The rancher was at a party, telling guests about his spread. “We named it the Circle Q, Rambling Brook, Broken Circle, Crooked Creed, Golden Horse Shoe, Lazy B, Ben Arrow, Sleepy T, Triple O Ranch.” “Wow,” a man replied, “I bet you have a lot of cattle.” “No,” replied the rancher, “not many survive the branding.” Sometimes I wonder if Baptists will survive our branding: Northern, Southern, American, National, Conservative, Progressive, Baptist General Convention of Missouri, Cooperative Baptists Fellowship (by the way, some of my friends in other denominations think “cooperative Baptist” is an oxymoron!).

 

You know what the word “branding” or “brand” means in marketing, right? It means identity, niche, the public’s mental picture of a company, or in this case, of a church. I’m not sure that the Baptist brand is all that great everywhere in the world. Four hundred years ago, in 1609, Baptists had their birth. John Smyth and Thomas Helwys came to Amsterdam with a small group of dissenters. There in The Netherlands, in the back of a bakery, they began what we continue this morning: Baptist worship and witness. Smith went on to join the Mennonites but Helwys came back and settled in London in 1611, establishing the first Baptist work on British soil (does it surprise you that Baptists can’t even agree on the best date to celebrate our founding???). But during the ensuing four centuries, our brand has been mixed.

 

A summary statement might be when Baptists have been right, we’ve been very, very right (Jesus Christ as the center of our faith and witness, the Bible as God’s authoritative Word—we take the Bible seriously, and missions and outreach as our primary focus). But when we’ve been wrong, ooooh, we’ve really, really missed it! In his book, Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller tells about trying to share Christ on one of the most secular college campuses in America. The Christians announced a confessional booth that would be set up in the middle of campus. But to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t a place where people come to confess their sins, but where the Christians would confess THEIR sins, arrogance and lack of genuine love. Maybe that’s what today’s sermon is. A reverse confessional booth, when we acknowledge some of our Baptist missteps.

 

LEGALISM. I include under this, reducing the gospel to a list of do’s and don’ts as if God can be managed and bribed. I include in this being judgmental and holier-than-thou. I include in this hubris, the arrogant attitude that we’re the only ones who have any truth. You know the old joke. A man dies, goes to heaven and the angel shows him around. But every time they are on the 3^rd level, the angel goes, “Shhh…be very quiet.” Finally, the newly arrived man asked why they have to be quiet on the 3^rd floor. “Because,” replied the guide, “this is where the Baptists are, and they think they’re the only ones here.”  

 

At a convention, I heard a guest preacher once say, “I love Baptists for who the THINK they are!” In Matthew 23, Jesus confronted the legalism, judgmental spirit and arrogance of some Pharisees who majored on the minors and minored on the majors. They would tithe the smallest garden herb but miss kindness and mercy. Jesus called it using your teeth to strain a gnat out of your drink but gulping down a nasty old camel. Nitpicking legalism!

 

How many times have you heard, “Baptists! Aren’t you the guys who are against dancing and card playing?” One lady told me her doctor had recommended dancing as exercise and asked me if it was OK. I told her, “Yes, but just called it rhythmically ambulating, and you’ll be fine.” When I was a young pastor in Calhoun, MO, Janet and I played cards with young couples in the church parsonage. We reached out to lots of young couples in this way. The deacons didn’t know whether to fire me or hug me. In some parts of Missouri, among Baptists, playing dominoes is OK, but cards are not. In some parts of Texas, among Baptists, playing cards is OK, but dominoes are out. Don’t you feel sorry for God, having to get His manual out, when we cross a county line, figuring out if what we’re doing is acceptable in this area? How silly. I wonder how many people we’ve never gotten to share Jesus with because they since our harshness and judgmentalism.

RACISM. Listen to the closing lines of a poem by William Shumate, entitled “The Bible Belt.” “The bibles in this region are larger than/elsewhere. Most weigh over a hundred pounds. It takes two strong/men to lift them into a pickup truck to haul off to church. All the women dress up on Sundays. And all the white men shake hands.” We were a part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) until we went our separate ways a few years ago (we didn’t move; they did—we continue to live the same Baptist principles we have through the generations). But it’s time to say it out loud: the Southern Baptist Convention was born on the wrong side of the slavery issue. To their credit, the SBC publicly apologized a few years ago. But leading up to the Civil War, Baptist preachers would find proof texts to preach, supporting slavery from the pulpit. And even into the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Baptist preachers would find texts in the Bible to support discrimination. And in some regions, blacks would be denied membership in Baptist churches. For all of that, I am profoundly sorry.

 

But! This church records in its founding minutes, from 1837, when we were established, that “a door was opened for the reception of members when Sarah Miller, Jane Jacoby, Mariah Morris and Milly and Phillis (women of colour) were received…” But for our silence during slavery, segregation and times of hate, we apologize.

 

CULTURAL CAPTIVITY. Here’s what Will Campbell has said about us: “Historically all us Baptists came from that left-wing group of radicals at the time of the Reformation…They believed in the complete separation of church and state. They would not go to war; they were against the death penalty. Southern Baptists have forgotten all that. They spend more time blow-drying their hair than wrestling with their history.” [source: undated, Religious News Service].

 

John Lee Eighmy wrote a book in 1972, Churches In Cultural Captivity. He was from north Missouri, and my mother-in-law knew him. He said that beginning in 1845, Baptists “sanctified” the prevailing social order, including white supremacy. We began to baptize our way of life, including our financial advantages, as if it was a part of God’s plan. We stopped being critical of culture and became a part of it. Baptist churches suffer extreme schizophrenia: we don’t know whether we want to stand against secularism as dissenters or whether we want all the privileges and perks of being part of the establishment, cozy with government and the powers that be. We want it both ways!

 

I would remind you that it was Jesus’ stand against the three “isms” that got him killed: legalism, materialism and nationalism. Baptists are at our best when we are radically following Jesus and being used by God as transformers of culture.

 

In John 5:39-40, Jesus says it’s not enough to see what God has done and to know the scriptures. We also have to have a heart open to God’s work! Jesus said, “You’ve seen me work. You know the scriptures. But until you open your heart, you can’t know me.”  Listen to vv. 39-40 carefully.

 

A personal, Risen Christ is the only one who can break up that film and crust of tradition and self-righteousness that forms over our interpretations of scripture. Following the radical, wonderful Jesus is the only way to stay out of cultural captivity. We build our discipleship on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as revealed in scripture. I like the story about the man who had just heard the congregation sing that beloved song, “Jesus Loves Me.” He said, “It’s a beautiful song, but if the only reason you know Jesus loves you is because the Bible tells you so, I feel sorry for you. You’re missing the best part. A personal relationship with Jesus, God’s Son.” Let’s be radical Jesus-followers!