Message by Chad Kelly
Shane Claiborne
Our goal was to capture people”™s responses to the word Christian, so we took a video camera and hit the streets, from the trendy arts district to the suburbs. We asked people to say the first word that came to mind in response to each word we said: “snow”, “Eagles” (it”™s Philly), “teenagers”, and finally “Christian”. When people heard the word Christian, they stopped in their tracks. I will never forget their responses: “fake”, “hypocrites”, “church”, “boring”. One guy even said, “used-to-be-one”. I will also never forget what they didn”™t say. Not one of the people we asked that day said “love”. No one said “grace”. No one said “community”.
By the way”¦there”™s a great conversation starter:
What”™s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the word “Christian”?
Brennan Manning
The greatest cause of atheism is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out of the door and deny Him with their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
Shane Claiborne
We live in an age in which people, when they hear the word Christian, are much more likely to think of people who hate gays than people who love outcasts, and that is a dangerous thing”¦There is something scandalous about grace. It”™s almost embarrassing that God loves losers so much.
[Loser Sign Slide]
But He DOES!
[Loser Hat Slide]
Beautiful Losers
Matthew 9:9-13
We are a band of “beautiful losers” who live to humbly invite other unrighteous people to follow Jesus!
Matthew 9:9-13 (MSG)
9Passing along, Jesus saw a man at his work collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” Matthew stood up and followed him.
We HAVE to pause to realize just how shocking this would have been that Jesus would even speak to a tax collector”¦much less call one to be His follower!
Jewish tax collectors were traitors working for the occupyingRoman Empire. If that weren”™t enough, they were usually crooked and greedy, using the authority of the local Roman soldiers to enable them get rich by taking far too much tax from their fellow Jews!
Jesus calls one of these guys!
10-11Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?”
12-13Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”
We are a band of “beautiful losers” who live to humbly invite other unrighteous people to follow Jesus!
Matthew 9:9-13 (NLT)
9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector”™s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.
10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don”™t need a doctor””sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ”˜I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.”™ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
We are a band of “beautiful losers” who live to humbly invite other unrighteous people to follow Jesus!
“Beautiful Losers”??
I”™ll use Jesus”™ words to define what I mean:
“those who know they are sinners” and have run to Jesus for grace!
Our sin makes us losers but His grace makes us beautiful!
We are a band of “beautiful losers” who live to humbly invite other unrighteous people to follow Jesus!
Bono
The fact that the Scriptures are brim full of hustlers, murderers, cowards, adulterers and mercenaries used to shock me. Now it is a source of great comfort.
We are a band of “beautiful losers” who live to humbly invite other unrighteous people to follow Jesus!
Luke 18:9-14 (NLT)
9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ”˜I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don”™t cheat, I don”™t sin, and I don”™t commit adultery. I”™m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.”™
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ”˜O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.”™ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Here”™s a shocking and frightening thought”¦
Unless you are a “beautiful loser”, Jesus has nothing to say to you!
Unless I readily admit my desperate sinfulness and need for God”™s mercy and grace, Jesus can”™t help me”¦because I”™m denying my need for His grace in my own self-righteousness!
Shane Claiborne
We are all murderers and adulterers and terrorists. And we are all precious. When we look through the eyes of Jesus, we see new things in people. In the murderers, we see our own hatred. In the addicts, we see our own addictions. In the saints, we catch glimpses of our own holiness. We can see our own brokenness, our own violence, our own ability to destroy, and we can see our own sacredness, or own capacity to love and forgive. When we realize that we are both wretched and beautiful, we are freed up to see others the same way.
Should the sin that we sometimes observe in others grieve us? Absolutely!
We should be grieved by the words and behaviors that grieve God!
But there is a fine line between being truly grieved by what grieves the heart of God and being offended by behavior that we think we”™re above and not capable of because we believe ourselves more righteous than the really bad people in the world!
If I haven”™t (and never do) sin as big as someone else, it is by the grace of God alone!
It is NOT because I am innately better than another person.
Do you truly believe that?
Preacher”¦this is getting a little uncomfortable!
Well”¦I think that was Jesus”™ intention in the stories He told!
The moment we begin to believe that we are innately better than someone else because we”™ve never done THAT, that we could never do the things they”™ve done, it is in that instant that we have put grace on the shelf and are living to show the world who WE are”¦NOT who Jesus is!
We are a band of “beautiful losers” who live to humbly invite other unrighteous people to follow Jesus!
Ronnie McBrayer
Who is it that you look down upon? Who do you compare yourself to in your quiet moments? The liberal? The fundamentalist? The Bible-thumper preaching on the street? The addict? Religion can convince its adherents that they are right, that they are better than others, especially these others who look and behave so different. But in reality, we all come to God with the same prayer: Lord, have mercy.
We are a band of “beautiful losers” who live to humbly invite other unrighteous people to follow Jesus!
Conclusion
Shane Claiborne
”¦community can be built around a common self-righteousness or around a common brokenness. Both are magnetic. People are drawn toward folks who have it all together, or who look like they do. People are also drawn toward folks who know they don”™t have it all together and are not willing to fake it. Christianity can be built around isolating ourselves from evildoers and sinners, creating a community of religious piety and moral purity”¦Christianity can also be built around joining with the broken sinners and evildoers of our world crying out to God, groaning for grace.
We are a band of “beautiful losers” who live to humbly invite other unrighteous people to follow Jesus!
Here are a couple of questions that will help us figure out where we stand, how we live in relation to all of this:
1) What am I good at?
(How I think about my own abilities will affect how I relate to others)
2) What angers me? What do I despise?
(How I deal with my own hot-button issues will affect how I relate to other)
The answers to those two questions will help me see how self-righteousness gets in my way and hinders me from reaching out to those who need Jesus almost as much as I do.
We are a band of “beautiful losers” who live to humbly invite other unrighteous people to follow Jesus!
Prayer
Communion
This table is for “beautiful losers”””for those who know they are sinners who have been given beauty the only way they can get it”¦as a gift from Jesus, our Savior! As you come today, come reminding yourself of that truth”¦and come refocusing your life on inviting other unrighteous folks to follow Him!