William H. Willimon - "Being Good" (February 11, 1990)
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Transcript
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(organ music) | 0:00 | |
- | Welcome to Duke Chapel on the sixth Sunday after Epiphany. | 1:09 |
Our lector for this service is Mandy Rowe, | 1:14 | |
who is the newly elected president of Duke Campus Ministry. | 1:17 | |
Duke Campus Ministry is the consortium | 1:22 | |
of all the campus religious groups, | 1:24 | |
and this is a way of beginning her tenure | 1:27 | |
as our new student president. | 1:32 | |
Tomorrow evening at 7 P.M. | 1:35 | |
we begin a series on medical ethics. | 1:37 | |
The series will consist | 1:42 | |
of a Christian practitioner of medicine | 1:43 | |
and a Christian ethicist, or pastor, | 1:47 | |
speaking to some of the pressing biomedical issues | 1:51 | |
that we have in our day. | 1:55 | |
All are invited and that will be at York Chapel | 1:57 | |
at the Divinity School at 7:00, | 1:59 | |
beginning this Monday evening and running throughout | 2:02 | |
successive Monday evenings this month. | 2:05 | |
And now let us continue our worship of God. | 2:09 | |
Stand. | 2:14 | |
(organ music) | 2:16 | |
(congregation singing) | 2:51 | |
(organ music) | 4:43 | |
(choir and congregation singing) | 6:14 | |
- | Oh God, the strength of all who put their trust in You, | 6:56 |
mercifully accept our prayers. | 7:01 | |
And because in our weakness, | 7:04 | |
we can do nothing good without You, | 7:06 | |
give us the help of Your grace | 7:09 | |
that in keeping Your commandments, | 7:11 | |
we may please You, both in will and deed. | 7:13 | |
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 7:17 | |
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, | 7:19 | |
one God forever and ever, amen. | 7:22 | |
- | Please join me in the prayer for illumination. | 7:38 |
All | Open our hearts and minds, oh God, | 7:43 |
by the power of Your Holy Spirit, | 7:46 | |
so that as the word is read and proclaimed, | 7:48 | |
we might hear with joy what You say to us this day. | 7:52 | |
Amen. | 7:56 | |
- | The first lesson is from the Book of Deuteronomy. | 7:58 |
See, I have set before you this day | 8:03 | |
life and good, death and evil. | 8:06 | |
If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, | 8:09 | |
which I command you this day, by loving the Lord, your God, | 8:12 | |
by walking in God's ways and by keeping God's commandments | 8:16 | |
and statutes and ordinances, | 8:21 | |
then you shall live and multiply, | 8:23 | |
and the Lord, your God, will bless you | 8:25 | |
in the land which you are entering | 8:27 | |
to take possession of it. | 8:29 | |
But if your heart turns away and you will not hear, | 8:31 | |
but are drawn away to worship other God's and serve them, | 8:34 | |
I declare to you this day that you shall perish. | 8:38 | |
You shall not live long in the land | 8:41 | |
which you are going over the Jordan | 8:43 | |
to enter and to possess. | 8:45 | |
I call heaven and Earth to witness against you this day | 8:48 | |
that I have set before you life and death, | 8:51 | |
a blessing and a curse. | 8:53 | |
Therefore, choose life that you and your descendants | 8:56 | |
may live, loving the Lord, your God, | 8:59 | |
obeying God's voice, and cleaving to God, | 9:02 | |
for that means life to you and length of days | 9:05 | |
that you may dwell in the land | 9:08 | |
which the Lord swore to your ancestors, | 9:10 | |
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them. | 9:12 | |
Here ends the first lesson. | 9:17 | |
(organ music) | 9:30 | |
♪ Teach me, oh Lord, the way of thy statues ♪ | 9:47 | |
♪ Teach me ♪ | 9:56 | |
♪ Teach me the way ♪ | 9:58 | |
♪ The way of thy statutes ♪ | 10:02 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 10:06 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 10:10 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 10:17 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 10:21 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 10:26 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 10:31 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 10:37 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 10:42 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 10:48 | |
♪ Teach me, oh Lord ♪ | 10:55 | |
♪ Teach me, oh Lord ♪ | 11:00 | |
♪ The way of thy statutes ♪ | 11:05 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 11:10 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 11:15 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 11:21 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 11:26 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 11:31 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 11:37 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 11:47 | |
- | Please stand as we join together in singing responsively | 12:12 |
Psalm 119:1-8 and 33-40, | 12:14 | |
found on page 841 in your hymnal. | 12:20 | |
(organ music) | 12:24 | |
♪ Blessed art those whose way is blameless ♪ | 12:31 | |
♪ Who walk in the law of the Lord ♪ | 12:35 | |
♪ Blessed art those who keep the testimonies ♪ | 12:39 | |
♪ Who seek God with their whole heart ♪ | 12:44 | |
♪ Who also do no wrong ♪ | 12:49 | |
♪ But walk in God's ways ♪ | 12:52 | |
(congregation singing) | 12:56 | |
♪ Or that my ways may be steadfast in keeping Your statutes ♪ | 13:02 | |
(congregation singing) | 13:08 | |
♪ I will praise you with an upright heart ♪ | 13:18 | |
♪ When I learn Your righteous ordinances ♪ | 13:22 | |
(congregation singing) | 13:27 | |
♪ Teach me, oh Lord, the way of Your statutes ♪ | 13:36 | |
♪ And I will keep it to the end ♪ | 13:40 | |
(congregation singing) | 13:44 | |
♪ Lead me in the path of Your commandments ♪ | 13:55 | |
♪ For I delight in it ♪ | 13:59 | |
(congregation singing) | 14:02 | |
♪ Turn my eyes from looking at vanities ♪ | 14:11 | |
♪ And give me life in Your ways ♪ | 14:15 | |
(congregation singing) | 14:19 | |
♪ Turn away the reproach which I dread ♪ | 14:28 | |
♪ For Your ordinances are good ♪ | 14:32 | |
(congregation singing) | 14:36 | |
(organ music) | 14:47 | |
♪ Glory be to God Creator ♪ | 14:55 | |
♪ Praise to our Redeemer Lord ♪ | 15:02 | |
♪ Glory be to our Sustainer ♪ | 15:09 | |
♪ Ever three and ever one ♪ | 15:16 | |
♪ As it was in the beginning ♪ | 15:24 | |
♪ Now and ever more shall be ♪ | 15:31 | |
- | The second lesson this morning is taken from Paul's letter | 15:51 |
to the Corinthians. | 15:54 | |
But, I, sisters and brothers, could not address you | 15:57 | |
as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, | 15:59 | |
as children in Christ. | 16:03 | |
I fed you with milk, not solid food, | 16:06 | |
for you were not ready for it. | 16:08 | |
And even yet, you are not ready. | 16:10 | |
For you are still of the flesh. | 16:13 | |
But while there is jealousy and strife among you, | 16:15 | |
are you not of the flesh and behaving in human ways? | 16:17 | |
For when one says, I belong to Paul, and another, | 16:21 | |
I belong to Apollos, are you not merely human? | 16:25 | |
What then is Apollos? | 16:30 | |
What is Paul? | 16:32 | |
Servants through whom you believed | 16:33 | |
as the Lord assigned to each. | 16:35 | |
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. | 16:38 | |
So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters | 16:43 | |
is anything, but only God who gives the growth. | 16:46 | |
The one who plants and the one who waters are equal | 16:50 | |
and shall receive wages according to their labor, | 16:53 | |
for we are God's coworkers, | 16:56 | |
you are God's field, God's building. | 16:58 | |
Here ends the reading of the second lesson. | 17:02 | |
- | In our gospel lessons, we have been reading | 17:14 |
through the Sermon on the Mount. | 17:17 | |
Hear the gospel for his day. | 17:20 | |
Think not that I have come to abolish | 17:24 | |
the law and the prophets. | 17:26 | |
I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them. | 17:29 | |
For truly I say to you, till heaven and Earth pass away, | 17:34 | |
not a yod, not a dot will pass from the law | 17:37 | |
until all is accomplished. | 17:41 | |
Whoever then relaxes one of the least of the commandments | 17:44 | |
and teaches others so, will be called least | 17:48 | |
in the kingdom of heaven. | 17:51 | |
But he who does them and teaches them, | 17:53 | |
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. | 17:56 | |
For I tell you, unless your righteousness | 18:00 | |
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, | 18:03 | |
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. | 18:06 | |
You have heard that it was said of old, | 18:10 | |
you shall not kill and whoever kills | 18:13 | |
shall be liable to judgment. | 18:16 | |
But I say to you that everyone who is angry | 18:19 | |
with brother or sister shall be liable to judgment. | 18:22 | |
Whoever insults his brother or sister | 18:25 | |
shall be liable to the council | 18:27 | |
and whoever says, you fool, shall be liable | 18:29 | |
to the hell of fire. | 18:33 | |
So, if you're offering your gift at the alter | 18:36 | |
and there remember that brother or sister | 18:39 | |
has something against you, leave your gift there | 18:41 | |
before the alter and go. | 18:46 | |
First be reconciled and then come and offer your gift. | 18:48 | |
Make friends quickly with your accuser while you | 18:53 | |
are going with him to court, lest your accuser | 18:56 | |
hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard | 18:59 | |
and you be put in prison. | 19:01 | |
Truly I say to you, you will never get out | 19:03 | |
till you have paid the last penny. | 19:06 | |
Here ends the gospel. | 19:09 | |
In the Sermon on the Mount, | 19:16 | |
Jesus speaks about the way of righteousness. | 19:17 | |
And let's say that all of us are here this morning | 19:22 | |
pursuing righteousness, we want to be good. | 19:26 | |
Because after all, that's one of the major functions | 19:31 | |
of religion, whether it be the Christian religion | 19:33 | |
or any other, to help people become better | 19:36 | |
than they would be if left to their own devices. | 19:39 | |
And let's agree that even if we have not arrived | 19:44 | |
at goodness, we're on the way, so to speak. | 19:47 | |
After all, you did get up and come to chapel this morning. | 19:53 | |
That shows that you're on the way, | 19:57 | |
which is in no way meant to disparage those of you | 20:01 | |
who will watch this service later on cable | 20:03 | |
because, in a way, you're on the way to righteousness, too, | 20:06 | |
though you're your traveling on your sofa. | 20:09 | |
(congregation laughing) | 20:12 | |
Yet, the trouble with being good, I mean, | 20:13 | |
the trouble with being Christian good | 20:17 | |
is that good people were often the very ones | 20:21 | |
who caused Jesus so much grief. | 20:24 | |
A lot of good people, scribes and Pharisees, | 20:28 | |
people who never cheated on their taxes or their spouses, | 20:32 | |
people who knew the Bible and lived by the book | 20:37 | |
were the very people who eventually yelled crucify Him. | 20:42 | |
And why? | 20:50 | |
Well, I think one reason was the rather confusing way | 20:53 | |
Jesus lived and taught. | 20:57 | |
Because shortly after saying, in the Sermon on the Mount, | 21:01 | |
that He did not want to abolish the law, | 21:04 | |
Jesus appears to have done just that. | 21:08 | |
Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners? | 21:12 | |
A clear violation of Torah, the law. | 21:18 | |
The Pharisees fast and they offer long prayers, | 21:23 | |
but your people eat and drink and go to parties. | 21:26 | |
Look, they said to Jesus, | 21:32 | |
look what Your people are doing on the Sabbath. | 21:33 | |
Master, heal my daughter, plead the Canaanite woman. | 21:39 | |
And Jesus replied, well, I'm the Messiah | 21:43 | |
and I'm supposed to be going only to the lost sheep | 21:46 | |
of the House of Israel, but what the heck, | 21:49 | |
sometimes you gotta break a rule to do right. | 21:52 | |
He heals the daughter. | 21:54 | |
Rabbi Moses said that a man could get out of marriage | 21:58 | |
by simply writing his wife a certificate of divorce. | 22:02 | |
It's in the law. | 22:06 | |
And Jesus replies, it was a dumb law. | 22:08 | |
Stay married. | 22:12 | |
Repeatedly He says, you have heard it said of old | 22:17 | |
in Torah, in the law, but I say unto you. | 22:21 | |
That's our Jesus. | 22:27 | |
It would appear sometimes it's possible to be so right, | 22:32 | |
so good, that you're wrong. | 22:36 | |
Or as Paul said, the law, the law, the law kills. | 22:40 | |
Dry, dead jot and tittle legalism can just suck the life | 22:45 | |
out of religion until it is a cold, | 22:50 | |
dry, dead calculating thing. | 22:52 | |
Mark Twain once described a man as a good man | 22:57 | |
in the very worst sense of the word. | 23:04 | |
And John tells a story. | 23:09 | |
Matthew doesn't tell the story, | 23:13 | |
but let's say that maybe Matthew would approve. | 23:14 | |
A story of a woman caught in adultery. | 23:17 | |
They had gathered to fulfill the law, | 23:21 | |
namely to stone her to death, | 23:25 | |
that's how Torah handled adultery. | 23:27 | |
What do you think of our version of People's Court, Jesus? | 23:31 | |
A law is a law is a law, right? | 23:34 | |
And you know the story. | 23:38 | |
You remember how Jesus replied? | 23:39 | |
Okay, let him who is without sin through the first stone. | 23:41 | |
Quietly they all dropped their stones and walked away. | 23:48 | |
Now, scholars do not believe that that story appeared | 23:54 | |
originally in John's gospel. | 23:57 | |
It was added later. | 24:00 | |
But let's imagine that there was good reason to add it later | 24:02 | |
because by the time John's Gospel was written, | 24:05 | |
the church had had plenty of time to do what the church | 24:09 | |
is so good at, namely, confusing Jesus' earlier religion | 24:11 | |
of grace and acceptance with the old down the rules | 24:17 | |
and regulations righteousness path we go. | 24:23 | |
And here is heroic Jesus standing against | 24:27 | |
legalistic self-righteousness. | 24:30 | |
Jesus standing against the cruelty | 24:33 | |
of misguidedly good people. | 24:36 | |
And yet, I don't think that's our problem | 24:42 | |
with today's gospel. | 24:46 | |
The message that rules and regulations cannot save, | 24:52 | |
if once interesting material for a sermon, | 24:58 | |
has become conventional wisdom. | 25:03 | |
Most of us, I fear, today are in greater danger | 25:08 | |
of antinomianism than legalism. | 25:12 | |
Can you say antinomianism? | 25:15 | |
We've moved from the awareness that just obeying a few rules | 25:18 | |
doesn't necessarily make you right, | 25:24 | |
to the conviction that no rules are right. | 25:27 | |
Learning that sometimes that a rule has got to be broken, | 25:32 | |
we now say anything goes in a fight between legalistic | 25:36 | |
scribes and Pharisees on the one hand, | 25:41 | |
and harlots and tax collectors on the other, | 25:44 | |
you know who's side we would be on. | 25:48 | |
Big deal | 25:53 | |
that occasionally Jesus abrogated a few religious laws | 25:55 | |
about how to keep the Sabbath holy and how to prepare | 26:00 | |
ourselves for worship, and how to forgive somebody | 26:04 | |
who's wronged us and how to keep the marriage bond firm. | 26:08 | |
Big deal. | 26:12 | |
We never worried about keeping those rules anyway. | 26:13 | |
So the story might go in John's gospel, | 26:20 | |
they had gathered to stone a woman for adultery | 26:24 | |
and Jesus said, let the one who is without sin | 26:29 | |
throw the first stone. | 26:32 | |
And silently they dropped their stones and they walk away. | 26:34 | |
And Jesus reaches down and picks this person up and says, | 26:39 | |
see they don't condemn you, neither do I condemn you, | 26:43 | |
go, sin no more. | 26:47 | |
And she replies, wait a minute, what gives you the right | 26:52 | |
to be accusing me of sin? | 26:57 | |
And Jesus responds, well, I mean, adultery, that's sinful, | 27:00 | |
it's not right. | 27:04 | |
And she says, how can you say that to me? | 27:07 | |
You don't even know my situation with George. | 27:09 | |
And then Jesus says, but you're living with George | 27:14 | |
and you're not married. | 27:18 | |
And she said, but it's a loving, fulfilling, trusting, | 27:20 | |
open, caring relationship. | 27:22 | |
What gives you the right? | 27:24 | |
And earlier, my three years with Bill, | 27:27 | |
it was also wonderful. | 27:29 | |
And Jesus said, another? | 27:30 | |
And she says, yes. | 27:32 | |
And then there was Joe for two months, | 27:33 | |
and then Sam for a couple of weeks | 27:35 | |
and the story ends with Jesus looking around in the dirt | 27:37 | |
for a large stone. | 27:42 | |
(congregation laughing) | 27:44 | |
Hear the gospel. | 27:50 | |
Do not think that I have come to abolish | 27:51 | |
the law and the prophets. | 27:53 | |
Till heaven and Earth pass away, not a dot will pass | 27:55 | |
from the law until it is accomplished. | 27:58 | |
Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments | 28:01 | |
and teaches others to do so shall be called least | 28:05 | |
in My kingdom. | 28:08 | |
Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees | 28:10 | |
and the scribes, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. | 28:14 | |
And if you go through the rest of the sermon, | 28:21 | |
Jesus takes and older command, already difficult enough | 28:24 | |
to keep, even if you were a scribe or a Pharisee | 28:30 | |
and He intensifies that command. | 28:34 | |
You know that you're forbidden to kill. | 28:41 | |
I forbid you even to be angry with your brother or sister. | 28:43 | |
Call him a fool, you'll go to hell. | 28:48 | |
You know that adultery is a no-no. | 28:52 | |
I say, you look at another person lustfully, | 28:55 | |
it's the same as adultery. | 28:59 | |
Fortunately, that is the text that the student preacher | 29:02 | |
will be preaching on next Sunday. | 29:05 | |
If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. | 29:08 | |
Remarry after divorce, I don't care what the law calls it, | 29:13 | |
I call it adultery. | 29:16 | |
Somebody hits you on the right cheek, | 29:19 | |
you offer them the left as well. | 29:21 | |
Love your neighbor, invade your enemy. | 29:25 | |
I say, love your enemy | 29:27 | |
and pray for those who persecute you. | 29:31 | |
Enter by the narrow gate. | 29:35 | |
Matthew reports when Jesus got through with this sermon, | 29:41 | |
the crowds were astonished at His teaching. | 29:46 | |
You wanna be good, don't just keep the law | 29:54 | |
like the scribes and Pharisees, | 29:57 | |
you go beyond the law. | 29:58 | |
Duke's W.D. Davies in his classic commentary on the sermon | 30:02 | |
says that these verses opening the Sermon on the Mount | 30:09 | |
stand as guardian against every immoral or antinomian | 30:13 | |
understanding of the gospel. | 30:17 | |
And what a guardian they are. | 30:21 | |
Here we encounter the bracing unsentimentality | 30:24 | |
of Matthew's Gospel. | 30:29 | |
It challenges us to be good, to be really good | 30:31 | |
if we would be God's, to enter by the narrow gate. | 30:35 | |
Yet, I fear that we are accustomed to coming to church | 30:44 | |
and if we should happen to stumble over a difficult passage | 30:48 | |
like this one, | 30:52 | |
it usually takes no more than 20 minutes | 30:54 | |
for a skillful preacher using the tools of historical | 30:58 | |
criticism and pop psychology to explain it away, | 31:02 | |
to reassure us that a nice person like Jesus | 31:07 | |
would never have said something like this | 31:11 | |
to good people like you. | 31:14 | |
But sorry, | 31:18 | |
I just know of no way out of this text. | 31:20 | |
You think I have come to help you weasel out of the law, | 31:27 | |
forget it, says Jesus, I have come to deepen, | 31:30 | |
to intensify the frontal assault of the law. | 31:34 | |
And all our sweet Jesus sentimentality and gushy grace | 31:39 | |
just crumbles before these searing commands. | 31:43 | |
We are as Matthew said of Jesus' first congregation, | 31:49 | |
astonished. | 31:54 | |
You wanna be good, | 31:59 | |
keep all that I have commanded you, Matthew 28:20. | 32:00 | |
There is the arrogance of the rule-stressing legalist, | 32:07 | |
but there is also the arrogance | 32:12 | |
of the rule-ignoring antinomian. | 32:13 | |
Paul showed us the delusion of thinking that fallible, | 32:18 | |
limited humans beings like us could ever save ourselves | 32:22 | |
by thinking that we had the resources to attain | 32:28 | |
such high righteousness. | 32:31 | |
Goodness comes as a gift of God's grace, | 32:33 | |
not through our determined human effort. | 32:36 | |
Grace assaults the legalist. | 32:39 | |
But I'm saying that I don't think legalism | 32:44 | |
is our particular problem. | 32:46 | |
The peculiar brand of contemporary arrogance | 32:51 | |
is antinomianism. | 32:55 | |
I am the only one who knows what's right for me. | 32:58 | |
My opinion is the measure of all things. | 33:04 | |
The rules are just made up as we go to suit the situation. | 33:08 | |
Don't bother me with your judgements, | 33:13 | |
can't you see I'm doing the best I can. | 33:15 | |
What right has Jesus or anybody else to tell me what to do? | 33:18 | |
Such antinomianism arises not out of an appreciation | 33:24 | |
for the limits of the law, but rather out of a lack | 33:28 | |
of appreciation for any limits upon my own ego. | 33:33 | |
At least the scribes and the Pharisees studied God's law, | 33:40 | |
pondering its implications for their lives. | 33:44 | |
We have no object of study other than our own feelings. | 33:48 | |
And against such modern parochialism Jesus hurls | 33:54 | |
these demands for higher righteousness. | 33:58 | |
He refuses to back off in deference to our human frailty. | 34:02 | |
He will not pander our ethical sentimentality, | 34:06 | |
patting us on the head saying, there, there, there, now. | 34:10 | |
I know you're doing the best you can, which after all, | 34:13 | |
is certainly enough for me. | 34:15 | |
He refuses to withdraw one dot, one iota. | 34:19 | |
Now, how can Jesus, knowing our frailty, | 34:25 | |
our arrogant moralism and our arrogant antinomianism, | 34:29 | |
how can Jesus intensify exceed the law, | 34:33 | |
knowing our inability to keep the law? | 34:38 | |
What's Jesus up to here? | 34:43 | |
About 15 chapters later, Matthew tells a story of Jesus' | 34:48 | |
encounter with someone called a rich young ruler. | 34:53 | |
And I think you know that story. | 34:57 | |
There's this rich, successful young man. | 35:00 | |
He comes to Jesus saying, good teacher, | 35:02 | |
what have I got to do to inherit eternal life? | 35:04 | |
This successful yuppie has been so successful | 35:08 | |
at getting everything he wanted in life, | 35:12 | |
he assumes that that's the same way | 35:16 | |
you get what you want religiously. | 35:17 | |
Jesus, what are you selling? | 35:20 | |
I want a deal. | 35:22 | |
Now, first thing Jesus says is | 35:27 | |
hey, what's with this good business? | 35:29 | |
Don't you know nobody's good but God? | 35:31 | |
But then Jesus says, you wanna be good, | 35:36 | |
well then do what the good book says. | 35:39 | |
Obey the commandments of God, all of them. | 35:42 | |
Then you'll have eternal life. | 35:47 | |
Now, in telling this rich young man this, | 35:49 | |
I think Jesus probably hopes that this smart young man | 35:53 | |
is gonna say something like gosh, Jesus, when you put it | 35:58 | |
that way, I guess, gee, maybe I haven't been such a success | 36:02 | |
at righteousness after all. | 36:05 | |
But that isn't what he said. | 36:09 | |
I told you this guys, a hard core success. | 36:10 | |
And so he says, hey, no problem, I've obeyed all that stuff | 36:14 | |
since I was a kid in Sunday school. | 36:18 | |
How about giving me some really tough moral assignment? | 36:19 | |
So that an upwardly-mobile, competent, well-educated, | 36:22 | |
righteous person like me can sink his teeth into. | 36:25 | |
So then Jesus comes back at him with one of the greatest | 36:29 | |
understatements in all the New Testament. | 36:33 | |
Jesus says, okay, okay. | 36:36 | |
I need you to do just one tiny, weeny-teensy little thing | 36:39 | |
for me, could you do this? | 36:43 | |
Go, sell everything you've got and give it to the poor. | 36:46 | |
That outta knock you off this righteousness kick. | 36:53 | |
And Matthew says with that, the young man slumped down | 36:58 | |
and got depressed and went away. | 37:01 | |
And isn't that typical of Jesus in Matthew? | 37:07 | |
I mean, here you've got all these commands, | 37:12 | |
which are already burdensome enough. | 37:16 | |
And then he turns around and lays | 37:19 | |
an even tougher command on you. | 37:21 | |
On that occasion, his disciples spoke for us all | 37:27 | |
when they said, God, who can be saved? | 37:30 | |
And Jesus responds with good news. | 37:35 | |
Hey, with you, it's impossible, | 37:39 | |
but with God, everything's possible. | 37:41 | |
Even the salvation of people like you. | 37:46 | |
With God, it's possible. | 37:52 | |
The Law, this excessive righteousness which Jesus | 37:56 | |
demands of you and me is a means of making us good. | 38:00 | |
But not as if goodness were the result | 38:05 | |
of our own earnest efforts because goodness | 38:08 | |
consists of being driven into the arms | 38:15 | |
of a merciful and just God. | 38:18 | |
And these commands are the means of taking us there. | 38:24 | |
That's why in the Psalm today the psalmist could speak | 38:31 | |
of the commands of God as a great gift. | 38:35 | |
And so John Calvin spoke of three uses of law. | 38:41 | |
First, Calvin said, we got to obey God's laws, all of them. | 38:48 | |
And thereby we will be given something | 38:54 | |
that doesn't come naturally. | 38:56 | |
Namely, humility. | 38:59 | |
You go out Monday morning and try to live truthfully. | 39:03 | |
You try to live non-violently. | 39:07 | |
And you'll be humbled. | 39:11 | |
And second use of the law is because God always requires | 39:15 | |
more of us through the law than you and I will ever be able | 39:20 | |
to do, the law is wonderful instruction in how to pray. | 39:23 | |
Because you go out and try to obey these commands, | 39:30 | |
before long, we'll be down on our knees | 39:33 | |
praying to the Lord for more strength | 39:37 | |
than we've got on our own, teaching us that we | 39:39 | |
are more guilty of sin than we like to admit. | 39:43 | |
And thirdly, Calvin said, the law is sort of like the bridle | 39:49 | |
of a horse, keeping us under the rein of God. | 39:53 | |
As Calvin said, if God demanded only easy, little things | 39:58 | |
of us, then we could be good by our own effort. | 40:03 | |
We wouldn't need Jesus to die for us and God to save us. | 40:07 | |
But the beautiful thing is, God always demands | 40:12 | |
excessive things of us, | 40:14 | |
responding to our excessive failures | 40:19 | |
with excessive forgiveness. | 40:25 | |
And that's why Luther says that Jesus | 40:30 | |
begins His Sermon on the Mount with the first beatitude, | 40:32 | |
blessed are the poor in spirit. | 40:38 | |
Blessed are the poor in spirit, because maybe when you | 40:43 | |
came here today, you felt a little rich in spirit. | 40:46 | |
But after Jesus gets through with you in this sermon, | 40:51 | |
everybody feels spiritually poor. | 40:55 | |
And that's good news because that transforms you | 40:59 | |
into exactly the kind of person that Jesus | 41:03 | |
just loves to love, the poor. | 41:05 | |
The foundation for goodness that is Christian is this. | 41:13 | |
It is not the mere mastery of God's rules | 41:20 | |
or their skillful reinterpretation, | 41:24 | |
but it's a relationship with Christ who both commands us | 41:28 | |
to keep God's holy law and gives us the resources to do so. | 41:33 | |
Namely, His presence among us. | 41:40 | |
At the end of Matthew's gospel, after the sermon | 41:47 | |
has been preached to astonished disciples, | 41:51 | |
after that rich young ruler has gone away sorrowful, | 41:56 | |
and the disciples have wondered who could possibly be saved? | 42:00 | |
Jesus tells his people, us, to go out | 42:06 | |
into the whole world | 42:13 | |
and baptize and teach them and the disciples said, | 42:14 | |
well, how much do you want us to teach them? | 42:18 | |
And Jesus said, I want you to teach them all | 42:20 | |
that I have commanded you. | 42:23 | |
And the disciples said, all? | 42:26 | |
I mean the stuff about turning the other cheek, | 42:30 | |
not calling your brother and sister a fool, I mean. | 42:32 | |
Jesus said, I said all of it, every jot and tittle, | 42:35 | |
every, all of it. | 42:38 | |
Yeah, even the bit about turning the other cheek | 42:40 | |
and giving away all you have | 42:43 | |
and not remarrying after divorce, all of it. | 42:44 | |
But then comes the punchline that makes the fulfillment | 42:49 | |
of these commands possible, | 42:54 | |
the burden of the law bearable, | 42:57 | |
and our miserable moral failures forgivable. | 43:02 | |
Lo, | 43:08 | |
I am with you always. | 43:11 | |
Amen. | 43:17 | |
(organ music) | 43:28 | |
(choir and congregation singing) | 44:08 | |
Reverend Nancy | The Lord be with you. | 47:46 |
Congregation | And also with you. | 47:48 |
- | Let us pray. | 47:49 |
Once again, oh God, we have gathered to praise thy name, | 48:02 | |
that with all it's hypocrisy and self-centeredness | 48:07 | |
and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world | 48:10 | |
in which we live. | 48:14 | |
We thank thee for the blessings of the week just past, | 48:17 | |
for the daily reminders of thy continuing presence | 48:21 | |
in our lives, for the sun and the rain and the promise | 48:24 | |
of springtime, which the budding trees foretell. | 48:29 | |
We thank thee even for the cold and bleakness of winter, | 48:33 | |
without which the splendor of spring could never be, | 48:37 | |
so too, we bless thee for the bitter medicine that heals, | 48:41 | |
for the misfortunes, without which we could never grow wise. | 48:46 | |
Hear now our prayers of intercession | 48:52 | |
for those who are in need this day. | 48:55 | |
That there are people who hunger for thy grace | 48:59 | |
and who search their minds and hearts for words of prayer, | 49:02 | |
yet having they love fail to find it's presence. | 49:07 | |
Lord, help us to remember that there are people who hunger | 49:11 | |
for food, for decent clothing, for a place to call home, | 49:16 | |
for a job to provide the resources on which to live. | 49:21 | |
Lord, help us to remember that there are people who long | 49:26 | |
to be free, to stay upon their land, | 49:30 | |
to voice their convictions as they believe them. | 49:35 | |
Especially we thank thee for the release of Nelson Mandela | 49:38 | |
as we pray that this may be a sign of thy promise | 49:42 | |
for peace and justice for all the people of South Africa. | 49:45 | |
Lord, help us to remember that there are people who seek | 49:50 | |
to offer their talents to the world, yet are held back | 49:53 | |
by confusion, self-doubt, or lack of opportunity. | 49:57 | |
Lord, help us to remember that there are people | 50:03 | |
who are helpless before torture, sick with disease | 50:07 | |
and with loneliness, who are prisoner to the walls | 50:11 | |
of tyrants and to the world of indifference. | 50:14 | |
Lord, help us to remember. | 50:19 | |
Oh, eternal God, thy mercy is infinite | 50:22 | |
and thy pity inexhaustible. | 50:25 | |
Graciously look upon us and teach us the way of thy statutes | 50:28 | |
so that we may never, even in our greatest trials, give way | 50:33 | |
to despair, but shall keep thy commandments to the end. | 50:38 | |
This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. | 50:43 | |
And now as a forgiven and reconciled people, | 50:51 | |
let us offer our gifts and ourselves unto God. | 50:55 | |
(organ music) | 50:59 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 52:19 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 52:22 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 52:26 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 52:29 | |
♪ Unto God's almighty Son ♪ | 52:33 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 52:41 | |
♪ Unto God's almighty Son ♪ | 52:45 | |
(choir singing) | 53:00 | |
(organ music) | 56:36 | |
♪ Praise God from whom all blessing flow ♪ | 57:33 | |
♪ Praise God all creatures here below ♪ | 57:38 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, ♪ | 57:44 | |
♪ Praise God above ye heavenly host ♪ | 57:51 | |
♪ Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost ♪ | 57:56 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 58:02 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 58:07 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 58:13 | |
- | Eternal God, praise be to thee for thy unwavering goodness | 58:25 |
to all thy children, for mercies that fall like rain | 58:29 | |
on the just and the unjust, for songs thy love | 58:33 | |
has taught us to sing, for good memories, true hopes | 58:37 | |
and inspiring words. | 58:41 | |
Most especially we thank thee for thy promise | 58:43 | |
to be with us always as we strive to live | 58:45 | |
by thy commandments and to follow in thy footsteps. | 58:49 | |
This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ | 58:53 | |
who taught us to pray with confidence, | 58:55 | |
All | Our Father who art in heaven, | 58:58 |
hallowed by thy name. | 59:01 | |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth | 59:03 | |
as it is in heaven. | 59:06 | |
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us | 59:08 | |
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 59:11 | |
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver from evil. | 59:16 | |
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. | 59:20 | |
- | And now go forth in peace and be of good courage. | 59:28 |
Hold fast that which is good, rejoicing in the power | 59:31 | |
of the Holy Spirit and may the blessings of God, | 59:35 | |
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you all, | 59:39 | |
now and forevermore, amen. | 59:41 | |
(organ music) | 59:46 | |
(choir and congregation singing) | 1:00:17 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:24 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:28 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:32 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:35 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:42 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:44 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:48 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:57 | |
(organ music) | 1:04:10 |
Item Info
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