SERMON OF MARCH 22, 2009
M. Bruce McKay
Pilgrim - St. Luke’s United Church of Christ
"Saved by What? For What”
Numbers 21:4-9, Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21
We know the story, even if we can't remember having heard it. The Hebrew people were at last free, bound for the Promised Land. God had delivered them from slavery through wondrous acts of power.
And out there in the wilderness, on their way to their own land with their own leaders, their own homes and their own possessions, they ran into trouble. The wilderness was full of seething, death-dealing snakes. On their way to having it made, death overtook them.
I say that we know this story, even if we can't remember it, because it's a story about the way it is with us. For there is a part of us that enjoys thinking of ourselves as "self-made" men and women - those able to make our own way in the world.
"Me do! Me do!" says the toddler we're trying to help.
"Mommie, I'd rather do it myself," says the young child.
"Dad, I can handle this on my own," says the adolescent.
We grow up wanting to do things ourselves because there's a part of us that enjoys thinking of ourselves as "self-made" people. It's no surprise that do-it-yourself hardware stores, automotive parts stores, picture-framing shops, and the like are all around. We like to think that we can take care of business on our own, and reap our
own rewards.
Our language reveals our desire to make our own way in the world. We make hay while the sun shines. We make deals. We make dates to do things. We make things happen. We even say that we make love.
Jesus told a story about a man who had full barns, a fat bank account, and a thriving business. He said to himself, "Man, you've got it made. Take it easy! Enjoy yourself! Eat, drink and be merry!!"
That very night the man died. Jesus, you may recall, called this man, whom we might call prudent, wise, and "self made," a "fool."
This morning, I'd like to invite us to admit something about ourselves that we may not like to admit.
We are far more dependent on others and on God than most of us, most of the time, care to acknowledge. None of us are able to establish ourselves on our own. None of us are as independent as we may think. Ultimately there is no such thing as a "self-made" man or woman.
I was speaking with an older person a while ago who said that her greatest fear, at this point in her life, was becoming dependent on her family in her old age.
This woman is by no means alone. The fear of becoming dependent on others is pervasive in our culture. And it's fed in part by the illusion of independence that infuses many of our lives. We like to think of ourselves as independent, self-sufficient, and in that sense "self-made."
And yet, if the truth were known, we’re all dependent on both God and others for that which sustains our lives. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We all live our lives in the red." From the moment we draw our first breath, until our last, we are dependent on the grace and goodness of other people and of God.
From the moment of birth, when the hands of another receive us into the world, we are dependent on the hands of others to make our way in this life...the hands of doctors and nurses, the hands of mothers and fathers, the hands of sisters and brothers, the hands of family and friends, the hands of those whom we've never met - the hands that have created and cultivated all that’s needed to sustain and grow our lives.
As Paul puts it, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:8)
It is the grace of God at work in the world and in the lives of others that saves us from all that we need saving from – including the notion that we make our own way in the world.
Those in recovery from one form of addiction or another often understand this better that the rest of us.
It’s no accident that the first 2 steps in 12 step recovery programs are to: 1. Admit you are powerless over your addiction; and 2. Believe that only a power greater than yourself can restore or save your life.
As Christians, we find this greater power – this higher power - in the grace of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ.
“For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son…indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)
As Paul says, this is “…the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”
As much as we may hate to admit it, we can’t save our own lives any more than we can make our own way in the world. And thank God for that!
Thank God for that because there’s one other thing that we may not like to admit about ourselves. And that is, as Jesus says this morning, there is something in us that “loves darkness rather than light.” (John 3:19)
There is something in us, as human beings that has been drawn to darkness and to death since the dawn of our creation.
The Hebrew slaves were drawn to darkness and death in the wilderness when they began being dissatisfied with the liberating grace of God that had freed them from slavery in Egypt. God had given them bread in the wilderness but they didn’t like how it tasted. “We detest this miserable food!” they complained to Moses and to God. (Numbers 21:5)
Imagine that! Not being satisfied with the liberating grace of God’s love – not being satisfied with the blessings that God had provided them on their journey through the wilderness! Imagine that!
Imagine having plenty to eat but not liking how it tasted!
Woody Allen tells the story of a couple on vacation in the Catskills. They stayed at a fancy resort in the so-called Borsch belt. In describing her experience to neighbors when they returned to New York City, the wife began a long litany of complaints about the beds, the service and finally the food. “The food was terrible,” she said, “and the portions were so small!”
Even though the food was terrible she complained that there wasn’t enough.
Isn’t that what most of us do, most of the time?
Rather than being grateful for what we have we bemoan what we don’t have – even if it’s something we don’t even want or like.
Rather than celebrate God’s blessings we focus on life’s burdens.
Rather than praising God for God’s grace in our lives we act as through everything worth having depended on our making it happen.
There’s something in us that’s drawn to darkness - something in us that keeps us locked in a cell of self-absorption – a cell that can only be opened from the outside. Being in this cell can be as dangerous and deadly for us as it was dangerous and deadly for the Hebrew wanderers in the wilderness.
God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. When everyone who was bitten by a poisonous snake looked at the one made of bronze they lived rather than died.
By looking up at that snake they were saying, in effect, that they were unable to help themselves. They were saying that they didn’t have the knowledge, the resources, or the power to save their own lives. They were saying that their lives were totally dependent on the grace of God – just as the alcoholic or addict admits that their life is totally dependent on the God’s grace.
The only way out of the wilderness of being drawn to darkness and to death is to acknowledge that the only thing that can save our lives is God’s grace revealed most fully in Jesus Christ.
“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14)
In turning our faces to the cross, as the Hebrews turned their faces to the bronze serpent, we turn our hearts to God and say simply, very simply, “Only you can save us! Only your grace can save us from all that we need saving from – including the belief that we make everything worth having in the world – including love itself.”
“To believe in Jesus…” The verb in Greek is pisteuo. It means to have faith in Jesus and it appears 98 times in John’s Gospel. In its form as a cognate noun the word in Greek is pistis. How many times do you think this word appears in John?
Not once. Faith, as a noun, never appears in John’s Gospel. Faith only appears as a verb – as a word of action – as a way of life.
Most often most of us think of faith as a noun – having faith means affirming certain beliefs about God.
In John’s Gospel having faith in Jesus doesn’t mean this at all. It doesn’t mean believing the right things about God, but behaving in the right way in response to the grace of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ.
We are saved by grace and grace alone! The purpose of God’s grace is to create people whose lives are then shaped by this experience. We are saved by grace for doing good works in the world.
Paul puts it this way, “For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Recognizing that faith is a verb and that we were created to reveal God’s light in the world through our way of life doesn’t put an end to that part of each of us that continues to love darkness rather than light.
There is no better example of this than Mother Theresa. Having gone from her working class beginnings in Macedonia to join a community of Irish nuns teaching in Calcutta there was still something missing.
At the age of 36, on her way to a retreat center she heard her Still Speaking God say, “give up all and follow Jesus into the slums – to serve Him in the poorest of the poor.” This calling was later confirmed in an encounter with the Risen Christ whom she heard say to her, “Come, come, carry me into the holes of the poor. Come be My light.”
Mother Theresa did this by creating a community of 12 members that cared for the sick and dying in the streets of Calcutta. Her order has now grown to over 4,000 sisters who’ve heard the same call.
While she remained faithful to her call Mother Theresa was also besieged by long periods of doubt and despair – long periods when she questioned within her self the very existence of the God to whom she’d given her life. Her spiritual director suggested that she write all her thoughts and feelings about God no matter how troubling they might be.
Her writings include these words: “In my soul I feel…that terrible pain of loss – of God not wanting me – of God not being God – of God not really existing (Jesus, please forgive my blasphemies – I have been told to write everything). If there is no soul then Jesus – You also are not true. I am afraid to write all those terrible things that pass my soul. – They must hurt you.”
And yet, even as she felt these deep doubts and experienced this anguish of disbelief Mother Theresa continued to follow Jesus every day. For she knew that faith isn’t at its heart a noun – but a verb. And she knew that belief isn’t finally an assertion of certain ideas but the living of a certain life – a life created and ordained by a God whose love for her would, in the end, never let her go.
Despite her doubts Mother Theresa would go on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and speak in Rome before the Synod of Bishops the following year.
In this speech she said, in reference to John 3:16, “…today God keeps on loving the world. God keeps on sending you and me to prove that God loves the world, that God still has that compassion for the world. It is we that have to be God’s love, God’s compassion in the world of today.”
“It is we that have to be God’s love – God’s compassion in the world of today” – a world that still loves darkness rather than light.
To believe in Jesus means to follow him – to be his light in the dark places of our world, even when darkness has descended on our own soul. (All material about Mother Theresa is from Lectionary Homiletics, February-March 2009, p.67)
Believing in the amazing grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ means giving our heart to him.
It means knowing that faith is a verb.
It means knowing that all that matters is loving God and loving our neighbor as we love ourself.
It means knowing that our neighbors are near and far away.
This morning’s special offering for One Great Hour of Sharing goes to support programs in 80 countries, including the United States. Seven percent of this offering will go toward responding to national disasters, 12 % toward international disasters, another 8% for refugee programs and 61% toward education, health care and agriculture.
We don’t have to travel to Calcutta to find opportunities for mission nor can we rely solely on offering our money.
I’d suggest this morning that we consider adding a sign above each door in the tower entrance of the church. The sign would say: “You are now entering our mission field.”
We don’t need to go anywhere else other than out the doors of our church to let our way of life be shaped by the grace of God’s love for the world revealed in Jesus Christ.
There are plenty of death-dealing forces at our doorstep – there are plenty of poisonous snakes poised to bite us with the venom of violence, cynicism, fear, discouragement and despair.
Yes there are plenty of slithering, death-dealing snakes at our doorstep.
And yet, there are also plenty of opportunities to set our sight on the amazing grace of God lifted up, as on a cross, revealing the eternal love of God in which we all “live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)
There are plenty of opportunities to reveal that we are God’s handiwork – a community created and called by God’s eternal love revealed in Jesus Christ – “to grow disciples of Jesus by building an inclusive community of faith committed to making a difference in the world!”
Doing this we can “come alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5) and remind the world that “his light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
Saying that we aren’t up to the task isn’t an option, as George Herbert suggests in a poem written in 1633, the year he died. The poem is called “Love.”
Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly
questioning
If I lack'd anything.
"A guest," I answere'd, "worthy to
be here."
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"
"Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love,
"Who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love,
"and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.
The love of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, bids us all welcome.
No matter who we are or where we are on life’s journey - the One who was sent to save and not condemn the world bids us all welcome.
Again we’re reminded of that which we so often forget.
We can’t make our own way in the world.
And thanks be to God, we don’t have to!
Even though we can never get everything right, in Christ, God has made us right!
Even though we can do nothing to earn or deserve God's grace, Christ has entered our lives!
Even though we are far more dependent than we like to admit, there is nothing to fear - for God so loved the world!
Even thought there is a part of each of us that still loves darkness rather than light, we can go where God sends us and be God’s light in our darkness-loving world!
It is we that have to be God’s love – God’s compassion in the world of today!
And we can be just that – not because of who we are, but because of who God is and was and always will be!
Praise be to God!
Amen!
Note: This sermon draws on material in Pulpit Resource, January – March 1994, by William Willimon.
