Church and Young Atheists

Church and Young Atheists: Part one in a series, God and Young Atheists

Sermon manuscript for Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists

Sabbath, August 2, 2014

Texts: Colossians 1:1-10

Matthew 22:34-40

Luke 10:25ff

Mark 12:28-34

Erica attended Auburn Adventist Academy. She graduated from Walla Walla University—an Adventist school—and moved back to Seattle. A few months ago we met at Starbucks in Pioneer Square to catch. on life. She asked about my kids and the animals at our house. Then it was time to find out what was going on in her world. She was working for a non-profit, making a little money and a big difference in the lives of her clients. Her boyfriend was similarly employed. She was happy.

I had heard through the grape vine she was an atheist, so I asked about that. She explained she didn't really know for sure there was no God. She just found it easier to say she was an atheist than to try explaining all the complications in her mind in regard to God. Church people had been good to her she said. It's just that she couldn't believe everything she was supposed to believe. So she called herself an atheist and no one hassled her about the details.

I meet more and more young people like Erica. They grew up going to church. They used to believe, used to pray, to read their Bibles. Now they consider themselves atheists. Some of my young friends are quite confident that science gives a completely sufficient description of the forces and causes operating in the universe. There is no need for God. Others are not so certain. The most obvious characteristic of their thinking is questions.

I thought it would be good for us as a congregation to think about these young people. How should we respond to their questions, to their lives?

Let's begin with a curious congruence between what these young people tell me and the words of the Apostle Paul.

At the beginning of the book of Colossians we read these words.

We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace. We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace. (Colossians 1:2-6 NLT)

Grace and peace. . . . We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. The Good News that came to you is . . . bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives.

Paul had never met these people, but he had heard about them. And from what he had heard, it was clear the religion of these Christians in Turkey was not merely a set of dogmas or Bible interpretations. Their shaped their lives. They were good people.

When I talk with young atheists, one thing that jumps out at me over and over is their affirmations of the church. They remember going to church and being treated well there. The people at church they knew were good people.

Of course, you can find horror stories. Church leaders and church people have been sexually and verbally abusive. But I only hear about this in the news. I do not hear about this from the young people I know. They may think of themselves as atheists. They may find church irrelevant or uninteresting at this point in their lives, but when they tell me about their direct, personal experience of church, church was a good place, populated by good people.

You have done a good job representing God to your young people.

Speaking to you as representatives of the world church, I say, “Thanks.” Thanks for being kind. Thanks for teaching Sabbath School classes and involving young people in the life of the church. Thanks for learning the names of the kids who sit on the same row you do in church. Thanks for taking kids out on your boat, for taking them camping and for involving them in feeding the homeless. It is because you have shown the kindness of God to these young people that they are willing to sit down at Starbucks and articulate their questions and uncertainties. Because of the goodness of people like you, church is not a scary place. Because of you, church is seen as a wholesome community of good people. You make God look good.

As we consider how we can best respond to the atheism of young people who have grown up in our churches, let's take satisfaction in knowing that most of these young people have seen good things in church. Church is not “the problem.” These young people do not struggle with faith because you have failed. You are not to blame for their crises of faith.

When I talk to people in their fifties and older, I frequently hear stories about damage they experience in church. Church in their youth was not a safe place, not a welcoming place. But happily, I do not hear those kinds of stories from people in their twenties and thirties. Which brings me to my second point. In responding to our young atheist friends, we should pay attention to what they say. They are not processing great failures by the church to care for them as persons. Rather they are pondering deep, haunting questions that lie at the very core of religious and theological conviction.

The gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, all recount conversations between Jesus and a questioner who asks the great big question. If the conversation had happened today, the question would have been something like, “What is the meaning of life?”

In that society, the question went like this, “What is the greatest commandment?” “What is the highest human obligation?”

Here's the way Matthew tells the story: a conservative religious scholar asks the question not to seek understanding, but as a secret attempt to make Jesus look bad. Of course, Jesus wins the day by giving a wise, incontrovertible answer. The first and greatest commandment is to love God with your entire being. But you can't stop with one commandment. There is a second right up there with the first. And that second commandment is love your neighbor as yourself. answers well this way: A Pharisee tempted Jesus by asking what is the greatest commandment? (Matthew 22:34-40)

The Gospel of Luke also pictures the questioner as someone out to score points in a debate with Jesus. This time the question comes out like this: “What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?” Interestingly, Jesus does not immediately answer the question. Instead he asks the scholar for his understanding of the Bible. What is his answer to the question. The lawyer gave the classic answer Jewish thinkers drew from the Books of Moses—Love God and love your neighbor. Jesus said, “You've got it right. Do that, and you're good to go.” Since the lawyer hadn't actually been looking for insight, he refused to accept this as the answer. Nothing can be that simple. So he asked the complicated question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus then told a story that confronted the lawyer with the stark challenge of a moral choice. The real questions are not theoretical definitions, but am I willing to take moral action? Will I do goodness? (Luke 10:25ff).

In both Matthew and Luke, the questioner is morally suspect. The purpose of recording the story is to show the wisdom and goodness of Jesus. Mark does something very different.

In Mark's story, the questioner is also a scholar. But instead of setting out to trick Jesus, he asks his question because he has been impressed with the answers Jesus has given to other questions. This scholar engages in conversation for the purpose of seeking understanding. He asks Jesus the same famous question, “What is the most significant commandment?” Jesus answered with his famous summary, The first commandment is love God with your entire being. The second commandment is love your neighbor as yourself.

Now notice what happens. After hearing Jesus' answer, the scholar, says. “Yes. That's right. Because surely there is only One God. And to love God with one's entire being and to love one's neighbor matters more than the performance every possible religious ritual.”

The scholar asks a real question.

Jesus gives a real answer.

The scholar sees the wisdom in Jesus' answer and affirms it.

Then what happens next? Jesus affirms the scholar. “You are not far from the kingdom!” (Mark 12:28-34).

This story provides a model for our conversations with young atheists. When we talk with young atheists, there is little value in attempting to prove that we are right. In the stories of Matthew and Luke Jesus is shown to be right, but where does that leave the questioner? The questioner is wrong and lost. But in Mark, the questioner is shown as an honest seeker for truth. The point is not proving that Jesus is right, but that he leads questioners to toward the kingdom and blesses them in their journey.

Let's learn to copy Jesus. Let's not aim to make ourselves look good. We don't even need to work to make the church look good. Rather let's learn to hear our young friends. Let's honor their quest for truth.

Most of the time when you ask young people why they are atheists, they will tell you about their commitments to truth and justice. When they voice these values, we can say to them truthfully, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

When we listen carefully and respectfully to our young friends, they will help us sharpen our own thinking. We will create the kind of community that they themselves dream of inhabiting.

Many of the young atheists, I know are single or without children. If we continue to respect their spiritual journey now, while they questioning and searching, it may well be that when they have children and look for a community that will help them teach their children compassion, integrity, justice, peace, and wisdom, they will decide that the church is just the kind of community they have been looking for. They will once again claim their place in this visible expression of the family of God.