Partners
in Purity
Isaiah
6:1-10 and Philippians 3:1-11
Paul
was a stud. I do not know if he was physically tall or strong or anything like
that. I am talking about his Jewish faith credentials. Circumcised on the
eighth day, he had fulfilled the covenant with Abraham. An Israelite, not a
proselyte, with roots clear and unambiguous, he was of the tribe of Benjamin
whose territory bordered Jerusalem. A Hebrew of the Hebrews in language,
attitude and life-style. He had the pharisaic zeal to persecute the Church, the
legalistic righteousness to call himself faultless. If obeying the outward
conformity to the Law could merit God's approval, Paul was at the head of the
class. A Christian version of Paul might have someone with roots back to
Scotland, to the ministry of John Knox. A Christ-centered, Bible-believing,
America-loving Christian. As for zeal, they pray around a flag pole or march on
Washington depending upon one’s political perspective. As for righteousness,
they don't drink, don't smoke and don't hang around with people that do, or
they do all these things, again depending upon one’s political perspective. I
have known a few such people in my time. Truth be told, I get a little nervous
around them. Such people are a little too good for me.
Paul
learned well the lesson of childhood – the lesson of Law. We spend our entire
childhood learning Law, learning how to be good. We learn good manners. We
learn to share. We learn how to follow rules and line up in a straight line.
Our parents give us "good" messages growing up, messages like
"Be a good little girl" or "Nice boys don't hit girls."
Learning to be good is important. What parent wants to feed the fervor of their
child's selfish impulses? Who wants to intentionally create such a holy terror?
Indeed, much of our society is grounded in our goodness. We honor people with
community service awards for their good work. The word “eulogy” at a funeral
means “good word” and highlights "all that was good and kind and
faithful" in a person's life. We do indeed spend our childhood learning
Law, and this learning is important.
As we move into adulthood, however, we begin to experience the reality that Law alone is toxic. If we live by Law alone, then we will be a slave to our own goodness. We will spend our lives maintaining an image, and the cost of such image maintenance is too much. We cannot live the abundant life in Christ and constantly worry about how others perceive us. If there is one thing we as a society should know by now it is that Law alone does not work in day to day life.
The
ideals of youth are discovered to be tarnished silver. The grandeur of
graduation leads to the reality of our professional life: very few of us climb
as high as we had hoped or imagined we would. The wonder of a wedding day leads
to the truth of marriage: it’s hard to be in relationship and none of us do it
perfectly. The youthful sense that all life is before us is exchanged with the
reality that life is about choices…and often we make the wrong ones.
It’s
like the old timer pastor from Louisiana who asked a young, fresh out of
seminary candidate for ministry, “Son, are you old enough to have lived enough
to have sinned enough to have been forgiven enough to preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ?” The old timer had a
point: life, especially the complexities of adult life, exposes the fact that
none of us can fulfill the Law.
Pursuing our own goodness is like a dog chasing its tail; it does not
work in day to day life. Neither does it work in the life of faith. Law alone
is toxic.
There
is perhaps no more vivid picture of the futility of maintaining our own
goodness than Isaiah's vision of the heavenly throne. Isaiah, a prophet in the
King's court, poet of God's glory and majesty, himself probably a good man,
sees in a vision God's thrice proclaimed holiness. In ancient times when most
folks did not read books so much as they heard them read, exclamation points
were not effective ways to add impact to a message, so the ancient writers used
repetition to add emphasis. Jesus would preface particularly important sayings
with the double "verily, verily (or truly, truly) I say unto you...,"
But in all of Scripture, only one word is repeated three times. That word is
spoken by the seraphim. The word is "holy" as it describes the Lord
God: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of
his glory." Good Isaiah saw the Lord's glory and says of himself,
"Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips." Not only is our own
goodness insufficient in day to day life, it is insufficient in the life of
faith. Law alone is toxic.
If
the journey of childhood is to learn the lessons of Law, the journey of
adulthood is to learn the lessons of grace because grace alone sets us free.
The question raised by the need for grace in a Law oriented world, it seems, is
this: Where do we get our goodness? From ourselves or from God? Do we rely on
our own righteousness or God's righteousness? For Paul, for good and godly
Paul, the choice was clear: "Whatever was to my profit from my past, I now
consider loss for the sake of Christ...I consider everything loss compared to
the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have
lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found
in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that
which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God."
For Paul, goodness doesn't count. Christ and only Christ counts.
There is a Family Circus cartoon that captures the
concern many of us have about our own goodness. Billy is sitting next to his
mom in church and he leans over to ask her, "Mom, in church who's watching
to see if we're good--God or Santa?" Isn't this just wisdom from the
mouths of babes? I can answer Billy's question for him: it may be Santa, but it
sure isn't God. God knows better than to think we will be good.
We
may come to church because we're basically good people. We may come to church
because we want a little help living good lives. We may be here hoping to receive
a little encouragement or a little guidance for our lives. But God does not see
us this way. God does not welcome us here because we are good people; God
welcomes us here because we are sinners. Ol’ Red Murff from Brenham was a
baseball scout; he was the scout who signed Nolan Ryan. He used to tell his players – and preachers
who loved his stories -- there are two kinds of people in this world: “the
Jesus kind and the rest of us...and there was only one Jesus.” When I first
heard this story I guessed that the punch line was going to be, "Sinners
and forgiven sinners," but I like Red’s way of telling it. In Brenham we
did not have a cross on the top of our steeple but a rooster. The rooster was
there to remind us of Peter, the chief of the disciples, who in Jesus' time of
greatest need thrice denied his Master and Lord. This rooster was a symbol that
we are all potential Peter's for the falleness of Adam and Eve is not just for
other people but has infected us as well.
The
story is told of a man who moved into a community and went looking for a
church. He searched the Methodists and the Presbyterians and the Lutherans but
to no avail. He could not find a church for him. Finally he walked into a
service late and heard the people praying Paul's lament from Romans 7: "I
do the things I do not want to do, and I do not do the things that I want to
do." The man sat down and did not leave for fifty years. Later in life
when folks asked him what led him to the church, he told his story and
concluded, "I said to himself, 'I have finally found a place where I fit
in.'"
Martin
Luther is said to have uttered the phrase, "Sin boldly, but believe more
boldly still in the grace of God." Now Luther was not advocating sin. If I
understand him correctly, what Luther was saying (with his typical verbal
flourish) is that we are going to sin for we are sinners. Let's not try to
pretend otherwise. Let's admit this fact boldly. But let us also take this fact
of our sinfulness and let this fact drive us ever deeper into the grace and
mercy of God for it is the grace of God that sets us free. To discover
grace--absolute, unconditional, no-holds-barred love and mercy toward us--is to
discover the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.
The
liberating power of grace is seen in the way 12-step groups free people to be
who they are. Often people in Alcoholics Anonymous or other 12-step groups will
say things like, "AA was my first real experience of church." They
were given the freedom to admit boldly that they were sinners and so discovered
more boldly still the grace of God. The Cursillo and Walk to Emmaus retreats
that I talked about last week, the reason folks find them so powerful is not
because they present new teaching but because they are all about grace. When we discover grace, not just in our head
or our heart, but down here in our gizzard, nothing is ever the same again.
The sermon title this morning is "Partners in Purity." We have a choice this morning what kind of partnership with God we will forge as a church family. One option is to say that God's part will be to give us his righteousness so that the demands of his holiness are met and we can be forgiven, then our part will be to respond to this gift by seeking to live good, holy lives. This would be a good partnership – biblical, Christian, Presbyterian. I normally would advocate this partnership, but not today. Perhaps another day.
Today
I would like us to see ourselves as partners with God in purity according to a
second option. God's part is still to give us his righteousness, but our part
is to covenant together as a church family to be that kind of place where
sinners can walk in off the street and say, "I have finally found a place
where I fit in," a place where people are not afraid to sin boldly but
believe more boldly still in the grace of God.
Charles
Colson, ex-Watergate convict turned prison minister, tells a story about his
visit to Humaita Prison in Brazil that describes this second kind of
partnership in purity. Humaita Prison was formerly a government prison but is
now operated by Prison Fellowship Brazil without armed guards or high-tech
security. Humaita has only two full-time staff; the rest of the work is done by
the 730 inmates serving time for everything from murder to robbery to drug-related
crimes. Humaita has an astonishing 4 percent recidivism rate compared to 75
percent in the rest of Brazil. Colson wondered how they could do what they did.
In Colson's words, he says:
I saw the answer when my inmate guide escorted me to the notorious cell once used for solitary punishment. “Today,” he told me, “it always houses the same inmate.” As we reached the end of the long concrete corridor and he put the key into the lock, he paused and asked, "Are you sure you want to see this?" I replied a bit impatiently, "Of course, I've been in isolation cells all over the world." “Ok,” said my guide, it’s just hard to look this guy in the eye. Most people have trouble with this one.” “Sure,” I said, “go on.” Slowly he swung open the massive door, and I saw the prisoner in the cell: a beautifully carved crucifix--Jesus, hanging on the cross. Said my guide softly, "He's doing time for the rest of us."
My friends, learn the lessons of Law; learn them well. Indeed, learn them so well that they drive you to grace. Then let Jesus do time for you.