6 September 2026

Between the Crazies

Titus 3:1-11

We read today from the book of Titus, chapter 3, verses 1-11:

3 Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, and to show every courtesy to everyone. 3For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. 4But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8The saying is sure.

I desire that you insist on these things, so that those who have come to believe in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works; these things are excellent and profitable to everyone. 9But avoid moronic controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10After a first and second admonition, have nothing more to do with anyone who causes divisions, 11since you know that such a person is perverted and sinful, being self-condemned.

Most of the New Testament was written by the first generation of Christians: Jesus’ own disciples, or by others who heard Jesus’ teachings and witnessed his resurrection and heard his promise to return. The New Testament letters, by and large, were written to churches in their first generation, still being led by their founding members. That first generation believed that Jesus was going to return at any moment, so they didn’t always give much thought to future generations of the church. Why would they? But Jesus didn’t return right away, and slowly people began to realize that they should make plans for those who came after them. This would have been challenging. The first generation of any start-up is all vision and passion, but eventually people realize that vision and passion don’t pay the bills or clean the bathrooms. Someone has to be in charge of that, and that person will probably be a difference kind of leader. The passionate, gifted leaders who start new things are, um, sometimes less dependable at the task of keeping things running day-to-day. This happened in the New Testament Church, and we have a few New Testament books written from a second-generation perspective. Our reading today comes from one of those later books, the Book of Titus. In the passage you just heard, the author is dealing with this question:  Now that the church is established, now that we’re settling in for the long haul rather than expecting the Kingdom of God to break forth on earth any second, what should be the church’s priorities? Now that the church is part of society, what should society see when they look at us?

Here’s the author’s answer. First, the world should see people who do good. Verse one, be ready for every good work. Verse 8, be careful to devote [your]selves to good works that are excellent and that are profitable to everyone. People should look at the church and say, “I’m so glad those people are here.” This wasn’t just good ethical advice; this was also practical. During Roman times, you never knew when a new emperor would decide to persecute a minority faith. The Book of Titus suggests that governments might hesitate to persecute groups that make society better. The early church did. They were known for taking in abandoned infants and caring for widows and orphans. Anyway, Titus’s first rule is: do good. The second is: Don’t be jerks, even to each other, even in private. Don’t fight among yourselves, all right? Verse 2, speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle, show every courtesy to everyone. It goes on to say, “Look, we all used to do that stuff. We all used to be quarrelsome, envious, gluttonous, and easily offended just like everyone else in the world, but Christ changed us. Christ saved us, not because of our own goodness, but because he loved us in spite of ourselves. Christ chose not to quarrel with us; we should follow his example. Verse 8, Avoid moronic controversies . . . dissensions, and quarrels about rules. They are unprofitable and worthless. This is what the letter to Titus recommends for the established church – that is, for the church that has passed its days of riding the wave of vision and passion and surging momentum. First, do good. Do the sort of good that makes a difference to everyone and that everyone can see. Second, at least don’t fight. We should be better than that.

That’s what people should see when they look at the church today, too. This is how the church should be obviously different from the society around us. (Long pause) So how’s that going, anyway? Hmm, we may have some work to do. What do people outside Christianity see when they look at the church? Setting aside the Roman Catholic Church, which is its own entity and has its own gifts and problems, let’s look at Protestants in America. These days, sociologists mostly ignore the old denominational labels and divide Protestants into two groups: Conservative Evangelicals and Mainline Liberals. Evangelicals attract more media attention, so let’s look at them first. What do people see there? According to public opinion surveys, evangelicals are judgmental, ready to condemn the behavior of others, especially their sexual behavior. They are exclusively self-righteous, perfectly convinced of their own rightness and their own special status with God, and perfectly willing to consign everybody who isn’t from their group to eternal fire at the hands of the God whom they say loves them and only them. Next, they are trivial, obsessed with pointless issues, able to get far more worked up about whether a business owner says “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” and how that business labels its bathrooms than about hunger or poverty or AIDS or, in fact, anything that actually makes a difference to human beings. Finally, evangelicals are seen as politicized; conservative Christianity is widely seen as being a wholly owned subsidiary of the MAGA movement. That’s the public image of conservative Christianity.

Ah, but wait, you’re saying. We’re United Methodists, usually part of the liberal mainline church, and we aren’t like all that. No, we aren’t. And people don’t see us the same way. Here’s how the world outside the church sees us. We are tepid and weak. Far from being judgmental, we are seen as being unable to stand for anything at all, except maybe a generic niceness.  We are seen as irrelevant. Rather than being exclusive, we are inclusive to the point of having no distinctive beliefs or characteristics of any sort. And we are seen as being just as trivial as the conservatives, just as likely to get caught up in pointless stuff, just different pointless stuff. We are more worried about the details of using gender inclusive language in liturgies and declaring our pronouns and reading land acknowledgements from the pulpit than we are about hunger and poverty and AIDS, and so on. And finally, we too are seen as politicized. Mainline Protestantism is widely viewed as being every bit as much in hock to the Democrats as the conservatives are to MAGA. 

Now both of these public images are caricatures and do injustice to most of the actual worshipers in both camps, but this is still how we are seen. And how each group sees the other.  In fact, when we talk about each other, we tend to be downright nasty. Add that nastiness to the rest of our public image, and we find ourselves – this will shock you – experiencing a steep decline in interest in Christianity. Mainline churches have been losing members for 60 years. Evangelical churches kept growing for much of that time, but they peaked about 20 years ago and have been losing members ever since. Today in America, more people are being turned away from Christianity than are being drawn to it.

Go figure.

There’s got to be another way. Honestly, I don’t want either of these Christian groups to speak for me. Please don’t call me a Liberal Mainline Protestant, and for God’s sake don’t call me a Conservative Evangelical. I don’t want to be that Christian or that Christian. I believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is too important to be watered down to mere niceness as mainline liberals too often do; I believe that gospel is too compassionate and loving to be as hateful and indifferent to human need as evangelicals can be; I believe Christ’s gospel is too relevant for us to waste our time in arguments over words, as both groups do. Is there no way to be both passionate and thoughtful about faith? Is there no way to be both firm in your own beliefs and willing to listen to the beliefs of others? There has to be. Jesus didn’t look like either of these groups, and neither should we. There has to be a middle way, and for the next few weeks, we’re going to look for one together.

That church that the author of Titus described, that church that is known for doing good and making a difference in the lives of everyone it touches – I want that church. That church that is known for its gentleness and courtesy to everyone, that church that refuses to take part in pointless debates or moronic controversies – I want that church. 

I want to be a part of that church. I want to be that church.