Re-Think Church (3): A Church Taking off Someone’s Roof

(Communicating with the World)
Mark 2:1-12 (September 18, 2009)

Jesus traveled all over the region of Galilee preaching at synagogues and healing the sick. And he finally came back to Capernaum to rest for a few days, but later people heard he was at home and so many of them came to the house that there wasn’t even standing room left in front of the door. However, Jesus didn’t send the people away but taught them vigorously.
When he was still preaching, four people came up, carrying a crippled man on a mat. But they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd. So they looked for a way to take their sick friend to Jesus and came up with an idea that they made a hole in the roof above Jesus. Don’t you think they acted too reckless to Jesus?

On the other hand, Jesus was curious about the strange noises from the roof and later saw the ceiling opened and through the hole a man on the mat was lowered down. What a ridiculous thing happened? How outrageous and rude would the behavior of the four people be? However, when a cripple on a mat was being lowered down by the four friends, Jesus didn’t get upset by their poor manner but saw their faith instead and said to the crippled man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”

In the house, there were some of the teachers of the Law of Moses sitting and started wondering, “Why would he say such a thing? He must think he is God! Only God can forgive sins.” Right away, Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said, “Why are you thinking such things? Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and pick up his mat and go on home? I will show you that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth.”

So Jesus said to the man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and go on home.” The man got right up. He picked up his mat and went out while everyone watched in amazement. They praised God and said, “We have never seen anything like this!”

When I took meditation on this story last week, I was impressed by the action of the four friends to bring the crippled man to Jesus. Of course, their behavior to take off someone’s roof without permission was rude and outrageous. It was absolutely out of etiquette and manner. But still it gives a lesson for us to learn.

The purpose of our being as the body of Christ is to introduce Jesus to the world and the world to Jesus. Am I correct? If it is true, then what do we do to accomplish our purpose or call? Of course, we have to do our best to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people in the world. But the problem is they don’t want to hear it. Then we may say, “Why do we care about them if they don’t want to hear from us. If they don’t listen, it does harm to them.” However, we cannot stop preaching to them because our Master has compelled us to bring the Good News to them. “And the Lord said unto the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled’” (LK 14:23. KJV)

Dear brothers and sisters, if we agree that we are assigned to deliver Jesus to the people in the world, what do we do with our assignment? That’s our question to deal with this morning. And as an answer to the question, I want to tell you this – “We have to take off someone’s roof as well.” What? Do we have to destroy someone else’s roof? Yes. If we can bring the world to Jesus (or Jesus to them), we have to do it. Period.

What I mean by “we have to take off someone else’s roof” is that we have to find a way to minister to the people. The four friends of the crippled found no way to take their friend to Jesus. But they couldn’t turn their faces away from the poor guy. Therefore, they tried to find a way with a completely different eye – outrageous but also vigorous. To make a way out, they dig a hole in the roof of someone’s house without asking permission first.

The people in the world do not want to hear the message from us. They are surfeited with it. However, I think, it is because we don’t know how to speak to them. Perhaps someone may say, “The way we are doing to them worked for us in the past. It definitely helped me to be converted to Jesus Christ.” Of course, I understand it. However, time has changed. The message is the same but the ways and methods to communicate with the world have changed.

Do you know the differences between analog broadcasting and digital broadcasting? The analog broadcasting station sends out regular waves and the antenna of each house receives the waves and brings them to TV. But the digital broadcasting station sends out irregular waves, combinations of “0” and “1”, and the receiver of each house receives the waves and sends them to TV.

Do you still remember those days when you went up to the roof to adjust the antenna to have a better picture on TV? The motion pictures were so poor when the winds blew or heavy rains dropped. But since digital TV service was introduced, we don’t have to go up to the roof to adjust the antenna anymore for digital waves are less affected by the winds or rains. Therefore, now we are enjoying HDTV (high-definition television), but we will have Ultra HDTV pretty soon.

One of the benefits we can have from the digital broadcasting is to receive customized information (weather and other useful information) by the time we need it and we can shop when we watch TV. Analog broadcasting was a one-way-communication, but digital broadcasting a two-way-communication (so called interactive communication).

In the United States, analog and digital broadcasting services were offered for quite a while, but from last June digital only. Hawaii where we live now stopped analog TV service last February. When analog TV service was terminated, were you angry and said, “I will stick with only analog TV regardless of all the crazy changes in the world.” I can understand your frustration but that doesn’t help you at all. The overall situation is no longer in doubt. We cannot swim against the tide - from analog to digital.

Another huge impact along with the digital trend is the introduction of the Internet. Of course, some of you don’t use internet yet, but at least you know about it.

The Internet celebrated its 40th birthday a few days ago, but this 40-year-old creature has greatly influenced the world. On September 2, 1969, Professor Leonard Kleinrock, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at UCLA, known as a “Father of the Internet”, succeeded in the process of sharing data between two computers by using a 15 feet gray cable at the University of California, Los Angeles. After that successful experiment, many other universities got hooted into it, and as a result the email system was created in 1972. Two years later, TCP/IP protocol that made many computers correspond to each other at the same time was invented. Moreover, the website domain names such as “.com, .net, .org” were born after the 1980s.

However, the Internet became so popular after the 1990s. Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee, a British engineer and computer scientist and MIT professor, implemented the first successful communication between an HTTP client and server via the Internet. Nowadays we call this gigantic invention “the World Wide Web” that helps the world truly stay connected to each other. Because of the Internet there is no boundary in the world.

The Internet has changed our world so much. This gigantic monster has prospered the quality of our lives. By using the Internet, we don’t have to go to the bank in person. We don’t have to drive for shopping. Moreover, the Internet brought us to get connected. Without paying an expensive airfare, we can send and receive greetings from the friends living on the other side of the world at any moment. The personal website, email, blog, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have helped us to meet more friends than ever before.

For reference, the following survey data was released by the Korea Broadcasting & Communication Committee and the Korea Internet Institute on September 17, 2009. It was to research the Internet use rate among the Korean people.

Years 3-9: 85.4%
Teens: 99.9%
20s: 99.7%
30s: 98.8%
40s: 98.6%
50s: 52.3%
60 and Older: 20.1%

Unbelievably so many people are using the Internet now. However, the Internet is not always good for us. Private information can be leaked to someone else without permission. Bad websites can destroy our lives. We are under the cyber terror threats.
Despite all those dangers, we still use the Internet. Even if I don’t use it, others are still using it. They share necessary information to each other through the Internet. Companies and organizations are vigorously using it for their business. Therefore, the Internet is the general trend of our generation and the generations of our children after children. We cannot turn against it.

We, assigned to deliver Jesus to the world (or the world to Jesus), cannot ignore it because the Internet is too powerful to avoid. I believe it is the best gift that God has ever given to the church to evangelize the world.

Re-think Church! We have to re-think the concept of doing church. We have to re-think our methods to minister to the world. What I mean is that if we have a better way to deliver Jesus to the world, we must take it at any cost. We should not complain that people don’t listen to us. Rather we have to do our best to find a better way to speak to them. Why? It is because we are called to this task.

The young people don’t pay attention to the Gospel. Do you really think so? Perhaps you are right. However, even if they are reluctant to give their ears to our message, we got to find a way out to speak to them. We got to learn about their interests and bring the message to them more closely. In this sense, the Internet is too powerful to simply ignore.

Do you know what? 8 out of 10 youngsters click the links sent by their friends. If the links were delivered by their trustful friends, the clicks go up to 2- 3 times higher. Do you know what it means? What if the church, or what if parents or close relatives send them out the links containing useful messages? Definitely the teens will have no problem to open the website that we sent out to them. Therefore, we better not say that they don’t listen. It is our role to learn about their interests and speak God’s word to them by using their interests.

Are we willing to go into the people in the community? Are we willing to mingle with them? As a matter of fact, our Lord Jesus went to the people. He lived among the sinners, became their friend and helped their lives to change.

Of course, I don’t say technology is the only means for the church to go after. I never say that. However, I introduced it to be one of the good tools for the church to speak to the world nowadays. If the targets we want to approach communicate through the technology such as the Internet, we got to jump into it. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (MT 28:19, 20)

Church. We have to re-think church. We have to learn the thought, language and culture of the world. We better readjust our ministry methods to their thought, language and culture. The church must take courage to take off the roof. If it is required, we must be willing to tear down the wall. If we can deliver Jesus to the world more effectively, we must be willing to come out of the routine. We must be willing to take the risk. By the way, brothers and sisters, what does the story of the four friends who made a hole in the roof of someone’s house for the crippled speak to you this morning?