Through the Same Faith

Through the Same Faith

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

July 22, 2018

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Romans 3: 21-31

Ecclesiastes 7: 15-20

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

So far in this foray into Paul’s letter to the Romans we’ve looked at the problems that Paul introduces to then pose and illuminate, discuss to put it plainer in the course of his letter.

1.      That the willful ignoring of God is at the root of all of the evil in the world, that the world’s troubles all stem from this willful ignoring, and he calls it sin.

2.      Then that he, as a Pharisee, and a Jew feels called to show to the world about God, and what it means to follow him by adherence to the law, but,

And this is what we talked about last week

            It is impossible to reveal the goodness of God this way because

                        No one is perfect, and certainly then also not everyone is

                        It only takes one transgression of the law to ruin the bunch

                        So it is hard to not look like a hypocrite

                        And even the gentiles just by nature follow some aspects of the law

                        So what is the difference?

How can we show God to the Gentiles, how can we be the bearers of the blessing promised way back in the Covenant to Abraham, that all the world would be blessed through him? When we continue to fall? How is it possible? Or maybe why even bother? But again and again he does actually say it is important to keep on bothering. . .

Even if we are both—Jew and Gentile—alike. . . even if there is no distinction at all between Jews and Gentiles. . .

Because he ruminates on it through most of chapters 2 & 3, we can see shades of this problem,  in the lines leading up to our official reading this morning of v. 21-31, and they also introduce our Old Testament Lesson. . . check out in chapter 3.v 9- 12

⁹ What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. ¹⁰ As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
¹¹     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
¹² All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”^[b]

IN these lines, and it continues through v. 15, Paul is stringing together a bunch of different quotes intermixed from the Psalms, from Isaiah, and from Ecclesiastes, and he does it as if there is another source, where they are connected, which is lost to us, but we can see it clearly what it is saying, that righteousness under the law is futile because no one, not even one, is righteous in this way. . . Of all the places he quotes Ecclesiastes gets at his main point the most clearly. This is why I chose Ecclesiastes 7: 15-20,, and Ecclesiastes has always been one of my favorite books of the Old Testament, take a listen. . .

¹⁵ In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:

the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
    and the wicked living long in their wickedness.
¹⁶ Do not be overrighteous,
    neither be overwise—
    why destroy yourself?
¹⁷ Do not be overwicked,
    and do not be a fool—
    why die before your time?
¹⁸ It is good to grasp the one
    and not let go of the other.
    Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.^[a]

¹⁹ Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful
    than ten rulers in a city.

²⁰ Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
    no one who does what is right and never sins.

How bleak it all is. . .

You can come out of Ecclesiastes wondering, ok what is the point, if all of life is chasing the wind, just vanity of vanities, why does anything matter?

Have you ever heard Mark Twain’s stories about the Good Little Boy and the Bad Little Boy

Classics

Let me read you a little bit of them, I won’t read it all, just enough to give you a flavor:

Once there was a good little boy by the name of Jacob Blivens. He always obeyed his parents, no matter how absurd and unreasonable their demands were; and he always learned his book, and never was late at Sabbath-school. He would not play hookey, even when Hi bober judgment told him it was the most profitable thing he could do. None of the other boys could ever make that boy out, he acted so strangely. He wouldn't lie, no matter how convenient it was. He just said it was wrong to lie, and that was sufficient for him. And he was so honest that he was simply ridiculous. The curious ways that that Jacob had, surpassed everything. He wouldn't play marbles on Sunday, he wouldn't rob birds' nests, he wouldn't give hot pennies to organ-grinders' monkeys; he didn't seem to take any interest in any kind of rational amusement. So the other boys used to try to reason it out and come to an understanding of him, but they couldn't arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. As I said before, they could only figure out a sort of vague idea that he was "afflicted," and so they took him under their protection, and never allowed any harm to come to him.

This good little boy read all the Sunday-school books; they were his greatest delight. This was the whole secret of it. He believed in the good little boys they put in the Sunday-school books; he had every confidence in them. He longed to come across one of them alive, once; but he never did.

Jacob had a noble ambition to be put in a Sunday-school book. 

So that is the beginning of the description. . . but look at the end of this story

But somehow nothing ever went right with this good little boy; nothing ever turned out with him the way it turned out with the good little boys in the books. They always had a good time, and the bad boys had the broken legs; but in his case there was a screw loose somewhere; and it all happened just the other way. When he found Jim Blake stealing apples, and went under the tree to read to him about the bad little boy who fell out of a neighbor's apple-tree and broke his arm, Jim fell out of the tree too, but he fell on him, and broke his arm, and Jim wasn't hurt at all. Jacob couldn't understand that. There wasn't anything in the books like it.

This boy always had a hard time of it. Nothing over came out according to the authorities with him. At last, one day, when he was around hunting up bad little boys to admonish, he found a lot of them in the old iron foundry fixing up a little joke on fourteen or fifteen dogs, which they had tied together in long procession, and were going to ornament with empty nitro-glycerine cans made fast one him), and he took hold of the foremost dog by the collar, and turned his reproving eye upon wicked Tom Jones. But just at that moment Alderman McWelter full of wrath, stepped in. All the bad boys ran away, but Jacob Blivens rose in conscious innocence and began one of those stately little Sunday-school-book speeches which always commence with "Oh, sir!" in dead opposition to the fact that no boy, good or bad, ever starts a remark with "Oh, sir." But the alderman never waited to hear the rest. He took Jacob Blivens by the ear and turned him around, and hit him a whack in the rear with the flat of his hand; and in an instant that good little boy shot out through the roof and soared away towards the sun, with the fragments of those fifteen dogs stringing after him like the tail of a kite. And there wasn't a sign of that alderman or that old iron foundry left on the face of the earth; and, as for young Jacob Blivens, he never got a chance to make his last dying speech after all his trouble fixing it up, unless he made it to the birds; because, although the bulk of him came down all right in a tree-top in an adjoining county, the rest of him was apportioned around among four townships, and so they had to hold five inquests on him to find out whether he was dead or not, and how it occurred. You never saw a boy scattered so. ^*

So that is the Story of the Good Little Boy, here’s a taste of the Bad Little Boy

Once there was a bad little boy whose name was Jim - though, if you will notice, you will find that bad little boys are nearly always called James in your Sunday-school books. It was strange, but still it was true that this one was called Jim.

But the strangest thing that ever happened to Jim was the time he went boating on Sunday, and didn't get drowned, and that other time that he got caught out in the storm when he was fishing on Sunday, and didn't get struck by lighting. Why, you might look, and look, all through the Sunday-school books from now till next Christmas, and you would never come across anything like this. Oh no; you would find that all the bad boys who go boating on Sunday invariably get drowned; and all the bad boys who get caught out in storms when they are fishing on Sunday infallibly get struck by lightning. Boats with bad boys in them always upset on Sunday, and it always storms when bad boys go fishing on the Sabbath. How this Jim ever escaped is a mystery to me.

This Jim bore a charmed life - that must have been the way of it. Nothing could hurt him. He even gave the elephant in the menagerie a plug of tobacco, and the elephant didn't knock the top of his head off with his trunk. He browsed around the cupboard after essence of peppermint, and didn't make a mistake and drink aqua fortis. He stole his father's gun and went hunting on the Sabbath, and didn't shoot three or four of his fingers off. He struck his little sister on the temple with his fist when he was angry, and she didn't linger in pain through long summer days, and die with sweet words of forgiveness upon her lips that redoubled the anguish of his breaking heart. No; she got over it. He ran off and went to sea at last, and didn't come back and find himself sad and alone in the world, his loved ones sleeping in the quiet churchyard, and the vine-embowered home of his boyhood tumbled down and gone to decay. Ah! no; he came home as drunk as a piper, and got into the station-house the first thing.

And he grew up and married, and raised a large family, and brained them all with an axe one night, and got wealthy by all manner of cheating and rascality; and now he is the infernalist wickedest scoundrel in his native village, and is universally respected, and belongs to the Legislature.

So you see there never was a bad James in the Sunday-school books that had such a streak of luck as this sinful Jim with the charmed life.

You ever feel like that is the way things should be. . . I’m a good person and I follow the rules, I go to church, I do what I am supposed to do, why isn’t my life perfect?

Maybe I’m not perfect but I’m pretty good. . .

Isn’t that what the Messiah was supposed to be, to set up justice, to make things right. . .

To make it so the good get rewarded and the bad get punished. . .

Put yourself in that frame of mind and then listen to this New Testament Reading, Romans 3: 21-31

²¹ But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness is given through faith in^[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,^[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. ²⁸ For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, ³⁰ since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. ³¹ Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Look at what Paul is trying to do here, he is trying to let it be known that there is not distinction between Jew and Gentile in the new Righteousness by faith

But by doing this he can imagine what his Jewish audience might think of that. . .

well then we can throw out the Law then, if its purpose is righteousness and we can’t be righteous, why bother?

But Paul is trying to get them to see it differently. . . a new conception of what Law is. . .

No longer something that ranks people. . . and this is what I think he getting at when he mentions “boasting” all throughout his letters, not just here, but in all of them. . .

no boasting, in other words, no more ranking, putting others below and yourself above, or even vice versa. But instead a new equality, where righteousness comes to play.

But then where is justice? I’ve done well, I should be rewarded. . .

No one is righteous, not even one. . . it takes a new understanding of ourselves, a new perception in the light of the righteousness of Christ, who though blameless, willingly went to the cross,

Though as the old gospel song says, at any point he could have called 10,000 angels

He does not, for us.

It’s a new world view, necessary to come to terms with this. . . and how often does Jesus in his teaching deal with this very concept. . .

When he says the last shall be first and the first last

When he says blessed are the meek

When he tells the parable of the prodigal son, with the elder brother, who refuses to live in the world of his father’s grace

When he tells of the outcast Samaritan who does what is good

When he tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar

When he praises the widow who gave so little, but in her little gave all

When he told the parable of the proud Pharisee

When he sat with the unclean

When he chose disciples out of fishermen and tax collectors

When he tells the criminal hanging on the cross next to him that today he will be in paradise

It takes a major shift of our worldview to come to terms with this world of grace that Jesus has brought not boasting and ranking, and looking for ways that we should be rewarded ahead of others. . .

Those Mark Twain stories, of the good and bad little boy, are a direct response to Sunday School teachings of the time, where children were taught to behave, and that through their behaving their lives would be blessed, rewarding or punishing them based on their behavior. . .

it just doesn’t work that way. . . remember when the child was born blind, and Jesus was asked who sinned to cause it, and Jesus answers, neither.  . . but so the works of God can be displayed in him. . .

So there are purposes that God has beyond what we can see, and it is possible that the pain I feel now is for some purpose, and Good. This is a worldview that is a challenge to us.

Driving in Smithfield the other evening, I saw it on a church sign, plain as day, God wants you to be financially wealthy.

Look at the promises told to folks to get them to accept Christ and behave. . . be a good boy, and your life will be great, come to our church and God will reward you with wealth.

It is a common theme in the ancient world. . . if you run into trouble it is because of something you had done to upset the gods. . .

The greatest Roman epic poem, The Aeneid, written just prior to the birth of Christ, the author Virgil explains why the hero and legendary founder of Rome Aeneas suffers so many calamities, and it is simply due to his having offended Juno, the wife of Jupiter to King of the gods, his offending her and his family’s offending of her. . . it all adds up, and Aeneas bears the burden.

Paul is showing the Christian worldview to be different. . .

God is in control, and sent Jesus Christ to save the world, faith in this is what he calls the new righteousness given by God. . .

Given by God?

How can righteousness be given? How can faith be given? If I have done nothing how can I be better than someone else? How can I be good enough? How can I make my situation in this world better for me?

If the world isn’t any different for me because I am better why should I be?

I think of Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof

I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else? 

Earlier this morning and a few weeks ago, we had looked at how Paul had said that ignoring of God, as the essence of sin, is the cause of all the evils of the world. . .

If we have faith in Jesus Christ then what we saw as evil, must now be seen within the eyes of grace. . . and therefore as a renewing, piece of life, bringing us closer to the good, we trust God has for us. . . faith, forces us to see the world in new eyes. . .

We as a church then, can’t promise salvation for being good,

We can’t promise a free trip to heaven for coming to church,

We can’t promise that everything will be better for you if you follow the rules.

We can’t sell an idol in the name of Christ

We can simply teach that the loving God who creates this world, loves us enough to send his Son Jesus Christ to die for us, bringing about a new righteousness brought on by faith, whereby all distinctions and rankings are forgotten, and this new life in this Christ is not one of ease, and material abundance, but one where God is bringing all things to the good he has willed especially for us.

That we see life in this radical new way.

Insert about why come to church. . .