The Matter of Being Ashamed

Based on Philippians 1:1-26
It is hard for us in these times to imagine a time when Christianity was a “new” and unknown item in the world. As I read the passage for today, the opening of the book of Philippians, it is so clear in Paul’s words how precious and precarious the situation that the followers of this new faith were living through. The dedication, commitment and courage that was certainly needed and, of course, the faith in who Jesus was and what He had done for all of us, is remarkable amongst these early followers and early churches.

How often we take this for granted!

Now, we may sit in our churches, maybe we go, maybe we don’t, maybe we bounce from one church to another looking for the perfect church, and never really find perfection. Maybe we are brave in our Bible study or in church to declare Christ our savior but in front of our friends, family or co-workers we shrink back so as not to make waves among those “uncomfortable with God-talk.” Maybe we celebrate Christmas with abandonment and acknowledge Jesus somewhere in the whoopla. Maybe we regularly attend church with our children, but God, prayer and Jesus Christ are never talked about the rest of the week with our children or even with ourselves as adults. Maybe we think that our children will somehow just “become Christian” without our help, influence, teaching or role modeling. Maybe we live like most Americans live: as if the country we love and the right to believe and worship will always be there through no effort of our own. Maybe we should turn on the light of reality and seek the truth!

As we often give credit, and rightfully so, to those men and women who have fought in our armed services to preserve our freedom, as Christians, we are not so consciously aware of the people like Paul and all his followers who went before us, inspired by God directly as they carried out the mission of spreading the good news in a time filled with treachery. We forget about the struggle. The percentages for Paul and all the rest to succeed were probably, at a glance, not the best. Was God walking, standing and inspiring these men who bravely spread the word? Absolutely! This was a miracle of Biblical and historical proportions being carried out right before every ancient governments eyes, before every noble, king, before all the legions of Roman authority, before a world that had been crying out for God—and still is.

Yet, here Paul reminds us that this faith is more then a personal choice to pick a ‘belief system’ as it is so commonly labeled these days. Christ is not a system nor is He a choice as if we are choosing between apples and oranges. Yes, we make the choice for him, but he is not the ‘lumped in with every religion’ that our modern society calls for him to be. Yet, who is allowing this to happen? Is it us? Are we as guilty as the rest of this secular humanist world when we do not respond to the battering of Christianity in our country and the world? Who is supposed to answer those who make Jesus into a common prophet, a nice man or an inspired teacher? Is it our pastors or someone like Billy Graham or the Pope?

No it is us, it is all of us, who must stand up and fight the righteous fight for the faith we say that we say we believe in. If we believe that Christ is God on earth, who enabled all of us, should we choose him, to have eternal life, why do we then not cry out at a media that belittles Christians or calls people of faith “ radical extremists”, impaling them with the Islamic terrorists of 911 ( Rosie O’Donnell, Charlie Sheen etc.). Is it OK for us to not react? We seem to be unlike many other religious communities, who, if they were confronted by a similar circumstance, such as when comedian Kathy Griffin after she won her Emmy award a few weeks ago, stated, “A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus. This award is my God now."

Last year, the Muslim communities went bizerk over political cartoon that made fun of their prophet “Mohammed”. You will recall the riots and bloodshed over a pen and ink drawing. Yet, here we are in good old USA, and a female comedian of dubious reputation can speak such an insulting and graphic remark about our “prince of peace”, our “lamb of God”, our “Lord of Lords”, our “mighty God” and we say nothing. No church denomination has cried out, and only a few people have mentioned this. As far as I know, it did not make the news on CNN or FOX or NBC etc. It has not been gone over repeatedly like a Brittany Spears antic. Are we turning the other cheek? Or is our passion for Christ laying flat on the floor?

Paul says this in Philippians 1:10 and 20 “For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.” “For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past.”

Paul often talks about not being ashamed as a follower of Christ. But here we are in this 21st century and we are seeing this dismantling of Christianity by the media, by higher education, by the culture, by our acceptance of a social order without values and, finally, even from within Christendom, as many denominations choose a path that serves the culture rather then Christ. Do we grasp any longer what Paul implored us to understand about what really matters? Our choice comes to this: whether we are ready to become unashamed and stand up for the truth or whether we will continue to hope that the diluting and shredding of Christ will just slow down or go away. Lord help us with our frailty of spirit.
Laurie Erdman