EASTER 5 2007
May 06, 2007
(Acts 13:44-52,
Ps. 145:1-9; Revelation 19:4-9; John 13:31-35)
OUR FOUNDATIONAL, CHRISTIAN BELIEFS
St. Christopher’s Episcopal
Church,
MAY
THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE MEDITATIONS OF ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS
ACCEPTABLE TO YOU ‑‑‑ OUR STRENGTH AND OUR REDEEMER AMEN
Last week I
told you today would be the second part of that sermon. For anyone who skipped church, or has just
forgotten, let me fill you in on part one.
I explained
that I have been reading a fascinating book which asks why we have such a
difficult time discussing our core, foundational, Christian, moral
beliefs. What is the basic, underlying
principle which guides our Christian thinking?
Just
yesterday the
We need to
go beyond just saying “they are wrong” we need to be able to explain WHY, and
then explain WHAT we believe are the underlying principles.
An example
I used last week about both the need to understand our core beliefs, and how
they could affect a decision, concerned two people: one who focused primarily
on God’s judgment and one who focused primarily on God’s mercy. They would likely have different opinions
about capital punishment. And if the
classic question is asked: “What would Jesus do?” it is likely they
would reach two different conclusions.
Would Jesus
lock up the murdered and throw away the key?
Or would Jesus pull the switch and execute him?
The real
debate is more about the foundational, underlying Christian values than it is
about the specific issue of capital punishment.
I discussed
how critical it is to this discussion that we understand God cares deeply about
anything that affects God’s creation: other people, ourselves, and the physical
universe.
We face
some challenges when making decisions on moral or ethical situations. One particularly difficult challenge is to
separate our own self interest from the broader, underlying ethical or moral
beliefs. For example, a farmer who now
sells grain overseas likely would think differently about free trade policies
than a person who lost their job in textiles.
Since free
trade obviously affects God’s children, I submit God cares about free trade
policy. But what is the Christian
response? I suspect the farmer and the
textile worker would have different answers to that question because their self
interest is involved.
Even beyond
self interest we face the challenge of asking the question from a Christian
perspective rather than an economic perspective, or a political perspective, or
even a patriotic perspective.
Christianity should be our central perspective, our central
concern. But for that to happen we must
work at understanding our belief about core Christian principles.
I concluded
last week by stressing how I was not telling anyone what SHOULD be their core
believes. Mine builds from the
commandment to love God and love your neighbor.
Basically I believe all Christian behavior grows out of the instruction
to treat other people well.
But I could
be wrong! Therefore it helps to identify
other, possible core beliefs so we can examine our own understanding. I will use extreme examples but please
recognize that few situations or people are that extreme. AND, most likely the best core belief system
would include aspects of all of them.
The insert
in the bulletin is intended to help you take notes, if you wish, or simply have
an outline to use when reflecting about these questions.
The first
core system I will discuss is what I call the “law” system. In that the person looks diligently through
the Bible to find the verses or verses which speak directly to the question at
hand.
The
difficulty is that the Bible was written to guide people for thousands of years
and so some very specific questions are not covered. For example, when facing the extremely
difficult decision to end a loved one’s life support the Bible does not provide
obvious guidance. When is it interfering with God’s will to remove a
ventilator and when is it God’s will to do that?
Even some
questions that seem to be covered
raise many questions. .... Thou shalt not kill. VERY
few people take that literally. Some
people argue that a better translation is: “Thou shalt
not murder.” What is the difference?
.... Usually the argument hinges on some form of governmental authority. A person shooting another person is wrong but
if the government executes someone it is OK.
Unfortunately
for the person who is trying to follow very specific rules or laws, those are
interpretations. Scripture does not
clearly answer those questions.
Remember, Hilter, Stalin, and Saddam Husein led legitimately constituted governments. In the case of Hilter, a democratically elected government. Very quickly the issue becomes: legitimately
constituted governments I agree
with! .... Not a great basis for decision making.
We can go
over many other ethical questions: abortion, immigration policy, tax policy and
find similar difficulties with understanding scriptural teachings.
With that
warning, we need to acknowledge the strength of the law system. It is too easy to sweep away the rules and
laws which are in scripture without giving them adequate authority. Asking about the laws can provide a helpful
guide.
A second
core system is what I call the “judgment system”. Obviously this is closely related to the
“law” system, but there are differences.
The basic difference as I see it, is that
people who operate from this core system tend to jump directly into
judgment. There is less consideration
about specific rules or laws but lots of fear,
and that seems to be the central focus, fear of God.
The biggest
difference however is that, as I am using this typology, the person using a “judgement core system” tends to focus almost exclusively on
OTHER people! For most people, the idea
that God intends to send THEM to hell would be an indication of significant
psychological problems!! So if they are
not going to condemn themselves to hell, that means
what they do is OK and what others do may not be OK. ..... Note the lack of
scriptural involvement in the thought process.
Still, the
judgment system has a couple strengths.
We certainly should not ignore God’s judgment and that is easy for us to
do. Furthermore, I find occasional
forays into this system can be helpful.
If I can trying to decide whether course of
action A, B, or C is the Christian action, I will sometimes imagine myself
having to explain the choice I made to Jesus in His role as judge. That usually helps clarify my thought process.
A third
core system is “God’s mercy”. Sometimes
this is called “cheap grace” – the idea that God loves everyone, Jesus came for
everyone, so what’s the problem?
The
weakness of course is that can lead us into a “do
whatever I want” attitude. When faced
with an ethical or moral dilemma, the “cheap grace” approach would tend to
choose whatever was best for me
and the heck with everyone else.
The
strength of the “cheap grace” belief system is that it can encourage us to
remember that God does love
everyone. The person I hate and want to mis-treat is a beloved child of God. Consequently hating and mis-treating
that person is not a good idea!
And for
some people this belief system is important because they do not believe God
does, or could love them. So being
reminded that God DOES love everyone, and Jesus DID come for everyone can help
them accept that “everyone” includes them!
Another
core belief system I call “relationship”.
“I accepted Jesus into my life and that is the end of that!!”
The
weakness here is: “that is NOT the end of that!” ...
It is a beginning. One of our bishops
used to try to surprise people by telling them he prayed they would be born
again ... and again .... and
again ... and again. His point was that
any step in our spiritual journey is only a step and only the beginning of the
next step.
Example ...
extreme example
.... several years ago a man attended here a
few times. We went to lunch and he
enthusiastically told how he had accepted Jesus into his life. He told about the 3 men who talked to him,
what restaurant they were at, which table they sat at and which chair was
his. His eyes filled with tears as he
told the story. .... We had scheduled lunch to discuss his cocain
habit and that he was beating his wife.
Plus he had “no visible means of support” and was widely spoken of as a
drug dealer. .... But he had accepted Jesus!
None of us
are in such an extreme situation — that I know of ! But it is easy to become complacent and take
the attitude that “God loves me - end of story”. We need to continue our journey. The more we get to know God, the more
enthusiastic we should be to know God better.
If we complacent and not excited, that means the relationship is pretty
shallow.
The
strength of this core system is that relationship is extremely important. We
need to have a relationship with Jesus – with God. Too often our interaction is more like a one
night stand than a marriage!
And too
often we take the extreme example I used and apply it to anyone who talks about
their relationship with Jesus, especially any beginning or high points in that
journey. Instead of being afraid of, or
dismissive of such people, we should attempt to learn from them and jealously
seek to discover what they have learned.
.... The
weaknesses of the “love your neighbor” system are many. For one thing, we frequently find situations
where two people are in conflict so who do we treat better?
It also can
lead us into being excessively accepting.
Do you know any parents who spoil their children because they cannot
stop giving them anything? “Love your
neighbor” can take you down that path!
We all
probably have a core, foundational Christian moral belief. It may not help us a great deal if we don’t
understand and acknowledge it – but it exists.
Our goal
should be to examine our belief system, decide if it is appropriate, and then
seek to avoid its weaknesses while taking the best parts of the other systems.
With all
the warnings, and caveats, and cautions, let me conclude by quoting from today’s
gospel as Jesus tells us: “A new
commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I loved you, that
you also love one another. By this all
men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
AMEN
We
have previous sermons on our website. To
read an earlier sermon just enter: www.st-christopher.org/sermondate. For example, the July 16, 2006 sermon can be
found at:
www.st‑christopher.org/sermon06-16-06
CLICK
HERE TO RESPOND: I would enjoy reading your comments about this sermon. Please
feel free to discuss content or presentation.
(If you wish to use another email system send
your comments to:
ken@st-christopher.com)