THE “ISMS”
ELITISM AND INDIVIDUALISM
DR. JIM DIXON
JAMES 2:1-8
OCTOBER 17, 2010
“Koinos” is the Greek New Testament word we are going to look at this morning. Koinos is the biblical word for communion. The biblical word for communion is actually “koinonia,” but its root is this word koinos. This word stands against two of the “isms” that are in the world, two of the “isms” that threaten the message and meaning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. First of all, we are going to look at elitism. This word koinos stands against elitism because koinos has two meanings, and one of the meanings is common or equal. So koinos refers to a community, a common community, a community of equals. There is no room for elitism. The body of Christ and the communion table itself is a place for equals, for those who are common to come. There’s no place for elitism. The ground is flat at the foot of the cross; we are all sinners in desperate need of grace. There is none righteous, no, not one. In the presence of God our righteousness is like filthy rags. We come as common; we come as community of equals. No elitism here.
We live in a culture where elitism takes many forms. Sometimes elitism is socioeconomic, and you have the rich looking down on the poor, or even the poor looking down on the rich. There is some elitism that is socioeconomic. Then there is the elitism that is based on gender, gender elitism. There is racial elitism, which is racism, another “ism” that relates to elitism and koinos stands against.
I want to take a few moments and take a brief glimpse at racism. I hope you understand that racism has no place in the life of the church and the body of Christ. You can travel today to Kit Carson, Colorado. My guess is none of you are going to do that. You could travel east out to Kit Carson, Colorado, in Cheyenne county. The Big Sandy Creek is there. If you check it out in the court of records in Kit Carson you would find that there is a twenty-section portion of land along the Big Sandy that once belonged to Germany. It belonged to the German government. This was during the time when Adolf Hitler was chancellor of Germany and fuehrer of the Nazi party. Hitler was fascinated by the American west. He read books about cowboys and Indians. Hitler was always captivated by the American west. So, he was excited about this section of land out of Kit Carson, along the Big Sandy in Cheyenne County and had ownership of it. You can actually, in the court records, see the signature of Adolf Hitler.
In 1941, when the United States declared war on Germany and we entered World War II, we seized that land, we repossessed that land, we took that land back. Even today, because the name of Adolf Hitler is in the records, it is kind of an embarrassment for the folks in Kit Carson, an embarrassment for some of us here in Colorado, because Adolf Hitler was a murdering racist. He was an elitist who believed in the superiority of the so-called Aryan race. He looked down on other people groups. He particularly hated the Jews. For this reason, he murdered them, incarcerating more than six million and gassing and killing six million Jews. What a tragedy.
You probably think, well, it doesn’t have anything to do with me. I am not a racist. You are probably thinking, I am not an elitist. I don’t show partiality. But we all do. To some extent, we all are elitist. To some extent we are all subject to racism because we are fallen. There is something wrong in our heart. You have got to understand that, biblically, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that devil is the prince of this world; he is the archon of this world, he is the ruler of this world. His philosophies permeate everybody. So, there is a little bit of the devil’s thinking in human beings, as we are a fallen race. We have some of that elitism, some of that racism that we are susceptible to, all of us. There is no race that is immune from this. Perhaps in America we think of racism as a white person’s problem, but the truth is all races are capable of racism.
A few years ago, Barb and I took our son Drew on a Caribbean cruise. We did this because we had promised him that when he graduated from medical school (he went to CU med school), once he got his M.D., we would take him on a Caribbean cruise. He had never been on a cruise ship, never been on a ship. We did that kind of as a reward; we took him on a cruise down into the Caribbean. We got him an inside room, which wasn’t so good, but he was so happy just to be on the ship. We went down there and it was a stormy time; there was a hurricane in the area and we had to change our course and miss some ports of call.
We came into Jamaica and the weather was great. There wasn’t a lot do there, though. We had promised Drew that we, on the trip, would have one round of golf. Drew loves to golf. We found this course on Jamaica that was on this resort. Barb, Drew, and I played golf together. They gave us a caddy and the caddy was a young Jamaican man. Most caddies, when you play golf, go before you and kind of stand out there and make sure where your ball goes. He just sat in the cart. He sat in the cart with Drew, and Barb and I in the other cart, and we just took off.
Drew and the caddy started talking to each other. In the course of their conversation, Drew told him he was a Christian, that he was a follower of Jesus Christ. The Jamaican young man said, “Here in Jamaica there are only three kinds of people. There are Christians, there are Rastafarians, and there are outlaws.” He said, “I fall into that third category. I am not a Christian. I am not a Rastafarian. I am an outlaw.” Drew didn’t know exactly know what to make of this, but he could see that this guy was kind of a rebel. As they got to talking, they begin to have fun; they begin to relate to each other. Barb and I could look over there, and we could see that they were laughing in the golf cart and having a good time. By the time we got done with the day, this guy told Drew he would take a look at the claims of Christ and try out a church and see about this Christianity stuff.
You might be thinking, I know what a Christian is, I kind of know what an outlaw is, but what is a Rastafarian? I hope you understand Rastafarianism is a religion. It is a black religion. It is a black religion that began in Jamaica and has spread throughout the Caribbean and has moved into Africa and even North America. Rastafarians have given our culture certain gifts; you might call them gifts. One gift is dreadlocks; dreadlocks arose out of Rastafarianism. Now not everybody you see with dreadlocks is a Rastafarian, but it arose out of their culture. Another is reggae music. Not everybody who plays reggae music or sings it or likes it is a Rastafarian, but it arose out of their culture. Reggae music. Then there’s smoking marijuana. And not everybody in society who smokes marijuana is a Rastafarian, but they view marijuana as incense and holy smoke. They really view it that way. Rastafarianism.
Now what do they believe? Rastafarian comes from Ras Tafari. Ras means “duke,” but Tafari was the family name of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia. Haile Selassie’s family name was Tafari. The name Haile Selassie, which is really a title, means “power of the Trinity.” Rastafarians believe that at some point, at the consummation perhaps, the power of the Trinity is going to descend upon a member of the Tafari family. The power of the Trinity, Haile Selassie, will descend upon a member of the Tafari family. Some believe it was the one who has already passed from this world who was called Haile Selassie and was the leader of Ethiopia; some believe he will come back.
Others believe that another member of the family will receive this power of the Trinity; but when this happens, this person in Africa will summon all blacks from throughout the world, and all black people from throughout the world, African-Americans from here in our nation and other blacks from all over will come back to Africa. They will all come back to Africa and they will reign on the earth and Africa will become like the Promised Land. They believe that all other races are inferior, and they view white people not only as inferior but as evil beings. This is the teaching of Rastafarianism; it is a racist religion. I want you to understand, it doesn’t matter what your race is. Everyone is capable of racism. It doesn’t matter whether you are red, yellow, black, or white. Everybody is capable of racism.
We know as whites we are capable of racism. We have some of that in our history and it is tragic. It is sin. Racism can be very subtle. In fact, I really love the true story of a woman in Atlantic City and her husband who decided to go there for vacation. They went there for vacation; they wanted to enjoy the ocean. They were staying at a hotel casino in Atlantic City. They really weren’t gamblers, but they thought, you know, we are here and our room is right here in this casino hotel, let’s give it a try. They decided to do the slot machines. As this couple did the slot machines, they hit it big. Hundreds of dollars in coins just came out of the slot machine. They ran onto the floor, they got them, picked them all up, and put them in this container. The wife said to her husband, “This is a lot of money. I am going to take this back to our hotel room, and I am going to put it there and keep it safe.”
She takes the money and carries it to the elevator. As the elevator opens, she goes in; there are two black guys, two African-American guys. She looks at them. One is kind of an average size person, a little bit small, and the other is pretty big and she is intimidated. She kind of stereotypes them. She thinks, maybe I am trouble here. These guys might rob me, they might beat me up. They might be dangerous. They look kind of scary. As she stood in the elevator with them, the elevator doors closed, but it just kind of sat there a moment. One of the black guys said, “Hit the floor.” She, in her panic, just dropped to the floor of the elevator, did a face plant. She got to her knees, her head to the floor, and her change and all of the coins from the casino went all over the floor of the elevator.
These two guys looked at each other like, “What is going on?” The smaller one said, “Ma’am, I don’t think you understand. When I said, ‘hit the floor’ to my bodyguard, I wanted him to push the button of the floor where our room is. The elevator was just sitting here because no one had pushed a button and I wanted to hit the floor that our room is on. I am so sorry.” These two African-American men get down on their knees and began to help this lady pick up all the coins and put them back in the deal.
The smaller guy introduced himself as Eddie Murphy. It’s Eddie Murphy and his bodyguard. They all began to laugh. The two guys took her to her room and tried to settle her down and put all her money back in the thing and set her inside, made sure she was safe inside and then they left. She was very embarrassed.
The next morning, she got up and there were a dozen roses sent to her. It was a dozen roses with a hundred-dollar bill on each rose from Eddie Murphy and his bodyguard saying, “So sorry for the misunderstanding and thank you for giving us the greatest laugh we have ever had in our lives.” The story is kind of funny, and perhaps you have heard it before. But it is kind of sad. It is kind of sad because there is some stereotyping there. There is some maybe not-so-subtle racism there. It is everywhere; it pervades our culture. It is part of the human condition, and it is sad.
Understand this is the body of Christ. We come to the table, we come to communion, we come to koinonia, we come to koinos, and we come as equals. There is no room for elitism. There is nobody better than anyone else. There is no room for gender elitism because, male or female, we are equally precious to God. There is no room for socioeconomic elitism because whether you are rich or whether you were poor, you are equally precious to God. There is no room for racism. It is a hideous, heinous sin. So, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. This is an “ism” that has devastated the church of Christ through the centuries when we have allowed it to enter our midst, elitism and racism. This is a warning based on the very meaning of communion, the very meaning of the word koinos.
There is a second meaning of the word koinos. It comes against individualism. Individualism permeates our culture. It certainly permeates the American west, but you find individualism everywhere. The word koinonia not only means equal and common, but it also means “partner,” or, “one who shares.” So, communion as a community of partners. It is a community of partners who have come together to share. The whole concept of communion, really the whole concept of the gospel, the whole message of Christ, stands against individualism. One of the reasons that Blake, this morning, invited you to join a small group and to go up to sign up at the table or get on the website and find a small group is because you can experience partnership; you can experience the body of Christ. Understand the gospel, is not just a call to Jesus, it is a call to the people of Jesus. This is the plan of Christ, that we would come together and learn to share and partner and we need each other desperately. So please, if you’re not in a small group, sign up. Experienced the call of the gospel, experience the mission of the church, experience community, experience what it means to come into community and have partnership.
In James 2 it says, “Show no partiality as you hold the faith for our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. If a rich man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly…” the word assembly…. This is the gospel, which calls us into assembly, calls us into the church. It causes into community. So, we are to assemble as partners. We come to the table this morning and we assemble as partners, koinos. We see individualism in the world and we see it theologically, we see it soteriologically. We see individualism in the thought of many people that they can save themselves. There are people all over the world that think they can save themselves. The religions of the world kind of teach that. The religions of the world teach you that you can save yourself, you can do it.
Imagine for a moment that you were growing up in a Muslim town; imagine that you were growing up in Banda Aceh, a city in northern Sumatra in the nation of Indonesia. In the province on the northern tip of Sumatra, the Acehnese pride themselves in their devotion to Islam. They called their region the gateway to Islam. Imagine for a moment you were growing up there and you are concerned about your soul, you want to secure your soul. You want eternal life, and you want to go to heaven. So, you are told that you need to make the great confession, shahada, “there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.” So, you do this because you want to spare your soul. You want to go to heaven. So, you make that confession, shahada, and you say, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.”
Then you are told that this is just the first pillar of Islam. If you want to save yourself you must also do the second pillar, and that is salat, ritualistic prayer. You do what you’re told to do. You were told to start praying five times a day at the sound of the crier from the minaret in Banda Aceh. The crier sounds out, sings out from the minaret at each prayer time. You know at that time you are supposed to get on your knees and prostrate yourself for head to the ground, and face Mecca. You are supposed to say this ritualistic prayer. You are doing this to save yourself and you do it five times a day. Salat.
You are told that is really not enough. If you are to save yourself, you must do the third pillar, zakat. Zakat means “to purify.” It is the concept that we purify ourselves by giving our money away. You must, if you are to save yourself, participate in Zakat and give your money away. It is sometimes called “almsgiving,” but the money goes to the mosque and to the cause of Islam in the world. You must give two percent. You were thinking, well that is not too bad, I can save myself by giving two percent. Then you were told it is not two percent of your annual income, it is two percent of your net worth every year. You must give two percent of your net worth. When you were young, your net worth isn’t much. As you get a little bit older, you begin to accumulate net worth, and each year they are asking for a lot, much more than the ten percent tithe demanded by the Christian world. But you were wanting to save yourself, so you participate in zakat.
Then you were told you must do the fourth pillar, you must participate in sawm, and it is Ramadan. In the month of Ramadan, a month of the Arab calendar, you must fast. It is a daylight fast. If you were going to eat that month, you must eat before the sunrises or after the sun goes down, but during the daylight you cannot eat anything. You were told if you really want to save yourself, it must not just be a fast from food; it must be a fast from any kind of liquid. You cannot hydrate yourself in the daylight. If you were going to hydrate yourself, it has to be before the sun rises or after the sun goes down. Every day for a month, during the daylight hours, no food or drink. You are trying to save yourself.
You are told, “Hey, you have got to do the fifth pillar.” At some point in your life, you have got to do the Hajj; you have got to go make the pilgrimage to Mecca. You have got to go from Indonesia, you have to go from Banda Aceh, you have got to make that journey by land and by see you. You have got to go to Saudi Arabia, and you have got to go to Mecca. You have to circle the Kaaba to honor Allah. You have to kiss the Black Stone that allegedly fell from heaven.
You are doing this all to save yourself, but it is not enough. You are taught by those who teach in the Muslim world that you must read and study the Quran, you must be instructed in the Hadith, you must submit. Islam means submission. You must submit. You must submit to sharia law. If you are a young woman, this does not simply mean you must cover yourself with a Burka (that is part of it as you cover your face and hide yourself), but you must submit to your husband in full obedience to him, even if he has a number of wives, which Islam allows. You must obey him. If you would save yourself, you must in every way submit to sharia law. Doing all of this, you still can’t be secure. They make that clear. He still can’t be secure. You’re going to need the mercy of Allah because it is going to be close. At the final judgment there are going to be two angels, one who looks at your bad stuff and one your good stuff and they weigh it. You better hope the scales tip in the right direction, that your good stuff outweighs your bad stuff, or your soul will be lost. This is Islam.
Now there are one billion, three hundred million Muslims in the world. Some of them are just nominal Muslims, cultural Muslims, but many of them are devout. Islam is growing. Like most of the world’s religion, it teaches that here is how you save yourself. This is what you must do if you would save yourself. Somehow this appeals. It appeals to the people. That is why Islam is growing. There are people out there that like the thought, “Hey man, if I am tough enough, I can save myself. If I am disciplined enough, if I am committed enough, good enough, I can save myself.” It is a kind of individualism that appeals to people.
Understand, though, it is totally contrary to the teachings of the Bible. When you come Wednesday night and you hear Ryan Dobson, he talks about pluralism and syncretism, relativism; he will make it clear that you cannot affirm Christianity and Islam simultaneously. Their messages are opposite. In one case, you need a savior; in the other case you save yourself. You can’t get any more opposite than that. So, the message of the gospel is you can’t save yourself, you need a savior. You need Jesus. That is why he died, that is why he gave his life, that is at the very heart of our Christian faith.
Even within our Christian faith, even within the Christian world there is individualism that creeps up, even within Christian communities and Christian churches. Sometimes individualism takes the form of fundamentalism, where you, through your own self-righteousness, feel worthy and like you have earned God’s favor. Sometimes individualism takes a form of Arminianism, particularly Pelagianism. Pelagianism it’s the thought that apart from God’s grace you can still be righteous and merit salvation. There is a kind of Pelagian-Arminianism that teaches that after you have accepted Christ, then by his grace you can live a perfect life, holy and without any sin. That is Pelagian-Arminianism, and if you do sin you lose it all. If you do sin you lose your salvation. So, the pressure is all back on you. It is an individualism.
The Bible makes it very clear that there is none righteous, no, not one. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we say we have no sin, we make him a liar and his truth is not in us. So, this concept is that you can get saved by grace but then you keep it by works, or if you don’t, you lose it. It falls back into all the religious systems of the world. It is antithetical to the message of the gospel.
Within the churches you see a lot of individualism in the sense that people, even with regards to sanctification, think that they can pursue a life pleasing to Christ and a life of holiness without the help of each other. We need each other, we are in it together, we are all messed up. We need to hold each other accountable; we need to pray for each other, we need to encourage each other, need to exhort each other. That is what the body of Christ is for. There is no room for individualism. Christ has called us into partnership, a community of partners.
As we close the service today, there is going to be a retiring offering, and that will probably bug some of you—a retiring offering and people sitting at the door wanting to see more of your money. Haven’t we already had an offering? Why do we have to take a second offering, or are we just bilking people again? What is this all about? It is about partnership. We take our general offering and it is for the mission of the church and our ministry in the world and all that we do. When you take this retiring offer on communion Sundays, it is for our flock. It is for our congregation, because some people in our flock are hurting. We are all hurting in one way or another, but some people are out of work, some of you are not knowing how you are going to put food on the table or pay your bills. We take a retiring offering because we are in partnership, and we want to help each other. As you head out the door, we ask you to be a partner and share what you have for the sake of helping others, who are really hurting and really struggling, a community of partners.
You know the prayer of Jesus, John 17, the high priestly prayer. The prayer was that we might learn to be one: kind of like E Pluribus Unum. In the midst of our diversity, that we are many but that we would become this unity that stands against individualism. It is a call of the Christ, and we remind ourselves of this as we come to the table this morning. Let’s look to the Lord with the word of prayer.