Sermon: Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God

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Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God

By Charles Rush

April 28, 2002

read a story recently about a young man who was visiting a Pet store. In the back of the store they had a bird cage that said ‘Sacred Doves of Peace' over the top of it. He noticed a lot of racket inside the cage. Peering in, he saw two white Doves pummeling the feathers off of one another.

A fine movie could be made of the half hour before the beginning of Church. It would show family after family fighting, scolding, threatening, kids screaming, whacking one another… then showing up at church with the Sunday smile. “Hello- everything's under control here.”

We have a family series of photos from when our children were very young. I had the boys in sailor suits, my oldest daughter in pink dress with patent leather shoes. Easter morning. Hair all combed. Just a quick photo before holy worship. I don't know who hit who first. But tears were streaming, Mom was grabbing people, I'm shouting from behind the camera. I decided that day to capture the world as it really is, and the series is some 25 photos of short people crying, pointing, whacking and there is one photo- one- where they are all smiling together. The calm in the midst of warfare. In one sense, that is the world as we know it, and the reality is that we ought to give thanks for the few moments of quiet. On the other hand, people expect more of the Church and they should.

Tony Campolo wrote a book recently entitled, “How to Follow Jesus Without Embarrassing God.” That is a great title for a book. It is true that we have too many examples of pious Christians that have done for Christianity what the Taliban have done for Islam. I think of the Jerry Falwell's and Pat Robertson's of the world, who manage to combine intolerance, xenophobia, chauvinism, literalism, and ignorance- covering it all in the patina of the divine aura. And they deliver it all in a ‘know nothing grin' that is disturbing in it's smug assurance that they alone have a handle on the Almighty.

And then there is the very serious and sad difficulty that the Priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church is roiling through at the moment. I say, at the moment, but that is only because the media has recently uncovered what many of us have known for years. It is particularly painful because it is not only about sex, it is a deep violation of the sacred trust. When you decide to become a public servant, say running for political office, you are implicitly agreeing to hold your self to a higher standard. When you stand for ordination, you are holding yourself to an even higher standard.

This doesn't mean that Ministers, Rabbis, Priests, and Imams are any less human than anyone else. No, it just underscores that there is more at stake. I usually go through a short ritual on Sunday morning, putting on robes. It is a couple short prayers that I say, reminding myself that although I am compromised and get in my own way, God works through me anyway. Conversely, I remind myself in a couple short prayers, that I do not act or speak just for myself, but I have to allow God to work through me. That, by the way, is the symbolism of the stoles that Christian Clergy wear. They are symbols of the yoke of the Gospel, reminders that we can't say whatever we want, but we carry the weight of the Gospel on our shoulders.

I know from bitter experience the damage that is caused by the violation of the sacred trust, since I followed a Minister that violated that sacred trust, in some cases sexually, in other cases emotionally and spiritually. I got to pick up the pieces from the fallout. When I came to this Church, I was deeply grateful for the fine work of healing that Bob Cassels did in the interim, and my colleague Wayne Bradford did all along, but I can only say that the Office of the Minister was damaged in a way that took some people years to re-establish real trust and surely others just turned away from the Church forever. Ministers ought to be held to a higher standard, and I say that with all humility, because only as the years have gone on have I come to fully appreciate the gravitas of the responsibility entrusted on us.

It is difficult for most of us Protestant Clergy to watch what is happening in Rome because we believe that there are inherent problems in the way the Catholic Church is organized hierarchically that impair it's ability to be open and honest. And we believe that there are inherent problems with celibacy and the priesthood and the wider Church attitudes towards sexuality that produce repression and dysfunction that are not likely to be addressed thoroughly or maturely.

It is a problem that could produce a certain cynicism in us if we let it. Our text this morning has a wonderful opening. It says, “always be ready to give an account for the hope that is within you.” That hope vies for a voice with our cynical sides. And for metropolitan New Yorker's we have to constantly corral our wellspring of cynicism.

Someone sent me the ‘Cynics Guide to Life', a list of aphorisms from the jaded side of life.

Like this one. “Take time to stop and smell the roses, and sooner or later, you'll inhale a bee.”

Or this one. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.”

Or this. “I believe that for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows… and a foundation leaks, a car rusts, and a game gets rained out.”

Finally this. “It is always darkest before the dawn. So if you are going to steal your neighbors newspaper, that is the time to do it.”

It is easy to be cynical just looking at our world in all of its depth of tragedy. Perhaps you also read about the Mother talking to her three year old child after September 11th. She was trying to explain the death of her husband, the death of her daughters father and she said something like, “Daddy's in God's hands now.” The three year old, reflecting on the scope of the event, said, “Does God have enough hands?”

A good question that acknowledges the actual depth and scope of tragedy and evil that surround us. Christian faith is not some fatuous, pollyana, just look on the bright side of life, affirmation. We know that there is real evil, real sorrow, real tragedy around us. The hope of Christianity is the affirmation that even death does not stop God's goodness, that “though they meant it for evil, God can use it for good”, that love is more powerful than hatred, and compassion trumps violence and indifference, that the Kingdom of God is pulling us all inexorably to become humane and to live out of our higher selves, and that God will not let any of us go, no matter what. It is a profound hope that guides us through considerable obstacle and setback.

Someone recently sent me an excerpt from a book, a psychological reprise of the limits of an overly realistic view of the world. Apparently in a wide survey of respondents, two researchers found that people who saw the world just as it is were more prone to depression and consistently scored lower overall for satisfaction. Somewhat to their surprise, the researchers found that people who had a slightly too hopeful image of themselves and their ability to control random events that happened around them were not only more healthy, they were generally happier as well. With a lot of statistics, they confirmed that hope has a self-validating, self-integrating quality to it. Hope does not ignore the world, but it is not trapped by the immediate horizon either. Hope sees beyond and through as well.

And the second thing our scripture advises is to be ready to give an account of the hope within us, with gentleness and reverence. There is a dictum attributed to St. Francis, who reportedly said, “Preach the gospel in everything that you do. And if necessary, use words.” Integrity has that kind of radiance to it does it not?

Many of you remember the great British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, especially his early days as an acerbic conservative who wrote for Punch. In 1969, he had the beginning of an odyssey that would eventually change his whole life perspective around, so that at the end of his life Muggeridge became a full-blown Christian and even wrote about it extensively.

He went to India to do a television interview with Mother Teresa in her hospice that cared for the dying in Calcutta. Apparently when they got to the hospice, the camera crew complained that the space was too dark to actually film any tape and they tried to get the sisters of the order and Mother Teresa to be interviewed outside. But they refused, opting instead to go about their normal routine as they ordinarily would. If the tape didn't turn out, so be it.

Muggeridge interviewed Mother Teresa as she was making her rounds. In some substantial ways, Muggeridge was deeply moved by what he saw during the few days that he was there. They got the film back to Britain. The background was indeed dark but the strangest thing about the film was the way that Mother Teresa had something of an effulgent glow about her during the interview. She had a radiance that accompanied her descriptions of compassion towards those that were destitute, her stories of the importance of bestowing dignity upon every single person because they are all children of God.

Mother Teresa was not an embarrassment to God. She did have this way of reflecting gentleness and reverence that our scripture suggests. I'm always hesitant to use her as an example because people too easily say, “Yes, well she is a saint but the rest of us…” And that is baloney and she would be the first to point it out. Actually, you can glow too. There is nothing esoteric or supernatural about what Mother Teresa did. It is actually very humane and something immediately at hand. She never glorified her outreach either, nor should we. But she had an enormous influence on other people who met her because she had integrity and authenticity. She prayerfully turned herself into a conduit for God's compassion and love on a daily basis. That is what it is all about. And when Muggeridge saw the real thing in action, he grew old not as a curmudgeon but as a Christian. Cultivate gentleness and reverence.

Finally, keep a clear conscience, the scripture says. For many of us that is a very difficult challenge. The very nature of the world we live in makes that a challenge does it not? It's easy enough for us to wag a finger at high-flying corporate executives who enrich themselves through unethical accounting practices and bring down major corporations as a result, and for us to say "how shocking, how greedy!". But how would we respond to a friend who brags about exaggerating an injury to obtain an inflated insurance settlement? Or an auto repair mechanic who offers to write two different repair estimates for us -- "one for the insurance company and the other for what the work will actually cost" -- knowing full well that insurance fraud is one of the major reasons for out-of-control insurance rates in New Jersey?

It may be hard to believe, but that is the world that we live in. And there are many of us who have to engage the underside of our society on a regular basis through our work, we have to make choices between seriously morally compromised and moderately morally compromised. We are surrounded by a wider business culture that seemingly praises people that can put aside conscience and feelings and hard ball it when necessary.

But there is a cost to that, a dear cost, which takes its toll. From a distance, people say we are under a great deal of stress. Frankly, stress is a little euphemistic. Tony Soprano, who tells his psychiatrist that his vocation is ‘Waste Management', suffers from periodic fainting spells. In the opening year of the show, it was wonderful to watch him mirror us, sitting in the shrinks office absolutely clueless as to the source of tension that could be causing his black outs. The shrink would suggest that the murder and extortion that he carried out last week might be an emotional burden he was not dealing with directly and Tony would respond, in effect, ‘Yeah, but that's every week… It has to be something else.'

I had a conversation several months ago with a noted psychotherapist on the subject of mid-life crises and men. The discussion started off dealing with sex and why men of a certain age seem so vulnerable to affairs and then it ventured off to the emotional issues of facing mortality and the importance of developing real meaning in their lives. And then it ventured off to the importance of respect with their spouse and the challenges to develop that. Finally, the psychotherapist said to me, ‘but in the background, often, is the spiritual issue.' I said, ‘what do you mean?' And he said, ‘something happens, sometimes it appears small, but it moves them over a line. They can no longer live in the contradiction and they want out right now.'

None of us can really avoid the contradiction. That is one of Christianity's salient insights. We are all deeply involved in the contradiction. However, let us not deceive ourselves forever that there is not a cost to the contradiction or that it is not emotionally and spiritually expensive. “Keep a clear conscience” says our text. It is a good rule of thumb.

Be ready to give account of the hope that is within you. Live with gentleness and reverence. Keep a clear conscience. If this advice sounds like something you would find in a fortune cookie to remember while the Minister is gone, it is. Not particularly deep but some important truths aren't.

With this sermon I say, ‘goodbye' and head off to England. I would remind you that the word ‘goodbye' is a short version from the ancient Anglo-Saxon saying for ‘God bless you.' I mean that in every sense, not least of which, you can count on me to regularly lift you up in prayer wherever I am and whatever I am doing. And I will lift Julie and Tom, our able Associate Ministers up, and you do the same. I will see you in September and may all of us be stronger, more filled with grace and truth.

Amen.