grace and mercy that enables us to walk such a path, because it’s his grace and mercy that keeps us from falling off. Christ was the one who is separate from the world. He’s not a part of it, yet he was sent into it. He came to us to guide us, teach us, and save us. Christ was sent among us to die on the cross for our sin and lead us to our true home before God in eternity. Until that day, Christ leaves us here to testify, to witness to the forgiveness, mercy, and grace we have by his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension to the right hand of God in heaven.
Let us then hold this tension ever before us. By Christ’s death on the cross, he has made for us a home with him. He has sanctified us, separated us from the sinful, fallen world. But he leaves us here that we may walk this path in his grace and mercy to testify to the love we have in Christ! In Jesus’ name!
For the final time this year: Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!