Good News, Bad News:  The Birth of Christendom

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            Last week when we visited the Christians of the first Century, we discovered that they were in a very tough position.  They were under heavy persecution for their faith, and many died at the hands of either the Jewish leadership or the Roman government.

Today we will explore what happened a few centuries later, when the burden of persecution was lifted, and the church became free.   We’ll find that it’s both good news and bad news for the church. 

To prepare our hearts and minds, we have two passages from the Bible.  First from the Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah.  Then from the Gospel of John, a conversation Jesus has with Pilate on the night of his arrest.  

Good News, Bad News:  The Birth of Christendom

Jeremiah 31:31-34

John 18:33-38

             One of the greatest temptations for people of faith is to try to co-opt God for our own purposes.   “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me” becomes our theme song, and we look for God to be on our side when our team is up to bat, when our troops go into battle, or when we open a new business.  In other words, I’m in charge and God’s job is to help me accomplish what I want to accomplish. 

            For instance, let’s imagine that Jesus is wandering around Jerusalem when he decides he really needs a new robe.  After looking around, he sees a sign for FINKLESTEIN THE TAILOR.  He goes in and Finklestein creates a new robe for him, which is a perfect fit.  When he asks how much he owes, Finklestein brushes him off.  “No, no, for the Son of God?  There’s no charge!  However, may I ask a small favor?  Maybe whenever you give a sermon you could just mention a little something about how your nice robe was made by Finklestein the Tailor.”

            Jesus agrees, and as promised, plugs Finklestein’s robes every time he preaches.  Some months later, Jesus is walking through Jerusalem and happens by Finklestein’s shop.  There is a huge line of people waiting for Finklestein’s robes.  He pushes his way through the crowd to speak to Finklestein.  “Jesus, Jesus, look what a marvel you’ve been for business,” gushed Finklestein.  “Would you consider a partnership?” 

            “Sure, sure,” says Jesus.  “Jesus & Finklestein it is.”

            “Uh no, no,” says Finklestein.  “Finklestein and Jesus.  After all, I am the craftsman.”  The two of them debate the idea for some time.  Finally they come up with an acceptable compromise.  A few days later, a new sign goes up over Finklestein’s shop.  Do you want to guess what it said? 

            “Lord and Taylor.” 

            In a humorous way, the story tells a very profound truth about our human tendencies.   We want God to fit into our way life and make it better.   If I may say it even more bluntly, the tendency is to want to use God for our own purposes. 

            It is that tendency to want to control God that gave birth to the idea called Christendom.  

            Now when I use the word Christendom, this is not the same thing as the Christian faith or Christianity as a religion—though sometimes the words are used interchangeably.  Christendom is the marriage of faith and culture; it’s a philosophy that says that the Christian faith and western culture are part and parcel of the same thing.  In Christendom, to be a good citizen of your country equals being a good Christian. 

            Christendom began in the fourth century a.d. when the Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity and freed the church from persecution. 

            Let me give you just a little background to what Constantine did. 

Constantine was warm to the idea of Christianity even before he became a Christian himself.  His Christian conversion was quite dramatic.  He dreamed one night that Christ came to him, and he also saw the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ (chi and rho).  What he thought he heard from Christ was:  “Under this sign you will conquer.”  So he took those two Greek symbols and painted them on his helmet and on the shields of his troops.  The next day he and his men won the battle that was decisive in making him the sole ruler of the empire. 

            After that experience, his attitude was, in essence, something like this:  “Hey, this Christian thing is really working for me.  It helps me win.  Let’s see if I can make Christianity pull the country together for me.” 

            Over the next several years, Constantine gradually gave more and more freedom and even favor to the Christian Church.  He also entered into church politics.  He called together church councils to settle theological debates, and in some cases, he was the one who created the compromise or the resolution to the debate.  

By his actions, Constantine started a movement in western civilization that lasted about nine centuries.  Constantine and those who followed him made every attempt to create a Christian civilization.  A Christian culture.  Christendom.  During those nine centuries, it was the church that defined life throughout the western world.  The church was the focal point for every other activity.  "Sometimes the Church's influence bordered on monopoly.  If people were educated, they got it from the Church. Art and music served christian themes.  The church even became a prominent land holding institution."  (George Hunter)  At its height, the Church controlled a third of the lands of France and Germany, a fourth of the land of Great Britain, and much of the land throughout Europe.

            Christianity was pervasive in western culture.  Christianity and culture were, so to speak, married.

            Christendom should be good news for the church, shouldn’t it?  After all, the weight of persecution has been lifted.  The church is free to be what it needs to be.  And, in Christendom, evangelism is a snap.   Because the symbols of Christianity and the message of the Gospel are so well known by everybody, then you don’t have to say that much about it.  Just encourage people to make a commitment to Christ.  They already know what that means.  It almost seems like the fulfillment of what Jeremiah prophesied:  No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. . .”

            Christendom sounds like it ought to be good news.  But sometimes good news has bad news twist.  Did you hear the good news bad news joke that one of the late night comedians said just before the last presidential debate?  He said, The good news is this will be the final debate.  The bad news is the candidates are still Bush and Gore.  

In spite of the good news of Christendom, there is definitely a bad news twist.  When Constantine was rising to power in the Roman Empire, the Christian church was growing and gaining in its influence over people’s lives.   The leaders of the country started to see the church as something of a threat.  Here’s how a church historian describes the political reality of the time, in light of the growing influence of the church:  “Two courses lay open for a vigorous ruler, either [1] to force it into submission and break its power [which is what Constantine’s predecessors tried to do], or [2] to enter into alliance with it and thus secure political control of the growing organism [Constantine].” 

            In other words the church was co-opted by the state.  So, the boundaries between the church and the culture became blurred.  Practically speaking, Constantine was running the church as well as the country.  The church and the nation are one.  While the church began to gain political power and influence, it at the same time began to lose its spiritual power.  And that opened the door to corruption in church leadership.   Perhaps the most serious result of all for the church is that the church became lazy about evangelism.  It began to expect the culture to spread the Gospel.

            Christendom began to disintegrate in the middle ages.  Next week I will talk about the death of Christendom and what that means for us.  But what I want you to think about today is the remnants or vestiges of Christendom that still exist in our time.  Some fairly contemporary references may be helpful.  It was the marriage of church and culture that led missionaries to Hawaii, for instance, with the idea that to be a good Christian the natives had to start wearing western clothes.  It was the marriage of church and culture that enabled Hitler to convince people that he should be the head of the German church and that his perspectives were gospel. 

            In spite of our country’s “separation of church and state” there are still remnants of Christendom in our own country.  Our money says “In God We Trust.”  People often talk about “God and Country” in one breath, as if to serve one meant to serve the other as well.  

It is still seen as a positive thing when political candidates express Christian faith, and frequent places of worship.  Presidents still confer with religious leaders for advice.

            For instance, did you hear about the recent summit between the president and the pope?   It was supposed to last an hour but it went on for two days.  Finally, a weary president emerged to face the news media.  He was smiling, and announced that the summit was a resounding success.  He said that he and the pope agreed on eighty percent of the matters they discussed.  The president then said he was going home to the White House to be with his family.

            A few minutes later the Pope came out to make his statement.  He looked tired, discouraged and was practically in tears.  Sadly he announced his meeting with the president was a failure. 

            A reporter said, “But your Holiness, the president just announced the summit was a great success and the two of you agreed on eighty percent of the items discussed>’

            Exasperated, the Pope answered, “Yes, but we were talking about the Ten Commandments.”  (story file, 16.12.2)

            When we start looking at a reality like Christendom, it pushes us to consider what we think Christianity really is.  Many people think that the church is simply a nice organization to belong to that will help you raise your kids right.   It’s a good place to belong because you can make business contacts there.  It’s a harmless, nice place to find friends and have a social life.  But that’s not what it’s about.  When you become a Christian, you join forces with God against the powers of darkness.   It’s a battle.  And at every turn, the Enemy will try to get you sidetracked onto something other than the mission that God has given us.  What better way than to make Christianity popular, and then water down the message so that it loses its power. 

Contemporary author George Hunter says that “the dominant religion in the United States” is not Christianity.  It “is a folk religion which deifies traditional American values.  This civil religion retains and uses the symbols of traditional Christianity, but with the meanings changed.  So in the nineteenth century, christian symbols were used to support American imperialism as ‘Manifest Destiny.’   In our [current time] Christianity is widely equated with the religiosity of Readers Digest. . .” 

            Hunter further says “The Church’s missionary challenge in the West today is thus complicated by the fact that most western populations have been exposed to some distorted or diluted expression of Christianity that inoculates people against the real thing. . .”

            The problem with Christendom is that it elevates patriotism to idolatry.  Our culture and nation become number one in priority our faith and commitment to Christ goes to a secondary position.  It attempts to put God in the box defined by us and our preferences and desires.  When we take this kind of Christian faith “on the road,” we try to convince others that to be a Christian means that they need to be like us.  But the Word of God is not subject to the beliefs or lifestyle of any culture.     The Word of God challenges every lifestyle and every culture. 

            Have you read CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia?   These are great children’s stories with a message for adults as well.  In the first story, four children become acquainted with Aslan, a great lion who is also the Christ figure in the stories.  Aslan, after saving the kingdom and making the children into kings and queens, quietly slips away with no word as to when he will return.  A friend of the children, Mr. Beaver, had warned them that this would happen.  “He doesn’t like being tied down—and of course he has other countries to attend to.  It’s quite all right.  He’ll often drop in.  Only you mustn’t press him.  He’s wild, you know.  Not like a tame lion.” 

            Like Aslan, our God is not “tame.”  God is God, and God’s kingdom is not “of this world.”  God’s kingdom belongs to God and not to us. 

            (Sunday only:  As we sing our closing song, I want to encourage you to think about your own faith and your relationship with God.  And think too about your country.  Do you understand the difference between being an American and being a Christian?)