Real World - 2-13-22
Real World
Ps 37:1-11, 39-40; Luke 6:27-38
Ps 37:1-11, 39-40
Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret—it leads only to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity. The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their refuge in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and rescues them; he rescues them from the wicked, and saves them, because they take refuge in him.
Luke 6:27-38
“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
Prayer -
One the most effective ways of avoiding Jesus’s claim upon our lives, a sure fire way to get God in Christ off our backs, to neutralize Christ’s message, is to say something like, “Of course, Jesus had some noble ideals, some lofty principles, but sadly the world just doesn’t work that way.”
The implication is that Jesus was a starry-eyed idealist, an impractical dreamer whose teaching, though laudable, is impractical. Not applicable to the “real world.” The implication is that Jesus’s world is a fake, an idealistic fantasy at best, a deception at its worst, and my world, where I live, what I’m thinking right now, that set of beliefs and concepts where I’m currently bedded down, is the “real world.” We’re residing as best we can where the world works; Jesus is talking about a place, a lifestyle that “just doesn’t work.”
In his Sermon on the Plain from Luke’s gospel, Jesus admits upfront that his way is counter to the world’s way. The section from that sermon, which is this Sunday’s Gospel, begins with “But I say to you who are willing to hear…” That pivotal conjunction, “But,” indicates that the preacher is saying something that goes against conventional, widespread common sense. There were many times when Jesus said, “You have heard it said” (by nine-out-often Americans, by most experts on the subject, by the way Mama and Daddy raised you….), “but I say.” Hold onto your hats, the preacher is about to take us some place we haven’t been before. The preacher is about to rise above mere common sense and say something to us we could not have said to ourselves.
And the preacher is upfront that his words will have most resonance with “those who are willing to hear.” Let’s be honest. We have a willingness to hear, may try to be as open-minded as we can to the words of the preacher, but it’s so hard to hear that which we haven’t heard before. It’s tough to receive words that fundamentally challenge the way we live and how our world is constructed. We don’t have to wait long for the preacher to preach an idea that collides with our world:
“Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either. Give to everyone who asks and don’t demand your things back from those who take them. Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.”
That’s a tall order. Is Jesus serious? How could he expect ordinary, typical people like us to conduct ourselves in this way, forgiving enemies, repaying the bad that is done to us by doing good in response to bad, blessing those who curse us, giving to everyone who asks? Perhaps our questions are answered by what the preacher says next:
“If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that…. If you do [as I command you in this sermon], you will have a great reward. You will be acting the way children of the Most High act, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people [like you]. Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate [to sinners and wrong doers like you]. “Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged [even has God has chosen not to judge you as you deserve]. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned [even as God has not condemned you]. Forgive, [as you have been forgiven] and you will be forgiven. Give [as God has given so much to you], and it will be given to you.”
Thus the preacher is being very practical, appealing to his listeners’ experience. You live, not in the world created by human hands. You live in God’s world, a world where there is kindness, compassion, generosity, benevolence, forgiveness and love because that’s the way God is. You are to act toward others in the same way that God has acted toward you. In other words, you are to live in accordance with the shape of the universe, the nature of reality. That’s another name for reality, what’s true, what’s real—God.
The competitive, dog-eat-dog, unforgiving, condemning world is not the real world, not the world that God created or continues to create. Maybe God has created us to be loving, forgiving, generous givers and forgivers, and all God wants is for us to begin acting naturally, to be who we really are.
“I want you to know preacher,” a man in one of my early congregations said to me, “that if somebody comes by the church and needs a helping hand, you are to give them whatever financial help they need. I’ll promise to give whatever is needed, with no expectation that they will ever pay back what they’ve been given.” “George, that’s a generous offer for you to make,” I said. “How kind you are!” “Kindness has got nothing to do with it,” George said. “When I was young, clueless, and didn’t know which way to go, I was out of work, down and out and hungry for nearly a whole year. A number of folks had mercy on me, gave me the help I needed, and their help got me on my feet. I promised God that I would try to do to others what others had done for me. Those folks who helped me showed me what God means this world to look like.” George wasn’t being unrealistically generous and kind; he was living into the real world.
In another instance of this, a woman told me about her terrible experience of having her former husband cheat on her, leaving her and the children in a horrible fix. I said to her, “It’s amazing that you have not only survived but thrived after what he did to you.” “I couldn’t have done it without God,” she said. “The Lord enabled me to forgive Joe, to let go of my anger and move on.” “That’s amazing,” I said. “What am amazing spiritual achievement for you to forgive someone who had so wronged you. I don’t think I’m a good enough person to do something that good,” I confessed, even though I was her pastor. “Sure you could,” she said. “He did it for you, after all.” “He?” I asked. “God,” she said. “God found a way to forgive me, to let go of God’s anger at all the ways I had disappointed God over the years so that we could move on together. It’s only right that I should try to act just a little bit like God had acted for me, right?”
“The point of school, the purpose of growing up, seems like I remember hearing, was to give me what I needed to be able to take up my place in the real world,” said the young man who gave his testimonial in a student gathering one night at our church. “Whenever you complained that some course in school was boring or difficult, whenever you whined that some task was unpleasant and pointless, that’s what they always told you. ‘We are getting you ready for the real world.’ The real world? The facts of life? Here’s what I remember hearing. The real world is competitive, a dog-eat-dog competition. You have got to be better than the person next to you if you want to get and keep a job. You will need to show up earlier and work later than all the other new guys if you plan to work here. Be careful. You don’t know who your friends really are. If you don’t look out for you, nobody else will. On and on. “But let me tell you,” he said as he looked intently into the eyes of the gathered youth, “a lot of that is a bunch of bull. A lot of your education and training and upbringing is their attempt to mold you and trim you down to size to fit into their definition of ‘the real world.’ When they tell you, ‘face facts,’ they’re telling you to face the facts as they define them. “Jesus Christ opened my eyes. The world that they were trying to push me to fit into was the world that was the best they could come up with. Maybe I wanted a better world than the one they are forcing me into. Maybe I wanted a more fulfilling life than the one my parents had led. Jesus helped me to see that the life I was living wasn’t my own, that he had plans for me, plans that were bigger than the ‘real world’ straitjacket the world was trying to force me into. I broke free, with the help of Jesus. I decided to please him rather than please everybody else trying to tell me what to do. Jesus helped me to get real about discipleship. That’s why I created and am leading this nonprofit organization for at-risk kids. Maybe Jesus will open up your eyes too.”
Right. Maybe that’s one reasons why you are here in church, listening to my sermon about a sermon that Jesus preached. You are here to face facts, to come to terms with reality, to check out your life and how well you align with what’s what. All of us ought to try to open our eyes, to face reality, and take up residence in the real world now that Jesus has told us what’s real.
The implied test of a good sermon is being able to “relate to my world.” I do think sermons ought to be comprehensible, relatable, and relevant but not to “my world,” my world as I have contrived it, my world as it presently is, but rather that the first relevancy of a sermon ought to be to the gospel. Sermons are not first of all to be prescriptions for human behavior, exhortations for the listeners to think, feel, or do something. Sermons are first of all about God. They are to be good news of who God is and what God is up to in the world.
And what is God up to? God is doing much more than simply relating to or confirming “my world.” My world as it is too small a canvass for the living, sovereign God of Israel and the church. God is not content with “my world.” God wants to take “my world” and move it ever more closely toward God’s world. “My world,” may not be what God intended in creating the world. “My world” may not be as fixed, stable, and final as I think.
This morning God is inviting us to consider what kind of real world we want to live, what kind of real world we want to build, what kind of real world we are to embody as faithful followers. And to be quite honest, it goes against the grain of the world we currently live in. Look around, watch the news, what we see and hear has very little that reflects the real world God has in mind. Which leaves us with a very important daily decision – the world or the real world of God – that is our choice, every single day – may God bless our decision and our daily work to reflect, embody and live out the kingdom of God which Jesus is teaching about today – thanks be to God – amen.