"Muscular Christianity"

Please look again at the words of our invocation.  Too often the words roll off our tongues and don’t really get impressed in our minds and hearts.  I want to focus on the meaning, and the importance of what we’ve said:  “Righteous God, whose works are greater than our wildest imaginations and most sophisticated study, plant the seed of your Word among us today, and let each of us welcome the Good News you would plant within us.  Inspire in us deeper thinking and more open receptiveness.  May our lives be the fertile ground in which your love bursts into life to nourish all whom we meet, in Jesus name.”

Those words about how God’s works are “greater than our wildest imaginations and most sophisticated study,” remind me of the huge amount of publicity The Da Vinci Code is getting.  I haven’t seen the movie, but I’ve heard it’s pretty disappointing and, somehow, that doesn’t disappoint me.  In fact, if I can be so boldly anthropomorphic in this sophisticated company, I suspect God’s getting a good chuckle.  All the wild flights of fantasy, all the controversial and misleading so-called historical scholarship, and somehow it just doesn’t measure up.  God’s works are greater than our wildest imaginations and most sophisticated study. 

Dan Brown is a gifted novelist.  I confess, I’ve read all his books, and I like them, but it wouldn’t hurt if he actually used a Bible more and his imagination less. It’s not my purpose to blast Dan Brown.  His novel may be one of the best goads to get people back to real Bible study that we’ve had for a long time.  There’s a whole cottage industry of videos, books, magazine articles and TV specials about Jesus, church history and Mary Magdalene that The Da Vinci Code has spawned.  Talk about planting seeds!

Which brings us back to where we should be, the Bible and our Gospel lesson this morning. In it we learn that Jesus always spoke in parables.  In some ways he was not so different from Dan Brown.  He was a good storyteller.  This morning he’s telling a story about planting seeds, and how there’s a mysterious, sacred life force contained within them that causes them to grow.  They can begin as impossibly small as a mustard see, and still grow into a tree that shelters the birds of the air. 

Jesus is talking about spiritual growth.  He’s talking about the Kingdom of God.  The seed is a symbol of God’s Word, just like “fruits of the spirit” are symbols for what grows from God’s Word.  Jesus says that the source and integrity of the seed can be known by what grows from it. In Matthew 7:16 Jesus talks about false teachers and says this:  “By their fruits you shall know them.”  The Apostle Paul lists the fruits of the Spirit in Ephesians 6:23 as:  “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”   So, I rest my case.  The Da Vinci Code is a page-turner.  It’s an entertaining novel and a fun read.  I read it and I fully expect to see the movie, in part because I’m curious, in part because I have a responsibility to see it.  It’s planted a lot of seeds.  Are they seeds of the Spirit?  Are they making people more loving, joyful, peaceful and gentle? You be the judge. 

Mary Magdalene as the supposed wife of Jesus has gotten most of the attention but, on this Father’s Day, I’d like to pose a few questions about what it would be like to think of Jesus as a father.  Personally, it wouldn’t threaten my faith if Jesus were a husband and father.  It’s interesting to speculate about how Christianity might be different if we worshipped that kind of a savior.  

Father’s Day, like Mother’s Day, is a secular, non-biblical holiday and there are no specific scriptures that exactly fit.  When Alice was looking for bulletin covers it was difficult.  We had a choice between duck decoys, red woolen shirts and hunting dogs or tool belts and smoking pipes.  We know Jesus’ own father was a carpenter, and Jesus may have practiced the trade himself, but that’s about as “fatherly” as he gets, and there are those who feel that’s been a problem for the church. 

David Murrow is the author of a book entitled, Why Men Hate Going to Church. "We don't have to have hand-to-hand combat during the worship service to get men there," Murrow said. "We just have to start speaking [their language], use the metaphors they understand and create an environment that feels masculine to them."  Most of today's churches, Murrow argues, just aren't cutting it.  His background is in marketing and advertising, and one day as he was sitting in church it dawned on him that the target audience of almost everything about church culture was a 50 to 55 year-old woman.

The gender gap is not a distinctly American one but it is a Christian one, according to Murrow. By contrast, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam offer "uniquely masculine" experiences for men, he said.  His words are provocative enough that I want to quote him exactly.  He writes: "Every Muslim man knows that he is locked in a great battle between good and evil, and although that was a prevalent teaching in Christianity until about 100 years ago, today it's primarily about having a relationship with a man who loves you unconditionally.  And, if that's the punch line of the Gospel, then you're going to have a lot more women than men taking you up on your offer because women are interested in a personal relationship with a man who loves you unconditionally. Men, generally, are not."

Another author, Clifford Putney, has written a book from which I take the title of this sermon, Muscular Christianity.  From his perspective, men need to be challenged to do something with some muscle in it.  He says that things like mission trips and hurricane relief work have helped to make faith become real for many men.  Another United Methodist pastor makes the same observation:  "Our guys have really come out because it's something they can do.  They feel like they've made a contribution . . .  I think men like to do things that they feel comfortable doing.” 

But then Morrow adds his two cents:  “Yet come Sunday morning,” he says,  "we're going to sing love songs to Jesus and there's going to be fresh flowers on the altar and quilted banners on the walls."  He claims that "it would look like the rapture" if women didn't come to the typical church one Sunday. The whole thing would grind to a halt.”

Well, if all this sounds a bit too muscular, sexist and macho, I’ll let Murrow defend himself and close with his response to that criticism.  He says that, in fact, he wrote his book for laywomen in particular! "They're the ones who are suffering most from this gender gap,” he says. “ A lot of women feel overworked and under-appreciated in our churches today because they are carrying the load."  What do you think?  Did he dig himself out of the hole?

Personally, I have to tell you I think these arguments oversimplify things.  These authors haven’t met the members of our Board of Trustees, or our Building Committee.  There are plenty of challenges in the local church, and we have some very muscular men, along with some pretty muscular women working right alongside them to keep things humming along.  Still, I found the articles interesting, just as I found The Da Vinci Code entertaining.  I hope they’ve given you something to think about.  Bottom line: read your Bibles - study God’s Word.  And remember, Gods works are greater than our wildest imaginations and most sophisticated study.  Pray that the seed of God’s Word be planted among us today, and may each of us be inspired to deeper thinking and more open receptiveness.  May our lives be fertile ground for the love and the challenge of the living Christ.  Have a Happy Father’s Day, and may Christ be both your shalom - and the one who challenges you to a more imaginative, thoughtful, and active faith.  Amen. 

Resource for article quotes: “Empty Pews: Where Did All The Men Go?” By Kristen Campbell and Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service, Saturday, June 10, 2006; B09