Warts and All

A friend gave me a bit of trivia the other day that I found fascinating. It was called “A Perspective on Today’s Government,” and it gave just a few basic bits of information. Some of you might have guessed it would catch my attention, if you knew my math background, because it started out with:

The Pythagorean Theorem: 24 words.
The Ten Commandments: 179 words
The Gettysburg Address: 286 words.
The Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words… and the last:
Federal regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 words!

Well, there are other perspectives on today’s government, as we all know, and people are usually pretty free about discussing them openly. In our discussions, without trying to observe the whole world, we acknowledge that we are in a war, one that’s pretty controversial right now, and there are good people on both sides of that issue. At the same time, our country has internal security issues, prisons and jails throughout the country are over capacity, drug and alcohol use has grown exponentially, health care and insurance costs are out of sight and not even available for many, we’ve got serious border issues—and we all know the list doesn’t end there!

To focus in on a specific situation, there’s some interesting new data about the “blue laws” some states have. Probably many here do not even know what a “blue law” is, because they kind of went out on the west coast before all the rest of the country, but a blue law prohibits shopping on Sundays. It’s probably hard for us to believe that there even were such things, but what’s happened now that there’s freedom to shop on Sunday, is that, believe it or not, people’s daily living habits have deteriorated. Now that the stores are open, drinking and drug use has increased, according to economists, while church attendance has decreased! Attendance went from 37% down to 32%--and—those changes in drinking and drug use were largest among the church attendees!

You know there’s much more that could be said about today’s problems in our country, because we’ve got plenty of them. On the most deeply personal level, California pastor Rick Warren, author of the Purpose Driven Life series, noted “Life’s a series of problems. Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one.” I know many of you will not find that difficult to agree with, but it could easily be a statement that would fit our country, couldn’t it? We’ve got WARTS, friends! All this—and much more—in this country of independence, this nation of freedom!

It’s problems that caused the Psalmist to cry out in despair to God for help, in the scripture prayer that we read earlier. Maybe it seemed even worse because it was night time when the Psalmist was lamenting.. but then, suddenly he remembers what powerful and wonderful things God had done for him long ago—good works, mighty deeds, redemption, guidance, even miracles. Maybe… just maybe… there’s hope for all of us, if we can just remember those possibilities of old!

Well, along comes Jesus and we zip forward from the time of the Psalmist to the time of the Apostle Paul who believed all that Jesus had revealed to him, and tried to pass it on to all the new young churches, such as the one at Galatia. Paul’s letter constitutes a spiritual letter of independence. At a time when laws were oppressive and so many rigid rules had been laid out for the people, Paul gave them a message for all time on how to live, the message that is just as valid for all of us today, to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We heard it when George preached recently, as the greatest commandment.

With that, Paul clarified that Christ has set us free. We are called to be free. It becomes imperative to join these concepts, for a full understanding of freedom in Christ. We have been given our freedom, but with a clarification of how to use it. God’s grace has been so fully revealed in our lives through all that He has done for us in Jesus Christ, that we are compelled to love him fully in response and live out our lives in service to Him in this way. We are free creatures who are servants of God, loving because he first loved us. To “love our neighbors as ourselves,” means to serve others as we serve Christ. What a gift… and what a commitment!

Yet freedom in Christ is not a license to carry this to extreme. It is not an opportunity for self-indulgence. Paul cautioned us about that in v. 13. That was a mistake made by the ancient Antimonians—Antimonian means “against the law”-- who believed that God’s grace is so broad and vast that Christians are not bound by moral laws. It’s a recurring problem, even to this day, so we need to examine it closely. Paul’s strong response was ”What shall we say? Shall we continue to sin in order that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). My thought is that too much of the Antimonian approach goes against all the rest of the scriptures and all that Jesus practiced and taught. It’s self-indulgent, heresy and destructive.

In honoring Paul’s message, it becomes critical for all of us to learn what it really means to love and therefore serve others. Some may think it’s such a simple concept—just “do what others want and you’ll be okay.” I don’t think it’s that simple. I think one of our biggest problems as Christians is thinking we fully understand the meaning of that phrase. I overheard one of our college administrators say that recently, when he was outlining all the upcoming classes at a theological school. He said, “It’s so simple. Love your neighbor as yourself. Just do it.” I think he was taken aback when I questioned him and asked “Why do we never really study how to love, as it’s expressed in the greatest commandment?” I really don’t think we know enough about how to love. I do think it’s clarified all though the scriptures, and that’s all the more reason we should study it. None of us can see ourselves as others see us, and none of us can know ourselves as God knows us, so we must find ways to grow in our perceptions and insight.

Paul attempts to express this love for another, and actually does quite well, in the rest of the verses we’re looking at today. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Are we surprised that self-control is in there? Can we love another as ourself, if we don’t have self-love? I’m not sure we can. Paul’s list is totally expressions of love, in various forms, all of which are a way of serving others. He even provides us with a rather strong list of how not to be. These all help us grow in understanding of how we must grow, to better serve.

But there’s still more to all this. There’s the communal aspect of it, and we need to consider how we respond with love in a group, and then be sensitive to how that group will respond to us. Here is where I think we get into trouble.

Our country is a country where we declare freedom as a basic way of life. We celebrate Independence Day next Wednesday, and have actually already started the celebration in this area. I’ll go one step further to say that all of us should really love our country and celebrate the freedom that we have, because it is in living out those practices of love and freedom that we serve others as Paul has instructed us and as Christ would have us.

We need to deeply appreciate this country that so fully allows us to live out our Christian faith. I don’t believe there is another country that does it as well as ours. We only need to look around the world and see the oppression we would experience, as Christians, if we lived elsewhere. For this country that allows us to live out our lives in faith, honoring that greatest commandment to love one another as our self, is likewise a country that gives and serves others, thus honoring the greatest commandment, in the same way as its individuals. This does not mean our country is perfect, any more than we, as individuals, are perfect. But what it does mean is that it will get better, if we love it and help it as we would each other!

If you heard Dennis Garvey’s comment at the Wed. program last week, he said how we act as individuals to each other can easily be translated to how we act as countries to each other. Do you believe that? I think all we need to do is take a good look at the world to see how that is lived out… and examine today’s scriptures to see how it can be.

The world needs us, friends. It needs Christians who treat each other with love, and who love a government that treats them with love. As we love and serve each other, may we also love and serve our government, always helping it to become better, that it may become the place of true community, serving other countries and us, as Christ wants. May we also grow spiritually together, as we live our lives of faith and absorb the change that will come to each of us and to our government, through the grace of God. May each sermon heard in this church sanctuary help us all do this better.

Love looks for the best and the finest in all things, it helps others become the best they can be, it is always seeking to be more Christ-like itself, and it wants the best for us all. It is teaching, helping, and guiding, healing, redeeming, saving and serving. It is freedom and responsibility to do what Jesus wants. “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” The power of love is the greatest of all, for it is the power of God at work in all of our lives. This is the hope for all of us, and for the world.

I had a wart recently, on the bottom of my left foot. It festered, hurt like crazy, and just didn’t get better. It bothered me every time I put my foot down. Finally, I got around to calling the podiatrist and made an appointment. Of course, the appointment was a ways down the road, so I had to wait—and continued to suffer with the thing. One day, I put a piece of duct tape over it and kept it there while the final weeks went by before my appointment. I had read somewhere that might help. When I eventually got in to see my dr., to my amazement the wart was gone. I wondered why I had waited so long and prolonged my pain.

As we leave here today, let each of us think consciously of one way we can be more loving. Write it down and tape it on your bathroom mirror, so you can see it each day, practice it, and become it. As you do it, think about this country, imperfect as it is—warts and all—and how your small step will make it a better place. Better yet, make it a lavish step!

I wonder how many here are familiar with the details of the Washington Monument. Perhaps you’ve seen it, but did you that that on the aluminum cap, on the top of the monument, in Washington, DC, are two words: Laus Deo, meaning “Praise be to God.” These words are not visible to visitors; in fact, most visitors are probably unaware they are even there, and may not even care. And incidentally, in that city of 69 square miles there can never be a higher building than that monument, 555 and some feet high. If you go to the top level and look out from that vantage point, you can easily see the original plan of the designer, Pierre Charles l’Enfant… a perfect cross imposed upon the landscape, with the White House to the north, the Jefferson Memorial to the south, the Capitol to the east and the Lincoln Memorial to the west.

The monument itself contains 898 steps and 50 landings. As visitors climb the steps, the memorial stones at each landing share a message. On the 12th landing is a prayer offered by the City of Baltimore; on the 20th is a memorial presented by some Chinese Christians; the 24th has a presentation by Sunday School children from New York and Philadelphia, quoting Proverbs 10:7, Luke 18:16 and Proverbs 22:6. When the cornerstone of the Washington Monument was laid on July 4th, 1848, its contents included the Holy Bible, presented by the Bible Society.

Our first president, George Washington, wrote a prayer for America that I’d like to share with you. Let us pray:
"Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things We can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we Beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

There’s a lot of love—and a lot of history-- in that prayer, friends.

If we remember those who loved our country and served, and if our country can help us to be people who are more loving and serving, for all the peoples of the world, as I believe it can, because of those principles it stands for, wherever we may all be and serve, how can we not celebrate Independence Day—warts and all! Laus Deo! Praise be to God!

Sermon delived by Rev. Carol Mumford on July 1, 2007.