Whatever

"Whatever"
Romans 11:30-32

Men’s Bible Study recently finished up a study of the life of Paul.  At one point, during Paul’s journeys, he had been arrested.  One of the qualities we quickly discovered about Paul was that he never missed an opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  No matter who he was talking to, Paul always worked the Gospel message into the conversation.

On this one particular instance, as I said, Paul had been arrested.  He was brought before King Agrippa.  Paul told Agrippa about Christ.  Agrippa’s response was tragically telling:

Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.  (Acts 26:28)

Almost.  Not quite, but almost.  You almost got me, Paul.

Maybe Paul had that experience in mind when he wrote these lines to the church in Rome.  Paul uses the word, “disobedient.”  I’ll give you a quick little Greek lesson about this word.  In the Greek language that Paul wrote in, the word is “apeitheia.”  It’s where we get our word “apathy” from.  The root word in the Greek means, convince or persuade.  The “a” prefix on the word means “not” or “against.”  So a-peithea means not convinced, or not persuaded.  Which is what Agrippa was, when Paul shared the gospel.

Our English translations, then decided to use the word disobedient in these lines of Paul to the Roman Christians.  So, to be disobedient, in this instance, literally means to be unconvinced and unpersuaded.  To be unpersuaded means that you are not certain that something is true.  You’re not sure that what you are seeing or hearing can be relied on or trusted.

If you remain unconvinced, you never really give yourself over.  You never really get emotionally involved.  If someone told you they loved you, but you held on to a handful of skepticism about what they are telling you, you will end up withholding yourself, unpersuaded by their love.  That may have nothing to do with them, and everything to do with you, and the spirit within you.  If you keep to your stance of being unpersuaded, you never commit yourself fully.

Did you hear about the company that makes blank bumper stickers? They're for people who don't want to get involved.  To come at life and people and God with the posture of not allowing yourself to be won over, is like driving around with a blank bumper sticker.  You are for nothing, you are allied with nothing, you are passionate about nothing.

In the book of Acts there is the story of Annanias and Saphira.  In the early church, people were selling property and giving the proceeds to the apostles.  The apostles would then use that money for feeding and taking care of the poor who were coming to Christ by the thousands.  But Annanias and Saphira held back a good portion of the sale of their property, just in case.  They were not as thoroughly convinced that this Christianity thing was real.  They were almost persuaded.  But just in case what was happening through the gospel didn’t last, they would have an insurance policy of funds to fall back on.

That’s not being totally persuaded.  Gordon Stull used a great example of this in our Sunday School class one time.  We were talking about this whole-hearted kind of commitment.  Gordon said it’s like the poker player, who at some point pushes all her chips into the middle of the pot and says, “I’m all in.”  She lays everything she’s got on the line.  She’s all in.  Annanias and Saphira were not all in.  Their lack of being totally convinced about Christ ended up costing them dearly.

There’s a further step in this slippery slope of remaining adamantly unpersuaded.  After a while, you just don’t care.  Refusing to be convinced slowly becomes apathy.  Remaining unconvinced keeps you from being emotionally involved.  No emotional involvement becomes a “who cares” attitude.

Someone asked me the other day, “What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy?”
 I said, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

I was going to call the Apathy Hotline one day, but then I thought, “What’s the point?”

And the nice thing about apathy is you don't have to exert yourself to show you're sincere about it.

Remember the early part of the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible.  Revelation is a vision of the future, written by John the Divine.  There are letters to seven churches at the start of the book.  The seven letters are messages to those churches from the Risen Christ.  In the letter to the church at Laodicea, Christ says,
I know…that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16)

Here, the Risen Christ is equating being lukewarm to being apathetic.  Those believers were never passionately all in.  They would never allow themselves to be fully convinced.  They weren’t emotionally hooked by Christ.  Just, “Meh.”  “Whatever.”

In the book I mentioned in last weeks message, The Inferno, by Dante, he wrote, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”  I think Dante picked up this notion from Christ’s letter to Laodicea in the book of Revelation.  Because people who are attempting to remain neutral are people who are not allowing themselves to be convinced.  And people who are not persuaded about Christ won’t allow themselves to get passionately involved.

But there are times, as Dante has made the point, times of moral crisis, times of spiritual degradation, times when the flag of warning has been raised when we individually, or as a church, need to take a stand.  Need to make our voice heard.  Need to throw ourselves into some situation and make a difference.  But we won’t do that if we aren't convinced about Christ.

British historian, Arnold Toynbee once said, “Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, which takes the imagination by storm; and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.”

When you meet someone who is enthusiastic about something, isn’t it because they are thoroughly persuaded?  You can’t get excited about something you are still unconvinced about.  You aren’t going to throw yourself into your relationship with Christ, if you really aren’t sure about him.  You aren’t going to be part of some kind of ministry, or make plans for your own ministry, if you are not convinced about the one whom you are serving.

The longer you hold out, the more you hold back, the less enthusiastic you will become, the less chance you will allow yourself to be convinced otherwise.  To be like Agrippa in his conversation with Paul, and to be “almost persuaded,” really means you are really unpersuaded.  Almost persuaded doesn’t cut it with Christ.  That was the warning of Christ to the church at Laodicea, the lukewarm, those who just sit by and remain sort of convinced about Christ get spewed out of his mouth.  To be almost persuaded means you are lukewarm.  What Christ wants is that you be “all in” as Gordon Stull described, or “all out.”  At least Christ knows where you stand that way.  It’s the apathetic fence sitters who end up doing nothing, or being nothing that makes Christ gag.

In the cartoon "Mother Goose and Grim," the cat is sleeping. Someone asks, "What are you doing?”
The cat says "Nothing. I's a cat. Cats always do nothing."
"When are you going to get up?" the questioner asked.
"I don't know" says the cat. "The hardest part of doing nothing is knowing when you're finished.”

Christ knows.  Christ knows when you’re finished.  It’s when you show that half-hearted enthusiasm.  It’s when you are passionate, sort of, about your relationship with him.  It’s when you say you have a plan about some kind of ministry in the name of Christ, and then that plan just stays on paper.  It’s when you’re persuaded, almost, but not fully.  You may try and get by with that in the church.  But Christ knows.  Christ knows if you’re fully convinced.  Or not.