St. Andrew’s Pictou, NS, May 29^th 2005

 

Steel Hand; Velvet Glove

 

Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28

Matthew 7:21-29

 

Today’s message is about power and commitment, just two things: power and commitment.

 

Maybe another way to say it is to say that power is evident where there is commitment.

 

The power we have is both determined and expressed by our commitments.

 

Whether we have power at all and the degree of power that we have, is related to our commitment: whether we are committed to our marriage, whether we are committed to be the person we are, committed to our child, friend, or neighbour; whether the minister is committed to the church, whether we are committed to the cause whatever that cause may be.

 

The scriptures selected for today are what you might call, strong in their intent, meaning and language.

 

Much of the talk in conversations we hear and we say is flimsy or weak:

-“If there is anything that I can do, give me a call.” (We ask the wounded to call US!)

-In talking about one of her marriages, (Michael Jackson being one of her husbands) I heard Pricilla Presley say, “”Oh my marriage with “so and so,” was if it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t.”

-time an time again on TV we will observe someone experience an horrific tragedy and some brain dead individual will always lean over and say, “Are you OK?” when it is totally obvious that they are not OK.

-describing themselves in depth someone might say, “I like to hang out.”

-people repeating over and over in conversations with the phrase, “you know” when you obviously don’t know or you wouldn’t have to listen to them in the first place.

 

In direct contrast to this kind of meaningless dribble, we have words from the book of Deuteronomy (Meaning “Second law”) where the relationship with God is to permeate all areas of your life. Words are not being minced here: you follow the law you get blessing; you ignore the law, you get cursed.

 

Blessing or curse; you choose. God says:

“You shall put these words of mine on your heart and soul...

you shall bind them as a sign on your head…

bind them as a sign on your hand…

fix them as an emblem on your forehead.

Teach them to your children…at home… when you are away, when you lie down

…when you rise.

Write them on the doorposts of your house… on you gates.”

 

Talk about hammering a theme home. God must know that we human beings sometimes have trouble “getting it.”

 

God’s words in Deuteronomy give rise to a lot of questions:

-Makes you wonder what God thinks about parents who break their baptismal vows.

-Exactly what are all the other gods that we follow?

-Can you and I actually say that we follow Jesus Christ?

 

To the church in Rome, Paul says,

“I am not ashamed of the Gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith,”

 

Remember folks, these words from Paul were totally shocking. What the apostle Paul said back then was a totally new way of faith and life.

 

People had been used to thinking that they got to heaven by keeping a set of rules:

Keep all of the rules and you get to heaven.

 

Now Paul comes along and says that we get to heaven by having faith in Jesus. We keep the rules of loving God, and our neighbour because we have faith, but we essentially are saved by the believing…, not the doing.

 

Paul tells everyone that not only are you saved by having faith but it is universal. From now on all people who believe are to be saved, not just the Jews. No matter what sins you have committed, Jesus can save you from them all.

 

This kind of talk from Paul might seem to make the Christian message seem like “milk toast.” You just believe and everything will be all right.

 

But there is a steel hand inside the velvet glove when we listen to Jesus in Matthew.

 

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the ones who do the will of my father in heaven.”

 

It is a little chilly and uncomfortable to hear Jesus say:

“One that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in you name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’

And I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evil doers.’”

 

Seems like there is a conflict here in Jesus’ message: Jesus is calling the exact same people who prophesy in his name, cast out demons in his name, and did deeds of power in his name are now being called evil doers by the same Jesus that they had supported.

 

The logic doesn’t seem to make sense.

 

But he goes on to explain about two real estate developers; the two house builders:

-the one who builds his house on a rock did not fall when the rains, floods, and winds came, and

-the fool who built his house on sand; the rains came, the floods came, the winds blew and it fell.

 

In fact, about the second house built on the sand Jesus said, “…great was its fall.”

 

The steel hand inside that velvet glove hits hard: Jesus Christ was talking about motive; about our underlying belief, about the real reason that we act and do what we do.

 

Do not the same rules apply in our lives?

 

Aren’t our marriages, our friendships, our parishioners, our ministers, our neighbours, and our business dealings eventually all come down to the same thing?

 

What are the true motives of getting married, going to church, being a friend, saying that you are my neighbour, or being the minister?

 

Not all people get married for the same reasons.

Not all ministers go to churches for the same reasons.

Not all people say that they are your friend for the same reasons.

 

Have you ever said Jesus’ words to someone when you unmasked the motives, they proved to be a lie and you said in anger, “…go away from me?”

 

Jesus says that God does not judge by surface realities but only deals with the motives behind our actions. (Maybe we should adopt God’s criteria!)

 

Genuine faith is the motive behind true and loving action.

 

Do we really have faith in our spouse, our child, our neighbour, our parishioner?

 

The text says that “the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

 

What was Jesus’ basis for authority?

 

His power is love. His commitment is recorded. The evidence is that he believed in us.

 

Jesus’ appearance on planet earth was the basis of God’s faith and belief in us. As our advocate, Jesus is the saving grace of our faith in God.

 

Jesus Christ was faith incarnate.

 

Jesus was a believer grounded in love. That was the basis of his authority. Because he was faith incarnate, he could look into any soul and see the motivation behind the action:

-the widow putting her mite into the collection,

-the man wanting his daughter healed,

-the woman with the flow of blood,

-the Samaritan woman at the well,

-a scared man hiding in a sycamore tree,

-the centurion’s love for his sick servant,

-the friends who brought him the paralytic through the roof,

-the man with the withered hand reduced to begging,

-the woman putting perfumed oil on his feet and drying them with her hair,

-and on and on and on and on,

 

all the way down through history, right down… to you and to me.

 

Isn’t it liberating, relieving, healing, and fantastic that Jesus Christ, aside from anyone else, can lovingly know our true motives?

 

With regards to our love and our faith, we don’t have to prove anything to Jesus.

He knows.

 

“Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

 

Grace, mercy, forgiveness, love and God’s peace be unto all of you from God our Father through Jesus his son and our friend. AMEN

 

Rev. Alan Stewart