Community Church Sermons

The Third Sunday in Lent – March 14, 2004

“Forgive Our Foolish Ways.”

Luke 13:1-9

 

Dr. Robert M. Puckett

 

 Ethnic stories are offensive to me when they put people down because of their race or nationality. When I decide to use an ethnic story because I have found it amusing, I want to make sure not to do it in a way that is demeaning to anyone, and I usually use it to make a point.  I want you to understand that about this story I am about to tell you about a black pullman porter on a train from New York to Los Angeles years ago. A group of Jewish businessmen were making a trip together, and they practically filled up the car for which the porter was responsible.  The other porters knew most of these men from previous trips, and they expressed sympathy, saying that these men were notoriously poor tippers. They said, “It won’t make any difference how well you serve them, they won’t give you much of anything at the end of the trip.”  The porter thought about it and decided that for the sake of his own integrity he would give the best service he was capable of giving whether they tipped him or not.  So all across the country for the several days it took, he responded cheerfully to every request for service.  He brought food, shinned shoes, turned down beds, and did everything he could to make the trip as pleasant as possible for his passengers. When they arrived in Los Angeles, he stood on the platform handing each passenger his bag and bidding a cheerful farewell as each one departed.  Not a single one gave him anything for the service he had rendered. After the last one had gone, he stepped back in the car to straighten up a bit before leaving himself, and was surprised to find one of his passengers still on board.  The man said, “We watched how hard you worked throughout the trip and we appreciated how well you took care of us.  I stayed behind to give you this nice collection we took up  for you.” The porter replied, “Sir, I just decided that what they say about your folks ain’t so.  They didn’t crucify our Lord, they just worried him to death!” It is easy to recognize the faults of others without recognizing our own faults.  We find it very easy to stand in judgment of others and just as easy to excuse our own faults even though they might be the same ones we find so offensive in others. It is not only easy to stand in judgment of others, It is hard to forgive others, particularly when they are of a different  race, religion or nationality.  James Cleland told a story about an English soldier during World War II who wrote to a German mother saying, “As a member of a party of commandos raiding a village in France, I killed your son.  I earnestly ask your forgiveness, for I am a Christian.  I hope I may, someday after the war is over, talk with you face-to-face.”  When the German mother received the note she wrote back, “I find it in my heart to forgive you, even though you killed my son; for I too am a Christian.  If we are both living after the war, I hope you will come to visit me.” It must have been difficult for that soldier to write to that mother and that mother to respond.  What made it possible was the fact that they were both Christians. Forgiveness is a central element of the Christian faith.  As Christians we know that we all need to be forgiven and that we all need to be forgiving! Marty has been doing a series of sermons entitled “Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the 21st Century” based on texts found in the Gospel of Luke.  Those texts have taken on different meaning because of the vast changes that have taken place in the post modern world. And those changes also affect the present day meaning of today’s text found in Luke 13.The talk of the day was not about OJ,  Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, or Martha Stewart.  It was about some Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, and about a tragic event in Jerusalem in which a tower fell and eighteen people were crushed to death. Jesus had heard the buzz. So he asked for their opinion of these events knowing that the prevailing opinion of the day was that when bad things happen to people, they must be guilty of something. Then he warned them, “You don’t need to jump to a hasty conclusion about those folks, you need to examine your own lives and turn from your own guilt! I believe that the changes that have taken place in the post modern world make this text even more important in the 21st century than it was in the first century. So, what’s new in the world today? Our world has shrunk.  We are now a global village. What happens anywhere is important everywhere. The information revolution has brought people closer together and made every society something of a pluralistic society. Modern transportation makes it possible for people of every race and nation to be scattered throughout the world. We live in an overcrowded world where population has exploded. We meet diversity everywhere we turn. When I was a boy growing up in the south it was rare to see anyone except white Anglo-Saxons or blacks. Now you see people from Michigan right here in Tellico Village! And you see a lot of other Yankees as well, from New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and California.  But that’s not all, there is a Hindu Temple less than fifteen miles from here. America has become the most religiously diverse nation in the world. Immigration in the last thirty years has radically changed the religious landscape in America,  with the arrival of Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, and new varieties of Jews and Catholics from all over the world. Professor Diana Eck of Harvard says that “there are more Muslim Americans than Episcopalians, more Muslims than members of the Presbyterian Church USA, and as many Muslims as there are Jews. Los Angeles is the most complex Buddhist city in  the world, Buddhist may number about four million, and there is a diverse Hindu population of more than a million.” ^[1] She goes on to say, “It is one thing to be unconcerned or ignorant of Muslim or Buddhist neighbors  on the other side of the world, but when Buddhist are our next door neighbors, when our children are best friends with Muslim classmates, when a Hindu is running for a seat on the school committee, all of us have a new vested interest in our neighbors, both as citizens and as people of faith.”^[2]Professor Eck concludes, “Perhaps the lesson we all need to learn is that to think our way is the only way is counterfeit religion.  As a Hindu Swami put it ‘No real experience of the infinite presence of God can leave you condemning your neighbor.’”^[3] We live in a world in which it is quite easy to suddenly bump into a stranger from a strange place who is quite different from ourselves.  And that makes it a lot easier for us to make mistaken judgments about them. This makes it all the more important to examine our own faults before we are quick to condemn the faults of others. After all, didn’t Jesus also tell us, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.?” (Matthew 7:1)There is an old Negro Spiritual that catches the spirit of today’s text.  It says, “It’s not my brother, nor my sister, but it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer!” Jesus spent his life breaking down barriers between himself and others, and he calls upon us to break down the barriers that exist between ourselves and others. Even as Jesus hung on the cross he prayed for those who put him there, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)The overcrowded, fast moving, diversity of the post modern world make patience and forgiveness of our neighbors and closer examination of our own faults an absolute necessity. Our text of the morning poses the same question that Jesus asked on another occasion.  “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”  (Luke 6:41)We live in a time when it is much easier to make hasty conclusions and false judgments about others. Do you remember Richard Jewel?  He was the fellow falsely accused of the bombing in Atlanta at Olympic Park. And he suffered terribly even though he was later proven innocent. Hasty conclusions and false judgment can destroy people’s lives. That was the case with Jesus.  He was falsely accused and falsely judged, and he died a cruel death on the cross because of it. The passion of the Christ was the result of false accusations and false judgments leading to an abuse of religious and civil power structures. Jesus had given his life to feeding the hungry, providing the water of life to the thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison. And he said, “When you also do these things, you do them to me.” And then he said, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” Hasty conclusions and false judgments about one’s neighbor heaps serious guilt upon our heads! Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, deals with Jesus’ suffering, but it fails to deal with the plight of those who continue to be the object of false accusations and false judgment. The Oberammergau Passion Play continued to flourish during the Nazi regime when Jews were being dragged away by the millions to death camps.  Let us weep for Jesus, but let us also weep for those who continue to be crucified because of hasty conclusions and false judgments today! Scarsdale, New York had a large Jewish population when we lived there.  Our oldest daughter became friends with another little girl named Judy Rappaport in her school, and was invited to her birthday party. My wife had forgotten to buy a birthday gift, but she had recently bought several pieces of nice jewelry at the church bazaar.  She wrapped a nice necklace with a cross on it and sent it.  Our daughter came home in tears because the little girls parents would not let her accept the gift because they were Jewish.  Jane went straight to the phone and called them.  She said, “I am very sorry, I did not mean to offend you.  It just never occurred to me that you were Jewish.  I just thought you were people!  We will go buy another gift and bring it over right away.” The Rappaports became very good friends. May God forgive our foolish ways. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all just accept others as people and rejoice in their difference?