Freedom of Religion - Preach It, Baby!
July 4th weekend is here. What are you preaching? Most will preach something about the love of America, etc. That will be good. What about preaching on what religious freedom is about and what separation of church and state is and why it matters to Christians? It’s such a sometimes controversial topic, and complex that many often run from it. I did for years. BUT, the more I studied the Kingdom of God and worked globally the more I realized that this was crucial to Christianity and the potential of it’s future growth.
Here’s, your text: The Woman at the Well - how did Jesus deal with her with reference to challenging her to follow him, how did it impact the others . . . . it’s a fun text for that.
Here’s outside sources, these four books, all current and very good: Os Guiness - The Case for Civil Society, Steven Waldman - Founding Faith, Pople Benedict XVI - Jesus of Nazareth, and Jonathan Sacks - The Home we Build Together.
Here’s some things to think about:
Freedom of religion is really about freedom of thought.
Freedom of religion means we are giving people the right to choose their authority for life.
Freedom of religion means we live more by moral covenant than social contract.
Freedom of religion opens us up to divine possibilities of what the world can be with Christ.
Freedom of religion matters here and to Christians because what we provide here, we can ask for and promote in other parts of the world. Some people tell me, when Islam will let us build churches as freely in the Middle-East as they do mosques, then they’ll support it. I disagree - the fact that I believe in their right to exist here, gives me the moral high ground to say, “I respect your views and right - would you please respect mine?”
Freedom of religion matters because if someone must follow my faith because of law or a sword - what kind of faith is that? How long can that kind of faith really last? Faith must be in our hearts - not in our fears. It tests the power of my message - is it strong enough to stand on it’s own feet? If it’s not, it’s not a faith worth holding on to.
OK, there’s a lot more than this - lots of directions - if you preach a sermon on this, let me know next Monday and Tuesday and tell me how it went.
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Comments
Jul 1, 2008 at 04:19 PM
And exactly why we don't stack a service full of patriotic songs at NorthWood....for more reasons see Why I Hate Patriotic Songs (In Worship) at http://www.worshiptrench.com/?p=414.
Jul 2, 2008 at 08:16 AM
Explain the distinction between moral covenant and social contract.
Jul 2, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Contract is more about rights whereas covenant is more about responsibility. Read Jonathan Sachs for a thorough discussion.
Jul 2, 2008 at 10:54 AM
thanks pa!
Jul 4, 2008 at 03:31 AM
Totally agree. It is essential that people have the right to reject and refuse the gospel if the gospel is to remain gospel, that is, good news. When conversion is coersed, when people become Christians for reasons other than faith, the faith itself is corrupted. It should always be easier to not be a Christian than to be a Christian.
Matt Stone
http://mattstone.blogs.com/glocalchristianity
Jul 4, 2008 at 04:58 AM
Wow. Well put, Matt.
Jul 7, 2008 at 11:47 AM
I work with a missions organization who's calling is work with local churches to utilize mass media in difficult to evangelize areas of the world. We see nations like Russia, Kazakhstan and other former states of the Soviet Union where their constitutions guarantee freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, but their governments have no respect for the rule of law; hence the churches are at minimum diminished in their ability to evangelize; and to the extreme, completely shut down, often for frivolous or even fabricated reasons that are beyond the reason of any rational thinking human being.
Your article is an excellent brief and should give us as believers in America something to think about beyond our borders. I really appreciated the point you made thst "Freedom of religion means we live more by moral covenant than social contract", because in so many countries, the social contract is a farce.
Kazakhstan is a nation with guarantees in their constitution regarding freedom of consciences, freedom of religion, etc., but the reality is that churches are being closed down by local authorities and legislation is right now before the Kazakhstan parliament that will close many churches and outlaw any religious expression outside of a state approved church building, forbid Sunday school for children and require state review and approval of any published church materials. Read more at http://irrtv.wordpress.com.
In spite of this situation, our ministry has in the past few years, succeeded in aiding the local churches in Kazakhstan (an other nations) to gain access to media and many have received Christ as a result of media based evangelism. More information on how we work with local churches at http://www.irrtv.org
Remember the persecuted church in your prayers, daily and fervently.
Jul 15, 2008 at 01:50 AM
I wanted to message you last Sunday but life happened and my son got chicken pox. The sermon not only mentioned what I was blogging on last Saturday but blew it up globally and... well, your sermon was a lot deeper than my thoughts too. Anyway, I am still digesting it and totally endorse it.
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