Sermon: The Invisible Generation by Rev. Jessica Johnson
Date: January 27, 2019
Key Scripture Passages: Luke 2:22-38
Sermon:
The Invisible Generation
Recently, CBS got slammed all throughout social media for this list of generations. What is wrong with the picture above?
Answer: They completely forgot an entire generation, my generation, actually, Gen-X.
Gen-X, we are the forgotten or invisible generation, as most people focus on either Boomers or Millennials. But don’t worry, rather than put us into an existential crisis over our own existence, we are used to being overlooked and on our own. We are the latchkey generation after all. And Gen-Xers have been having a field day with this on social media with our normal, sarcastic humor. In fact, some of us are hoping that it was a Gen-Xer that put the graphic together in the first place, not lumping us in with everyone else, especially Millennials. Because after all, the first rule of Gen-X is that you don’t talk about Gen-X. We just don’t like the spotlight. It makes us nervous. If they had remembered us, our reaction would be more like, “Oh, no, they remembered us. What are we getting blamed for now?” We’d rather just keep our heads down, go about our business, and continue to run things behind the scenes.
And Gen-X is running quite a bit now. We have obviously been in charge of the movie industry for awhile with a resurgence of interest in Transformers, Marvel, DC Comics, Star Wars, and so much more from our childhood that is resurfacing.
We brought the world the “world wide web” as we know it today with such things as Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube, and Facebook. Gen-Xers are credited with creating many of the tech start-up companies that created the high-tech industry that fueled the economic recovery in the 1990’s.
It was Gen-Xers that led the revolt on United Airlines Flight 93 while other Gen-Xers served as first responders to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. It was the Gen-Xers that sparked that surge of patriotism on those days following by giving blood, working for and donating to charities, and joining the military. Typically, labeled as apathetic, Gen-X even surprised themselves with their newfound patriotism and interest in national politics.
Gen-Xers are often described as independent, resourceful, resilient, pragmatic, apathetic, skeptical, and cynical. So, while our small generation is often ignored, there is no denying the presence of our work. We are the undetected influencers.
Purpose
So, what does this all have to do with church? Well, I feel like that much like Gen-X, we are entering into the invisible generation for the Church. People have forgotten how much of Christianity influences our culture, our laws, our work, and just every aspect of our lives. And because of that, the Church appears to be losing its influential stature on the world. I say appears, because no matter how much He is ignored, God is still in control of everything and always will be. But we can’t forget our role in the life as Christians. We were made with a purpose and given a mission.
So, what is our purpose? 1 Peter 2:9 states, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Our Purpose is to Glorify God. This is not just on Sunday mornings when we come together as a church to worship God. We are to glorify God in all we do or say. This is giving God credit for what He does in our lives. Worship and glorifying God go even beyond just gratitude for what He has done for us. We also need to just glorify God for who He is. My favorite definition of worship comes from William Temple. William Temple says:
"Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose—all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable."
Our purpose is to glorify God through our worship, and it is an all-consuming purpose.
Mission
While our purpose is to glorify God, Our Mission is to spread the Gospel. Jesus’s final words to us on earth came in the form of the Great Commission. Matthew 28:18-20 states, “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
As some of you know, I am passionate about discipleship. Discipleship is our primary mission. While we do have other commands and missions, such as to love others, to take care of the less fortunate, and so on, discipleship is our core mission. And if it is done correctly, discipleship encompasses all of those other commands and missions.
Christianity centers around relationships and living life together. First, we spend time developing our relationship with God. Second, we develop our relationship with ourselves, discovering who we are and seeing ourselves through God’s eyes. We can also explore how we can use our talents, abilities, gifts, and resources in order to glorify God and spread the Gospel. Third, we develop our relationships with others.
The Invisible Made Visible
To accomplish our purpose and mission, we cannot be the invisible Church. While Gen-X is content to work quietly behind the scenes, and we are quite comfortable with being the invisible generation, the Church cannot function the same way. For years, we have heard a couple different ideologies floating around. One is that it is not polite to discuss religion and politics. As we can see from our society, that is changing. Another is that there is a difference between one’s public faith and one’s private faith. Taken to extreme, we have seen an emphasis on personal theology and a “to each their own” attitude. “Your faith is fine as long as you keep it to yourself and don’t push it on anyone else.”
However, these ideologies are not biblical. And they are not even feasible. An authentic faith drives every other aspect of our lives. It informs our decisions, provides a framework for how we interact with others, defines our ethics (including our work ethic), and so much more. A worldview is literally how we see the world. It permeates everything we do. To have an authentic faith, our faith must be the same whether or not in public or in private. We need to make the invisible visible.
Our faith is to be a visible faith in order to accomplish our purpose of glorifying God and our mission of spreading the Gospel through discipleship. However, while we have the same purpose and mission, how our faith made visible will vary according to our unique talents, passions, and gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 states:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
When and how you share your faith will look differently than how I share mine. The same Spirit guides us to fulfill the same purpose and the same mission. We just need to be faithful to that guidance.
More than ever, our world needs our faith to be visible. More than ever, they need the Church to be a visible presence in the world. The news this week alone proves that. As Paul tells the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12:31, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” That excellent way is Jesus, to be His disciple.
Here at Agnus Dei, we believe in a developing an authentic, visible faith. We want to encourage you in your walk with Christ, to empower you to embrace your gifts and use them to glorify God, and to equip you to share Christ. We know that it is a journey; one that we don’t have to take alone. We’d love for you to travel with us on that journey.
Further Suggested Study:
Date: January 27, 2019
Key Scripture Passages: Luke 2:22-38
Sermon:
The Invisible Generation
Recently, CBS got slammed all throughout social media for this list of generations. What is wrong with the picture above?
Answer: They completely forgot an entire generation, my generation, actually, Gen-X.
Gen-X, we are the forgotten or invisible generation, as most people focus on either Boomers or Millennials. But don’t worry, rather than put us into an existential crisis over our own existence, we are used to being overlooked and on our own. We are the latchkey generation after all. And Gen-Xers have been having a field day with this on social media with our normal, sarcastic humor. In fact, some of us are hoping that it was a Gen-Xer that put the graphic together in the first place, not lumping us in with everyone else, especially Millennials. Because after all, the first rule of Gen-X is that you don’t talk about Gen-X. We just don’t like the spotlight. It makes us nervous. If they had remembered us, our reaction would be more like, “Oh, no, they remembered us. What are we getting blamed for now?” We’d rather just keep our heads down, go about our business, and continue to run things behind the scenes.
And Gen-X is running quite a bit now. We have obviously been in charge of the movie industry for awhile with a resurgence of interest in Transformers, Marvel, DC Comics, Star Wars, and so much more from our childhood that is resurfacing.
We brought the world the “world wide web” as we know it today with such things as Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube, and Facebook. Gen-Xers are credited with creating many of the tech start-up companies that created the high-tech industry that fueled the economic recovery in the 1990’s.
It was Gen-Xers that led the revolt on United Airlines Flight 93 while other Gen-Xers served as first responders to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. It was the Gen-Xers that sparked that surge of patriotism on those days following by giving blood, working for and donating to charities, and joining the military. Typically, labeled as apathetic, Gen-X even surprised themselves with their newfound patriotism and interest in national politics.
Gen-Xers are often described as independent, resourceful, resilient, pragmatic, apathetic, skeptical, and cynical. So, while our small generation is often ignored, there is no denying the presence of our work. We are the undetected influencers.
Purpose
So, what does this all have to do with church? Well, I feel like that much like Gen-X, we are entering into the invisible generation for the Church. People have forgotten how much of Christianity influences our culture, our laws, our work, and just every aspect of our lives. And because of that, the Church appears to be losing its influential stature on the world. I say appears, because no matter how much He is ignored, God is still in control of everything and always will be. But we can’t forget our role in the life as Christians. We were made with a purpose and given a mission.
So, what is our purpose? 1 Peter 2:9 states, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Our Purpose is to Glorify God. This is not just on Sunday mornings when we come together as a church to worship God. We are to glorify God in all we do or say. This is giving God credit for what He does in our lives. Worship and glorifying God go even beyond just gratitude for what He has done for us. We also need to just glorify God for who He is. My favorite definition of worship comes from William Temple. William Temple says:
"Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose—all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable."
Our purpose is to glorify God through our worship, and it is an all-consuming purpose.
Mission
While our purpose is to glorify God, Our Mission is to spread the Gospel. Jesus’s final words to us on earth came in the form of the Great Commission. Matthew 28:18-20 states, “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
As some of you know, I am passionate about discipleship. Discipleship is our primary mission. While we do have other commands and missions, such as to love others, to take care of the less fortunate, and so on, discipleship is our core mission. And if it is done correctly, discipleship encompasses all of those other commands and missions.
Christianity centers around relationships and living life together. First, we spend time developing our relationship with God. Second, we develop our relationship with ourselves, discovering who we are and seeing ourselves through God’s eyes. We can also explore how we can use our talents, abilities, gifts, and resources in order to glorify God and spread the Gospel. Third, we develop our relationships with others.
The Invisible Made Visible
To accomplish our purpose and mission, we cannot be the invisible Church. While Gen-X is content to work quietly behind the scenes, and we are quite comfortable with being the invisible generation, the Church cannot function the same way. For years, we have heard a couple different ideologies floating around. One is that it is not polite to discuss religion and politics. As we can see from our society, that is changing. Another is that there is a difference between one’s public faith and one’s private faith. Taken to extreme, we have seen an emphasis on personal theology and a “to each their own” attitude. “Your faith is fine as long as you keep it to yourself and don’t push it on anyone else.”
However, these ideologies are not biblical. And they are not even feasible. An authentic faith drives every other aspect of our lives. It informs our decisions, provides a framework for how we interact with others, defines our ethics (including our work ethic), and so much more. A worldview is literally how we see the world. It permeates everything we do. To have an authentic faith, our faith must be the same whether or not in public or in private. We need to make the invisible visible.
Our faith is to be a visible faith in order to accomplish our purpose of glorifying God and our mission of spreading the Gospel through discipleship. However, while we have the same purpose and mission, how our faith made visible will vary according to our unique talents, passions, and gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 states:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
When and how you share your faith will look differently than how I share mine. The same Spirit guides us to fulfill the same purpose and the same mission. We just need to be faithful to that guidance.
More than ever, our world needs our faith to be visible. More than ever, they need the Church to be a visible presence in the world. The news this week alone proves that. As Paul tells the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12:31, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” That excellent way is Jesus, to be His disciple.
Here at Agnus Dei, we believe in a developing an authentic, visible faith. We want to encourage you in your walk with Christ, to empower you to embrace your gifts and use them to glorify God, and to equip you to share Christ. We know that it is a journey; one that we don’t have to take alone. We’d love for you to travel with us on that journey.
Further Suggested Study:
- 1 Peter 2
- Matthew 28:18-20
- 1 Corinthians 12
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