G.K. Chesterton one time said, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. Rather it has been found difficult and not tried." It would seem strange that after almost two thousand years of history there should still be confusion about the real nature of the Christian religion, and yet there can be no question but that it is widely misunderstood and hence misinterpreted. Some men reduce Christianity to something easy, while others make it impossible. With our contemporary situation bringing everything into question and challenge it is important that the Faith be clearly understood. The object of this message is to help with that understanding.

The New Testament does not give the impression that a Christian is like any other man with a plus mark after him. On the contrary, the New Testament says that the Christian is a new man, a unique man, one who is essentially different from the man who is not a Christian. Many of us do not today give this impression to the world. We have made the Christian an ordinary man. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

In New Testament times and in early church history those men who became Christians were noticed by the world. In a comparatively short time they turned the world "upside down." The Church then came to lead the world. The Christian man had something the world did not. Today this distinction is in large part lacking. In an address given several years ago, Norman Cousins, distinguished editor of the Saturday Review, proclaimed, "If it be maintained that the hope of the world is in Christianity, I ask, 'Where are the Christians?' If a good man outside the Church can stand for the same things a Christian does, there is no use his joining the Church. We Christians must testify that we have something that cannot be had anywhere else. This must not be done with arrogance, with pride or with malice, but it must be done with boldness and conviction. To do this we must absolutely understand the real nature of Christianity."

Too often Christianity is thought of as a little bit of morality. Some men think that as long as they don't lie, don't drink, and abstain from many of life's pleasures, they are good Christians. But such a view of Christianity is totally inadequate. If this is all, wherein does Christianity transcend the pagan philosophies? There is an urgent need to draw the distinction between mere morality and Christianity.

One of the best ways to bring this difference into focus is in a contrast between John the Baptist and Jesus. In Luke 3:15,16, we read that:

"As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, 'I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.' "

John the Baptist was really the last of the prophets. He had a blazing ministry and preached with fire. What did he preach and stand for? In effect he urged the people not to try to ride into heaven on Abraham's shoulders, but rather to face honestly the question, and to stand on their own feet and make up their own minds. As in our day so in his, there were far too many people who who relied on their parents or forefathers, rather than assuming their own spiritual responsibility.

John in his sermon disturbed the people and they began to ask serious questions. "What shall we do?" they queried. In reply, John laid down his moral teachings.

The first concerns come from a group of the affluent, somewhat conscience-stricken because of their wealth. "What shall we do?" they asked. "Share your substance," John replies. If you have two coats, give one to a neighbor who is in need. Share your excess, whether it be food or clothing. (Luke 3:11)

The second delegation was the business men. Their question was similar to the first. "Teacher, what shall we do?" To them John replied, "Exact no more than is appropriate. Be honest and fair." (Luke 3:12)

The third group was the military. (It is interesting to note that John had all three of these groups in his audience.) In response to their parallel question John responded with "Do violence to no man. Be content. Neither accuse anyone falsely. Do your neighbor no harm." (Luke 3:14)

Obviously, the people were impressed - not only with the burden of his message, but the earnestness and straightforward quality of this fearless man. People began to call him the Christ, the expected Redeemer. It is appropriate to ask, "Have we made the same mistake? Is morality our Christ? Are we baptized with ethics?"

To those who set forth this proposition, John quickly responds with a correction. "Please understand," he said, "I am only the prologue and riot the real drama. You are alloys. I will wash you but you are still the alloy. He, when he comes, will burn you in His crucible; only the pure gold will remain."

John was giving a true indication of what was to come. If asked, he could not have given its detail, but he knew that in his teachings there was a great lack which only the real Messiah could supply. When Christ does come we see the difference between Christianity and morality. John says, "Do your best," but Christ says, "Ye must become new men."

II.

Let us observe the difference in the answers Christ gave to the various delegations who came to him. To the wealthy whom John advised to give of their excess, Christ exhorted to give away not only what you can afford, but far more than this. In Matthew 16:24 He says, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." In other words, be prepared to respond to the ultimate. (Matthew 16:24-26)

To the delegation of business men whom John had exhorted, "Exact no more than is due," Jesus says, "Be better than your word. Go beyond the limit. If anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." (Matthew 5:40, 41)

As for the third delegation, the military, (Jesus had all three groups in His audience also) the master was not content with John's "Do violence to no man." Rather, we hear Him saying, "If you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?" "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:44, 45, 47)

These contrasts between the message preached by John and the true "word" of God as revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ begin to make real the depth of commitment which His true disciples are required to give. Whether or not man is willing or capable of responding is for the moment a secondary matter in relation to a true understanding of what is involved in the call to obedience which Jesus gives.

There can be no misunderstanding that in Christianity there is ever the central inescapable demand to total surrender. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer has put it, "When Christ calls a man he means for him to come forth and die." In the closing verses of the ninth chapter of St. Luke's gospel we have a clear cut presentation of the demand of the Master concerning the Kingdom of God and the meaning of discipleship.

Here three men are tendering their applications to join the "Corps of Jesus," being impressed with the Leader and the movement. The first is a very enthusiastic young man who makes an extravagant claim, "I will follow you wherever you go." In such an instance it might have been expected that Jesus would have responded with equal enthusiasm and welcomed the young man into the ranks. Instead of this he went out of his way to point up the rigidity of the requirements. "Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." In other words, "Be sure to count the costs, young man." (Luke 9:57, 58)

The second applicant is likewise enamored with the excitement of the situation, but is constrained to complete full parental responsibility. "Let me first go and bury my father." (It must be understood that this meant to live and care for his father until the latter's death.) Jesus' reply is sharp and terse, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." This may seem harsh but it is not an isolated statement for in Matthew 10:37 Jesus says, "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." (Luke 9:59, 60; Matthew 10:37)

The third aspirant, being yet a different type of personality, is very like a great many of us. He is a conditional comer. "There are some things I must straighten out at home first," he insists. Jesus handles this situation with directness. "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62)

These conditions of discipleship ring with an unfamiliar tone as we listen to the usual sounds made in setting forth church membership requirements today. "Don't ask too much of these people, Pastor, or you will chase them away. Remember this is a busy and demanding world in which we live and each "cause" must take its rightful place. Go a little easy."

But the bold facts remain that there is no evidence in the New Testament to support a "Take it easy philosophy." Jesus would have none of it. And to be truthful with ourselves we know that causes that count today require the same standard. The image of the astronaut is one that captures the fancy of youth today. But do we suppose that the requirements there are any less than those laid down by Jesus? To renounce fame, fortune and family are part and parcel of the deal. And you don't look back or begin to give excuses or you are "out."

III.

Can we not see what Jesus so clearly saw; that a man really fools himself if he supposes that he can have two masters.

"For where your treasure lies, your heart will lie there too. The eye is the lamp of the body: so, if the eye is generous, the whole of your body will be illumined, but if your Eye is selfish, the whole of your body will be darkened. And if your very light turns dark, then, what a darkness it is! No one can serve two masters: either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other - you cannot serve both God and Mammon. Seek God's Realm and His goodness, and all will be yours over and above." (Moffatt)

In his exciting book, "Discipline of the Spirit," lloward Thurman quotes a passage from Oswald McCall which illuminates this concept:

"Be under no illusion, you shall gather to yourself the images you love. As you go, the shapes, the lights, the shadows of the things you have prepared will come to you, yes, inveterately, inevitably as bees to their hives, and there in your mind and spirit they will leave with you their distilled essence, sweet as honey or bitter as gall ..."

Cleverness may select skillful words to cast a veil about you, and circumspection may never sleep, yet you will not be hid. No.

As year adds to year, that fact of yours, which once lay smooth in your baby crib, like an unwritten page, will take to itself lines, and still more lines, as the parchment of an old historian who jealously sets down the story. And there, more deep than acids etch the steel, will grow the inscribed narrative of your mental habits, the emotions of your heart, your sense of conscience, your response to duty, what you think of your God and of your fellowmen and of yourself. It will all be there. For men become like that which they love, and the name thereof is written on their brows."

"... and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads." (Rev. 22:3, 4)

A part of the Good News of the Gospel is its strong plea for commitment revealing at once God's infinite capacity to give and man's eternal need to give himself to God. The New Testament rings out its disturbing message to all mankind. It says in effect, "In the light of what God has done, don't just stand there! Spring into action. Fasten your feelings on something high enough to hold them. It is the only way to the life of zest."

The real zest of life comes in the conviction that life has lasting meaning, that what we do here has significance because our lives are commitment linked with the creative purposes of God.

One of the great dangers of our age is that with no great cause the iconoclasts have destroyed ideals one after another, with no great God to believe in, as the skeptics have dashed age-old beliefs to pieces, that man's natural hunger to commit himself, will turn inward to destruction as it has again and again.

WILL HISTORY REPEAT?

The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith,
From spiritual faith to great courage,
From courage to liberty,
From liberty to abundance,
From abundance to selfishness,
From selfishness to complacency,
From complacency to apathy,
From apathy to dependency,
From dependency back into bondage.

A modern preacher has reminded us that:

"Hot blood flows in the veins of man; strong fires burn within his soul. This is God's gift to him, part of the image of God in him, and it is a kind of sad tribute to the original grandeur of his soul that he would rather fill himself with something that damns him and destroys him than be filled with nothing. He is so possessed of fire within that he refuses to be mediocre. If he can't be greatly good, he will be greatly evil. If he can't build up, he will blow up, and smash the show to bits, as Dostoevski warned long ago. lie can't be empty; he must be filled."

Too long has the modern church soft-pedaled the majestic, clear-cut notes of the New Testament to commitment to Jesus Christ. It is high time to restore the truth to the throne and challenge a full measure of devotion.

Leslie Newbigin tells of the young Roman Catholic nun in the Congo who was left behind in a small town after all the other white people had fled. For two days she cried, and finally sent a message to her superiors to ask, "What do I do?" The answer came back, "You stay and if necessary, you die." She stopped crying and went on with her work. Bishop Newbigin in telling the story asks, "Is that too harsh?" and answers his own question. "It would not be counted so in an earthly warfare, our warfare is not less serious, and a servant is not greater than his Lord."

"Tell the King," cried Bishop Harrington of Uganda when the emissaries of the African Chiefton came upon him to murder him, "tell the king that I open up the road to Uganda with my life!" This is often what it takes. We preach the religion of a Cross. Christ commissions us, "Tell the world that I open up the road to God with My life!" Let a man close that highway at the peril of his life. For it is a crime to block the right of way.

To quote Newbigin once more:

"When Christ has come men and nations must either give themselves to Him, their true Saviour, or else follow those who offer salvation on other terms. The pressing of this choice of ultimate issue is precisely the work of Christ - in the days of this flesh, and in the continuing mission of His church. All history converges upon that choice - the history of every man and the history of the world."

Let no man deceive himself the call of Christ is total. This is likely to overwhelm any man and it should. But Christianity never has pretended to be something that any man could carry out. But it offers that which enables a man to do it - the baptism of fire from Heaven. And man is to make himself an instrument in God's hand - once and for all - and to leap forward in faith. This is little enough for a cause you are committed to.

In that Scottish classic, The Faith that Rebels, we have set forth for us the call to involve ourselves:

"We are to go into the age-long war against all sin and all tragedy of circumstance as well, in firm faith that our Father wills to make an end of them all. That, alone, is the full Christian idea of God, which sets the standard for all Christian living and prayer. We are, therefore, to wage a truceless war against every thing which corrupts the soul, and ruins the body and mind, and kills the liberty of man. We are to carry on this war by creative and rebellious faith, rebellious not against the Supreme will, but against the intruding and transient evils of human life.

But if by our own failure of faith, of love, and of hope, or by the vicarious law, we fall in the battle, we are to carry that battle as far into the ranks of the enemy as we can, to win the last inch of ground, and, in falling, to commit the unfinished battle to the Captain, who in the end will bring it to complete victory."

Let the victors when they come,
When the forts of folly fall
Find thy body by the wall.

I appeal to yow therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1, 2)

On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand.