Sermon Tone Analysis

Do we need to go to church to be a Christian?

This question is asked more often than I’d like.

And when asked, it is given as more of an opinion than an actual question.

They don’t usually mean, “Please explain to me the importance of church attendance and participation.”

Instead it usually means, “I don’t think that I should be judged as a bad Christian because I don’t go to church.”

Fair enough?

If I’ve prejudged you, my apologies.

I really don’t want to label anyone here or not here badly.

We BELONG to Christ

Jesus is the beginning of the new humanity.

In this letter to the Romans, Paul calls Jesus the Second Adam.

We to the Body

We then are part of the new community that Jesus came to establish here on earth.

It stands in complete contrast to the ways of the rest of the world.

When it takes on values of the world, our community loses its power and ruins its testimony.

For example, consider the growing animosity against Evangelicals in America right now.

I’ve followed American politics on Twitter for too long now.

But the one benefit I’ve received from the deluge of madness is a heads up on what comes next when Trumpism ends.

Aligning themselves with a man who embodies the antithesis of nearly every point of the Christian life commanded by Jesus, antagonists of our faith find all the reason to charge our evangelical brothers and sisters with hypocrisy.

Jesus commanded us to care for the sick, the poor, the hungry, the prisoner.

Trumpism favours the rich, the healthy, the privileged and in fact oppresses the alien, the weak.

Where Jesus commands us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek, the president name calls and insults and stirs up dissension.

Where Jesus commands us to tell the truth, Republican Christians wholeheartedly support a President they admit “lies all the time.”

When Trumpism dies, the labels attached to him will stick to the church: Hate, lies, racism, corruption, greed, xenophobia, and on and on the list will go.

Don’t think this won’t bleed across the border and affect us.

But they are not alone.

The gospel of Jesus has lost some punch here in Canada due to our compromise as well.

I’ve noted many times that a mental health crisis has set upon us like a thick fog—our city as a whole, I believe, is at higher risk than most communities (due to our isolation and weather).

What we are feeling (the blues, depression, anxiety, etc.) and experiencing (addictions and such) may be more acute than the rest of Canada, but the rest of Canada feels it as well.

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