To Be A Force for Good In the World

Brad Sullivan

6 Epiphany, Year A

Sunday, February 16, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Ecclesiasticus 15:15-20
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37
Psalm 119:1-8

In the most recent Superman movie, “Man of Steel”, there were lots of great moments in the movie and many allusions to the Gospel.  During one of these moments, Superman’s father, Jor-El, told Superman that one of the reasons he sent him to earth was to be a bridge between their two peoples and to help guide the people of the earth, to show them the potential they all have to be a force for good in the world. 

In contrast to the idea that every human being has the potential to be a force for good in the world, actor and stand up comedian, Chris Rock, gave a comedy routine in which he basically talked about the incredibly low standards of behavior to which some people tend to hold themselves.  He quoted some of the things he had heard people say, such as, “I ain’t never been to jail.”  Well, what do you want, a cookie?  You aren’t supposed to go to jail, Chris pointed out.  Another favorite of mine was, “man, I don’t even beat my kids.”  Boy, you’re really raising the bar, aren’t you; you aren’t supposed to beat your kids.  Chris Rock’s language was a bit more colorful than mine was, but what he said was remarkably similar to our Gospel lesson today.

Jesus could have given his lesson similarly, pointing out the incredibly low standards to which people in his time seemed to have been holding themselves.  “Are you living as the salt of the earth?”  Jesus asked.  “Man, I never even cheated on my wife.”  Well good for you, Jesus would say, but were you in any way a decent husband?  Did you love, honor, and respect your wife?  Heck, did you honor and respect other women, or did you stare at them for the purpose of lusting after them? 

“And what about you, young man,” Jesus could have asked, “how have you done in the realm of being the salt of the earth and a light to the nations?”  “Well, Jesus, I’ve never even killed anybody.”  Well bully for you, but are you living as salt and light?  It’s lovely that you haven’t killed anyone, bravo, but how’s your heart?  Are you full of anger and hate?  Do you hold others in contempt constantly insulting and speaking ill of others?

We’ve got to raise the bar a little bit, Jesus was saying if we’re going to live as salt and light.  We need to love and care for people a little better than simply not killing them and not sleeping around on them.  We are God’s beloved children.  We are being asked to join with him in his eternal life.  Our bodies will be remade in the resurrection.  What we do with our bodies and how we treat other people is, therefore, very important.  Life is more than not breaking rules.  Life as salt and light is a continual opportunity to live as love, to honor, respect, and care for others.  We have a purpose beyond ourselves, Jesus taught, a purpose which completely eclipses “don’t kill people and don’t commit adultery.”

Being a light to the nations, the salt of the earth, repairers of the breach is our purpose as disciples of Jesus.  That is who we are, a people who live for more than just ourselves, who see life as a continual opportunity to live as love, to honor, respect, and care for others.  That focus has at various points in the church’s history been lost.  During the age of Christendom, when we believed all people in our society were Christian, we lost something of being a light to the nations, the salt of the earth, the focus too much on salvation after death, and not enough on salvation before death.  In short, the church has lost some of its saltiness.

There are countless many who claim Jesus as their Lord, but whose life is indistinguishable from those who don’t.  The divorce rate is very high within the church.  Even higher is the number of disciples of Jesus who look at men and women for the purpose of lusting after them.  There are disciples of Jesus who kill, but even more so, there are disciples of Jesus who have hearts full of anger, contempt, even hatred.  We simply can’t be forces for good in the world with hatred, anger, and contempt in our hearts. 

If we’re going to live as salt and light and repairers of the breach, there are some kinds of behavior which we simply can’t keep.  C.S. Lewis in writing “The Great Divorce” was writing a supposition about the afterlife, and he pointed out that some believe given enough time and minor adjustments, all evil will be turned into good without any rejection of those harmful things which we might like to retain.  “This belief,” Lewis writes, “I take to be a disastrous error.  You cannot take all luggage with you on all journeys; on one journey even your right hand and you right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind.”  God’s kingdom has no place for hatred, for lusting after others, for treating human beings as anything less than God’s own beloved children.  As disciples of Jesus, there are behaviors and attitudes which we must leave behind. 

There are many disciples of Jesus who are unwilling or have forgotten their need to leave some ways of life behind.  There are many who have forgotten our purpose beyond ourselves, to live as salt and light, and repairers of the breach.  Some have lost the ability to see life as a continual opportunity to live as love, to honor, respect, and care for others.  Some disciples of Jesus are myopic in their vision, barely seeing beyond themselves and their own struggles. 

As repairers of the breach, we have a different focus than personal safely, security, and pleasure.  We trust our safety security to God, and find pleasure enough in a life lived faithfully as Jesus’ disciples.  Realizing, there is a hell of a lot of pleasure in that life.  There’s personal pleasure and there is pleasure in living as salt and life, helping others by example and in action. 

More importantly, we all have the potential to be a force for good in the world.  As we heard in our reading from Ecclesiasticus, “you can choose.”

If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.  He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.  Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given. (Ecclesiasticus 15:15-17)

That is part of why God sent Jesus to live as one of us, to help us realize our potential for good and to realize our ability to choose that potential for good.  You can choose to act faithfully.  You can choose to live a life that goes beyond yourself.  You can choose to be salt and light, to be a repairer of the breach.  God has placed within you the potential to be a force for good in the world, and you can choose to be that force for good.  Amen.