25th Sunday after Pentecost 2008 Proper 26
November 02, 2008
the Rev. Ken Kroohs
(Isaiah 45:1-7; Ps. 96:1-13; I Thessalonians
1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22)
St. Christopher’s, High
Point, NC
MAY THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE MEDITATIONS OF
ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU --- OUR STRENGTH AND OUR
REDEEMER AMEN
Today we essentially have two church days in one. We celebrate All Saint’s Day and our regular
Sunday.
Some people don’t fully understand what we mean by “All Saints
Day”. Yes, it does include people like
Saint Paul or Saint Matthew whose words we just heard read. But it also includes all those people in our
lives who have shown us a glimpse of sainthood .... shown us just a touch of
what it means to live in a godly manner.
What’s great about this combination day is that the readings for Sunday
link wonderfully with the concept of the saints in our lives. .... Even if the
link is in somewhat negative fashion.
Jesus and Micah talk about what are the characteristics of a “non-saint”
.... of a person NOT living as God intends.
So from their descriptions we can glimpse some of the saintly qualities
we should seek to emulate.
First let me note that Micah may be my favorite Old Testament
book. I really like Micah ... The
entire book is 11 pages long – if you have a small print Bible it is even less!
Micah does not dance around or tell long stories. He just gets right to the point — and it
usually is a very sharp, very real point.
“Prophets who lead God’s people astray, who cry ‘peace’ while they
have something to eat but declare war against those who put nothing in their
mouth” .... talk about a direct attack on greed, selfishness and
insensitivity.
The Book of James in the New Testament has a very similar
teaching. Which is one of the reasons
James is a favorite book of mine!
Later Micah talks about leaders who “abhor justice and pervert
equity ... give judgement for a bribe, teach for a price, give prophecy for
money and then say “no harm will come to us because God is with us” .....
have we not seen leaders, secular and religious who fit that description? Don’t we read, seemingly every week, about
an elected leader who is convicted of crimes Micah just described? (On both sides of the aisle.) And don’t we read, if not every week, much
too often of religious leaders who are convicted of these same types of crimes?
Or possibly even worse, hear of or see secular and religious
leaders who act as Micah describes but somehow are allowed to continue to abuse
the people around them. ... Can’t we put names to Micah’s descriptions?
Jesus picks up on Micah’s condemnations and paraphrases
them. He talks about leaders who “talk
the talk” but do not “walk the walk”.
Leaders who give impossible tasks to their followers and then refuse to
live up to those standards. Even more,
they give impossible tasks to their followers, refuse to live up those same
standards, and refuse to help their followers.
Jesus especially attacks the egotistical ones. The ones with big fancy houses and big fancy
cars (in modern terms) who get the best place at the Country Club and
restaurants while claiming to be servants of the people.
Maybe like a US Senator who rants and raves against corruption
while having a contractor build his house for free. Or an elected official who speaks against the power of money but
takes more than they can spend. .... Again, both sides of the aisle. The latest one convicted is simply that –
the latest one convicted. The next one
is likely to be from the other political party. ..... Isn’t that sad? ....
Isn’t that exactly what Jesus and Micah were railing against?
The people who claim to be so great and wonderful and moral but
then when the light shines on them, they are as dirty as anyone.
Those people ........ If that is the way we read those
lessons we are reading them as “those” people would want us to. If we read these lessons as referring to
“those other people” and not to us – we miss the entire lesson.
Sure these teachings are directed at the community leaders ...
but they apply just as much to anyone.
We all are leaders in one way or another. We all influence the people around us. We all have the opportunity to set a standard .... the only
question is: What standard? Do we act
in ways that call Micah and Jesus to condemn us? ....... Or a better question
would be: “do we frequently act in those ways?” because we all fail — at some
time or other we fail to live up to our own standards, much less God’s
standards. As St. Paul says in another
passage, we are all sinners, everyone.
Assume for a moment that the people around us know we are
Christians. Whether they see us go to
church or wear a cross or however they know we are Christians.
Do they always see us live as Christians? ... One time I was cut off
in traffic by a very rude person, and I start to “wave” at them. But then I remembered I had my collar on!!
We may not have such obvious symbols of our Christianity but
maybe it would be a good thing if we always did. Something to make us think twice about how we behave towards the
people around us. It could be as simple
as throwing trash out the car window.
Or being rude to the check out clerk. Or nasty gossip about
someone.
Or it could be things “left undone” ... not helping the person open
the door. Not offering a chair. Not contributing to a cause.
But we know it is impossible to always live up to those
standards, so what do we do? .... Do we just shrug our shoulders and walk away?
.... Do we pretend — act as if we have lived up to the standards until we
believe it ourselves? Do we keep
beating our heads against the wall?
Trying, failing, and then punishing ourselves for the failures?
None of those options sounds very attractive. None sound as if God would teach them. So what do we do?
I believe the first step is to admit we are not living up to the
standards. Like an alcoholic who must
begin treatment by admitting their problem, we can make no progress unless we
admit we need to make progress. My
failures are legion — as in many. I do
not say that with pride, or with a sense of extreme sorrow. I say it with a
sense of reality. And I say it because
only if I identify my failures do I have any chance to correct or at least
reduce those failures.
So the first step is to admit we are not living up to the
standards.
I suspect the second step, one I sometimes think is first but I
believe usually it is second .... the second step is to acknowledge that there
are standards!
I believe God created us with a sense of right and wrong so we
could acknowledge our failures without knowing exactly how we are failing. BUT, to correct those failures we must spend
time understanding the standards. Only
then can we seek to improve.
Micah and Jesus spoke about some of the major failures – ego,
selfishness, power hungry, influence hungry.
If you want to have fun, ask a group of therapists what is the core
human failing. That should start an
argument!!
In my opinion “ego” or “selfishness” is the core. If you remember that is what lead Adam and
Eve astray — ego. So watch for
instances when our ego is “encouraging” us to act in a certain way.
For example, our ego encourages us to put down another person so
we look better ... or think we look better. .... Yes, most of the current political
ads fit that description but don’t we all act that way at times?
Our ego encourages us to buy things we might not be able to
afford because we want to look better in comparison to other people. ..... What
difference does it make how we look in comparison to other people? .... The
difference is how it affects our ego.
I suspect that if we take time to reflect on the people we call
every day saints in our lives we will find that the things which make us think
of them are times when they let go of their ego. Times when they thought about other people before themselves.
May we all take time to remember, and to be inspired by the
saints of our lives.
AMEN
We have previous sermons on our website. To read an earlier recent sermon just enter:
www.st-christopher.org/sermon.html.
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)