Rock and Roll!
St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
Matthew 7: 21-29, Rev. Marianne Niesen, June 1, 2008
For he taught them as one having authority . . . that’s a great line isn’t it? It’s what we want to think about Jesus. He taught with authority. Now tell me . . .what exactly does that mean? Did he use a strong voice? Have good eye contact? Use credible sources? Did he use hand gestures appropriately? Did he have good illustrations? This is one of those things we have read or heard so often that we don’t even think about it much until we ask the question . . .what did it mean to say Jesus taught with authority? It’s an important question, I think, because the implication is that this was different somehow than the norm. And surely others had good eye contact and the like! Hold that question. With this text, delivered ‘with authority’ (whatever that meant) Jesus ended his well known and oft-quoted Sermon on the Mount
The story is told of a Mennonite farmer who was confronted by a pair of young traveling evangelists. The well-meaning and sincere young men made their way down the long dusty drive to the farmer’s two-story wooden home. They parked their car, stepped up on the front porch, knocked on the door and waited. After a few minutes the door opened and the old farmer stepped out on the porch. "What can I do for you?" he asked. With the utmost confidence one of the young evangelists asked, "Brother, are you saved? If you were to die tonight do you know for certain that you would go to heaven?" The old farmer paused and asked the young men to wait on the porch. He disappeared inside the house and in a few minutes returned carrying a pen and paper. Without speaking, he began making a list. When he had finished, he handed the list to the young men and politely replied. "Here’s a list of the ten people in this community who know me best. Some of them are my friends and a few are my enemies. They would know better than I whether or not I am ‘saved.’ whether or not I will enter the kingdom of heaven. Go and ask them.
Not everyone who says Lord Lord has it right. Not everyone who says I’ve accepted Jesus really has. Not everyone who says I follow Jesus really does. Now, as good Protestants, we’ve all learned that salvation is by faith alone - not ‘works’. God’s love is a gift. Grace is offered freely. We don’t have to ‘earn’ our way into heaven. I have preached more than once about just that. But, speaking with authority Jesus said something to this effect: someday you’ll come to me saying that you have said all the right stuff, believed all the right stuff and I’ll look at you and say . . . sorry - you built on sand. Ouch!
So, which is it? Gift of love or work assignment? Something we are given or an expectation to do more? And the answer to all of it is yes. Faith and faithful living go hand in hand. We will always know what we believe more by how we live than by what we say. That’s what the Mennonite farmer knew. We know it too. We know that even gifts freely given come with expectations. But it’s not the you-gave-me-a-gift-so-here’s-one-for-you. It’s much simpler, more basic, more personal. It’s like this . . . Lyle’s birthday was last month and on one of my travels I had found the perfect gift. It was a most unusual picture of the Last Supper. It is by an Irish artist and has men, women and children around the table, all ages. I’d never seen anything like it before and I knew Lyle would love it. It was hard to wait to give the gift. As I watched him unwrap it, I was excited. I wanted to see his eyes when he saw it, hear what he would do with it, where he would put it, who he would show it to. I gave the gift yes - but I had some stake in it. The response to the gift mattered to me. And I think that’s always true with the most precious gifts we give - the ones given out of love.
I think this is precisely what Jesus authoritatively reminded his disciples at the end of his Sermon on the Mount. God gives the gifts and there is no payment due. Still. . . there is a sacred expectation that the gifts be unwrapped and used. And God depends on us to do just that. Which is how we bring about the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. That’s building our house - which is to say our life - on rock.
You see, talking about the work that needs doing - talking about the needs in the world isn’t enough. And here’s the real radical thought . . . just saying you accept Jesus into your life as your personal Lord and Savior isn’t enough! Because Jesus never allowed those who followed him to get by with mere lip service. He called followers and sent them out. To be a Bible-believing Christian is to be a worker in God’s vision for justice and peace and goodness. It is about God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Every time we pray the Lord’s prayer, that’s what we are committing to do. But it is so much easier to pray about it than work on it!
Last week I was at the Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis and while there I had an opportunity to see a good friend of mine. I had worked with him while he was the General Secretary of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns. When he left that ministry, he became pastor of a large downtown church in Minneapolis - Hennepin Avenue UMC. We talked about a lot of things, including our families. Bruce has a son who just finished college and a daughter who just finished high school and is traveling at the moment - spending a "break" year . . . in India and South Africa, working with AIDS victims. He spoke about Casey with pride and then said - you probably heard about her project here in Minneapolis 2 years ago. I hadn’t. So he told me. She had heard a homeless man, Bob Fisher, speak at her high school. He had been living on the streets for over 9 years and spoke at the school of his efforts to raise awareness about and money for the homeless. Casey was intrigued. More than that - she was inspired. So she tried spending 3 weeks sleeping outside on the roof of the parsonage in downtown Minneapolis - just to get a feel for what that would be like. The next year - in September 2005 - she decided she could do more. She committed to sleeping outside for 100 days - from September 15th to December 24th. She invited pledges and in the process raised over $25,000 for a homeless project in Minneapolis.
Watch this film clip with me. It has a few places where it sticks a bit and it is a little hard to hear but you’ll get the idea . . .(the clip is a brief interview with Casey Robbins and her Dad.)
We each have to do what we can with what we have. That’s it, isn’t it? All the right answers in the world don’t make up for right living. Talking the right talk is fine but must always be accompanied by walking the walk. And, in the end, I think that answers the question I posed at the beginning. That is what it meant to ‘teach with authority.’ What Jesus said about God and what he did with his life were congruent. And that amazed the crowds because it is so rare.
Listen again to this text, this time in a little different translation . . . from The Message.
"Knowing the correct password - saying 'Master, Master,' for instance - isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience . . . I can see it now - at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.'
"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit - but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. "But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."
When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying -quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard.
We each have to do the best with what we have. The authority of Jesus was the authority of a lived faith. And it transformed the world. As his followers today, we are called to nothing more - and nothing less - than that.
