Carol M. Norén - "On a Scale from One to Ten" (June 8, 1997)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | 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 |