Ashamed of Your Religion?
Homans 1:6-17

September 8, 1968

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the
emotion or experience of shame plays a rather important role in religion.
In fact, I'm sure of it. Om one level, shame emerges in religion, when
wo think in terme of the perfect righteousness of God, and our ow bobvious
imperfection. Religion causes us to examine our selves, our lives, our
motivations, and some type of shame is often the result. But that's not
the chome I want to think about this morning.

I'm thinking more about shame for our own religion, not because
of it: I'm thinking about shame as personal embarassment which some times
rerults when we find ourselves in a position where it is convenient not
to be conspicuously Christian. I'm thinking more about the image the
non-religious attach to religiousness ~ an image under which magyofS uc
bridle and squirm ~ an image of which we are frequently aghamed.

I'm thinking also of a form of shame that operates on 4 deeper,
move cubtle level -— in the psyche of the person who is eeneitively
Cheictian. ‘This is a shame born of fructration at the apparent wealzioss
of Chvistianity. This shame results when we sense that the doctrinal ctate-
ments of the Church sound more and more obsolete; while the church itself
proves to be no match for the secular powers in the world all about i%.

These are the typee of shame I want to think about this morning.
I'm veady to admit that I have experienced both of them, end I'd suggest

that, if your are alive intellectually in relationship to your clurc)

and your faith, you have experienced them, too.

Now before we get involved in feeling ahkamed for feeling sucmod
Let's acknowledge that there is nothing new nor unique about this oax=
perience. In fact, allow me to suggest atht this emotion I've bemn
édaccribing is tacitly included in no less a document than Paul's great
letter to the Romkans

the Book of Romans, as it stands in the New Testament, might bo
desoribed as the "“calling-card" of the greatest Christian who ever lived.
In the year 1522, Martin Luther wrote of Romans: "This letter is the
principal part of the New Testament and the purest gospel, which stxo.y
desexves the honor that a Christian man should not merely know it off Dy
heart word for word, but that he should be occupied with it daily an the
daily bread of the soul. For it never can be read too often and too
woll. (nd the more it is used the more delicious 1% becomes and the bolter
it tomtes...." (Commendary on the Epietle to the Romans)

That, of course, ie a slight overstatement, but the fact remains
that Ponl's letter to the Romans is the firet attempt by any men to syr=
temitise the Gospel: it is the first Christian statement of theology,
set forth to convince men of the truth of the Gospel.

Shame enters the picture when we consider the situméion out o”
which this document was written and the purpose for which it was writitcn.
Gonsider, for instance, what Paul was about to do. He intended to come
to Rome as an ambassador of Jesus Christ, and the typical Roman resciicn
to that would probably have been a flat, "So khat".

imil Brunner, the great European theologian summarizes whet Doml's

coming to Rome meant to him -— "What Rome meant then is almost beyond our

We muct imagine as one all the capital cities of our own day togethor, from
New York and London to Tokyo. He, the Jewish itinerant preacher, in to
concer Home for Christ. By what means? By the message of a Galilenn
who woe exeouted as a criminal. In face of the wisdom and might or ome,
vo oot up the *foblishness of the Crosse", this glorification of the
powerless one! " (e. Brunner, The Letter to the Romans, p. 15)

when Billy Graham comes to the cppital city of one state, in
one netion, hie coming is best described as an invasion. A team of firrt~
rate public reletions men precedes him by one year.

By the time a campaign begins thousands of people have laid ‘the
somdotion, hundreds of thousands of dollare have been spent; the event it~
geil is an extravaganza in the true American fashion, a contemporary

pecond coming" — Holyywood style.

Paul came alone, unheralded but for his letter; Paul came ‘o the
copital of the world, the hub of all civilization. He came with a
menmoage no one had heard, a message in direct contra-distinction
wual overyone beliebed: a meseage that ineviaably would be interpre tod
ae treasonous blasphemy when and if enough peopbe heard it. The omens
weren't exactly queing up at the gates of the eynagogue to hear Pou
in Jact it was the opposite. Home's reaction would be ~‘ro what".

if we are going to think about shame we have to feel a little
of thit situation - and then punctuate it with Paul's purpose in coming ~
not just to see old friends, not as a tourist ~ but to conquer ~ mon'r
minds, epirite and lives in the name of this exeéguéd Jewish carpenter.
‘not was the situation, and if you are feeling it, the concept of shame

ought to be taking some shape in your minds.

nouococte look at hie letter. It begins in a traditional fashion:
Wika vepeting: a statement of Paults credentials as an apostle: « syunudne

Gapvancion of love for the few Christians in Home who would initis.

woe the letter: a brief historical review of the roots of this Good. b-mis

noouimlld bring.

‘nd then suddeniy, abruptly, "sor I am not ashamed of the :ir

ja in te saving power of God for everyone who has faith....' (lilo.

Huo ncept of shame had been discussed, and we can sense it here i -

nius in the heart of the writer as he contemplated the ai tuation
cuni varied, hat isa, I am presuming i'aul said '[ am not asnamed oF ue:
‘cots = precisely because he had been tempted O- or perhaps ras: .
Yoh" +. ohame in the past + and as he prepared to zo to ‘tome.

~@ nad been laughed out of Athens. Sravely he had appeasc:
tun -ccopolis, the market~place of ideas, and there had artionlace:

Sout come of Jesume Christ in memorable phraseolory, and they lk

“ioe «none other things, evurely cimple human shame wae among lls

Codiines that day. Now be faced an ever worre poeribility, “vr if soos

we iG seat of cold, analytic intellectuglism, Lome was the focu: -:
Ieoii, secular, oyniciem. The Greeks, at leart pretended to be

to ouiced in things philosophical; the Nomane were best Imown ap “Geis.

op winkera amd makers of merriment" - the germ of ehame must have wun
fr Re thearte
And, of course, Le sensed the logical futility oY what be wv

w do, He came in weakness: he brought no mighty imetitudicn:

tw uo list of V.I. F's in the Roman hierarchy to endorse his proc.

ic Guen as one man againct the world, and he nad to feel the rippithy,-

wneonsiness of shame in his heart.

In many ways the world and situation o/ the Christian today is
a@ifverent — but I'm ready to say that the difference from Imperial tome
are montly superficial. We would like to feel that we are a Christian
nation, @ Christian culture, but we are not. The committed Christicn
todey ie not likely to be theewn to the lions, but he very likely will
find himeelf going in an opposite direction from the majority of hig
feklows. He very liskly will feel that pangs of personal persecution
if he is trwe to his convictions and his Lord in areas of controversy
in the world.

The Goepel of Jesus Christ is essentially no more palatabie
today in America, than it wae in xkm first century Nome. Con temporan:
Ampewioams are no more inclined to think seriously about peace and iove,
and self giving, and being responsible for the oppressed than firat corm:
tury omens. You don't have to be a prophet to sense that about our
ei tuation. All you have to do is talk to your neighbors or read the
Letters to the editor, or listen to "What's Your Opinion”.

We ave, of course, far too genteel, far too sophisticated ~ to
hep pocorn and ridicule upon the genuinely religious, unlees in the none
of Jesug Christ they thrust their religiosity in our faces ~ like Jom
Sey is doing - or like Martin luther King used to do. But mostly
American reacts with complete and utter indifference. To be genuinely
velgeious in America today is to be tolerated, benevolently pasted om ‘he
heed on oceasion, and called on to speak a good word for middle elarce
mowelity and a hareh word ageinet anything that threatens the beloved.
stats quo. To be genuinely committed to Jesus Christ today is to be

made to feel slightly "out of it" - "not really with it".=— A DBiicin

or the never-never world of fairy tales and Bible stories. And the
pexson who is willing to live out his life on that level of commitmont
is going to feel something that must be called shame.

Om top of that Christianity is in severe intellectual trouble
today, to a degree it has not experienced dor severhl hundred years. In
the muper-charged environment of the"knowledge explosion the Gospel
seems less and lees believable; less and less amenable to a mentaliy
thet deals comfortably with outer space and cmmputer technology ond
heext traneplante. ‘The Christian today who would articulate his fai
in the arena of ideas — without compromising it ~ in going to feel om
barvacsed, ashamed = and I think Paujj mew a litéle about that too win
he coined the phrase "ools for Christ."

Christianity still comes ag 4 stranger in the Bhlis of power
politics, big baminess and big labor. Our denomindionn may braveiy open
a lncshiggton office and it should, but ultimately we are only ag in-
fiuential as the limits of moral persuasion will allow ue to be. nc
fow whe man who believes deeply - who wants a better world - whe in com
Sortable with the nuances of political manipulation and masa persucoion ~
that is the source of no little shame.

I think Paul felt all of this as he contemplated hie trip %«
Rome; as he assessed hie possibilities there in terme of experiences much
as he had in Athens. And out of his own agonising - his own feeling
chame ~ I believe he wrote these words: "I am not ashamed of the Compo.

It ic the saving power of God for everyone..." Let me add one word

mud accentuate ancther. "I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Because 1%
ie the saving power of God for everyone..."

Wok sce, Paul's eoppe was a bit broader than ours is inclined
to be. For him the Gospel was not just the reiteration of the stouy oF
Jesus, it was an event. It was an event suffused with the pwer of Coc,
om event that was still happening. God had not brought down the curtain
on the story of Jesus Christ. Rather it was an ongoing drama and Bo.)
sox himmelf simply as one of the actors, at a certain time and placo in
bintory. Hie reeponsibility wae to play his part faithfully. And =» on
actor with a bit part might feel ashamed rehearsing that part in front
ef the whole cast + over and over again - so Paul felt shame. Bul wom
he aclnewledged that the whole drama was not completed ~ that the
efficacy of hie emall pert depended not so much on ite unique exoellones,
af upon his fidelity to it -— his shame could become confidence.

If I may bwrrow a good phrase from a younger generation, oO
‘hamg-p" is that we see Christianity at best as the honoring and

oelebrating of ancient truth, and at worst, as the monotonous retelling

o

f old, worn out stories. And if that is all it is - we may be justi viably
twhamed of it.

fhe fact is that the Gospel is still happening. It is as comic
porasy es thie new day and this new week. It is ae immediate as you
velotionship with yourffamily or the pwweenn sitting next to you.

It began, of course, at a given point - in the fulness of “ime -
when in complete love Cod came into human history in Jesus Christ. 0%)

the keesence of it is that that miracle - that event is still happening.

Jemuc Christ keeps on coming into the world and even into your life ond
mine. The Gospel keepe on happening where individual people like you ond
me commit our livee in faith and obeda@mnce ~ and live those lives 22
Uscinles of Jesus Christ.

Looking at it from different angles there is a lot sbout boing
2 Clovietian that can produce shame. But from the only angle that realy
mvtlers + from the angle of this drama which continues, which needs onc
uned your life, your efforts, your faith -— there is reason for noting
Imt confidence.

With our lives, then, as well as our lips, let use be saying:

“We are not ashamed of the Gospel. Because it is the saving
powor of God."

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“CTL.