Proud to be an Old Fogey

Transcription

1 GLORIA DEI LUTHERAN CHURCH, April 8, 2018; Pascha II Lectionary / Selected: Psalm 148; Acts 4:23-31; I John 1-2; John 20:19-31 (NLT) Sermon Hymn: Thine Is the Glory (LBW 145) Anthem: Proud to be an Old Fogey There is a story about a family who had a treasure. It had been handed down through several generations. It was a genuine antique vase. It was kept on a mantel in the living room as a special object of enjoyment and great beauty. One day when the lady of the house came home, she was greeted by her daughter. The daughter said, Mamma, you know that vase you told us has been passed down from generation to generation? Her mother acknowledged that she did in fact know the vase and her daughter then said, Mamma, this generation just dropped it. Now considering that, we can see many other things that the younger generations have dropped. Traditional morality is not the least of them. Did you note my words? Traditional and morality. In our so-called modern day, morality has gotten a truly bad rap. What is supposedly moral today would be completely unrecognizable to folks living as recently as a half century ago. Furthermore, the concept of what constitutes traditional has also been under assault for at least that long as well. It has become so ingrained in our social consciousness that for most people, the gut reaction to something that is traditional is that it s old fashioned in the very worst ways. It is retroactive, attempting to recover the very worst aspects of past, backward societal

2 norms. Thus traditional marriage of one biological man and one biological woman is so last century, so out-of-date, so obsolete that those still supporting it, still subscribing to it, are dismissed as neanderthals or worse. Declared to be impediments to the progress of society, they re vilified for keeping people from the glorious future of unimpeded freedom of total licentiousness, of self-realization and self-actualization. Notice the repeating adjectives there self? Yes, the long-awaited and highly anticipated future is truly defined none other than by self. Funny, though, how the closer we come to realizing this future utopia, the more shootings, the more killings, the more pain, anguish, loneliness and self-destructive behavior abounds. Could it possibly be that the future utopia were progressing to is not a utopia at all, but in reality, hell with a new name, new packaging and branding? Katie Zezima, in the New York Times, 2006: The Huntington River Gorge, near Richmond, Vermont, is beautiful but deadly. In the last forty years, twenty persons (mostly young adults in their twenties and thirties) have lost their lives in the gorge. Hundreds of gorge swimmers have been injured. On the surface the water of the gorge looks calm and placid, but beneath it are strong currents that run swiftly over treacherous waterfalls and whirlpools. Public safety officials have designated the gorge the single most deadly place in the state. Warning signs have been posted on a side of the gorge, reading, When the water is high due to rain or snowmelt, especially powerful currents can easily!2

3 sweep you over the falls and trap you underneath the water. People are debating about what to do about the gorge. Some argue for more public information about the gorge s risks. Others want to ban anyone from visiting the place. Meanwhile, swimmers continue to be attracted to the scene. One college student attending the University of Vermont just fourteen miles from the gorge said she had heard about the beauty of Huntington River Gorge and wanted to see it. She said people already know about the dangers and try their best to be careful. You can t change the water, and you can t stop people from going in, she said. That college student was right about far more than she knew. For what she described about the Huntington River Gorge is just as true for all of life. Regardless of the signs, people are regularly losing their lives there. Despite the warnings, young people take chances. Some pay the ultimate price. One hopes they were ready to face eternity. Chances are they weren t, because if they were, they would have heeded the signs. God gave us a comprehensive list of warning signs. He had them written down and they re readily accessible in most places of the world, especially in places once permeated with the Gospel. But people would rather not read His words, let alone heed the warnings. And so, slowly but surely, they turn away, farther and farther away, until they re going in the absolute opposite directions that our loving Father God s word says and shows we must go in. And then people wonder why calamities and catastrophes increase.!3

4 What does our spiritual father John tell us in his first letter addressed to his spiritual children in the faith? Among so many vital points, he tells us in 2:24: you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning (my emphasis). Meaning, to hold on to the traditional Gospel, never change it, keep all of it, not just some of it. The Word of God has been spoken, and written down. Here s the transcript. It is the law. It s as old as the hills, and will never change. Because the Person Who decreed it is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). No, there are no new, better interpretations of this or that that change, refine or make clearer the meanings of certain ordinances and commands in the Bible. The words mean what they have always meant. Even if more and more of them are politically incorrect in the eyes of the liberal secularists that never stop screaming about this issue or that. Just because they declare such and such is normal and right and good, does not mean that it is normal, right or good, if it goes against the plain meaning of The Rule Book. Our forefather John warns about antichrists. He s speaking of both the future antichrist, and of the antichrist unclean spirits, demons, that infected the world of his day, and perhaps are even more numerous in our own day. It s not hard to see them working in worldly-influential celebrities and high profile leaders today. They are all trying to sell us a bill of goods that promises a good life of wealth, ease, happiness, self-fulfillment and prosperity. Indeed, there are fewer people living in extreme poverty in the world!4

5 today than ever before. The living standards of the entire world have never been higher. By God s common grace, capitalism, despite its inherent human flaws, has produced more wealth than the world has ever known. The numbers of the uber-rich are steadily increasing, and the wealth they control is also piling up. Despite them, the average person in the world now lives a life with more comforts, abundant food and less toil than ever before. Why soon, there will be more cell phones in use around the world than the global population! And people are now better connected to each other than ever. The numbers of accounts on social media platforms is growing steadily and now ties together nearly half the world s people. And yet, are people really more deeply connected, more unified than in the last century? Are people happier, more contented, more peaceful than before? Is the utopian promise of the new world order being realized? Can we see our global paradise led by a one-world government just around the corner? True, many people who have benefited from the increase of worldly riches have more leisure than could be imagined in past decades, but are their lives more peacefully secure? Do their lives have more meaning than others who have less, and no time for leisure? Is it possible that the real meaning of life itself is more distant and puzzling than it was even just a few decades ago? Why, are the modern, liberated progressives truly better off where it really counts, compared to the maligned old fogeys? Mark Moody reported: At the market in Mexico City, old!5

6 Pota-lamo had twenty strings of onions for sale. An American tourist asked, How much for a string of onions? Ten cents, said Pota-lamo. How much for two strings? Twenty cents. How much for all twenty strings? asked the American. I would not sell you twenty strings, replied Pota-lamo. Why not? Aren t you here to sell your onions? No, replied the old merchant. I am here to live my life. I love this marketplace. I love the crowds and the red serapes. I love the sunlight and the wavering palmettos. I love to have friends come by and say buenos dias and talk about the babies and the crops. That is my life. For that I sit here all day and sell my twenty strings of onions. But if I sell all my onions to one customer, then my day is ended. I have lost the life I love and that I will not do. Life is God s gift. It does not belong to us. Its value does not lie in all the things we accomplish or all the wealth we create and stockpile, or even in the people we befriend along the way. Life is what we live for God, His purposes, led by His Word, directed by His Spirit. And frankly, if we re in the least bit led and directed by Him and the Bible, we grow wiser as we grow older. Precious few are wise beyond their years, thus the reverse is equally true. The younger, the stupider, and to think that children know better than adults is the height of stupidity. Newness, youth, is not only not better, usually it is ignorance, purified. Whether you are old or younger, are you an old fogey? If so, stand up and be proud of your wisdom. Pray it, and share it, even if nobody wants to listen.!!6