THE BIG LIE

So, how many friends do you have? P Last time I counted, I had 452. P One of my children has 2,451, while the other has close to 3,000.  There are teenagers in this church who have even more.

If you have guessed it by now, I am not speaking about LIVE friends, with whom you interact, face to face.  I’m talking about virtual Facebook friends.  There many internet social networks, of which Face Book is only one.  These networks have taken our nation by storm, as people electronically connect with people all over the world.

I remember

I know of  some teenagers who competed to get  the most  facebook friends.  This has become an obsession, as people are “friending” people they have never met.

These networks connect literally billions and billions of people as active users.  I wonder why?  Is it just because this is a new and exciting fad? P I wonder if part of the success that these social networks can be attributed to what I perceive as a pervasive loneliness in our society.  The late Nobel peace prize winner, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, once said that LONELINESS is the root of all problems.  Maybe FB & the other networks are so popular because of what they are selling, which is  quote friendship, unquote. P  And virtual friendships are better than none.

Of course, there are many downsides to these social networks.  Just ask Sarah.  Sarah was a teenage girl, who had Face Book  friended some girls at  her new school. For some reason, the girls turned against her, and started calling her “ugly,” “slut,” & “whore” on facebook, where everyone could read it.   They continued this cyber bullying, until they were caught and made to stop by the school and their parents.  But, P the damage had been done.  Sarah grew to believe all those names that she had been called, and her self-esteem was shattered. P She felt like her life was ruined.

However, hundreds of millions of people in our land feel like Sarah, even if they are not on Face Book. Countless people across our land  have grown to believe what I call, ‘THE BIG LIE.”  P Coming from many different people  and institutions, The Big Lie , simply communicated, is this: YOU ARE UNIMPORTANT. YOU DO NOT MATTER.  FOR SOME UNKNOWN, BUT TOTAALY FALSE REASON,  YOU ARE “NOT LIKEABLE.” You see, in our day and time, we hear the Big Lie over and over  again by words & deeds to the point that we come to actually believe it.

·       The Big Lie can be  communicated by :name calling; cold shoulders;  gossip; sexism; racism & discrimination.

·       How many times do people, whom we have trusted, have said that we

are not important by betraying our trust?  Parents, spouses, children, supervisors, teachers, neighbors, clergy, un-civil servant, and others make this message all too clear. P

·       When was the last time that you were given the run around by the IRS, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, or your cable company, or the board of education, or your medical insurance company?    Do you feel important to them? P

·         And of course, voter anger in this primary season is rooted in the belief  that many people do not feel that they are  important to their elected officials. P  .

·       Other times we may have a disagreement with someone , and we get hit below the belt.

·       This happens on a cultural level, too:   5 Years ago I was an advisor on a Youth retreat at my previous church.  The topic was self esteem.  During the course of the weekend, all 13 girls in attendance (ages 12-18) confessed that they believed that they were fat & ugly   Where did that come from?  These girls were all lovely and thin. Where did that come from, for heavens’ sake  !

Now, this BIG Lie is thousands of years old, P AND JESUS OPPOSED IT WITH EVERYTHING WITHIN HIM; because he could see that THE BIG LIE results in spiritual, emotional, and even physical devastation.  During His life time on earth,  His people were ruled by the totalitarian & blood-thirsty  Roman Empire.

The Romans communicated to Jesus’ people that they were unimportant to them through cruel & unjust punishment, the exploitation of the weak,

the rape of women, excessive and crippling  taxation,

and widespread hunger and poverty. 

P By word and deed, Jesus demonstrated that His people back then, and all of us now,  ARE IMPORTANT TO GOD—more important than traditions & institutions;  more important  EGOSTISTICAL KNOW-IT-ALLS, & MORE IMPORTANT THAN  IMPORTANT THAN 2 BIT BULLIES.

         

Jesus started out by befriending those who were the lowly of society: outcasts, prostitutes, thieves, crooked tax collectors, the old, the young, the sick and the poor. He reached out to these most down trodden  people during His time on earth,//  to demonstrate to all people, for all time,// that  God deeply loves each of us,// and that we are of immense worth to Him. God let his SON  descend into the violence of the Big Lie, that He might lift up you and me.

·       His enemies denounced Him & His ministry. They said that he was so bad that He didn’t even deserve to live. So,  Jesus , Himself, took the full force of the Big lie, which killed Him on the cross. P P  But Jesus, who was the Truth, rose from the dead to show  that the truth is always stronger than a lie.

·        God is reaching out to all of us, that within our hearts we might replace the big lie with the truth that you are so important to the King of the universe, that he is here, ready, & able and willing to COMFORT and CONSOLE ,

TO HEAL AND RENEW, if you give him the chance.

And how does Jesus want to reach out to you with His love? P He primarily does it through his friends.  For 3 years, Jesus taught his 12 friends how to be friends of others in order to build them up in the love of Christ.  So, on the last night before Jesus was to die, He spoke to his friends and said these words, which I would ask for you to repeat after me:  “love one another// the way that I loved you.  //Put your life for your friends.”  Then Jesus went on to say, “ Do what I have taught you, and I will call you my friends.”  P These words resulted in a

huge  international friendship movement started that night, and it has spread and spread for two thousand years.

Christ Church is dedicated to shining the Light of Christ’s love through new friendships.   God has reached out to many of our members to help heal, console, comfort, and renew us in His amazing love. Many of us are refugees from other churches that either put us down, or ignored us, or bored us to death with dreary worship  & music. Over the past 5 years, we have worked to build up a church family that welcomes all people. Period…because Jesus loves all people and commands us to do likewise. And we strive to be friends that build up, because we discovered that we are important to God and we believe that you are , too.  P  And as we grow in His love through joyful worship, spiritual growth, and cheerful giving and serving, we have created a community where all people are welcomed and loved, whether you come one time, twice, or if you decide to join us on a regular basis.

How does this work?  Well, let me continue the story of, Sarah, who was  emotionally traumatized by her “so-called- friends.”  Sarah’s family are active in church, so they knew immediately what to do.

·       Sarah and her parents met with me, so that I could provide some initial

crisis counseling for them all.

·       Sarah’s parents found prayer and support from their small bible study group, who spoke with them, listened to them, and encouraged them.

·       Sarah herself is a member of the church Youth Group, whose advisors counseled her and built here up in love. P

·       Through all this support system, Sarah began to believe that her “so called friends “ were wrong and that indeed, she is important to God.  Her confidence has grown.  After withdrawing socially after the initial crisis, Sarah is now  becoming much more outgoing.

And this happens not just for teens, but for the rest of us as well.

·       You see, if we go solo, the world can and will break us apart.

·        But if we join other friends of Christ together, we are much stronger---and we can denounce the BIG Lie---and grow in the wisdom and friendship of Jesus and one another, because , please repeat after me:  WE ARE IMPORTANT TO GOD.     --3/16