There was a movie a long time ago entitled “Oh, God!” – in fact I looked it up, and discovered it had been released as far back as 1977! It starred George Burns (the actor/comedian) who was ‘God’ and John Denver, who acts as a supermarket assistant manager and who, one day, receives a note through the mail from ‘God’ inviting him to an “interview”.

I can’t say George Burns is one of my favourite old-style American comedians (I would be more of a Jackie Gleeson fan). However, George Burns, who hit one hundred years of age (or, at least he was in his hundredth year) did come up with some classic lines like, ‘The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible’, or ‘You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there’ (now you know where that one came from!).

In the film, ‘God’ (George Burns) wants Jerry (John Denver) to spread his message. Reluctant at first, Jerry finally ends up in a court case involving the slander of a popular evangelist; that’s the whole film in a nutshell. Jerry keeps getting messages from God that he’s supposed to relate to the rest of us. In one scene, he goes to hear this evangelist preacher, who in many ways is a caricature of all the worst things we can associate with those in that role. And the John Denver character interrupts the preacher’s sermon to tell him that God has a special message just for him! The preacher stops the service. He announces to the audience, “This young man has come with a message from God!” John Denver looks straight at the preacher and says, “God wants you to shut up because you’re embarrassing Him!”

I wonder does it ever occur to the high and mighty that by what they say and by what they do, they could be embarrassing God. Does it, indeed occur to any of us?

The Christian Church is becoming more and more stereotyped in the media and on film. It’s always the very worst traits that are highlighted – that is what a caricature does – and the ‘Christian’ is portrayed often in a very bad light. But consider this, when we think of the kind of traits within the Christian Church or even of the appalling behaviour of some Christian individuals that make you want to cringe, is it really any wonder that ‘Christianity’ gets a bad press?

Even if we are desperately serious about following Jesus, we have all said and done things that surely must have embarrassed God. Even as we try to follow Him, we sometimes behave in ways which must make God and Christianity seem ridiculous to those outside the faith.

And that’s the point. I’m not worried about the supposed demise of the Christian Church, because, I can assure you, that’s never going to happen; it’s how the Church is perceived by those who are not in it. To many, it is a deeply unattractive place to be.

There is a story of an American Baptist preacher who once found himself seated on a train next to Mahatma Gandhi. As they travelled together, the preacher did his best to win Gandhi over to Christianity. As the trip came to a close, the preacher asked Gandhi if he were ready to accept Jesus as his saviour. “Jesus!” exclaimed Gandhi, with a pretended look of surprise, “I didn’t realise you were talking about Jesus, I thought you were talking about some successful oil tycoon from Texas.”

Did you see the News article the other day about “God’s Warriors”? They were schools where young, toddlers, in some cases, were being ‘indoctrinated’ in the Christian faith. The schools were run on fundamentalist, fanatical principles deliberately along the same lines as some Islamic schools can ‘indoctrinate’ young people to become real warriors who can kill themselves and other people. That sounds like a racist statement, but what I am saying is that Christian schools run on these principles which are modelled on Islamic schools run on these same precepts make both faiths hugely unattractive!

The wonderful Soren Kierkegaard or the ‘gloomy Dane;’ as he was nick-named and a person we’ve quoted many times before as one of the most profound critics of the Church, was once told by some shocked parishioners that the sanctuary of their church had been used by some teenagers for a dance. Kierkegaard responded, “Using the sanctuary for a dance on Saturday night is not half as bad as using it on a Sunday morning to make a fool out of God”.

We all have the capability of making God, or simply believing in him, seem ridiculous, idiotic or even stupid, and the whole charade makes Christianity, and what is worse, the person of Jesus very unattractive indeed, which in my mind runs completely contrary to the Jesus I know. Just look how the children gathered around him and loved being near him. You don’t just gather a child in your arms if you are not an attractive person. Who is the greatest? How are you minds working? Here, in this child is the greatness of the Kingdom!

Jesus did many sometimes fearful acts, he said many challenging and provocative things; yet he remains the most attractive human being that ever existed. When we fail to get that across to people then we let him down and we embarrass God, I’m sure of it!

I think we should be continually mindful of the fact that we do not work from our own agenda, but only His.