Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church |
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Dr. Laura Meets Barney by Sheri Blackmon 02-20-2000 John 1:14 Dr. Henry Cloud opens his book Changes That Heal with this imaginary story: Once upon a time in a faraway galaxy, there was a highly advanced people. They had everything they could ever desire: technology to solve every problem, and more leisure time than we get in a lifetime. But they were bored to tears. They needed something new to liven things up. They set up a committee. They discussed coming up with a new sport or amusement park. Finally, an alien named Beezy proposed the winning idea. "How about creating a new god?" he suggested. Everyone agreed it was a wonderful idea. "It will give our people something to do on Sunday, and it will be great for conversations," someone else suggested. So they tried to invent a god, but to no avail. Then Beezy suggested they find a god instead—like the God many of the earthlings worship. So Beezy took a business trip to Planet Earth. Under his invisible cloak, he visited dozens and dozens of churches and religious institutions. He took copious notes and spent hours writing up his report. When he returned, he greeted the committee: "Fellow aliens. I have returned not with one god but with two. The name of the first god, or should I say goddess, is Grace. A very attractive goddess she is. She talked about love often. She urged people to get along and said that if they couldn’t be good she would forgive them anyway. The only thing is, I’m not sure what she would forgive, since they didn’t seem to have any rules to obey." He went on, "I especially like what her followers did. They fed the poor and visited prisoners. But they seemed so lost and never seemed to know where they were going." "Then there is the other god. This god is definitely a man, and his name is Truth. Truth is just as mean as Grace is nice. He kept judging and condemning people. But there is a good side to Truth," Beezy said. "He campaigns against some very nasty enemies of their society. He is like a big religious street sweeper, sweeping away all his enemies. The only things is, he not only sweeps away bad things; he also sweeps away the people who do bad things." After hearing Beezy’s report, the committee was ready to opt for the amusement park. But Beezy had one last suggestion: "We have great technology for mixing repelling elements. How about if we try mixing Grace and Truth?" (pp.17-18) In Jesus Christ truth and grace are united. Disturbing that in the Christian church today we often find them separated. Truth without grace is deadly and lacks freedom and joy, but grace without truth leads to a directionless life of moral frustration and compromise. All of us, to some degree, have experienced these two gods and fight the constant tension of keeping them united. That’s why Jesus Christ is a model for us. This Sunday as we kick off our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure we will begin discovering what makes Jesus attractive to so many people. Each week during the adventure we will focus one of eight winsome characteristics of Jesus. They are these: (on outline)
To introduce this years’ theme I would like to focus on one of Jesus’ most winsome characteristics to me, which is reflected in the prologue to the Gospel of John, particularly v. 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. In the context and here we see the full divinity and humanity of Jesus and his perfect display of both grace and truth. Let’s take a more careful look at the parts of the verse to gain a full appreciation of Jesus’ winsomeness. A summary of John’s thought from the passage Dave read is this: This Word which created the world, this Reason which controls the order of the world, has become a person, and with our own eyes we have seen Him. Try for a moment to grasp how startling this statement was to the first hearers. The one thing a Greek would never have dreamed of was that God could take a body. To the Greek the body was evil, a tomb which held the spirit captive. William Barclay says, "So staggeringly new and unheard-of was this conception of God in human form that it is not surprising that there were some even in the Church who could not believe it." They were the Docetists (from the Greek word "to seem to be") who argued that Jesus only seemed human; they denied the reality of His humanity. This belief was based in the assumption that God would defile Himself by real contact with humanity. John refutes this idea with the deliberate use of the word "flesh," a strong, almost crude way of referring to human nature. John further extends the thought by saying: he dwelt among us. With this phrase John probably means for us to recall God’s presence in the tabernacle in the wilderness (called the shekinah glory). The glory resulting from the immediate presence of the Lord is referred to quite often in Jewish writings. All of these Old Testament experiences were transitory and are now fulfilled by the Word-made-flesh dwelling among us. Now John goes on to describe the Word: full of grace and truth. Grace is one of the great Christian words, and it is a mystery that John uses it 3 x here in the prologue and not again in the gospel. Grace denotes that which causes joy and signifies good will and kindness. It has two ideas in it: first, it is something completely undeserved and unmerited. Mark Twain once said: "Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out, and your dog would go in." In the Christian understanding, grace is especially seen in that God has provided for our spiritual need in sending His Son to be our Savior. Secondly, it has the idea of beauty in it. In the modern Greek the word means charm. In Jesus we see the winsomeness of God. People had thought of God in terms of might, majesty, power and judgment, but in Jesus they were confronted with the sheer loveliness of the love of God. The second word "truth" is one of the dominant notes of this Gospel; it is found 25 x in John. Truth conveys the complete reliability of God. In Jesus’ earthly life people flocked to him because he spoke with authority and certainty. Jesus is the communicator of truth. Jesus is the one who gives us guidance for this tangled business of thinking and living. Amidst the shadows and gray areas, he makes things clear to us. It is the truth that makes us free; it liberates us from our fears, weaknesses and defeats. I am fascinated by truth-tellers. Take, for example, Dr. Laura. Granted she may be low on compassion, but she has the courage to say it the way she sees it! Sometimes my mouth drops at how she cuts to the quick with her callers. This is probably what keeps her ratings high. Another example is my husband, Rick; he has the ability to say what’s on his mind, and you always know where you stand with him. I will tell you about our first encounter as a quasi-confession. Though we attended the same Christian college together, we first became acquainted not at school but in a disco bar. We had gone there with a group of seven couples, but both of us were with a different date. We soon realized independently that we wished we had had another date. After a while Rick asked me to dance. We had a good time, and I noticed he danced just like John Travolta. (I loved his arm motions and white polyester suit.) But that wasn’t what got my attention. Right after the dance he leaned over to me and said to me in a loud voice without any hint of decent restraint: "I’d like to get to know you better." I quickly glanced behind me to make sure my date hadn’t heard Rick and smiled. Boy, this guy was scary, I thought, but secretly I liked his ability to say what was on his mind. It continues to be a trait I cherish. . . most of the time. But the reason I cherish it is that it is undergirded by a strong and abiding love. One of the things that attracts me to Jesus is his courage to tell the truth. But the reason his truth-telling is powerful is that it comes from someone full of grace. Truth without grace is deadly; the only thing worse is partial truth without grace. Once the devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. "What did he find?" asked the cohort. "A piece of the truth," the devil replied. "Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth?" "No," said the devil, "I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it." Whether you have only a piece of the truth or the whole truth, the devil works hard to make a religion out of truth. Truth without grace is a religion based on human effort and not a relationship based on God’s grace. When we look at what Scripture says about the law, about truth without grace we see that the law silences us, brings anger, increases sin, arouses sinful passions, and holds us prisoner. No wonder Beezy did not like Truth! We have all experienced truth without grace. Truth usually does not help us, because we rebuff it or fight it off. It hurts, cuts and penetrates like a stab wound to the flesh. It sets off our defense mechanisms. Truth by itself says: "I’ll love you only if you do what is true and right." Unfortunately, this is the experience some have in the church of Jesus Christ. Jake, a recovering alcoholic, put it this way: "When I was in church or with my Christian friends, they would just tell me that drinking was wrong and that I should repent. They didn’t know how many times I had tried quitting, how many times I had tried to be a good Christian. When I got into Alcoholics Anonymous, I found that I could be honest about my failures, but more important, I could be honest about my helplessness to control it. I began to have hope. I could come forth with who I really was and find help." (Changes 27) Jake found that when he could be himself in relationship with God and others, healing was possible. Problems occur when the real self has to go underground and hide. This is caused by truth being cut off from grace. But grace without truth is equally harmful, because it isn’t really grace but license. Gal. 5:13 warns us against this: You were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Grace without truth causes us to fall into bad situations again and again. Grace without truth is like a world full of Barneys singing: I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family. On the surface, this is great, but without rules defining love and keeping out hate, these sentiments are just that . . .sentimental. Henry Cloud says: "Just as grace is the relational aspect of God’s character, truth is the structural aspect. Truth is the skeleton life hangs upon; it adds shape to everything in the universe. God’s truth leads us to what is real, to what is accurate. Just as our DNA contains the form that our physical life will take, God’s truth contains the form that our soul and spirit should take." (Changes 20) The church of Jesus Christ needs a healthy balance of grace and truth. It needs both Dr. Laura’s and Barney’s coming together in the individual and corporate personality. But what about the church here at Moorpark? I think we have some big Barneys here. I have experienced this church to be very loving, supportive, encouraging and accepting. The deacons do a wonderful job and the members and friends are very warm and caring. We also have some people who encourage their brothers and sisters to grow and stretch. There is a lot of iron sharpening iron in this church, especially in the small groups. From my perspective, this is where we need to continue to focus; to let God use us to sharpen each other, with truth undergirded by grace. Speaking the truth always carries with it the possibility that you will be rejected or that you will come across as judgmental. So we must be clear that our attitude is right and that what we have to say is God-directed. This requires prayer, reflection and an honest assessment of our motives. So we should ask ourselves: even if it is true, does it build up or tear down? Paul warns us: even if a person is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted (Gal. 6:1). The church needs Christians with grace and truth and the world does too! We need less stridency and hostility as well as less wishy-washy, compromised and gutless Christianity. How do we balance these? By looking at the life of Jesus and studying Jesus as our model. A clear picture of the Jesus of the Bible will steer us as believers. But we need more. We need to prayerfully ask God to enable us through His Holy Spirit to be full of grace and truth, for we cannot do it on our own. We also need one another. We need relationships characterized by honesty and accountability, so we don’t keep our real selves hidden. This is why we have small groups during this adventure. I invite you to join a small group for this 50 Day Adventure and take a closer look at what makes Jesus so attractive. May God find us fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith (Hb. 12:2). |
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