SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS

Transcription

1 SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS by Randy L. Hyde, D. Min. Senior Pastor Pulaski Heights Baptist Church Little Rock, AR Psalm 37:1-9; Luke 6:27-38 January 15, 2017 GOOD MEASURE, PRESSED DOWN, SHAKEN TOGETHER, RUNNING OVER In a recent phone conversation with my friend John Killinger, he told me about the crossword puzzle he had worked on that morning. One clue was, Where children play. Three letters, he told me. The answer? LAP. That s not necessarily what Jesus was referring to when he said to his disciples, A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. This is not a playground he is talking about. Lap refers to the fold of the garment (worn by men in that day) which fell down over the girdle and served as a pocket. 1 The girdle functioned much like a belt would today... kinda held things together, don t you know. What will be put into the lap? A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over... What does that mean? After some consideration, I have come to this conclusion: I think it means, when all is said and done, that what you give is what you get. The context of our reading this morning, which is a portion of Luke s version of the Sermon on the Mount, is dealing with those who don t think or live or to use Paul s expression, have their being the way you and I do. Jesus speaks of enemies and how we are to relate to them, of judgment and what it does to diminish our spirit. Whether we respond to anger and injustice with love or hatred,

2 or treat favorably only those who do us well, what we give is what we get. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over... It is difficult, if not impossible, to do. Loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, letting someone take our coat, giving to beggars... that s not on the top of our list of want-to s these days. Sometimes, we just have it up to here with kindness and patience because the people toward whom we are to behave this way do not respond in kind. One of my all-time favorite cartoons is of two buzzards sitting on a tree branch. One looks at the other, and with a rather laconic expression on its face says to the other, Patience nothing, I m going to kill something. Ever feel that way? More often than not, the objects of our anger are closer to home. I remember the Christmas commercial of a few years ago sponsored by Office Depot. An attractive young lady has discovered that not only can she purchase all her gifts at Office Depot, she can ship them from the store as well. Christmas obligations fulfilled, all in one location, easy peasy. The commercial shows her friends and family members receiving their gifts from her. Her father is delighted with what he was sent, as is her brother. Another young man opens a box expecting to find a Christmas gift inside. It s empty, he says. We are told he is the ex-boyfriend. And did you see where a young man in Texas broke up with his girlfriend just before Christmas? Evidently he didn t want to buy her a gift for the holiday. But she had already purchased his: two highly-prized tickets to the Cowboys football game on the 50 yard-line. Needless to say, she invited someone else to the game, and posted it all on Facebook. We all get our revenge in different ways, but of all the days of the year, do you know what is the most popular, not to mention profitable, day for revenge? Valentines Day! Maybe I should have waited until next month to preach on this text. But anger and revenge really know no holiday. These are emotions we all feel, at least from time-to-time. And Jesus felt strongly enough about it to talk about it with his disciples. Perhaps he talks about this because the need to get even for those wrongs that have been done was such a common commodity in his day.

3 Just the other day I came up with an idea for a sermon, or maybe even a series of sermons. As it percolates a little more I ll let you know which way I go with that. The idea? It has to do with not liking Jesus... at all. Why? Well, I ll give you a sneak preview. Consider... $ He wasn t nice to his mother. $ He bossed people around, without saying please. $ His instructions are too hard to follow. $ He let people suffer, and sometimes die. $ He takes sides, and too often it isn t my side. This portion of Luke s gospel should be fertile soil for me to consider when thinking of things that make me not like Jesus. Why? Because Jesus tells us things we don t want to hear. He says that God is completely impartial when it comes to the good guys and the bad guys. What a discouraging, not to mention irritating, idea. In fact, it s hard to believe, perhaps because when it is held up against the backdrop of common sense it just doesn t make sense. He says that we are to do what God asks of us, and it s a long list of things to do: love our enemies, do good to those who hate us (surely that doesn t include terrorists, does it?), bless those who curse us, pray for those who abuse us, turn the other cheek to those who strike us, give our shirt to those who would steal our coat, give to everyone who begs from us, don t expect a return on those items someone has taken from us. It sounds like Jesus wants his followers to be a bunch of wimpy doormats. So let s see if we ve got this straight. God expects us to respond kindly to evil. In other words, if we are going to be his children God places the burden on us when it comes to these unreasonable expectations. Yet, God turns right around and offers dispensation to the ungrateful and wicked by being kind to them. Does that mean God is letting them off the hook while holding our feet to the fire? That s not fair! If that s the case, why do we bother to try and live a life of faith? I remember going through a particularly difficult time in a church I served a number of years ago. My mantra became, Somebody has to act like a Christian around here. I guess it might as well be me. But it didn t keep me from holding a 3

4 grudge. Nor does it help me understand more clearly when Jesus says, For God (he) is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. But there it is, there it is. So what are we going to do with it? I can tell you what most people do. They ignore it. Jesus comes in handy when it comes to other things, but when he makes impossible demands like these we just steer clear and focus on those things of faith that are more easily managed. Otherwise, we might find ourselves not liking Jesus... at all. But let me ask you: do you think his words were easier to accept by those who heard them the first time? The people to whom Jesus first addressed his remarks were surrounded by the occupation forces of the Romans. Every time they turned around, there was either a mean-spirited soldier throwing his weight around or a conniving tax collector with his hand out. They were either being manhandled by spear-carriers or these hated money-grubbers, fellow Jews who had sold out to the Roman establishment. The people who heard Jesus say these things seemed to have no options when it came to their religious expression. The Jewish leadership was corrupted, and the common people, the ones who listened to Jesus the most, were suspicious of their religious leaders... and rightfully so. The chief priests and rabbis had heaped heavy restrictions and expectations upon them at every turn while lining their own pockets and making sure they were well taken care of by the Romans. It was a cynical, evil world in which Jesus lived, and those who represented God often made it worse, not better. So when it came to offering examples of how God s people were to love their enemies, Jesus had a lot of material from which to draw. Bless those who curse you, turn the other cheek, walk the second mile, etc, etc, etc. These weren t just ideological examples, they were common, almost every day experiences, to those who heard Jesus talk about all this. But how does this relate to us? When we go out of our homes we can pick and choose where we want to go, relatively free of fear as long as we don t venture into certain areas of town, certainly after dark. We have the option to do everything we can to avoid the kinds of confrontations Jesus is talking about. So is Jesus out of step with where we live? 4

5 Are you familiar with the term cognitive dissonance? You ll find it in psychology circles. It refers to the ambivalence or confusion we feel when our expectations collide with our experiences. Cognitive speaks of thinking and dissonance has to do with being out of balance. Do you remember the old Lost in Space TV program? When the robot ran into difficult situations it was unable to manage, it would wave its arms wildly in the air and shout, That does not compute! That does not compute.! When life doesn t compute, we experience cognitive dissonance... For example, when the playground bully punches us in the nose and we know we are not to retaliate in kind. Still, our impulse, if we have the physical ability to do it is to knock his block off, not unlike what Ralphie does finally to the neighborhood bully in the movie classic A Christmas Story. He had yellow eyes! I swear, he had yellow eyes! Cognitive dissonance is when someone says something unkind and untrue about us and our natural inclination is to follow suit. It is the tension that comes from knowing right from wrong but also admitting that wrong sometimes feels right, is something we live with just about every day. Michael Christenson lived and worked for awhile with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. He didn t necessarily have a problem with cognitive dissonance, but after just a few weeks he had seen enough blood and ooze, as he puts it, to last a lifetime. He felt he couldn t take it any more and confessed to Mother Teresa just how he felt. Michael, did you see Jesus today? she asked him. See Jesus? What do you mean? All he had seen was suffering, disease, and death. When we love the poor, Mother Teresa explained, we do not first see the poor; first we see Jesus! We are not social workers. We are ministers of Christ s love. What we do, we do for Jesus! And when we pick up a body off the street and nurture him back to health, we do it for Jesus. It is His face we see in the faces of the poorest of the poor! 5

6 Then she took his hand in hers and said, Michael, the gospel of Jesus Christ is written on your fingers. She slowly pointed to each of his fingers and said, Youdid-it-to-me. And then she said softly, At the end of your life, your five fingers will either excuse you or accuse you for having done it to the least of these. Youdid-it-to-me. 2 We don t have a problem with seeing the least of these as the poor and disadvantaged, but what if Jesus looked at evil people the same way he looked at the poor and crippled and starving? What if Jesus sees people all people and views them all the same? What if Jesus has the same spirit of compassion and love toward our enemies as he does toward us? Can we handle that possibility? Can we? The answer we give to that question says a great deal about how willing we are to struggle with the really difficult dimensions of our faith. How, then, are we to follow this difficult-if-not-impossible teaching of Jesus? Give this a try, if you will... Remove the hesitance from your faith. By that I mean take the initiative in what you do. Don t wait for others to love you before you love them. Chances are, they re not going to do it, so do it first. Don t look for someone to care for you first. Chances are, they re not going to do it. So you care for them before they think of it. Don t expect someone to do a kindness for you. Chances are, they re not going to do it. So you be kind to them, no strings attached. Take the initiative. Do it first, and by doing so you will be Christ to them. Our behavior is not to be a response either positive or negative to the way others treat us. We are to live, not defensively, but on the offense. What we do, and how we do it, are prompted by the God we worship and serve, not by how we feel at any given moment or in response to what someone else has done to us. Take the initiative in your faith, and let that initiative always be based on sacrificial love. That, I think, is at least some of what Jesus is telling us. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. So place your hand in your lap and point to your fingers. You. Did. It. To. Me. 6

7 At the outset of our reading today, Jesus said, But I say to you that listen... that listen. Have you heard what he said? Well, have you? Father, raise us up to a higher level of faith as we share Jesus love with others. In his name we pray, Amen. Notes 1 Malcolm O. Tolbert, The Broadman Bible Commentary, Volume 9 (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1969), p Wayne Stacy, Called to Be God s People, (unpublished sermon, October 24, 1999). 7