Out of the Sandbox[1]
Romans 3:31-4:5
First Presbyterian Church Clarksville
Harmony Presbyterian Church
June 24, 2012
Ordinary 12
The Reverend Dr. Robert Wm Lowry
Jesus
said that where two or more are gathered he is there.
The
presence of the Son of God is not the only thing present when human beings
gather together.
In
all sorts of places;
the sandbox on
the playground,
the corridors of
political power,
the midst of
social conflict or upheaval,
IT is there.
The
IT in question is our never ending effort to establish order in the world. And not just any order, but a new order that
favors our own perspectives and demands and bends them to our own will.
A colleague related a story about
the sort of conflict that can arise when those visions conflict. It happened on the middle school yard. The two guys had been cruising to a fight for
a while because both had staked their claim to the same girl. So, in that eternal show of middle school
tough guy bravado, they stormed over to one another, threw their books to the
ground and commenced battle. Some blood
was drawn, a few bruises were shared. In
the end, there really wasn’t a winner.
That of course was somewhat preordained since these two guys were
fighting over a girl but neither had even shared their interest with her. She had no desire to let these two guys
decide anything about who she would or would not hang out with. In fact, she was hanging out with a guy from
another school.
Fists clenched and wills determined,
those two guys duked it out to set straight just how the world was going to be
ordered but in the end all they did was accomplish some bruises, scrapes and a
three day suspension. Try as they
might, they did not have the power to bend the world to their own will and in
hindsight driving home with mom and dad school suspension in hand, it probably
seemed a little silly. But in the
moment, nothing else seems so important.
Throughout the history of
civilization, that school yard fight has been played out on a greater and more
troubling scale. And with each one, the
victor thought that a new and permanent world order had been established.
When Babylon crushed the Israelites,
Israel worried that a new and permanent world order had been established and
the Babylonians celebrated in their final victory. But then, a few generations later, there the
Israelites were rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem.
In 732 at the Battle of Poitiers, the
balance of power between Catholic France and Moorish Spain seemed to have been
struck and set in stone forever. 750 years later Spain would not only be Christian
again, but the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition would ensure that
no other voices would be heard.
In 1960’s and 70’s, the fragile
balance between the United States and the USSR appeared to be the context of
world affairs for the foreseeable future.
Until a group of East German residents, dissatisfied with the order of
the world, took to the streets with sledgehammers and began to tear down the
wall.
The world order as we see it often
seems eternal and unchangeable, but history teaches us that it rarely is. Each of these eras in history is fleeting,
yet each is also impactful on the fullness of history. Without Babylon, the Jews of ancient Israel
would likely not have such devotion and passion for the land of return. Without the invasion of Spain by the armies
of Tariq Ibn Ziyad, the west may never have made advances in math and astronomy
owed largely to Islamic scholars.
Without the Cold War, we may never have known the horror of the arms race.
For better or worse, each new era in
human civilization changes whom we are and how we live.
Such was the Rome of Paul’s
time. It was the biggest kid on the playground. It set the rules and dictated the ordering of
the world. And like powerful nations
before and after, Rome established that order by delineating between whole
swaths of peoples. Who is in and who is
out.
Paul, in this portion of his letter,
betrays himself as a very well educated and astute observer of humanity. He understood the realities of power and he
understood these underlying patterns of history. In writing to the Christians at Rome, Paul
calls them, and consequently us, to a new perspective on history. It is as though Paul walks us to a high
vantage point and, letting history unfold before us, says “what you see is not
really how it is. Oh it may seem real
enough in the moment, but in the fullness of history; in the fullness of God’s
unfolding history, this is not the whole reality.”
For Paul, the order of history-the
order of the world, our lives, and our communities- is about nothing less than
Jesus Christ. And Christ’s order is
different than any other that the world has ever seen.
In Jesus’ world, citizenship is
determined by two things; the need of grace and the justification of
Grace. And what does Paul have to say
about that. Well to the first point, he
says that we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Kind of hard to put national or cultural or
political boundaries around that! We are
ALL sinners and we ALL fall short of the glory of God. And we sinners are “justified by God’s grace
as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth
as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood…” (3:24, 25)
Of all the tipping points in human
history, of all the eras in which the whole course of history seems to change,
none compares in Paul’s eyes to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
While earthly powers gather on the
school yard to duke it out or argue over whose toys will stay in the sandbox,
Jesus does something different. Dissatisfied
with the world as it is and with the limited perspectives the powers that be
can offer, Jesus does not seek to reorder the world. In his life, death and resurrection Jesus
ushers in a whole new world. A world not
bound by the limits of our horizons or even the walls of the sandbox!
In a world of dog eat dog,
a
world of me first, me second, me third,
a
world where the one with the most toys wins,
Jesus
proclaims a new day. A day when the
order of the world does not rise or fall on the powers that be; that expands beyond our human created
boundaries, divergent philosophies and limited perspectives; where the goal of
life is neither strength nor power, neither advancement or domination.
This new world as Paul describes it
is defined by…relationship. And this is not
just any relationship but real, abiding, unbreakable relationship with God our
creator. Paul strives in his letter to
the Romans to get them to understand that this new order Jesus ushers into the
world is defined by one truth; the truth of the grace and love of God. All that is, in heaven and on earth, bows to
God and it is by God’s universal act of grace that we are united.
Amen?
No, really, can I get an amen to
that?
If there was ever a good word of
good news in a world that needs to hear it, this is it! Can you think of any better word for us to
hear?
If ever there was a time for even
Presbyterians to give an amen, this is it!
This new world that Paul describes
is a place for US. For all of us; Jews,
Gentiles, men, women, old, young, free people and slaves, you name the human
condition or human category, and Jesus has knocked down the walls and gathered
us all in together in the embrace of the love of God.
God, Paul tells us is our universal
true north. Was it the law that brought
blessing to Abraham? No. Was it his good works and good deeds? No. It
was the faithfulness of God and Abraham’s faith in God’s faithfulness that
brought such blessing to him.
I did a completely informal survey
last night. I skimmed three dozen front
page stories on news websites; the NY Times, Washington Post, Le Monde, you get
the idea. I kept a running count of the
stories that described some sort of conflict or division in the world. With the notable exceptions of an article on
the children’s book Good Night Moon and a very interesting article about the
rising standards for admission to nursing programs, every article I read
described some sort of conflict between warring political, economic, social or
national worldviews. Each one determined
to bend the world to their own will and way.
Later this week in Pittsburgh, a few
thousand Presbyterians will descend on Pittsburgh for the 220th
General Assembly of the PC(USA). Some of
the business will sail through without a single dissenting voice. Things like salaries for missionaries and
partnerships with hospitals and orphanages around the world. Other things, though, will be met with less fulsome
support. As in so many years past, a
great deal of time will be spent arguing over which side will have its
way. Each one unwilling to establish
enough space for the other, groups on opposing sides of contentions issues will
stake out their claim.
It
seems as though we do spend an inordinate amount of time arguing over who and
what gets to play in our sandbox. We
argue and debate about which ideas and which people and which groups may or may
not be a part of our sandbox.
There
is only one problem I can see. Well, two
actually.
The
first is that it is not our sandbox! We
spin our wheels when we try to determine who will and who will not exist in the
shadow of the love and grace of God.
The
second is that the sandbox we share today is boundless. There is room for us all. Jesus made sure of it. In fact, he died to make it so.
There
are no boundaries to this new world order ushered in by Christ. And in Jesus Christ, we live in a new world,
a new time, a new order defined by new love, new relationships and new possibilities
for all of God’s children.
Make
no mistake about it.
Jesus Christ
died…for all.
God’s grace is
offered…to all.
This
new world order born of an empty tomb has room…for all.
That
did not sound like good news to the powerful.
That did not
sound like good news to the fearful.
That did not
sound like good news to those who like things just the way they were.
What
about us? Does that sound like good news
to us?
For
our sake, I sure hope so.
Sola
Deo Gloria. To God alone be the
glory! Amen.
[1] I
am indebted to the Rev. Dr. David Bender whose sermon of the same title was
presented to our study group in March 2012. This sermon is informed both by his
theological insights and homiletical ideas. His generous permission is gratefully
acknowledged.
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