Listen to the Sermon or the Entire Service
May 25:
Call: Acts 17: 23-28
Text: 1 Peter 3: 13-18
Reading: W&S #208
Closing: John 14: 19-21
Why We Can
When a few weeks ago, I chose to build this morning's service
Around words from the third chapter of Peter's first letter
I felt good about it.
The words spoke to me
The words warmed my heart
And I was so moved to share them with you
That I selected them over the story of Paul in Athens
A scripture that I love;
A scripture that is of tremendous value
To anyone who wants to share Christ
And fulfill the great commission;
A scripture that makes me admire Paul
Perhaps more than any other scripture about him.
But the words from Peter's letter so excited me
That Paul in Athens
plays a supporting - rather than starring - role
in this morning's service.
And they so excited me that I anticipated that bringing them to life
Would be relatively easy
A real plus toward the end
of a good, but tremendously draining month.
But I was wrong.
Instead of being easy,
For the last few days
My relationship with those words has not been anything but.
Instead of being "easy,"
my wrestling with presenting and enlivening those words
are better described with words like paradox and conundrum
I have read and reread this scripture
Each time I love it
Each time I am comforted by it
Each time I am excited by it
Each time it calls out to be shared
But each time I try to put something together
I get nothing.
That is a paradox. That is a conundrum.
I feel like Tomas Jefferson in that scene from "1776"
Where he sits alone in his room in Philadelphia
Surrounded by wadded up papers
on which he tried to start
the Declaration of Independence.
I was just waiting for John Adams
to storm into my office,
look at what I had "accomplished,"
and say "For goodness sake, Barnes, this is garbage!"
How in the world could I be
So moved and excited by the words
And yet be so stymied
in trying to bring them alive for this service?
[hauntingly]: Paradox. Conundrum.
I needed a solution.
And then
I thought of a later scene in the same movie.
In this scene,
Jefferson is standing in a corridor with Adams and Franklin
As the other delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress
Are proposing numerous amendments
to Jefferson's document.
Adams challenges Jefferson to go in to the room
And "speak for your words."
And Ken Howard as the tall Virginian responds sadly,
"I had hoped the words would speak for themselves."
And "Boom!"
I went from 1776
to the old "Thanks, I need that!" Aqua Velva commercials.
What I had to do
Was let the words in Peter's letter speak for themselves.
The author of the letter wrote,
[1 Peter 3: 13-18]
These words address our lives and Christ's role in them.
Because they do address our lives, we need to interact with what we read.
The passage begins
"Now, who will harm you if you are eager to do good?"
As much as we want to believe those words
And as comforting as they are
You and I live in this world
And we know that there are times we suffer consequences
When we do good.
As human beings, we might well react to these opening words
With obvious skepticism.
Look at what has happened
to girls in parts of the world
who simply want to go to school.
Look at the Freedom Riders in our own country
Who lost their lives or suffered injuries
Seeking racial equality back in the 1960s
But the author of the letter knows that.
The author is not naïve.
And before we can even express our human skepticism he adds,
"But even if you do suffer for doing what is right,
you are blessed."
And he instructs us,
"Do not fear what they fear
And do not be intimidated
But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord."
He goes on to demand even more of us, saying,
"Always be ready to make your defense
To anyone who demands from you
An accounting for the hope that is in you."
"Yet do it with gentleness and reverence
Keep your conscience clear
So that when you are maligned
Those who abuse you
for your good conduct in Christ
may be put to shame."
Concluding this line of thought with,
"For it is better to suffer for doing good
(if suffering should be God's will)
than to suffer for doing evil."
Why do we have a hope inside of us that makes us eager to do good - even when doing good is unpopular with others?
Can you and I account for that?
To someone who thinks we are foolish?
To someone who wants us to do evil
Or at least to not do good?
Why would you and I - or you or I -
be willing to suffer in order to do something good?
Personally,
I don't like pain - physical or emotional
I don't like to be embarrassed or have my reputation sullied
And I don't like negative financial consequences.
There have been times in my life when I have been too weak
To stand up or speak out in a situation when I should have.
Fortunately, there have also been times
when I have stood up and/or spoken out for what I believed was right
risking consequences
Instead of taking the popular or easy position.
The more mature my faith gets
The more I choose the right over the convenient
For the defense we need to articulate
Is that Christ is our Lord
And we need to do what we understand he expects of us.
We can do this
And hopefully with gentleness and reverence
Because as the letter's author points out
"Christ also suffered for sins once for all
(he was) the righteous (suffering) for the unrighteous
I order to bring (us) to God."
We are deeply indebted to the man who hung on the cross
A debt that we will never be able to fully repay
A gift we did not earn, yet for which we are eternally grateful
That, my friends, is why we can and should do the right thing
Instead of the popular, profitable, less painful thing
That is what the writer wrote.
His words do indeed speak for themselves.
Those words not only rid me of my paradox
And freed me from my conundrum
They also rid us of the paradox of being both eager and fearful
Of doing good
And free us of the conundrum of having to choose between them.