Carol M. Norén - "On a Scale from One to Ten" (June 8, 1997)

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-	Here now the reading from the Gospel	0:19
	which is taken from the third chapter of Mark,	0:22
	beginning with the 20th verse.	0:26
	Then Jesus went home again,	0:31
	and the crowd came together so that they could not even eat.	0:34
	When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him	0:40
	for people were saying he is beside himself,	0:44
	and the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said	0:50
	he has Beelzebub, and by the	0:53
	ruler of demons he casts out demons.	0:56
	And Jesus called them to him	1:01
	and spoke to them in parables.	1:03
	How can Satan cast out Satan?	1:07
	If a kingdom is divided against itself,	1:12
	that kingdom cannot stand.	1:14
	And if a house is divided against itself,	1:18
	that house will not be able to stand.	1:21
	And if Satan has risen up against himself	1:25
	and is divided, he cannot stand	1:28
	but his end has come.	1:31
	But no one can enter a strong man's house	1:34
	and plunder his property	1:37
	without first tying up the strong man.	1:41
	Then indeed, the house can be plundered.	1:44
	Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven their sins	1:49
	and whatever blasphemies they utter,	1:54
	but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit	1:57
	can never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin,	2:01
	for they had said he has an unclean spirit.	2:08
	Then Jesus' mother and his brothers came,	2:14
	and standing outside they sent to him	2:18
	and called him.	2:21
	A crowd was sitting around him	2:23
	and they said to him, your mother	2:25
	and your brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.	2:28
	And Jesus replied who are my mother and my brothers?	2:33
	And looking at those who sat around him he said	2:39
	here are my mother and my brothers.	2:42
	Whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister	2:46
	and my mother.	2:52
	The word of the Lord, thanks be to God.	2:54
	During the last week or so,	3:05
	I have noticed something very strange	3:09
	in the local newspaper where I live.	3:12
	The Chicago Tribune has had more biblical quotations	3:16
	and theological language in its stories,	3:22
	in its news coverage than you find in many sermons.	3:26
	It may be that the same is true here	3:30
	with the Durham Morning Herald.	3:33
	Now I'm talking about more than	3:35
	the reference to the Antichrist in Tuesday's Dunesbury.	3:37
	These are hard news stories.	3:42
	First, there have been the impassioned editorials	3:45
	about lieutenant Kelly Flinn, the Air Force bomber pilot	3:49
	who was discharged on the grounds of adultery,	3:52
	fraternization, lying, and disobeying orders.	3:56
	An LA Times columnist was quoted as saying	4:01
	"now that we no longer have wars to fight,	4:06
	"the military has decided to fight the devil instead."	4:08
	This is a new American inquisition	4:13
	and the parade of condemnation continues.	4:16
	Another writer to the Tribune asked	4:21
	"how dare the military impose puritanical	4:24
	"outmoded standards of behavior	4:28
	"in a land where we're	4:30
	"supposed to have separation of church and state?"	4:31
	Which of the top brass can claim to be without sin	4:35
	and cast the first stone?	4:39
	And this was before the news	4:42
	about general Joseph Ralston broke.	4:44
	Still another columnist insisted that Flinn's worst sin	4:48
	that should give us all grave concern was not adultery	4:51
	but violation of direct orders.	4:55
	The potential for compromising national security	4:59
	is far more grievous than being caught in the wrong bed.	5:02
	There is other theological content	5:09
	in the ongoing name calling between Robert Bennett,	5:10
	president Clinton's attorney	5:14
	and the legal counsel representing Paula Jones.	5:16
	Some have made the connection	5:19
	between the charge of sexual harassment now	5:21
	and the allegations of an adulterous relationship	5:25
	with Jennifer Flowers a few years ago.	5:29
	They have weighed this against the gravity	5:32
	of bearing false witness against one's neighbor	5:35
	and whether such witness, whether true or false,	5:38
	will affect the office of the presidency.	5:42
	But the news stories with the	5:47
	most explicit religious content	5:49
	have been those about the guilty verdict delivered	5:53
	in the trial of Timothy McVeigh.	5:57
	The Tribune even gave us profiles of the 12 jurors.	6:00
	I learned that one of them is a member	6:04
	of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.	6:06
	Another is a maintenance worker for a grocery store chain	6:09
	who reported he reads his Bible every week.	6:12
	A third is a property manager who's Methodist.	6:16
	It didn't say how often that one read the Bible.	6:20
	(congregation laughs)	6:23
	There were theological pronouncements from those	6:26
	who were directly affected by the bombing.	6:28
	Aren Allman whose daughter Bailey was killed in the blast	6:32
	told reporters "I want the death penalty.	6:35
	"An eye for an eye.	6:38
	"You don't take lives and then get to keep your own."	6:41
	One bombing survivor, Arlene Blanchard,	6:45
	whooped with joy, jumped up and down,	6:48
	and sang amazing grace to her five month old son with tears	6:50
	streaming down her face.	6:54
	When she heard the first guilty verdict	6:56
	she screamed "thank you Jesus!"	6:58
	And the McVeigh family had a spokesman request prayers	7:03
	for Timothy during this difficult time.	7:07
	Along with all the religious utterances	7:12
	connected with this story,	7:14
	there is a subtext that this act of terrorism	7:16
	that killed 168 people and affected countless others	7:20
	was the product of an utterly depraved mind.	7:25
	It's worse than the bombing of the World Trade Center	7:28
	a few years ago.	7:31
	It's more calamitous than what happened at Waco.	7:33
	It's far more serious than cheating on your income tax	7:36
	or driving above the speed limit	7:40
	or the sorts of violations of the law that you and I may do.	7:42
	The crime committed in Oklahoma City	7:47
	is unforgivable, and demands justice.	7:50
	In all of these news stories	7:57
	with their explicit theological content,	7:59
	there's a kind of ratings game going on.	8:03
	An implicit value judgment weighing the seriousness	8:07
	of one sin or violation of	8:10
	conventional mores against another.	8:13
	What's worse than adultery?	8:16
	Lying perhaps, or having a double standard,	8:18
	or making sexual behavior a military issue.	8:22
	On a scale from one to 10 is false witness a four	8:26
	and sexual harassment an eight	8:30
	or is it the other way around?	8:32
	And blowing up a federal building	8:37
	that houses a daycare center,	8:39
	that has to be a 10 doesn't it?	8:41
	In this morning's reading from the Gospel,	8:47
	we see a similar ratings game being played.	8:49
	Like the news of the last week or 10 days,	8:55
	the third chapter of Mark is full of accusations	8:58
	and pronouncements, and questions	9:03
	of the egregiousness of one sin versus another.	9:05
	In the first part of this chapter,	9:10
	there's an account of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath	9:12
	and the controversy that that sparked.	9:15
	Then there's an account of him calling the 12 disciples,	9:18
	healing people of their illnesses,	9:22
	and casting out demons.	9:24
	The scene in the lesson that I've just read	9:27
	from verses 20 to 35 begins	9:30
	with two negative value judgments.	9:32
	First there is the crowd that followed him home	9:35
	who went around saying this man is beside himself.	9:39
	That's a polite way of saying the man's nuts.	9:43
	He's out of control,	9:46
	and the second negative value judgment	9:48
	comes from Jesus' family who apparently believe	9:51
	that he is out of control.	9:54
	And they go out to seize him,	9:56
	an attempt at damage control.	9:58
	The Jewish authorities sent a team of	10:01
	investigative reporters from Jerusalem to cover the story	10:03
	and their interview techniques were worthy	10:06
	of any tabloid TV talk show.	10:09
	They got the audience worked up by saying	10:12
	this man is possessed by Beelzebub	10:15
	and by the prince of demons he casts out demons.	10:18
	This is a charge not to be taken lightly.	10:24
	And Jesus responded by showing how illogical	10:29
	and unfounded their claim was.	10:32
	Then the Lord raised the stakes.	10:37
	He announced what's worse than breaking the Sabbath?	10:41
	What's more serious than misunderstanding his ministry?	10:46
	What has eternal implications beyond any other sin?	10:50
	On a scale from one to 10,	10:55
	blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, that's a 10.	10:59
	It appears that no one had an answer for that.	11:06
	Even the Gospel writer cuts to another story,	11:10
	a conversation between Jesus and his family.	11:13
	It makes me wonder if the Lord's pronouncement	11:16
	about what never has forgiveness left the scribes	11:19
	with their jaws hanging.	11:23
	Even the crowd seems to have had nothing to say.	11:25
	The scribes were no doubt offended	11:31
	by this itinerant rabbi speaking about giving forgiveness	11:33
	or not giving forgiveness,	11:38
	but it may be that some of them	11:40
	are like some of us.	11:45
	Unsure what Jesus meant and perhaps even a little anxious	11:48
	that they might have committed	11:52
	this sin and not know about it.	11:53
	The sin that rates a 10 is one that	11:57
	we don't hear discussed very often in church.	12:01
	It's hard for us to understand.	12:05
	Even the term blasphemy is not part of our everyday speech.	12:06
	What is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?	12:14
	In the very narrowest sense, it is being confronted	12:19
	with the power of God at work.	12:24
	In this case, at work in God incarnate Jesus Christ,	12:26
	and daring to say nope, that's not God at all.	12:31
	That's the power of Satan you see at work in that fellow.	12:34
	Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is standing	12:39
	before the mercy and goodness of Jesus	12:43
	and knowing what you see,	12:47
	and turning your back on it.	12:50
	The way the Gospel writer frames the story	12:55
	suggests that the scribes recognized	12:57
	that Jesus' power did not come from demons.	13:01
	Perhaps they didn't know that he was the Messiah,	13:05
	but they knew that he was sent from God	13:08
	and their attitude toward him was	13:10
	we don't need you, we don't want you.	13:13
	We're going to get you.	13:17
	They wanted to destroy Jesus.	13:20
	It says so in chapter three, verse six	13:23
	and the master's words warning them	13:26
	of an unforgivable sin.	13:28
	He's telling them the peril	13:30
	that they're placing themselves in if they	13:32
	persist in their hostility toward the power of God in him.	13:34
	This statement was not a defensive comeback or a threat.	13:39
	It was a warning.	13:44
	After all, we warn people	13:45
	about danger if we care about them.	13:47
	The compassion of Christ was extended	13:51
	even to those who were declaring war on him,	13:54
	who despised and rejected him.	13:56
	And why did they hate him so much?	14:01
	What prompted this hostility?	14:04
	Well the Gospel writer doesn't carry any	14:07
	on the spot interviews with them, but from the narrative	14:09
	we can guess the factors that fueled their anger.	14:12
	I think they were jealous.	14:16
	Jealous of the crowds that followed Jesus.	14:18
	Jealous of the authority and integrity with which he spoke.	14:22
	His healing and casting out demons	14:27
	and working wonders far beyond their capability.	14:30
	And no doubt they were angry that whenever	14:34
	they had an argument with him he came out on top.	14:36
	They were angry because they didn't understand	14:40
	the kingdom of God he was talking about.	14:42
	Angry because he revealed their hypocrisy to them.	14:44
	And they were upset	14:49
	that Jesus, Jesus didn't respect	14:52
	the religious pecking order.	14:54
	He socialized with notorious sinners	14:56
	and failed to admire the Pharisees for their public piety.	14:59
	He did not applaud their degree of conformity to the law	15:04
	and they were proud of it.	15:08
	All of these could arouse the wrath of the scribes	15:11
	to the point where they would commit a sin	15:15
	for which there is no forgiveness.	15:17
	And so Jesus cautioned them	15:20
	of the imminent danger.	15:23
	If that's the case, it would seem	15:28
	that nobody here and now	15:30
	is likely to commit the unforgivable sin.	15:32
	On a scale from one to 10,	15:35
	we're not likely to commit a 10.	15:38
	We live in a different world.	15:41
	In a post-resurrection age.	15:44
	We wouldn't have reacted to the scene	15:46
	described in today's Gospel the way the scribes did	15:49
	because we have other, more modern ways	15:52
	of dealing with the things that come up	15:56
	in the third chapter of Mark.	15:58
	If we come across a person who claims to be	16:01
	possessed by demons or controlled by forces	16:03
	outside him or herself,	16:06
	we get them to a psychiatrist.	16:09
	We see if maybe they need some medication.	16:11
	People with withered hands are referred	16:14
	to other medical specialists,	16:17
	and if we have trouble with political or religious rivals,	16:19
	we consult a PR person to measure and shape	16:24
	public opinion in our favor.	16:28
	The fact that all of you are in church this Sunday morning	16:31
	suggests that you don't believe	16:34
	that Jesus Christ was in league with Satan	16:36
	and had demonic superpowers.	16:39
	So we might conclude that Jesus' words in this passage	16:43
	have some historical interest,	16:47
	but they needn't trouble us at Duke University Chapel	16:49
	because no one here is about to	16:52
	blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.	16:55
	Not in so many words, anyway.	17:00
	But I wonder, if we're immune	17:05
	from the temptations and the pride	17:10
	that led the scribes to the verge of committing	17:14
	that sin for which there is no forgiveness,	17:17
	we've dropped the quaint language of blasphemy	17:22
	against the Holy Spirit, but as a culture	17:25
	we have also largely abandoned the concept of sin,	17:29
	and personal accountability.	17:34
	We have no fault divorces	17:36
	as though marriages suddenly dissolve.	17:40
	When an elected leader is caught in obvious violation	17:44
	of the law, the most that he or she will say is	17:47
	mistakes were made, as they occur	17:51
	without human agency,	17:54
	like spontaneous combustion or something.	17:55
	We live in the most litigious nation	17:59
	on the face of the Earth,	18:02
	and when we are confronted	18:03
	with the consequences of the choices and actions	18:06
	that we have made, we're certain the responsibility	18:09
	lies at someone else's door.	18:13
	It's the tobacco industry,	18:15
	it's the owner of the store,	18:18
	it's the promotion committee.	18:20
	Most people in our country aren't looking for a savior,	18:23
	they're looking for a good lawyer.	18:27
	Even here in the church, we share the scribes' resistance	18:30
	to acknowledge Jesus as healer,	18:35
	redeemer, and exorcist.	18:39
	Perhaps out of fear that people will think	18:43
	we need him to be those things for us.	18:45
	The prayer of confession is an endangered species	18:49
	in most of North American Protestantism.	18:53
	I notice we didn't have one here today.	18:56
	In the United Methodist Church that I attend,	18:59
	we've done away with it completely.	19:02
	Instead we have a prayer of reconciliation.	19:03
	It's printed in the bulletin,	19:08
	and it consists of God and the congregation	19:09
	sharing our feelings with each other.	19:13
	We tell the Almighty what kind of week we've had,	19:16
	and say we're glad to be reminded	19:19
	that the spirit is right here with us.	19:21
	And then somebody says words of assurance	19:24
	that go along the lines of God says I love you,	19:27
	I'm proud of you, keep on living as my people.	19:32
	There's no reconciliation here,	19:38
	because there's no acknowledgement of the sin	19:40
	that caused the estrangement.	19:43
	Self congratulatory I'm okay, you're okay sentiment	19:46
	in liturgy denies the truth of who we are	19:51
	and it rejects the nature and work of the Messiah,	19:55
	because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,	19:59
	and if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves	20:04
	and the truth is not in us.	20:08
	Let me put it another way.	20:14
	Several months ago, last autumn to be honest,	20:17
	I noticed I was getting a pain in my left shoulder.	20:23
	I can't tell you exactly the date that it started	20:28
	or what caused it, but there was this pain.	20:31
	I didn't pay much attention to it.	20:37
	I was on sabbatical and I was very busy	20:38
	and it didn't hurt all the time.	20:40
	When it did, aspirin seemed to help,	20:43
	so I thought I must have done this carrying in	20:46
	a heavy sack of groceries or maybe lifting a suitcase.	20:49
	It's nothing serious.	20:53
	Everybody has aches and pains.	20:54
	It's part of life.	20:56
	But the problem didn't go away.	20:59
	My shoulder began to get stiff	21:03
	as well as sore, and I thought	21:06
	maybe I should see my doctor.	21:09
	Nah, he's in internal medicine	21:14
	and this is probably orthopedics.	21:15
	He wouldn't know what to do,	21:17
	and anyway the holidays were on us by that time	21:18
	and I was too busy, I figured he was too.	21:20
	It wasn't until after the first of the year	21:23
	when I could hardly put on my winter coat	21:26
	that I decided to seek medical attention.	21:30
	The doctor didn't turn me away.	21:35
	He knew immediately what was wrong with me,	21:38
	and took action.	21:41
	And now three times a week,	21:44
	a physical therapist slowly lifts my left arm	21:48
	into a hammer lock and says now Carol,	21:51
	on a scale from one to 10 how bad does that hurt?	21:54
	No, the problem wasn't cancer, thank God.	22:00
	Nor was it an amputation, or a spinal cord injury,	22:05
	or any other number of frightening afflictions	22:09
	requiring dramatic, newsworthy treatments,	22:12
	but if I had insisted I don't need a doctor,	22:16
	this isn't so bad, especially not compared	22:20
	to those other afflictions,	22:23
	the end result would have been the same as theirs.	22:24
	I would have lost the use of this shoulder, permanently.	22:27
	And if like the scribes in Mark's Gospel	22:32
	we recognize and reject the divine power	22:36
	made manifest in Jesus, and take offense at his mission	22:39
	the consequences will be irrevocable.	22:43
	If we're content to sit in judgment	22:47
	and say on a scale from one to 10	22:51
	my sin is nothing compared to theirs,	22:54
	in effect we are saying	22:58
	to God's anointed, we don't need you.	23:00
	We don't want you.	23:04
	And the Lord's words of warning	23:07
	are directed toward us.	23:10
	Because you see,	23:14
	in the eternal scheme of things	23:16
	we need forgiveness and healing through Jesus Christ	23:19
	no less than that man with the withered hand	23:24
	or the one possessed by demons,	23:29
	or the scribes, or a terrorist	23:32
	who kills 168 people.	23:36
	Without that forgiveness, we're all lost.	23:41
	But the good news is that God's mercy	23:48
	has no limits.	23:52
	His grace is greater than all our sin.	23:54
	There is no person beyond restoration,	23:57
	no wrongdoing that makes him write us off,	24:00
	no situation that places us beyond the love of Jesus Christ.	24:03
	To anyone who comes seeking pardon,	24:08
	whether it's Kelly Flinn or Joe Ralston,	24:11
	Bill Clinton, Paula Jones, Timothy McVeigh, Carol Noren	24:14
	or any one of you, Jesus Christ will forgive our sins	24:18
	and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.	24:23
	So boundless is our savior's love	24:27
	that it cannot be measured on a scale from one to 10.	24:30
	Thanks be to God.	24:36

Item Info

Title:

Carol M. Norén - "On a Scale from One to Ten" (June 8, 1997)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 03:04. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 24:39.
Who are we to decide which sins are worse than others? It is God who judges and becoming a judge yourself is asserting that you do not need God. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “What is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? In the very narrowest sense, it is being confronted with the power of God at work—in this case at work in God incarnate, Jesus Christ—and daring to say, ‘nope that’s not God at all; that’s the power of Satan you see at work in that fellow.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r44f1n020

Date:

June 8, 1997

Speaker:

Norén, Carol Marie

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Mark

Chapter and Verse:

Mark 3:20-34

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0858
ref9866_bfa
uachapelsermaud
duke:321131
dcrau001503
ark:/87924/r44f1n020
90fa1cf2-beb2-43b4-b287-43684a4c05c5

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Language:

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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