The Cosmic Rescue A Sermon by Rich Holmes on Mark 10: 35-45 Delivered on October 21, 2018 at Northminster Presbyterian Church Whenever I m teaching an ethics class, I always begin my classes by tell my students about something called the Is-Ought gap. You may never have heard of the Is-Ought gap, but I promise you it is not a store in the mall where you can buy hoodies and cargo pants. To think of the Is-Ought gap, let s do this. Let Ought be over here, and let Is be over there. Now, what are the things we call oughts? It ought to be the case that people are treated with dignity and respect, it ought to be the case that there is no war in this world, it ought to be the case that everyone in this world has enough to eat. And then what are the Is things? It is the case that people are treated with disrespect and a lack of dignity. It is the case that we have war in this world. It is the case that even in our own community, there is hunger, not to mention what goes on in most of this world. Well, you see there is a gap between Is and Ought, to put this another way, just because something Is a certain way does not mean that it Ought to be that way, or just because something ought to be a certain way does not mean that it is that way. Now, all that sounds obvious enough, but I think you would be surprised at just how many people need to learn about this Is-Ought gap, including people who should to know better. I think there is a good reason for that. It takes a lot of energy to try and change a world that isn t all that easy to change. I once heard someone say that when you are young you believe you can change the world, when you are middle aged, you realize the world isn t all that easy to change, and when you are old you think the world is not only difficult to change but that it shouldn t change. There is some truth to that. We eventually just come to accept things that are difficult to change. God grant me the serenity accept the things I cannot change, the courage to 1
change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference we pray. But in reality what we should probably be praying is God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can t change as well as the things I m just too lazy to change. The Is-Ought gap is something people have to learn about, because we eventually come to believe that the way things are is the way things ought to be. But as the people of God, I think we all should know about the Is-Ought gap. For you can pick up a paper on any given day and see that things are not as they ought to be. Karl Barth who was one of the greatest theologians of the last century once said that every preacher should preach with a bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, at least that s what I m told he said. But the bible and the Canton Repository sound quite a bit different from each other, don t they? The Bible has the language of ought, and the Canton Repository has the language of is. The Bible says love your neighbor as you love yourself. The Canton Repository says that there was a fatal shooting at a Canton gas station last Saturday afternoon. The Bible says do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The Canton Repository says that last Friday a bomb threat was made to the Pro-Football hall of fame. The Holy Bible says that God will wipe away every tear. The Canton Repository talks about Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael, tornadoes, tsunamis, droughts, wars and famines. What is the reason for all this? Why do we have this Is-Ought gap? Why can t the way things ought to be just be the way they are? Well, as Christians, as the people of God, here is what we say. We say the reason things are this way is because the world as God designed it is not under God s control. It is being held captive by an enemy. God should be in control, but instead someone else is in control. Someone who has no intentions to do good for the creation, 2
to love and protect the creation and care for the creation, someone rather who only wants to destroy the creation. Now, I know that explanation may strike you as being a little silly. If you pick up the repository and read about all the awful things that people do, the reason these things happen, you will tell me is because people decided to do these things, there wasn t some red guy with horns and a pitchfork that made them do it you may tell me. The devil didn t make one man shoot another man at a gas station in Canton last Saturday. The devil didn t make another man make a bomb threat to the Football Hall of Fame last Friday. That s just an excuse, you may tell me. And even a lot of the natural disasters that happen in this world have to do with global climate change and even that has to do with human choices, so to say that the devil did these things is even silly in that case. Well, fine. But to say things that way doesn t really get us anywhere. I wouldn t go around telling you that no one is responsible for what they do. Of course they are responsible. But why do they choose to do these things? Why do we choose to do evil instead of good. Why does it look good to us to harm each other instead of help each other. Why does it look good to us to do everything for ourselves and not for our community or for our neighbor. Why? Well, as the people of God here s what we say. It is because we are tricked. It is because we are deceived. It goes all the way back to the garden of Eden when Eve said the reason she ate the forbidden fruit was because the serpent tricked her. And why are we tricked? Why is it that bad things appear good to us and good things appear bad to us. Well, as the people of God we think we know the answer to that, too. We say it is because we are held in captivity. 3
How many of you remember Patti Hearst? In one of the most bizarre stories of my lifetime, Patti Hearst, who was the daughter of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped by a terrorist group called the SLA or Symbionese Liberation Army. You know, I ve always wondered what a Symbionese is, but apparently there are no Symbionese, it s a completely made up name. Now, for a long time, for months no one knew where Patti Hearst was. Was she dead? Was she alive? People searched and searched for her. Her parents worried sick about her. Finally she showed up. But she didn t show up dead, and she didn t show up on her parents doorstep, but of all places she showed up at a bank. But Patti Hearst wasn t at the bank to make a deposit, she was there to make a withdrawal, by force. Patti Hearst was robbing a bank with submachine gun. She was doing the terrorist dirty work of her captors. Why? That s what happens when you are in captivity, when you don t hear any other voice but the voice of your captors, you come to identify with your captors. And as the people of God, we say that this is what has happened to our world. We are held in captivity and we are deceived because that s what happens to people when they are held in captivity for long periods of time. And we too have been held in captivity for a long period of time. But Jesus says today in this story from Mark that the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many. And what does that mean? Well it means that Jesus came to pay our ransom to set us free from this captivity so we can see things the right way. So that what is good will look good to us. What is evil will look evil to us, and ultimately there will be no more gap between what is and what ought to be. Christ s blood has paid the ransom to set us free so that the way things ought to be in this creation can be the way they actually are. And Christ s blood is precious, Christ s blood pays the 4
ransom because there is no other blood in the universe that is quite like Christ s blood. I saw a t-shirt one time that was comparing Jesus to soldiers who die in armed combat and it said something to the effect of one died for your country and the other died for your sins. Well, I want you to know that I would never say anything to denigrate the service of soldiers who even serve our country in combat, let alone those who die in combat. Their sacrifice should hold a special place in everyone s hearts. But a soldier who dies for his country is not Jesus Christ, and no martyr who dies for any cause is Jesus Christ. Only Jesus could do what Jesus did. The rest of us can t do it. The gospel doesn t tell us that God so loved the world that he sent one of his Sons to die for us, it says he sent his only Son to die for us. I remember in the old movie O God with George Burns and John Denver, George Burns plays the part of God and John Denver plays this rather humble man whom God has revealed himself to and there is a scene in the movie where John Denver has a list of questions for God or George Burns, and one of those questions was Is Jesus Christ the Son of God. And George Burns says Jesus was my son, Buddha was my son, Mohammed Moses, you, the man who said there was no room in the inn was my son. That s right. But not at the time when Jesus died on the cross. Not at that time, we become the sons of God and the daughters of God through adoption. The gospel says that Jesus died for us while we were still sinnners, while we were alienated from God. So Jesus is unique. Jesus is not like us. His blood is holier than any other blood. And this ransom that Jesus talks about was paid by that holy precious blood. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Christ has set us free through his blood and that God is bringing about a new world where there is no difference between what is and what 5
ought to be. Do you believe that Jesus pays the price to free us from captivity? If you do, then what are you going to do with what you believe? 6