Leaving the church

Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people…

"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!  It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.  And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God" (Joshua 24:14-18a).

It’s always a sad thing when a church loses members.  Some are taken by the Lord through death; and while we can take comfort in knowing that the dearly departed now rest in the arms of Christ, we still miss seeing them on Sunday morning.  Others switch membership to another congregation because they have moved to a different city or state.  Although they stay in touch by email or cell phone, church life just isn’t the same without their participation.  But the real tragedy is when a person leaves the Church to pursue a different path elsewhere.  They might join a church body that has different beliefs about God and salvation.  They might stop going to church altogether.  Either way, they have put their soul at risk and that is something that should concern each and every one of us.

Walking away from God and the fellowship of true believers is nothing new.  It happened among Jesus’ followers; in John chapter six we read about many becoming disillusioned with Jesus’ teachings and walking away from the Savior.  In the lesson above, Joshua challenges the Israelites to stick with the Lord and ignore all the other tempting religions they were exposed to.  The people said they would be faithful to God; sadly, history tells a different story about the quality of their devotion.

40 years earlier, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt.  They were raised in a culture that worshiped the sun and the elements as gods.  They were told that Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was a son of the gods and ruled by divine right.  These were gods that you could see; every day the sun god looked down on them from the sky above.  But then Moses came, an agent sent by the one true God of heaven and earth.  Moses said that God was greater than the Egyptian god of the sun and the Lord made the sun stop shining, plunging the land into darkness.  God afflicted Egypt with ten plagues, each of which showed who was really in charge of the universe.  Then God led the Israelites to Mount Sinai where He dictated the terms of His relationship with them.

But while God was giving Moses dictation, the people got restless; they wanted an 'old time' worship service like they were used to back in Egypt.  A statue of a calf was made out of their gold jewelry, and the people prayed to it and celebrated with a wild party.  They made God so mad that He threatened to wipe them out then and there.  As it was, 3,000 people were put to death while the rest were punished with a disease sent by the Lord. 

Forty years went by; the Israelites who grew up in Egypt all died, as did Moses.  Joshua was leader of a new generation, one that had grown up in God’s word and service.  Joshua led these people into Canaan the land of their forefathers, a country God had promised them for their own.  But Joshua was an old man who worried about the future; at the end of life, he challenged the Israelites to resist the lure of false religions and stick with the only true God. 

Joshua was right to be concerned about the future; it wasn’t long before some Israelites began switching to other religions.  This problem got worse after King Solomon died; eventually God allowed the country to be overrun by hostile foreigners as punishment.  But why did the Israelites change religions?  There are three main reasons.

Part of it had to do with worship.  People like to have a good time, and time spent in worship is no different.  Some of the Canaanite religions were devoted to fertility; you prayed to the goddess for a good crop, healthy calves, a large brood of children.  How do you worship a goddess of fertility?  By having sex.  These religions had temple prostitutes on staff to help believers worship the goddess ‘properly.’  Worship the goddess of fertility and you were guaranteed to enjoy yourself.

Another reason that some Israelites changed religion was because of promises made by the priests.  The message was simple yet compelling—make the gods happy enough and good things will come your way.  Make the god of the sea happy and he won’t sink your fishing boat.  Make the god of the rain happy and you’ll get the right amount of moisture for your crops.  People worry about making a living, and any religion that talks about turning a profit is going to be popular.

But the biggest reason that people walked away from God had to do with choice.  In those days most people worshiped lots of gods, all at the same time.   A fisherman might pray to the god of the sea for a good catch and the goddess of fertility to give him many healthy boys.  A farmer would spend more time praying to the sun god and the rain god.  There were all sorts of gods to worship, and the Canaanites felt free to venerate whichever ones they liked best or needed most to make their lives better.  People like having choices, and the variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses allowed each person to customize his religious beliefs. 

Sadly, there are Christians today who walk away from God and His Church for the same reasons.  People try other religions because they want a worship experience that is fun and exciting.  They experiment with other religions because they are looking for a message that offers a way to get everything they want.  They walk away from God because they want to decide for themselves what to believe, picking and choosing ideas from different religions like a man filling his plate in a buffet line.  This is a tragedy, because when Christians do these things they put themselves at spiritual risk. 

Some people want worship to be exciting and fun.  Of course no church offers temple prostitutes, but the root problem is the same.  Somehow we think that an hour with God should leave us feeling as if we are on cloud nine.  But here’s the danger: such an attitude makes worship about us, not about our relationship to the Lord.  Worship is not like going to a movie or a play; we don’t enter God’s house to be entertained.  Church is a place of meeting, a place where God connects with us through Word and Sacrament and we respond to Him through hymns and prayer.  Through worship, we are strengthened in our relationships—to God and our fellow Christians.  This is important, because shallow relationships can weaken and die.  We should leave worship feeling good, because God’s Spirit has enriched us through His gifts.  But having a good time is not the goal—we come to church to submit to God as our Maker, praise Him as our Redeemer, and seek His help with our problems.  Going home feeling joyful is just the icing on the cake. 

Some people want the sermon to make them feel good.  But God expects His messengers to speak the truth, and the truth is not pleasant to hear.  You and I, we are sinners—each of us has angered God by breaking His laws.  We crave things that are not good for us.  We lie and cheat and twist the truth to get our way.  We waste the time and money God has given us to use wisely.  We break promises--sometimes carelessly, often deliberately.  We let hatred dictate our words and actions.  We don’t treat each other with love and respect.  We don’t support God’s Church as we should; a lot of the time we treat membership as a right instead of a privilege.  Worst of all, we ignore God—we don’t pray as we should, we ignore His laws, and we whine when He doesn’t give us everything we want.  Yes, we are sinners, terrible sinners.  But we are also full of pride.  We don’t like to admit our mistakes.  We are quick to point out that other people are worse offenders than we are—in fact, we’re not all that bad when it comes down to it.  We try to hide our sin and deny it when exposed.  But the message of God holds our feet to the fire.  The message of God does not let us deny the truth—that we are habitual offenders who deserve God’s judgment.

But the message of God does not stop there.  God loves sinners, loves you, loves me.  God loves us despite our sinfulness.  He loved the Israelites so much that He forgave them for worshiping the golden calf.  He loved them so much that after the nation was destroyed by foreign invaders, He restored the faithful remnant back to the land of their ancestors. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).  The Son of God came down from heaven to live among us as a man—a man who would suffer and die because we are sinners.  We are the ones who make God angry; we are the ones who deserve His eternal punishment in hell.  But Jesus became our scapegoat.  He suffered that we might be forgiven; He died that we might live forever in paradise.  Jesus was perfect in every way; it is manifestly unfair that He pay the price for our transgressions!  But He did it out of love.  He did it to show us mercy, mercy we did nothing to deserve.  As Paul writes, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

This is the Gospel, the Good News of salvation.  But it cannot be taught apart from God’s Law.  If we don’t recognize our need to be forgiven, we won’t see the value of what Christ did for us on the bloody cross.  Law and Gospel—the message of God contains both.  Hearing the law is never pleasant, but the Gospel of Christ brings balm and healing to hearts wounded by sin.  The Gospel gives peace in the midst of turmoil; it eases fear, calms anger and provides hope.  These are what make life pleasant; if you cling to the Good News of Jesus’ love, then you can be content even when you have to scrape to get by.  Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 4, I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength. 

Finally, there are people who leave God because they don’t like some teaching of the Bible.  They go in search of a religion that tells them what they want to hear.  In fact, Paul warned us of this in 2nd Timothy: the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.  Some join other religions, others assemble their own custom-designed system of belief.  But they are ignoring an important fact: the Bible is God’s Word, cover to cover.  We don’t get to pick and choose what parts to believe.  Through Moses, God told the Israelites do not add to what I command you, and do not subtract from it (Deuteronomy 4:2).  God expects us to show Him respect, submit to Him, and take His every word to heart.

There is great danger in walking away from God and His Church.  Don’t let a desire for fun and exciting worship distract you from what’s really important—growing closer to the Lord.  Don’t let a desire for pleasant sermons make you stop listening when God points out your sins; remember that Jesus was gentle with contrite sinners and harsh with those who did not seek His mercy.  Most important of all, don’t fall into the trap of believing that there are many ways to heaven; only the blood of Christ can take away your guilt and make you fit to join God in His royal city.  I pray that you will always agree with Joshua when he said, as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.