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LINKS TO THE SERMONS |
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| “The Sermon that Stalled” I strolled into Fred’s office wearing that desperate pitiful look that I have practiced over the years. Unfortunately Fred knows that look and after years in the ministry has developed a callused resistance to it. So when I made my plea, “the sermon has stalled, would you like to preach this week,” he just laughed. Peggy was there so I turned my sad look and pleading gaze on her but she was equally indifferent. So, I decided to take my plea for sympathy directly to the people. You. It was Monday and I did what I usually do; I checked the lectionary calendar for the prescribed readings for this Sunday. The gospel reading from Matthew was unsettling so I went to plead with Fred. Failing that I checked some of my old stuff to see if it could be retro-fitted and recycled. No luck. So I came back to the gospel lesson with a heavy sigh. Here’s the problem; I’m becoming more and more of a universalist. I want to believe that God is going to find a way to save everybody. That is his ultimate will, the Bible says so. “God does not will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” “Christ came into the world so the world through him might be saved.” No exceptions! How can God’s immutable will be thwarted by a mere mortal or two who refuses to go along? Besides, most of the bad people I have met in my life have definite redeemable qualities; God isn’t going to cast them into outer darkness – is he? And what about all the good, moral, honest, generous people we all know who aren’t religious at all? Certainly God has a plan in the works to gather all his children sooner or later, one way or another. Then the lectionary throws me this text. And it isn’t just any biblical text; it is the words of our Lord himself. We Christians pay attention to the whole of scripture but when Jesus speaks we don’t hedge or quibble – we have called him Lord – that means he is the boss and we do what he says. These sayings from chapter seven of Matthew come at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount and rub against my universalist tendencies pretty badly. Jesus is saying, not only that some are going to miss the kingdom but it is likely to be the majority. “The way is narrow and few find it – wide is the road to destruction.” It gets worse; some of the ones who are going to miss it are the very ones that think they are on the right track. Not everyone who calls Jesus Lord is going to find the way. I thought that’s all you had to do was call – “Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” What about that? But Jesus says that even some of those who have prophesied and cast out demons in his name are going to miss the kingdom. That would include preachers, people like me! That’s not easy for the modern church to hear. In order to keep folks coming in these secular times we have had to package the gospel in more and more palatable ways. We’ve given up demands and threats of damnation in favor of a sweeter gospel, fewer demands and easy to slip into in the little time we have available for it in our busy schedules. We design our church program in such a way that we can get everything done in one hour on Sunday because people won’t commit to more than that, and you certainly can’t ask them to come back for an evening service. We make our schedule workable and our message palatable in the hope of keeping our market share of the church going population. That’s why “Designer Religion” is very trendy these days: Christianity lite – a little Jesus, a little Buddha, some Deepak Chopra, Dali Llama, organic vegetables and Dr. Phil. You bring all that to church and we will be glad to bless it for you and smile and thank you for coming. And then I get this text where Jesus says that some are going to miss the kingdom because they were lead astray be false prophets. Recently the Church of England hired an advertising agency to help with there significant drop in attendance and the agency told them the needed to market themselves as a “trendy place to meet people, sing songs and gossip.” The church has a great revolutionary and even subversive message; we stand over against the commercialism of the age. Turning worship into another consumer item is a denial of the essence of who we are. Jesus said a lot of people are missing the kingdom, a lot of them are in the church and part of the reason is the people who run the church and proclaim its message or fail to do so in favor of the results of a marketing analysis. A gospel that doesn’t challenge, convict and lead toward transformation to new life isn’t the gospel, it’s market place Christianity. People come to it because it’s well marketed and inviting and mistake it for the real thing; they miss the kingdom and are surprised to hear the voice of the one to whom they have prayed Lord, Lord say “I never knew you.” Why? Why would a man build his house on sand rather than solid rock? Because the real-estate is cheaper and the digging is easier. Easy Christianity isn’t Christianity at all, it’s a synthetic impersonator that leads folks down a path that misses the kingdom. It’s like those plastic plants up in the choir loft; the good news is you never have to water them; the bad news is they are never going to grow or blossom. They look like the real thing but there is no life in them. Now you know why I wanted somebody else to preach today; the word of the Lord is hard and it makes it clear that some of the problem is the fault of people like me – trying to present the gospel in such a way that folks won’t be so threatened they won’t come back, but go looking to our competition that softens the message to suit current tastes and sensitivities. So, I left Fred’s office and returned to the text with a prayer, “Speak Lord and tell me how to be sure this flock won’t miss the kingdom even after we have cried ‘Lord, Lord.” “Look again;” The Spirit admonishes, “it’s right there in front of you, ‘He who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Every one who hears these words and does them.” This is where the sermon really got stalled. How can we be sure we are doing God’s will? How can you know God’s will for certain, there are all sorts of different opinions about what that is? Nations have entered into wars throughout history with the assurance that God was on their side because their cause was righteous. Abraham Lincoln reflected on the fact that soldiers from the North and South, all Americans, would pray to the same God for victory and the defeat of their enemies and remarked, “What must God think of us?” Then you add to that the groups of Christians who believe that going to war for any reason is contrary to the will of God. How can you be sure you are doing God’s will when we are all so good at rationalizing and interpreting scripture in ways that we want it to come out. And, if the church challenges our conviction we can go down the street and find another one. How can you know God’s will? What is God’s will for what I do with my money, how I deal with conflict within the family and with other people with whom I must deal – what I do with my life and my potential – how should I spend all those God given resources? Certainly God intends for me to take care of my personal needs and my family and to invest for our future security, but what about the millions of homeless and starving in China and Myanmar right this minute? “How can I know your will, Lord, and what shall I tell my congregation?” It’s not the Law of Moses. Jesus made that clear. The law is a general guide but in specific cases the will of God may be elsewhere. Jesus himself violated some Jewish laws in his ministry to people. What if we all followed the Jiminy Cricket method and always let our conscious be our guide. But the conscious is so easily seared and is so prone to follow the social mores that the true gospel often stands over against. We could turn to scripture but for nearly every precept in the Bible there is a contradictory one if you know where to look and how to spin it. “How can we know your will so that we might do your will and be assured a place in the kingdom of heaven?” “Look again” the Spirit says, “that last thing Jesus said before today’s lesson,” “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” It’s the Golden Rule, too often trivialized by being reduced to a pious platitude and printed on plaques sold in gift shops. But, what if we really let it guide each act, decision and behavior? If you were sleeping on the ground after a massive earth quake destroyed your home, what would you like you to do with your excess wealth T Bills or UMCOR? If you were a home owner and the parent of two small children - in Bagdad, - what would you want you as a voter to decide about the US military in Iraq? If you were the neighbor or relative to whom you haven’t spoken for a long while, what would you like you to do to begin the resolution of that conflict? The answers are still difficult and good people
will disagree, but I believe that to put the problem on that level
is pleasing to God because it owns personal responsibilities for
our actions and it takes the emphasis off the self and puts it on
the needs of the other person. I believe that the One who gave his
life for others, even undeserving others, would recognize that motivation
as pure Christian, and also, on that day, will recognize the doer:
not “I never knew you,” but “I know you; you have
a heart just like mine.” Jesus said, if you do just that,
you have covered the intent of the law and all the commentary of
the prophets. “Behave toward others as you would have them
behave toward you.” That’s at least a pretty good start
in discerning and doing God’s will. And as a matter of fact,
it’s a pretty good start for a sermon that was stalled. |
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