Beyond Lukewarm

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, January 20, 2019.

            When I was in college, I knew a guy named Greg.  I didn’t know him well, but we were both in the band, and he played the French horn, like I did.  Well, actually, he played the French horn a lot better than I did, but the point is that we were in the same section in the band, so we got to know each other a little bit.

            Greg was a perfectly nice guy.  He was friendly enough.  He was intelligent enough.  And he absolutely drove me crazy.  He drove me crazy because you could never get him to give you an opinion on anything.  I not just talking about controversial stuff like politics or something.  I’m talking literally, anything.  His standard response was, “Oh, I don’t know.”  How’d you like that song, Greg?  “Oh, I don’t know.”  What’d you think of that meal in the cafeteria?  “Oh, I don’t know.”  What’s your favorite color?  “Oh, I don’t know.”  

            It just got really annoying after a while.  And it also seemed like kind of a sad way to live.  It was like there was nothing in life that he really liked, and nothing that he really disliked.  It was like nothing in life excited him or even interested him.  He was neither hot nor cold on anything.  Everything in his life was just kind of lukewarm.

I don’t know what happened to make Greg that way, but I suspect he was not like that when he was a little kid.  Because little kids are almost never lukewarm about anything.  You ask a kid whether he or she likes something, and they won’t say, “Oh, I don’t know.”  They’ll tell you.  And whatever it is, if they like it, they’ll be all in on it, because that’s how little kids are.  If they like something, it’s the greatest, most wonderful, most awesome thing ever.  And if they don’t like it, they’ll be completely out of it.  It’ll be something that’s dumb and boring and stupid.  Because that’s how little kids are, too.

            We’ve been talking about how Jesus said that to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to become more like little children.  We’ve been talking about what qualities of little children we need to recapture as adults.  This is one of them.  We need to stop being lukewarm about things.  We need to be all in about our faith in God.  We need to be willing to say that Jesus Christ is the greatest, most wonderful, most awesome thing ever.  And we need to be completely out of the things that take us away from God.  We need to realize that those things truly are dumb and boring and stupid, because nothing is more important than faith in God and belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            In our Bible reading for today, the Lord is addressing a church in Laodicea.  And listen again to what the chief complaint about the people of that church is:  “You are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

It is really tempting, in our society, to become lukewarm Christians.  And I know I’ve given in to that temptation on numerous occasions.  Maybe you have, too.  We’re not turning our backs on God.  We’re not cold.  But we’re not exactly hot, either.  We don’t talk about our faith very much in public.  We don’t talk about the things our church is doing.  We don’t talk about the difference God has made in our lives.  We don’t talk about how our faith in Jesus Christ helps us in our daily lives.  We keep it to ourselves.  And if the subject comes up, we’re tempted to say, like Greg used to, “Oh, I don’t know.”

And sometimes, we give in to that temptation in our personal lives, too.  Again, it’s easy to do.  It’s not that we don’t believe.  It’s not that we don’t have faith.  It’s that, too often, we don’t let that faith change us in any significant way.  The fact that we have faith in God and believe in Jesus does not have any real impact on our lives.

Now, I realize that I’m painting with a broad brush here.  Maybe you’re thinking, “Hey, that’s not me.  I’m not lukewarm.  I do talk about my faith.  I do let my faith impact my life.”  And you may well be right.  If so, then, in all sincerity, I’m very glad to hear that.  Know that I’m not talking about you.  And in fact, I hope you’ll help some of the rest of us who are falling short.

Because I know I fall short a lot of times.  And I don’t think I’m the only one.  So, for the rest of us, those of us who do fall short, what can we do?  Because our reading says that if we stay lukewarm, the Lord is going to spit us out His mouth.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want the Lord to spit me out.  I want to be one of those who enter the kingdom of heaven.  I think you do, too.  So how do we get out of this trap of being lukewarm?  How do we get back to being all in on our faith, the way little kids are all in on the things they like?

Well, here’s what I think.  At least part of the reason little kids are willing to be all in on things is that little kids are not afraid.  They’re not afraid to be enthusiastic about the things they love.  They’re not afraid to tell you and show you how much they love it.  In fact, they want to share it with you.  They want you to be enthusiastic about it, too. 

Somewhere along the line, we lose that.  We become afraid to be enthusiastic.  It’s not cool.  Other people may not like us.  They may even make fun of us.  The cool people, the people who are in the “in” group, might shut us out.  We still feel what we feel, but--we tone it down.  We hold back.  We hide our enthusiasm.  We hide our feelings.  And after a while, after we hide those things long enough, we don’t feel them anymore.  We lose our enthusiasm.  We don’t feel fired up.  We become lukewarm.  Instead of looking for chances to talk about our faith, we avoid the subject whenever we can.  And when it comes up, we say, “Oh, I don’t know.”

It’s sad, really.  It’s sad on a couple of levels.  It’s sad because we miss chances to share our faith and to bring people to Christ.  But it’s also sad because of what we do to ourselves when we do this.  We miss chances to feel God’s love.  We miss chances to let God lead us and guide us.  We miss chances to live the life God wants us to live.  We miss chances to really feel alive in Christ.  Instead, we just go through life, not losing anything because of our faith, but not really gaining anything, either.  We’re just going on, day after day after day, not really getting anyplace.

That’s a sad way to live your life.  I’ve had times when I lived my life that way, and it’s no fun.  It’s not really living, it’s just existing.  It’s trying to get through today so we can try to get through tomorrow.  That’s not the kind of life any of us dreams about when we’re kids.  It’s not the kind of life we want to have now.  And it’s not the kind of life God wants us to have, either.

Why are kids able to tell you about the things they’re enthusiastic about?  Because they have no fear.  Why do they have no fear?  Because they don’t think there’s anything to be afraid of.  After all, this thing they’re excited about is awesome.  Why should they not love it?  And why should you not love it, too?  Of course, you’ll love it, if they show it to you.  And if you don’t love it, well, so what?  If you cannot see how awesome this thing is, that’s your loss.  It does not affect them.  It does not affect how much they love it.  And it does not affect how enthusiastic they are about it, either.  They know this thing they love is awesome, whether you can see it or not.  And they’re going to keep thinking it’s awesome, and keep telling people it’s awesome, no matter what you think.

That’s how we should feel about our faith.  After all, God is awesome, right?  Why should we not love Him?  Jesus Christ is an awesome Savior.  Why should we not love him?  And why should other people not love him, too?  Of course other people will love him, if we show him to them.  If we share God’s word and show God’s love.  If we show and tell people about our belief in Jesus as the Savior.  Of course, they’ll love him.  And if they don’t love him, well, so what?  It other people cannot see how awesome Jesus Christ is, that their loss.  It does not affect how much we love him.  It should not affect our enthusiasm about him, either.  We know Jesus Christ is awesome, whether other people can see that or not.  And we should keep thinking Jesus is awesome, and keep telling people Jesus is awesome, no matter what anyone else thinks.  

Let’s not be lukewarm Christians.  Let’s not let the Lord spit us out.  When we have a chance to talk about what we believe, let’s not say, “Oh, I don’t know.”  Let’s have the enthusiasm that little kids have.  We have an awesome Savior.  I know we all believe that.  So let’s act like it!