“The Church That Troubles” January 31, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : Theology , trackbackPart of the mission of Reformedville from the beginning has been to challenge the status quo of the stagnant church and challenge the comfort zone we have all grown into at one time or another. In doing some research on this topic, I found sermon notes of Howard Vanderwell that I felt expressed this rather well.
Let’s focus on the challenge for the Christian church to be a redemptive tool in the hand of the risen Christ. How was the early church obedient to Christ’s call when faced with the challenge to do the same?
The idea of a Christian church that “troubles” is one that can either be a help or a hindrance in engaging listeners. There is a risk that it will be a hindrance because many today expect the church to be a conveyor of comfort and assurance, and this concept may sound strange and disturbing to them. It also may be a hindrance because some may have had previous painful experiences with churches that have been trouble spots of divisiveness and quarreling. It may be wise to straightforwardly say that this concept of the church is not very popular and follow with “…but the Bible leads us to believe that, given the state of society today, the church which never troubles anyone may be unfaithful to its calling!” At the same time, it will be very necessary to clarify that we are not talking about causing trouble by insensitive personalities, excessive rigidity, divisive quarreling, or offensive abrasiveness. We are talking about what a church does in the course of carrying out its faithful mission for God in the world by the proclamation of the gospel of Christ and confronting evil with the truth of God’s new Kingdom.
When Paul came to Thessalonica preaching the gospel, he offended two large groups of people: the Jews who believe that the Messiah has not yet come and the Romans who were taught that only the Emperor is to be worshiped. The result was “trouble,” and Paul and Silas were viewed as the perpetrators. A careful examination of the term indicates that Bible translators have struggled with how to deal with this phrase. The NIV calls them “…men who have caused trouble all over the world…” whereas the NRSV follows many earlier translations by referring to them as “…these people who have been turning the world upside down….” There is an entire world-view in that phrase that needs to be exposed. God created the world “right side up” in the beginning. The fall into sin turned this “right side up” world “upside down.” Now the church that faithfully follows Christ and carries out his mission in the world is trying by God’s power to turn an “upside down” world “right side up” again. This world, however, has become very comfortable in its “upside down” position. The Jews are correct in claiming that the apostles were going to cause trouble. Many other illustrations from Scripture can be used to show the church causing trouble. For example, Elijah was called the “troubler of Israel” when he confronted them about their idolatry (cf. 1 Kings 18:17). Consider also Haggai 2:6-9; , Matthew 5:11-12, Matthew 10:34ff, 2 Timothy 3:12 and 1 Peter 4:12-16 among many others. The people who are disturbers of the status quo will often be considered troublers. Yet, the very mission of the church of Christ is to come to a world that has become very comfortable in its sinfulness and disturb its status quo!
This sermon also needs to go the next step and raise the question of why so few people perceive of the church and its mission this way today. Have we tried to redefine the mission of the church? Have we forgotten about the pervasiveness of the evil that exists in our society, or have we become too comfortable with this evil? Have we lost our courage to confront evil? This message about the mission of the church begs for clear, sensitive, and challenging application. What are the evils of our society and our community that the church must confront in the name of Christ? As the church, we should be disturbing the status quo. “Here come the troublers” should be a mighty fine compliment!
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