The Lutheran Hour
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"Imagine No Religion"
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Text: Luke 7:18-19
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Imagine the sadness of the world if the Savior was still in His tomb? Imagine the darkness, the despair, the terrible tragedy of our condition if Jesus is still dead. This day we give thanks to God for the crucified Christ is alive. He is our living Lord and it is His redeeming resurrection we proclaim. May God’s good news touch our hearts. Lord, grant this grace to us all. Amen.
Less than a mile from my home stands a billboard. It is a very pretty little billboard, actually. It’s panels look like they are put together with bits of blue and red and yellow stained glass. As to the billboard’s message, that is also incredibly simple. In great, bold, black letters, the sign carries three words: “Imagine No Religion.” The first time I drove past that billboard I did as it suggested. I tried to imagine a world in which there was no religion, where all the things religion had built, touched, and transformed over the centuries was eliminated or neutralized. My problem was this: when I contemplated a world without religion, I was overwhelmed. There were simply too many things which needed to be altered and modified and eliminated and erased.
For example, many of our St. Louis hospitals, our nursing homes, the hospices, the retirement communities have been founded by religious organizations. In contrast, I know of very few similar places which have been built upon the humanitarian altruism of atheists and agnostics. Imagine No Religion. Next I thought of the colleges and universities which were begun by religious institutions. Then there is the army of volunteers which has found their motivation, their inspiration and their association in the church. Lutheran Hour Ministries, the organization which sponsors this broadcast, is composed of givers, givers who contribute what they can to share the Savior. They have financially supported sharing the Savior’s story for almost 8 decades. But along with sending out this broadcast, they also send out caring Christian teams to locations around the world. In the Name of the risen Redeemer, those teams bring learning supplies to children who live on a garbage dump in Mexico, or they may help rebuild a family fishing boat which has been destroyed by a tsunami in Asia, or they may work to reclaim and restore a church building desecrated and despoiled by decades of Communist persecution, or they may work closer to home, renovating and repairing southern homes made unlivable by a hurricane. Once I got started thinking about the volunteers it was difficult to stop. There are so many who, having received the Christ’s blood-bought forgiveness and the salvation which it gives, have come forward to share their precious Savior in whatever way they can, wherever they can, to as many people as they can.
Imagine No Religion. In recent weeks I have passed that billboard numerous times. Each time I drove by I tried to follow through on its suggestion to imagine a world without religion. I thought about the laws which we enjoy in North America. Many of those laws are founded on Biblical principles established by the Triune God who recognizes the value of all people. That is why here we do not discriminate between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. Recent world history has shown what does happen when leaders deny Divine direction, guidance and blessing, preferring to elevate and emphasize their wisdom, their power, their vision. You don’t have to look far to see what the state will do when religion is removed. Look to the Nazis of Germany in the 1930s. They tried to legislate religion out of the lives of their citizenry. You know what happened to the Jews, the gypsies, the mentally challenged, the minorities, the conquered countries, anyone who did not measure up, who did not conform. You know what happened. You’ve seen the movies of the gas chambers and the concentration camps. Yes, imagine a world where there is no religion. It’s easy to do. In vast Russia and populated China, atheism and agnosticism had many years to solidify hatred of the Creator and His church. Only now are there historians beginning to tally up the millions who were beaten and banished, the many tens of millions who were murdered and massacred and starved to death by their own brutal and sadistic rulers.
Of course, there were many times when my billboard-inspired imaginings were not so dark. There were times when I passed that sign and I thought of all the Christian people I had known over the years who had been a very personal blessing to me. How much poorer my life would have been without my Christian father. Throughout his working years he had stood in front of a hot blacksmith’s forge so his family could be fed and clothed and educated. He has been dead over 20 years and his children miss him dearly. I thought of my Christian mother who sacrificed and mended socks and did without so we might be able to take music lessons or swimming lessons and do the things all the other kids were doing.
I thought of the Christian ladies who prepared and served meals for mourning families after a funeral; of Christian friends who, for hours, sat in silence by the side of parents who had a child who was seriously ill. I remembered the good Samaritans who had, completely behind the scenes and without anyone ever knowing, provided financial help for those who were struggling. I remembered the Christian teachers, brilliant, dedicated, underpaid Christian teachers who consistently went above and beyond the call of duty; I remembered the tens of thousands of Christian people who give great gifts and small to keep this broadcast on the air; who wish only to bring the Savior’s story of salvation to people whom they will never meet, people whose names they will never know, people who live in places they will never go.
Because of a billboard I had remembered the countless blessings I had received from my crucified and risen Savior. Quite frankly, this is an awful lot for a little billboard to do. It was a lot to ask of a street sign which carried only three words: Imagine No Religion. I had imagined such a world and was thankful I would never live in such a place.
That’s why, one day I decided to express my appreciation to the people who had put up the sign. I wanted to thank those who had encouraged me to offer thanks for the multitude of blessings God has given to me through the perfect life, the innocent suffering, the unjust death, and victorious resurrection of His Son. So I could get an address, a phone number, an email, something which might allow me to contact these people, the next time I passed by that billboard I slowed down. There, in a corner at the bottom I found out this sign had been put up by the “Freedom From Religion Foundation.”
Did you get that? The small print said the “Freedom From Religion Foundation” had purchased the billboard. Quite frankly, I was shocked. I had thought the billboard had been put up by some conscientious Christian organization committed to helping people realize what they’d been missing if there were no loving God involved in the affairs of men; if there were no Savior to die on the cross of Calvary as our heaven-sent Substitute; if there were no risen Redeemer to promise, “Because I live, you will live also”(John 14:19). Apparently, and this is just a guess, when the folks at the Freedom From Religion Foundation asked me to imagine a world without religion they were under the impression I would see a world which would be clean and bright and beautiful, where people would live in peace and harmony and everyone, without a busybody accusatory, narrow-minded God, would be free to reach their complete and total potential.
In fact, just the opposite occurred. Rather than rejoicing in the possibility of no religion, I gave thanks for my faith and prayed others may be similarly blessed by the Lord. The Freedom From Religion billboard was designed to show a world without God… it did and that world just isn’t all that attractive.
Let me explain. Once, long ago, when the Lord had complete control of His creation, things had been good. In fact, they had been very good. One might say, without fear of contradiction, that things were perfect. There was no pain, no tears, no sickness, no death, no fights, nothing bad. God had a perfect relationship with His people and the harmony and peace between them was a wondrous thing to see. And it was right about then that Satan showed up and whispered, “Adam, Eve, I’d like you to imagine a world with no religion, a world without God, a world where you’d be as smart as He is, a world where you, not He, would be in control.” Adam and Eve did imagine that world. They bought into Satan’s suggestion and they disobeyed God. They revolted against the Creator and they did the one thing He had asked them NOT to do.
They sinned, and because they sinned, we are living in a sinful world and our children will reside in a decaying, dying universe. Which, quite amazingly, takes us to the one place where the Freedom From Religion people and I agree. We both think this world, as it stands right now, is pretty messed up, and if things are going to get straightened around and fixed up, somebody is going to have to do something. Although I can’t speak for those folks, I think we agree on that. What we don’t agree on is which somebody is going to fix this broken world and how this fixing is going to happen.
That’s where the people of this world and the people of God have always disagreed. The rebellious world says to the Lord, “Leave me alone, stay out of my life; let me be; let me control my fate, my future. You have nothing to offer me; nothing that I really want. Let me imagine a world without You; a world without religion, a world without Your laws; a world without all the pains and problems theology has produced. Let me make my world the way I want.” Such enthusiasm, such courage, such dedication! This is the familiar cry which has come out of every godless generation since time began. To this cry I can only answer: Who is stopping you? Please, feel free to create your utopia, your godless Shangri-la.
Better yet, why not join one of those groups of liberated souls who have already created a society without religion. Over the centuries there have been many such groups who have come together in an experiment to live without God’s hand or rule. I wonder, where are those groups now? I would like to point out their successes, because all of these groups I’ve read about soon broke apart. I would dearly love to hear an explanation on how the mutineers from the Bounty faired on Pitcairn Island. Those souls had every advantage. They were living in a place with a temperate climate, where there was food, water, and land enough for everyone. Certainly if any group ever had a chance to imagine a world, live in a world without God and religion, it was that group of mutineers. Tell me how long did it take before they started killing each other off? Tell me, why did they not, on their own, reason out a peace? Tell me, why did it take the gentle preaching of Christianity to restore harmony to the survivors?
In contrast to residing in a world without God, I welcome the prospect of living in a place which preaches the Christ and shares the Savior. I prefer God’s alternative to our fallen situation. You do know that alternative, don’t you? Please, let me explain. Seeing our helplessness, knowing our faults, our flaws, and our failings, the Triune God sent His Son into this world to save us from our sins, to rescue us from Satan, from our shortcomings, from ourselves. Realizing we could never extricate ourselves from sin’s web-like entanglements, the Lord Jesus was born of a virgin in Bethlehem. From that moment on, and for the next 33 years, Jesus went about the Father’s business of saving us. Every place we have failed, there Jesus succeeded; where we have been befouled and besmirched by transgression, Jesus remained untouched and untainted; while we have lived for ourselves, Jesus existed completely and totally for the salvation of others.
All this He did so that anyone, everyone who believes on Him as Savior might be rescued, redeemed, and restored. By His life of sacrifice, through His innocent death on the cross, by His glorious resurrection from the dead on the third day, Jesus has proven Himself the world’s Savior. With nail-pierced hands He, and He alone, beckons the lost world to a new and eternal life. Imagine a world without religion; imagine a world without a Savior? Not me. I have seen what happens to the hearts of men when God is banished. I have seen what happens to nations and neighborhoods, communities and countries when the Lord is exiled. Far better for us to recognize our sin, to fall before the Savior in repentance of that sin and to be raised up forgiven, free, and saved.
That is what the crucified and risen Jesus can do for us. It is what only the Savior can do for us. These are facts that you dare not doubt. Please, my friends, don’t doubt Him. Years ago, when Jesus was walking this earth doing ministry, His cousin John had such a moment of doubt. That moment came when the Baptizer was locked away in prison for having condemned the sin of a king. Alone, facing the possible loss of his life, John wanted to be sure, absolutely sure, Jesus was the Savior of the world. To get an answer, he sent some of his friends to ask, “Jesus, are you the One?” It’s a reasonable request, one that every human being ought to ask. “Jesus, are You the One? Are You the One in whom I should trust; the One who will save me; the One who has redeemed me and wishes to rescue me? Are You The One and Only Redeemer?”
The day John’s disciples asked that question, Jesus was very busy. He was busy with those who were sick, those who were hurting; those who were mourning. He was busy with people like you and me. When Jesus finally spoke to the Baptizer’s men, He said this: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Earlier in this message we talked about a sign which said: Imagine No Religion. Now God would like to ask you to imagine something.
He’d like you to imagine what it would take for someone to convince you He is the Savior of the world. Tell me, what would it take? What would He have to do? I can tell you what Jesus did that day John doubted. Men and women who had been blind, legitimately, long-term blind, all of a sudden could see. Those who had hobbled to Jesus on crutches and with canes, those who had to be carried because they were crippled — they went home that day under their own power. What doctors had not been able to accomplish, Jesus did. In a second. Impressed? Good, but Jesus wasn’t done yet. Lepers, outcasts, dying, doomed lepers were made well. But there’s more; the deaf were given the ability to hear a baby’s cry and the Savior’s words of healing and hope. And there’s more. What would it take for you to believe that Jesus is the One who can save you? The text says the dead were raised to life. Not sort of dead, not kind of dead, not mostly dead, but dead dead. Would the raising of the dead do it for you? Imagine. What would it take?
What would it take for you to confess the Christ? A crucified Christ won’t help anyone — not unless He is also the risen Christ. Will you believe? This broadcast exists to help you to find an answer. We will help you through the struggles. We will help you find a church where your questions can be answered, where your soul can find guidance; where the Savior is alive and well and wishes to welcome you home. What will it take? Imagine the risen Savior reaching out to you. He is real. His invitation is real. Your need is real. And so is our commitment to you. Please, do not hesitate. Feel free. Call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for December 13, 2009
Topic: Missing Friends in HeavenAnnouncer: Will we miss friends and family who aren’t with us in heaven? Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.
Klaus: Hi, Mark.
Announcer: A listener writes, “I’m not even sure if I’m going to heaven, but if I do, I’m worried that I won’t see some of the people I love. I’m not exactly sure what my friends believe. I’m afraid that, as good-natured and kind-hearted as they are, they don’t believe in Jesus as their Savior, which means they won’t go to heaven. This causes me great concern. I don’t want to force my beliefs on them, because everybody has the right to believe whatever they want. But how can I be happy in heaven if the people I love so much aren’t there?” That’s what our listener says.
Klaus: I think our listener has raised a number of issues. Let’s go back to the beginning. Mark, can you give me that first one again….
Announcer: You mean the part where it says, “I’m not even sure if I’m going to heaven?”
Klaus: Yes, that’s it. I remember back when I taught instruction class in the parish, that was one of the questions we always talked about. I’d ask: “Are you sure you’re going to heaven?” And, so often people would say, “I hope so.”
Announcer: As is they weren’t really sure about it.
Klaus: Yes, very, very tentative. And, quite frankly, frightening. After all, we’re talking about eternity here. Heaven or hell.
Announcer: Agreed.
Klaus: I think people read Bible passages like 1 Peter 1:3 where it says, “According to (the Father’s) great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
In this instance, the word “hope” does not mean “wishing upon a star.” Here we’re talking about a sure thing, a dynamic confidence in what is already ours through Jesus’ resurrection.
Announcer: And it’s something to which God connects us through our Baptism. So we’re saying, through faith in Jesus, salvation is already a “done deal.”
Klaus: That’s right. “By grace you are saved, through faith.” That’s what the Bible says. It doesn’t say by grace you are “maybe saved,” or “kinda saved” or “possibly saved” or by grace “you’ve got a somewhat remote chance of being saved.” We are saved through faith in Jesus. I pray this listener and all of our listeners know and believe that.
Announcer: OK. Next question?
Klaus: Next question.
Announcer: People often say, “I’m going to miss my unbelieving friends and family in heaven.”
Klaus: Yes, a lot of people think it’s pretty narrow-minded on God’s part to do what He does. I mean, there are so many wonderful, beautiful, kind, gentle, good-natured people out there. Don’t they deserve heaven?
Announcer: And what’s the answer?
Klaus: There are a number of answers. First, these people may be good, but compared to God’s goodness, the perfection He expects, they’re not good enough. I don’t know anybody who says he or she is perfect. We all admit we’ve sinned and we all fall short of God’s holiness. But, I think there is another answer that I’d like to give here.
Mark, suppose there was a pandemic, a 100% fatal illness that was sweeping the world. Suppose a doctor had a cure — but in order to make enough of that medicine for everyone, somebody had to donate his blood, every drop of it.
Announcer: So, in other words, someone would have to die so that others might live.
Klaus: Exactly. Now, suppose the doctor’s son volunteered to be the donor, the sacrifice that would provide the medicine to save all of humanity. Suppose that doctor then took that medicine which had cost his son’s life and he made it freely available for everyone, no charge. Mark, what would you think of that doctor and his self-sacrificing son?
Announcer: They were heroes. It was extraordinary.
Klaus: And they would be. Now, what if some people, for whatever reason, refused that medicine, that free, painless, 100% effective medicine, they refused that medicine and they died. Would you hold the doctor and his son responsible?
Announcer: Of course not. They went way beyond what anyone might expect. And, I suppose the people who turned down all this free medicine would have only themselves to blame.
Klaus: Agreed. Now that story describes what God has done for us in Jesus. The Father sent His Son to die so we might live. Jesus is the cure for sin and eternal death, but some people refuse God’s gift of faith — and for that I really am truly sorry.
Announcer: And how would someone like our listener then be comforted in heaven?
Klaus: Well, they will, at that point in time, see how much God loved all people, how much He wanted them all to be saved. They will understand the rightness of God’s justice and they’ll marvel at the grace that saved them.
Announcer: Thank you Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selection for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Comfort, Comfort Ye My People” setting by J.S. Bach. From Hymns for All Saints: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (© 2005 Concordia Publishing House)
“Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel” arr. John Leavitt. From On Christmas Night by John Leavitt (© 2006 John Leavitt) www.johnleavittmusic.com
“Fuga sopra il Magnificat” by J.S. Bach. From Organ Music for the Church Year, vol. 1 by Tsuguo Hirono, et al (© 1995 Japan Lutheran Hour)