An Affirmative Commitment -- Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B

In today's Epistle lesson, taken from Paul's second letter to the Church at Corinth, we read:

As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been "Yes and No." For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not "Yes and No"; but in him it is always "Yes." For in him [that is, in Jesus] every one of God's promises is a "Yes."

In today's Gospel lesson, in which St. Mark recounts the familiar tale of the time when friends of a paralyzed man were so frantic to get their friend to Jesus, whom they have heard could cure him, they dig a hole through the roof of the house in which Jesus is meeting with people and lower the paralytic down through the hole on a sort of stretcher. Jesus is impressed by this show of faith and says to the man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." This upsets the scribes and Pharisees who believe only God can forgive sins and, thus, that Jesus has blasphemed by pretending to speak for God.

For Jesus’s critics, religion was a negative and restrictive thing, a set of rules most of which began with the words, "Thou shalt not...." Jesus answers them by saying, in effect, is it easier to be negative or to be positive, to be condemning or to be affirming. He sets for us an example of religion which is positive and hopeful, as opposed to one that is negative and mired in restrictions and prohibitions.

R. Alan Culpepper, Dean of the School of Theology at Atlanta's Mercer University, has noted that

...[t]here are two ways of approaching obedience to God. Some define their religious beliefs and practices with alist of things they may not do: "Thou shalt not ...." Such lists set boundaries, but they do not define goals. A commitment to God that is born of the experience of God's love and presence is expressed in grateful participation in God's redemptive work. (The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. IX, Abingdon 1995, Commentary on Luke, page 78.)

This is what Jesus is doing in today’s Gospel lesson: setting an xample of participation in God’s redemptive work. Jesus sets the example, and Paul, by underscoring that in Jesus God’s promise to us is a "Yes," calls the church, to a religion of positive, affirmative, hopeful commitment to the future.

We have just passed through that time of year when people make such commitments to the future called "New Year's resolutions;" so as we continue to keep those resolutions, it is a good time to remember that that our faith does not circumscribe our conduct. Rather our Christian faith calls us to see far horizons and to strive to reach them. Roger F. Campbell, in his book You Can Win!, SP Publications 1985, pp. 10-11, sites two other commentators and writes this about planning for the future:

Most of us do not accomplish much because we do not expect to accomplish very much. A. B. Simpson indicated the majority of us when he said, "Our God has boundless resources. The only limit is in us. Our asking, our thinking, our praying are too small. Our expectations are too limited." J. Hudson Taylor observed, "Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt."
Jesus sets the example, and Paul calls the church, to a religion of positive, affirmative, hopeful commitment to the future.

But we are not called to make commitments toward unattainable goals. Someone has suggested the following rules for resolution-making and goal-setting:

1. Cut your lofty goals in half.
2. Be specific about your goals.
3. Write down how you will do it.
4. Don't make too many resolutions.
5. Keep your goals realistic.
6. Consider finding a partner.
7. Keep track of your progress.
8. Think of each new day as a new beginning.

The Scottish Presbyterian author George H. Morrison similarly cautions about the subject of our goals:

When we are foolish, we want to conquer the world; when we are wise, we want to conquer self. Our life is measured not by what we win; our life is measured by the thing we strive for.

Jesus sets the example, and Paul calls the church, to a religion of positive, affirmative, hopeful commitment to the future.

Another word of caution about goals comes from author Charles Swindoll. He relates the following story in his book Dropping Your Guard (Insight for Living, September 1998):

It was Flight 401 bound for Miami from New York City with a load of holiday passengers. As the huge aircraft approached the Miami Airport for its landing, a light that indicates proper deployment of the landing gear failed to come on. The plane flew in a large, looping circle over the swamps of the Everglades while the cockpit crew checked out the light failure. Their question was this, had the landing gear actually not deployed or was it just the light bulb that was defective?

To begin with, the flight engineer fiddled with the bulb. He tried to remove it, but it wouldn't budge. Another member of the crew tried to help out and then another. By and by, if you can believe it, all eyes were on the little light bulb that refused to be dislodged from its socket. No one noticed that the plane was losing altitude. Finally, it dropped right into a swamp. Many were killed in that plane crash. While an experienced crew of high-priced and seasoned pilots messed around with a seventy-five-cent light bulb, an entire airplane and many of its passengers were lost. The crew momentarily forgot the most basic of all rules of the air "Don't forget to fly the airplane!"

The same thing can happen to the local church. The preacher and elders can be so busy fighting petty fires and focusing so much of their attention on insignificant issues that they lose sight of what church is all about. The church can have so many activities, programs, projects, committee meetings, banquets, and community involvements so many wheels spinning without really accomplishing anything of eternal significance that the congregation forgets its primary objective.

Many churches are like that impressive invention which had hundreds of wheels, coils, gears, pulleys, belts, bells and lights which all went around and around and flashed at the touch of a button. When the inventor was asked about the function of the weird machine, he replied, "What does it do? Oh, it doesn't do anything, but doesn't it run beautifully?"

Swindoll concludes:

Let's not be like Flight 401 or the invention that doesn't do anything! Our primary objective is to win this lost world to Jesus Christ.

Jesus sets the example, and Paul calls the church, to a religion of positive, affirmative, hopeful commitment to the future.

As a congregation we have set ourselves the goal, the objective, the vision, the mission, whatever you want to call it, of "inviting others to join us in proclaiming the Gospel through worship, prayer, learning and reaching out in mission and ministry." That is a lofty goal! I suggest to you that it is also a positive, hopeful, expansive, realistic, self-directed, world- winning goal. We are called, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, to know and to share "the riches of [Christ's] glorious inheritance" and "the immeasurable greatness of [God's] power." This is the commitment to the future that we have set for ourselves. I believe that, as Paul wrote, God’s answer to our doing so is "Yes."

As we begin this new year, let us renew our vision, our mission, our goal. Let us heed Paul's affirmative call and follow the example set by our Lord to participate in God’s redemptive work by making an ever-greater commitment and effort to "invite others to join us in proclaiming the Gospel through worship, prayer, learning and reaching out in mission and ministry." Amen.