GOODNESS BONE DEEP
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
July 26, 2009
II Corinthians 5: 16-20
Luke 6: 43-49
"Come on," the mother said to her little boy, "it's time to get up and go to Sunday School."
"O, Mom, do I have to?"
"Yes, you have to."
"But why do I have to go to Sunday School?"
"Because -- you want to grow up to be a good boy, don't you?"
"But, Mom, I already know how to be a better boy than I want to be."
That pretty well sums up a lot of people's feelings about goodness, doesn't it? Our problem isn't so much one of knowing what is good. Our problem is in really wanting to do it!
Which is why most all sermons on doing good are doomed to failure. If knowledge alone could save the world it would already have been saved. Few people can either be educated or talked into being good.
So, this morning I'm not even going to try even though we’re still in the Fruits of the Spirit sermon series and our topic is “goodness.” This morning, knowing I can’t talk you into being any gooder than you are, I'll be happy if my words merely undergird the goodness that is in you. And, maybe, just maybe, give you some insight into the depth of your goodness.
We’ll be talking about the stages of development of goodness. That first our goodness is outside directed. That second our goodness can become inner-directed. And third, it is hoped that our goodness becomes God-directed. Not that each stage is always discrete. Rather, there can be great overlapping.
The first instruction in goodness that we receive in our lives is like the little boy in the opening story: it’s from Mom or Dad. They let us know early on what was good and what was bad, didn't they? Early on we found that doing certain things gained us approval; we found that doing certain other things got us either sent to our rooms or denied privileges or, for those of us old enough, got us spanked. We learned!
As we got older, we likely added to or more likely substituted other authority figures whom we wanted to please: scout leaders, coaches, other relatives. Personally, I always wanted to please my teachers. And, guess what? If you get good grades, teachers think they're doing well and like you a whole lot.
At this youthful point in our lives, most of our goodness is goodness that is done for an immediate reward. We are good because we get strokes from people for it. Or, we are good because we don’t get punished like when we are bad. Follow me?
Some people, though, carry this need for outside direction throughout their whole lives. For example, the churches that are growing fastest in America tend to be those that tell their members what to think and how to behave. They have absolutely no doubts about right and wrong. But beware: don’t challenge their authority! Don’t try to think for yourself. Don’t have doubts or you won’t be so warmly welcomed.
Accordingly, there comes a time, or ought to come a time usually in one’s teens, when working to gain approval from authority figures, or believing certain things because others have insisted you must becomes an insufficient reason for deciding what you will and won’t do.
That is, to be good as an adult merely to avoid punishment of one kind or another or to win the approval of authority figures in your life can leave you inadequately equipped to deal with temptations, let alone helping to choose the right thing to do in difficult situations.
Better that we should grow into "autonomy," or self rule. In contrast to outside rule, the autonomous person lives by inner logic, inner rule. That is, the autonomous person thinks for himself or herself; decides for himself or herself what standards or principles to hold and then lives accordingly.
Not surprisingly, the autonomous person may choose nearly identical standards of goodness to his or her parents or significant others or that of the strictest church. The difference, however, is that these rules are now MINE. I’ve chosen them from among many other options.
However, autonomy has great limitations for Christians. Why? Because autonomy, self rule, has no effective means to keep me from falling into bad behavior, sin. If I am the sole judge and jury of my actions then it's impossible to avoid the trap of self-delusion.
Truth is, you and I can pretty easily convince ourselves that we are doing the right thing even when we’re actually being selfish or idolatrous or adulterous.
Accordingly, being a self-made, self-ruled person sounds so wonderfully American, so John Waynish. But goodness that is dependent on self-rule ultimately ends up self-centered and non-loving. As the book of Proverbs states, “The heart is deceitful above all things." Or as George MacDonald put it "The one principle of hell is, 'I am my own.'" I belong to myself.”
Gratefully, we can be saved from ourselves. By God. Thus, the third alternative to outside rule and self rule is God-rule. If the theme song of heteronomy is “Because the Bible tells Me So” and the theme song of self-rule is "I did it my way," the theme song of God-rule would be "Just a closer walk with thee."
The God-ruled person is still liable to self-centeredness because perfection is not attainable in this life. The difference, however, is that the God-ruled person knows it, looks out for it, admits it, confesses it, and is ever asking God for forgiveness and guidance.
Plus, the God-ruled person will place himself or herself under the ministry and guidance of a church. And, there, in the church fellowship will learn from the examples of others. Will find support for living a courageous Christian life. And will also be held accountable in various ways by the other members. The church, then, becomes the key to helping the God-ruled person live a life of mature goodness, love, service and joy.
Of this new state of affairs, St. Paul writes "When anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new creation, a new being. The former ways (self-centeredness) have passed away -- behold the new has come."
In this ultimate stage of goodness, a person has seen the deficiencies of unquestioned allegiance to outside authority figures. Has tried on autonomy, self-rule, done it my way, but has come to see emptiness, the futility, the immaturity of living life only for one’s own sake.
And then, somehow, some way, in an act of sheer grace, this person comes to begin putting God more and more into the center of one’s life. Begins being concerned about goodness on a larger scale than merely personal gain. Begins to ask in the face of decisions, not What have I or my family always done or believed? Not what do I in my self-rule choose to do to enhance my self.
But asks as a new creation in Jesus Christ: What is the good, loving, God-thing to do even if it defies convention? What is the right, loving, good God-thing to do even if I have to sacrifice something? What does God want me, a bona fide follower of Jesus Christ, to do?
Well, do you see yourself in this picture, anywhere?
A fitting closing to this sermon and the whole idea of maturing in faith from heteronomy to autonomy to theonomy – from outside rule to self rule to God rule – is found in a true story told by Bishop William Willimon while he was chaplain of Duke University. He writes:
Awhile back I got a call from a parent, an upset, very upset parent.
"I hold you personally responsible for this," he said.
"Me?" I asked.
The father was hot, upset because his graduate school bound daughter had just informed him that she was going to chuck it all ("throw it all away" was the way the father described it) and go do mission work with the Presbyterians in Haiti.
"Isn't that absurd!" shouted the father. "A Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Duke and she's going to dig ditches in Haiti."
"Well, I doubt that she's received much training in the Engineering Department here for that kind of work, but she's probably a fast learner and will probably get the hang of ditch-digging in a few months," I said.
"Look," said the father, "this is no laughing matter. You are completely irresponsible to have encouraged her to do this. I hold you personally responsible," he said.
"Me? What have I done?"
"You, you ingratiated yourself with her, filled her head with all that religion stuff. She likes you, that's why she's doing this foolishness" he said.
"Now look, buster," I said, struggling to keep my ministerial composure. "Weren't you the one who had her baptized?"
"Why, yes," he said.
"And then, didn't you read her Bible stories, take her to Sunday school, let her go with the Methodist Youth Fellowship to ski in Vale?"
"Well, yes, but..."
"Don't but me," I said. "It's your fault that she believed all that stuff, that she's gone and thrown it all away on Jesus, not mine. You're the one that introduced her to Jesus, not me."
"But all we ever wanted her to be was a Methodist" he said, meekly.
"Sorry. You've messed up and made a disciple of Jesus Christ."
"If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old is passing away; everything is becoming new." New and Good.