$h!t Jesus Says, Part Seven: This World

Jesus doesn’t want us to escape the world. He wants us to engage with it, like he did, with our sights set on the kingdom he ushered in.

A few years back, Rev. Dawn did a sermon series on Bumper Sticker Theology.

Of all the amazing and diverse stickers out there, I’m afraid one was missing from her selection. One I often see on the back of a pick-up trucks around the country.

​It’s just the letters NTW with what looks like a halo encircling the N and T. It’s always written in an aggressive pro-wrestling kind of font that just screams out “Notice me!”

For years I thought it was a sports company because it often shares space with more outdoorsy stickers - like guns, hunting, and dirt bikes. While sitting in traffic I Googled the sticker. I was shocked to learn all my assumptions were 100 percent…wrong.
 
First of all, as it turns out, it’s N-“O”-T-W. And second, it does not represent a sporting goods company or an underground militia, but an evangelical movement based on something Jesus says in John 17.

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one....But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world...The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.            - John 17:11-23 -

 On the eve of his death, Jesus goes to pray alone for his followers, asking God to give them what they will need to continue his ministry. He prays for their joy, protection, sanctification, and unification.

Hidden in the middle he prays, “they are not of this world, just as I am not of this world.”
 
As I have said before, Jesus knows the burdens of being human. He knows what we’re capable of – both positive and negative. He also knows that although we belong to God, we also have to live in a not-so divine world. The way we live in this space between this paradox is to pay close attention to what Jesus says.
 
You might recall, he begins his ministry calling us to repent, to change the way we do things. With himself as an example, Jesus shows us how let go of our old ways of thinking and doing things. He shows us how to embrace God’s radical, inclusive love as our way to be in the world, without being of, or like, a world that often limits on who gets or deserves it.
 
Which brings me back to what those stickers mean. NOTW is an acronym for “Not of this world.” It was created for a particular evangelical mindset that tends to focus more on the afterlife, and less on this life.
 
James Lull wrote this scathing review of the sticker saying:

​ “[This] subculture of religious fanatics takes it upon themselves to announce to commoners like us they are just a bit too good for life on Earth. They’re going to heaven. And you probably are not. Meanwhile, many of the rest of us poor souls are doing our best to make things better right here “In this World.”
 
I did not add this quote to belittle our Christian brothers and sisters but to point out how others see or understand Christianity. And our role in it.
 
Like I’ve said before, Jesus’ main goal isn’t to get us into heaven but to get heaven into us. He doesn’t pray to God to take us away from the world but to send us out into the world. In fact, the last thing Jesus says to his Apostles is “Go to the furthest corners and make more disciples by showing them what I taught you” (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). 
 
Everyone who chooses to follow Christ plays an important role on this side of eternity. According to scripture, we are to be imitators of Christ, ambassadors of the Gospel, and visible manifestations of God’s radical love and grace.

We are God’s bumper stickers! Which begs the question, what does yours say?

w 6Many years ago in seminary, I had a professor who came into class a few minutes late. She was steaming mad because someone had cut her off in traffic, almost causing her to crash into another car.

When she instinctively honked, the person who cut her off - flipped her off. But it wasn’t the rudeness that upset her the most. It was the sticker on the back of this person’s car. A parking decal for Fuller Seminary!
 
She reminded our class how a simple symbol like that can speak volumes about one’s faith. “If this were the only thing people knew about Jesus,” she asked. “Would they see him as kind, like he was? Or as a rude jerk like that driver made him out to be?”
 
Now, I have an Anamesa license plate frame on my car that says Love God, Love Others, Serve Both. What message would it send if I had a sticker next to it that said, “Guns don’t kill people. I do.” 
 
Let’s face it, every Christian alive today is “of” this world. The same world Jesus is a part of. We share this space with both the faithful and the faithless alike.

People are watching us as closely as they watched him -confronting conventional wisdom and countering the status quo. While a bumper sticker won’t make a huge impact here, we can.
 
As David Mathis argues, “Being ‘not of the world’ isn’t the destination, it's the starting place.”

Jesus sends us out into the world to be “salt of the earth kind of people.” He tells us to be folks “whose light cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:13-16).
 
The Sermon on the Mount offers a very comprehensive list on how to be just that. In it Jesus calls us to hunger and thirst for righteousness. To be merciful, pure, meek, and humble. And to seek reconciliation and peace, without judgement.
 
Although Jesus tells us, “You are blessed when you are persecuted for living this way” (Matthew 5:10) promises us, “The kingdom of heaven will be ours,” living like he expects us to live is not without its challenges.
 
It’s not enough to put a fish sticker on window and drive around town. We must represent what that symbol stands for in every space we enter. Jesus spends his entire life cultivating a kingdom way of living. And he expects us to do the same.
 
He tells us to, “Seek first the kingdom of God. And everything else will fall into place” (Matthew 6:33). Faith is an action, not a noun. It is a call to follow the Way of Jesus, even if it gets us killed.
 
Jesus says, “I did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10: 45). He shows us what that means when he feeds the hungry, heals the sick, and welcomes the stranger.

Jesus doesn’t want us to escape the world. He wants us to engage with it, like he did, with our sights set on the kingdom he ushered in.
 
The American Trappist monk, Thomas Merton wrote, “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy for love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.”
 
Jesus says it like this, “Love one another so the world will know you belong to me” (John 13:35). But is that what our bumper stickers are saying?  Do our actions reflect his love?
 
What we need to remember is that every encounter we have in this world is an opportunity for us to reveal who Jesus is and why he came to be with us. He is the perfect manifestation of God’s glory made flesh. Through him, we get a foretaste of heaven, here and now.
 
If our focus is only on getting ourselves through the pearly gates, then what does that say about our relationship to Jesus? Or the fact that he says, “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom” (Matthew 7:21).
 
 In fact, Jesus is very clear about what it takes to get in. Engagement, participation, shining his light and love in this space, here and now. It's the way we feed, clothe, heal, welcome, and forgive others that matters, “for the measure you use will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2).

Jesus doesn’t mince his words when he reminds us to care for those who cry out for mercy and help. He says, “What you do to the least of these, you do also to me” (Matthew 25:40-45). What we do today matters for tomorrow.
 
We can’t lose sight of the shit Jesus says because people are watching his church closely looking to see how we actually interact with society. 

Are we helping or harming? Reaching out to others, or closing ourselves off? Are we placing terms and conditions on God’s radial love grace or giving it away unconditionally?
 
From our ire that gets us going, to our votes we cast, to the way we engage with our enemy, to the social policies we support, we must constantly ask ourselves if our words and deeds are building up his kingdom, or helping to tear it down?
 
In the first century, St. Ignatius of Antioch preached to the early church saying, “It is right, therefore, that we not just be called Christians, but that we actually be Christians.” 
 
We are God’s beloved - bumper stickers for the kingdom of heaven. Our uniqueness is our strength, not a barrier to cultural engagement. By building relationships, serving our communities, and demonstrating Christ-like love to all people, no matter who they are, where they’re from, or what they believe Jesus says we “will have peace” (John 16:33).
 
As we stand with Jesus in this paradox, in the space between this world and God’s, let us remember the encouraging words of Henri Nouwen who wrote:

​ “We can really be in the world, involved in the world, and actively engaged in the world precisely because we do not belong to it. Because our home is in God, we can be in the world, and speak words of healing, of confrontation, of invitation, and of challenge.”
 
Because we belong to God, we can go out into the world today with confidence, transforming hearts from the inside out as agents of God’s love, justice, and compassion.
 
Let us go, holding fast to the words of Jesus who says, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
 

​Work Cited
Lull, James. Not Of This World. jameslull.com
Mathis, David. Let’s Revise the Popular Phrase “In but not Of the World.  August 29, 2012, desiringgod.org.
Nouwen, Henri. You Are The Beloved. (Convergent, 2017).