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Cape Elizabeth Church of the Nazarene |
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Texts: Romans 5:12-19,
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, Matthew 4:1-11
I don’t mean to brag. . . but, basically, I’m a pretty good person.
I follow the laws of the land -- most of the time. Sometimes I drive faster than the law suggests (it’s a
suggestion, right?). But, I don’t
kill people or steal or abuse others. Basically,
if I say so myself, I’m a pretty good person.
I am a good law abiding citizen. Under
the structure and order of our democracy, I’m free to do whatever I want,
whenever I want to do it. I’m
free to say whatever I want to say and to go wherever I want to go.
But I don’t stay out too late or cause any problems.
I may go five or (when I’m in a hurry) ten miles over the speed limit
but, at least, I don’t drive
under the influence of alcohol. I’m
a pretty good person especially when compared to those other people; those
people who kill and steal and abuse. I’m
a pretty good person, and you probably are too, when held up in contrast to
thugs, murders, thieves and abusers.
In light of recent events in life -- September 11, 2001; the Enron
collapse; “skate-gate” -- we observe evil and wrong doing and quickly
determine where we fit on the continuum. With
Osama bin Laden, John Walker Lindt and the al-Qaida regime as most evil and the
French and Russian judges as least evil there is no question where we place
ourselves. We may fudge a few numbers here or keep the extra change
there but we’re not inherently, grossly evil people -- especially when
compared those brutal beasts who kill innocent children and rape defenseless
women! We’re pretty good people!
A cartoon in The New Yorker magazine: Two clean-shaven middle-aged
men are sitting together in a jail cell. One
inmate turns to the other and says: “All along, I thought our level of
corruption fell well within community standards.”
[Dynamic Preaching, vol. 5, no. 2 (February 1990):9].
We’re pretty good people -- especially compared with those out there!
But, as Paul states clearly in his letter to the church at Rome, the
standard against which we are compared is not a sick society as the cartoon
suggest. The standard is God
himself. Holy, blameless, perfect.
-- that’s the standard. And we
all fall far short of that! We all
far short of the very image of God -- even with all our charitable contributions
and random acts of kindness.
The Genesis narrative, which was read earlier, records the temptation of
Adam and Eve which culminated in the Fall of all humanity.
The scene unfolds before us. God
created Adam and Eve in His own image and likeness and placed them in a serene,
peaceful garden. He entrusted them
with complete dominion over the entire created order with but one condition; one
commandment: “And the Lord God
commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that
you eat of it you shall die” (2:17).
And we all know what happened. . . After
being deceived and duped by the serpent Eve ate from the fruit of the tree and
she gave some to Adam and he ate. “Then
the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves”
(3:7). In that act
they died. . . and we died -- Spiritually!
Death, as God promised if they ate from the forbidden tree, was not
physical. Rather, there eyes were
opened and they saw their own nakedness. John
Wesley says, “Man was created looking directly to God, as his last end; but
falling into sin, he fell off from God, and turned into himself.”
They saw themselves. They
fix their eyes on themselves and destruction followed.
As their eyes were not directed toward God evil manifest itself in
concrete forms. Cain murdered Abel.
Then, in the days leading up to Noah’s building project, God took
notice that his creation was intent on only evil.
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil
continually. And the Lord was sorry
that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart”
(Gen. 6:5-6).
Every inclination of the thoughts of there hearts was only evil
continually! They were dead to God
-- we are dead to God. They were bent in upon themselves -- we are bent in upon
ourselves. All they could do was
evil and self-serving. Somewhere on
the scale between Osama bin Laden and “skate-gate,” somewhere between murder
and tipping the marketplace scale in their favor, evil and sin manifest itself
in their everyday activities. The
pious among them, like us, interrupted this ludicrous accusation proclaiming
“but I’m basically a good person!”
But, as Paul states clearly in his letter to the church at Rome, the
standard against which we are compared is not a sick society, it is God himself.
Holy, blameless, perfect. -- that’s the standard.
And we all fall far short of that! We
all far short of the very image of God -- even with all our charitable
contributions and random acts of kindness.
Paul, in today’s reading, gets to the heart of the matter.
Or, shall we say, to the core of the problem.
As a child we are instructed that Adam and Eve ate an apple. How does a worm get inside an apple? Does the worm burrow in from the outside?
No, scientists have discovered that the worm comes from inside. But how
does he get in there? Simple! An insect lays an egg in the apple blossom.
Sometime later, the worm hatches in the heart of the apple, then eats his way
out. Just like the worn, sin begins
in the heart and works out through a person's thoughts, words, and actions (Heaven
and Home Hour Radio Bulletin. ).
John Wesley, in his sermon entitled “God’s Love to Fallen Man” drawn
from our Romans text, states poignantly what humanity looks like when “every
inclination of our hearts is evil continually”; reveals what we look like when
we are dead to God. Wesley writes: “Not only [are we] deprived of the favour
[sic] of God, but also of his image, -- of all virtue, righteousness, and true
holiness; and sunk, partly into the
image of the devil -- in pride, malice, and all other diabolical tempers; partly
into the image of the brute, being fallen under the dominion of brutal passions
and grovelling appetites. Hence
also death entered into the world, with all his forerunners and attendants, --
pain, sickness, and a whole train of uneasy, as well as unholy, passions and
tempers.”
Being dead to God is being sinful. Sin
-- that dirty “S”-word -- is not simply a “bad” action.
Rather, Sin -- “the inclination to do evil” -- is a power under which
humankind has lived since Adam causing separation from -- even rejection of --
God. When Adam sinned he missed the
mark. Not because he was a bad
marksman! But because he chose the
wrong target: self instead of God. Thereby
sin entered into the world. Not
just one mere “bad” act entered, but Paul clearly states that “the” Sin
-- “the sin principle” became a continual part of our lives.
And this is exactly what Paul is addressing in his letter to the church
at Rome.
During Jesus day a good person keep over six hundred commandments.
Commandments like: going to the synagogue, engaging in fair marketplace
transactions, leaving gleanings on the edges of their field or praying for the
sick. Coming to church every
Sunday, volunteering at the Root Cellar, serving as a Sunday School teacher,
delivering Meals on Wheels, praying for the sick, feeding the hungry does not
entitle us to the grace of God. Nothing
gives us the right or entitles us to demand anything from God. The grace of God is a free gift. And that’s all it can be because when God -- Holy,
blameless, perfect -- is the standard there is no way we can ever match up!
The reason that Paul is so anxious about proclaiming the gospel in Rome
is to communicate the message that one can be set free from the bondage of sin;
that one can be set free from being inclined to evil continually.
Paul is anxious to tell his friends that one does not have to live life
inclined to evil continually. “Oh
yeah, I keep forgetting. We’re
basically good people.” This
sermon is probably for someone like Osama -- not for us!
You’re right. You probably
look pretty good when held up in contrast to thugs, murders, thieves and
abusers. But, as Paul states clearly in his letter to the church
at Rome, the standard against which we are compared is not a sick society, it is
God himself. Holy, blameless,
perfect -- that’s the standard. And
we all fall far short of that! We
all far short of the very image of God -- even with all our charitable
contributions and random acts of kindness.
Hear this: “there is not enough good you can do to match the standard
revealed in the person and work of Jesus the Christ.”
No one is good enough. We
cannot keep enough commandments. We
are dead -- spiritually. We are
inherently evil -- until the grace of God makes us alive in Christ.
We may look better than our neighbors or others, but when we realize that
God Himself is the standard -- Holy, blameless, perfect -- we can never match
up.
The Good News today is this: “you don’t need to try and match up!”
Eugene Petersen paraphrases these words from Romans: “Here it is in a
nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with
sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into
life! One man said no to God and
put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the
right” (The Message, Romans 5:18-19).
Paul reminds us that the crucifixion of Jesus was the crucifixion of
“our old self” and his resurrection the creation of the “new self in
righteousness and true holiness.” In
the purpose and plan of God, the crucifixion and death of Jesus was the
“conclusion” of the old Adam and the resurrection of Jesus the
“commencement” of the new life in Christ.
In others words, in his death the old was of living -- the life
continually inclined to evil -- dies and in his resurrection a new way of living
-- life full of Christ’s love for God and others --
begins. The Gospel message
is clear: the free gift of God’s grace is Jesus -- his death; his
resurrection! GRACE.
It’s amazing. G - R - A -
C- E -- God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense!
And about keeping those over six hundred commandments contained in the
Old Testament to show in concrete form who you really are. . . Jesus boils all
those commandments down to this: “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind. This is the
first and greatest commandment. And
the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
The work of God in Christ makes all this law-keeping a moot discussion. .
. because a heart completely disposed to God holds no room for evil because it
has been and is being filled continually with the love of God;
Holy, blameless, perfect love -- for Him and for others -- all to His
greater glory! |
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