Hebrews 6:1-12

Luke 14:25-33

Not long ago Dr. James Dobson negatively commented about the use of Spongebob

Squarepants in a video that seemingly promoted homosexuality. In response the United Church of Christ in Cleveland invited Spongebob to their church and publicly showed their support through the pastor who said, "No matter who you are or where you are in life’s Journey Spongebob, you are welcome here."

In Charlotte, NC a Presbyterian church rented its facilities to a Muslim school and justified the decision stating that Allah is the same God of Judaism and Christianity. The Muslims felt a little different asking that the Christian symbols in the building be covered up or removed. The Church obliged.

All Saints Episcopal Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL has learned to double its attendance by inviting pets of its members to join the service once a month.

A couple has found a way to make some extra money by selling Jesus’ smell. They have put together ingredients listed in Psalm 45:8 claiming that these make up the smell of the Savior. Thousands have been sold.

Another group of entrepreneurs have come up with Bar of Faith Prayer Soap. They advertise that it will cleanse you from monumental unhappiness. It is 100% Pure glycerin with an imbedded cross and can float in your tub.

Believe it or not these stories have something in common. What they have in common is the idol of sentimentalism. No doubt there are other idols involved but sentimentalism is in all of these. By sentimentalism I mean the priority of sentiment over substance. Related to the idol of emotionalism we spoke of two weeks ago, sentimentalism is the attempt to move a person solely by emotions while ignoring substanative truth.

In example one, sentimentalism is in the message of acceptance. Rather than deal with the issue of homosexuality as it is addressed in Holy Scripture the so-called church and its minister wanted the public to focus on the sadness of excluding a cartoon character.

The Presbyterian Church in Charlotte falls to the same fate. Instead of facing the obvious difference between Christianity and Islam they make a gesture of acceptance that calls them to compromise their faith. For the sake of acceptance they deny Christ.

Pets in services and sanctuaries, Jesus’ smell marketed and sold, bars of faith soap promoted all tug on the heartstrings of the emotionally immature. Similar sentimental approaches to the faith can be seen in Christian Bookstores and magazines. It can be seen in daily devotionals that are more apt to share a touching story than discuss the Word of God. Christianity that has slipped into sentimentalism avoids hard sayings of the Bible. It asks nothing of the believer other than he should feel good about himself.

Before I go on I need to qualify. Like the other idols of our age addressed, sentimentalism is not inherently wrong. Sentiment has its place in our lives. We can and should be moved by stories of bravery, kindness and alike. There are cute sayings that inspire and pictures that warm our hearts. But we cannot stay there for when we stay there not willing to go on to perfection as Hebrews says, we make sentimentalism and idol. Life is not a Precious Moments picture.

This morning I want us to work and sweat in the dirt of life. I want us to work and sweat in the dirt because that is where we daily live. While precious moments figurines can take us out of the real world for a moment, to stay there is to escape reality, a reality our Savior embraced for the sake of our salvation.

What I wish to discus this morning would not be the first chapter of a book describing how to win friends and influence people. Living the Christian life can be hard, very hard. Not all of the time of course. There are wonderful times of rejoicing and experiences of robust laughter. That is not the focus this morning, however. Our focus is upon the guttural aspect of our Christian living as it is set next to sentimentalism.

The Christian life is a life of action. It is a life of pursuit toward a greater depth in relationship with God. The words of the apostle in Hebrews 6 commend us to leave elementary teachings. That alone takes effort. To go forward you must leave from where you are now. To stay where you are is to take the easy road. It is to bury your talents. It is to be a sluggard who does not prepare for winter. Once you leave the elementary teachings behind you must go on to maturity. People who are mature get their own meat. The mature are not swayed by every wind of doctrine. The mature know when to laugh and when to cry. They know when to be moved by emotion and when to stay in control. They know how to forgive and how to hold others accountable for their actions. And they know that the hard sayings of Scripture are there for us to wrestle with. They are there for our sanctification.

The elementary teachings we are to leave behind startle me whenever I read them for they hardly seem elementary. The first is repentance from acts that lead to death. Repentance is an elementary teaching. It is a foundation of our faith. Yet it is difficult for many of us to practice. How many of us understand that whenever there is a broken relationship, a miscommunication, a misunderstanding, or strained emotions and such that there is sin to repent of for people on both sides? I have only recently discovered in my pastoral counseling that regardless of the issue the first thing that needs to be discussed and practiced is repentance. It is a necessary part of our lives.

After repentance is the elementary teaching of faith. It is to be elementary and yet to us it is like an advanced placement course. When trials and tribulations come they reveal what faith we don’t have rather than what faith we have.

Baptism is next and who has an elementary handle on that? Questions about what happens at baptism have been debated within the Church for centuries. The laying on of hands refers to confirmation, healing and ordination. Each of these has it’s own complexities. The resurrection of the dead divides Christians into multiple camps as we guess what the end will be like. That includes eternal judgment as some guess when that will take place and if men will suffer for eternity for their sins or be annihilated.

The point I am trying to make is that if these teachings are elementary and to go on to perfection we must leave them behind (that is have them settled) how much more do we need to leave sentimentalism behind? We cannot leave these elementary teachings behind if our devotions consist of a Scripture a day to keep the devil away. As an experiment for this sermon I picked out a few books from our Church library. The third book I picked out was a devotional that gave a short verse or two for the day followed by recommended prayers. There is, as I have stated, nothing wrong with such devotions themselves. What is wrong is if we use them solely as if they are enough. A man cannot live healthy or long on a meager diet of bits of bread and water. Similarly a soul cannot live healthy and long on a meager diet of short verses and anecdotal prayers.

Such devotions can perk us up like a strong cup of coffee in the morning but they hardly replace a good breakfast. With the images of devastation we have witnessed in the Gulf Coast this past week caused by the hurricane, it is fair to say that many people who live there are forced to apply their Christian faith in the midst of great loss. I doubt very much that a cute story passed on via e-mail or a devotion book with short passages and anecdotal prayers would help anyone remain faithful in such circumstances. What people need in such grave times is to lean upon the foundational doctrines listed here in Hebrews 6. What they need is some meat from the Word of God to strengthen their muscles for the backbreaking work ahead. Sentimentalism does not satisfy when Christian men and women must put their faith to practice in order to survive from day to day.

My first few weeks as a freshman in college taught me how deep my faith must go in order to survive. I arrived on campus two weeks before school started to begin football practice. I roomed with another freshman that I did not previously know. As I was introduced to the players who stayed on the same floor I quickly realized that I was the only Christian. Perhaps it is fair to say I was the only Christian who was willing to profess my faith. Although I had only been a Christian for seven months God had instilled in me the wherewithal that if I compromised my faith then I might never get it back. Right away I was ignored, talked about and treated as an anomaly. The only time other players would speak to me was when they had a theological or biblical question they thought they could stump me with. It seemed that by their logic they thought that if they could stump me they could claim my faith to be invalid while they justified their sinful lifestyle. I ended up being alone most nights those first few weeks. Because I gained respect on the football field fellow players did not harass me but they also did not befriend me. After school started my roommate joined a fraternity and I was alone even in my sleep. A passage of Scripture at that time strengthened me. It is the same as the gospel reading.

This passage is one of the hardest sayings in Holy Scripture. It is hard because it seems to go against Jesus’ teachings elsewhere. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for encouraging people to give to the temple rather than financially provide for elderly parents. He teaches that such practice is a direct violation of the commandment to Honor ones Father and Mother. In 1 Timothy, family life is acknowledged as a priority for Christians when the apostle says, "If anyone does not provide for his family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." Because we trust our Savior would not contradict his own teaching we ask what it means for us to "hate" our family members? It means that for the followers of Jesus everything else must take second place, even ones family. You have heard, no doubt, that the biblical idiom, to hate, can mean, "love less." To "love less" is to love someone second to another. A simple interpretation would be that Jesus is insisting that he must be loved first and foremost. If this is not true in the heart of a man or a woman than such persons are automatically disqualified. Such persons are not disciples of Christ.

In the gospel according to St. Matthew it is recorded differently. Matthew records Jesus saying, "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Matthew takes a bit of the sting off of Jesus’ words but carries the same message. What Luke’s record provides is that guttural feel that we often need as we follow Christ. The word "hate" is purposefully chosen to cause a deep reaction. There are times when we need to be confronted with the all or nothing sacrifice that needs to be made to be a follower of Jesus Christ; to be a Christian.

Besides this saying of Jesus being hard because it seems to go against his teachings elsewhere, it is also hard because it is hard to do. In my first few months in college I came to a point where Jesus had to be first and foremost in my life and the result might be that I remain alone. I wrote this passage down and posted it on the inside my dorm room door. If isolation and loneliness were to be my cross then I must pick it up if I was to claim Christ as my Savior. Sentiment at that time in my life would not carry the day.

I am sure most of you have testimonies of times when your cross was placed before you. There is no easy way out of such moments. You either pick it up and live or you choose an easier way and slowly die. If you are here today not yet having picked up your cross and denied that which is most important to you for the purpose of following Jesus, it is not too late. It might be a parent whose influence is so profound upon you that you fear if you follow Christ you will be disowned. It may be a child that is so important to your emotional well being that you cannot see him or her doing anything wrong causing even your relationship with God to be severed for the sake of the child. It may be one of a thousand things that you have placed first, in front of God that he has asked you to give up for his sake. This morning is another opportunity for you to love him first. Pick up that cross. Don’t look for sentiment. Look at that cross he has placed before you. It is hard. He knows it is hard. The benefits, as he has told you, far out way the momentary sacrifice. Jesus told his disciples what he tells you today, "No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age and in the age to come."