By Reverend Laurie DeMott

Christianity, too, is a learned way of life that isn't genetically programmed from birth but requires dedication, hard work, and a lot of support from others to develop. Now, as you look around at those sharing these pews with you, you will see some people here that you might suspect would be out there giving generously to charities and the unfortunate even if they had never heard the name of Jesus, because they do just seem to have a natural inclination to generosity but at the same time, I'm sure that you see some here (and maybe it is yourself) for whom it is more of a struggle to fight our innate instinct to protect our own assets. Likewise, some of those naturally generous-hearted people sitting among us may be really good at giving money but know deep down in their hearts that they are basically cowards when it comes to challenging the unjust authorities of our world and they envy those among us who emerged from the womb with a dogged sense of justice, ready to fight the good fight. We are all a mixture of naturally good inclinations and naturally selfish or cowardly inclinations: some of Christ's commands will take no effort for you because they coincide with your naturally good inclinations, but others will take tremendous effort because they are contrary to what you would do if left to your own devices.

The fact is, that if being Christian came completely naturally to the human soul, we wouldn't need Christ. We could just raise every child free from restrictions in order to encourage their natural inclinations and they would grow up to be good, just, generous, and ready to sacrifice their own needs on behalf of others without any guidance from us.

But anyone who has ever raised children knows that encouraging them to follow their natural inclinations and encouraging them to be good people are often contrary strategies. Christianity is a learned way of life, and the church is our training ground.

In the book of Acts, Jesus' disciples move around the ancient world preaching the gospel and in the 14th chapter, we are reminded that wherever they went, the apostles not only introduced people to Christ but they also established churches so that the newly converted could gather for the strengthening of their souls and so that their faith might not falter. They would hear the themes of discipleship expounded week after week, and week after week, the people in those congregations would work to incorporate those ideas and practices into their lives. Over the next few weeks, I will be looking at the lives of the disciples to see what their experiences and struggles can teach us about our own journey with Christ, but today I want to present three broad themes that I think will recur frequently in their stories. In saying that, I am reminded of Reinhold Neibuhr, who after his first year of preaching, wrote in his journal, "I find in looking over my sermons that I seem to keep preaching the same three themes over and over again. I apparently have only three things to say!"

For the rest of this sermon, I'd like to present three fundamental themes that I believe we will glimpse again and again in the faith journey of the disciples over the next few weeks, and as I go through them, I want you to ask yourself, "Which of these has been the hardest for me to accept and to live? Which most confronts my natural inclinations? Where do I most need to open my soul to be strengthened?"

1. The gospel of Christ proclaims that on this earth of six billion people, you are precious in the eyes of God. In his book, Who Needs God?, Harold Kushner titles one of his chapters, "More die of loneliness", summarizing in those four words the most debilitating disease facing people today -- loneliness. In a society where we are numbered and processed like cattle, where we converse as often with machines as with people, where grandmothers and grandfathers have to fly on airplanes to visit their grandchildren, and where the cubicle has become the corporate symbol of our work-self, we fight every day to believe that we are someone important and that someone cares we exist. In a Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown says to Lucy, "If I tell you something, Lucy, will you promise not to laugh? This is very personal and I don't want you to laugh."

"You have my solemn promise," Lucy assures Charlie Brown.

"Sometimes," Charlie Brown confides, "I lie awake at night listening for a voice that will cry, 'We like you, Charlie Brownnnn!'"

Lucy looks at him for a moment and then bursts out laughing.

In whom can we confide our fear that we don't matter? O Lord, says the Psalmist in answer, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. In those moments when you feel so very alone, the gospel says to you, "Listen. There is a voice whispering into your darkest night, 'Know that I am with you.'

Does believing that you are not alone come naturally or is that part of the Christian gospel that you are still struggling to believe? Come to this place and we will tell you over and over again that even when you are feeling neglected by friends and family, misunderstood by society, and unimportant to anyone, you can turn your eyes toward Christ and be reminded that you are loved and precious in God's sight. We will strengthen you soul until you can believe that you are never alone.

2. The Christian message is a proclamation of hope and hope is certainly something that doesn't come naturally to many. In fact, it is sadly not unusual for the optimism of youth to become the cynicism of old age.

How many of us started out as young adults believing we could change the world but the disappointments and failures we encountered, the persistence of societal sin and injustice, caused us to not only give up hope but become disgruntled cynics?

Or how many of us, when we made our first mistake believed quite easily that we would do better next time, but after our fifth mistake, our hundredth mistake, our thousandth mistake we began to lose hope in the possibility of forgiveness and restoration?

Or once, we believed in the possibility of a happy life but when our hearts were broken by the death of those we loved, or by the loss of a relationship, we resigned ourselves to living in a world that will be forever bleak and filled with despair.

It is natural as we grow older to give up the optimism of hope and accept that ultimately all we can do is try to make it through life in one scarred tattered piece. That's what's natural -- but the Christian gospel is NOT a natural thing and the gospel proclaims that in spite of what our discouraged hearts are tempted to think, there is always hope: There is hope that we can be forgiven; there is hope that we can be restored; there is hope that we can change, there is hope that the world can change; there is hope that we can know healing and be given life; there is hope that we can be resurrected.

Does holding on to hope come naturally or is that part of the Christian gospel that you are still struggling to accept? Come to this place and we will tell you over and over again that there is hope and we will strengthen your soul to believe.

3. And finally the gospel challenges us to overcome our inclination to be self-absorbed and instead learn to love others as we love ourselves. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "We have separated from one another by an unbridgeable gulf of otherness ... There is no way from one person to another. However loving and sympathetic we try to be, however sound our psychology, .... we cannot penetrate the incognito of the other [person] .... Christ stands between us and we can only get into touch with our neighbors through him."

When I was in seminary, I took a class in marriage and family counseling, and one day the professor asked us to rate our listening skills. I was amused to see that every person in that class -- the quiet students and the chatterboxes, the humble and the arrogant, the bright and the dense -- all rated themselves as excellent listeners. We all like to believe that we are skilled in understanding other people but in fact, most people are mysteries to us. We often fail to grasp the minds of our own family; how then can we ever penetrate the soul of a stranger? Yet Christ asks us to love every person: our colleagues, the homeless man on the park bench, the troubled teenager, the woman who dresses differently from you, the prisoner, the family in poverty -- every one we encounter. No natural empathy will help us with that task; it is only by allowing Christ to stand between us and the other that we can learn to truly love as he loved.

Does loving your neighbor come naturally or is that part of the Christian gospel that you are still struggling to learn? Come to this place and we will share our questions and our differences. We will learn from one another and encourage one another. We will strengthen our souls to serve Christ.

Over the next few weeks as we listen to the stories of the disciples, and watch them struggle to embrace Christ's teachings, try to see in their own stories the reminder that it's just not a natural thing to be a Christian. It's just not natural to turn the other cheek, it's not natural to love your enemies, it's not natural to concentrate on the present and leave the future up to God, it's not natural to welcome those who are different from you and to open your hearts and your arms to those society has rejected. It's just not natural to live like Christ.

Which is to say that if you find being a Christian easy, you're probably doing something wrong.

But Christ said that it is this unnatural way of behaving that leads to true life, for when we live as Christ lived, our lives will have meaning beyond our mortal limitations. Our love will take on an eternal dimension and our lives will have everlasting significance. And so we come to this place, this church, to learn how to do what doesn't come naturally. May our souls all be strengthened as we strive to walk in the way of Christ.