Sermon 5/29/05
In Jesus' Name - Matthew 7:21-29
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Today, after a string of special Sundays, stretching back practically to the beginning of Lent, we finally find ourselves with an “ordinary” day in the life of our church, if there is such a thing here at St. Paul’s! Today we switch over to “ordinary time,” sometimes called Kingdomtide. The season is called ordinary time because of the ordinals, the 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths, that measure our time – and these ordinals continue right through the 25th Sunday after Pentecost, which is the week before Advent begins. So, you can count your shopping time until Christmas 2005 when you open your bulletin each week. Just 23 more weeks until Advent begins! Meanwhile, our scripture lessons finally veer away from the stories that mark Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection, ascension, etc., and we return to the ministry of Jesus during his time on earth, listening in with the crowds to his teachings.
Here we are, back to the lessons that Jesus shared about how we are to live, and immediately I’m reminded of how challenging Jesus’ words to us are. Today, in nine verses, Jesus tries and succeeds to keep his audience on his toes, and he succeeds, both then for his contemporaries, and today as we hear his words fresh and new. The crowds, we read, were astonished at his teachings because of his authority, and I, too, am in awe, because just when I think I’ve got it figured out, I realize Jesus is taking us to an even deeper level than it seemed at first.
Today, we read a lesson in two sections that are tied together. First, Jesus tells the crowds “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” With one verse down of nine, I think I’ve got the answer. Jesus is saying that just ‘claiming the name’, just declaring that we believe he’s the Christ won’t get us anywhere, won’t get us ‘saved.’ Right? He’s saying that it takes more than words to bring us the salvation we seek. To enter God’s kingdom, we have to do God’s will. Easy to understand, right?
But reading the next verse screwed up my assumptions about this text. Because if you’d asked me, without looking at the rest of the text, what it meant to do God’s will, I maybe would have included things like those that Jesus shoots down in the very next verse. He continues, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’” Those are some pretty strong words from Jesus, and they are in response to people who do such terrible things as: 1) take action in the name of Jesus 2) prophesy 3) cast out demons and 4) do deeds of power, again, all in the Lord’s name. So, these are not people who were just paying lip service to Christ, they weren’t just claiming belief in God without acting on it. These people Jesus uses as examples of evildoers are people who, by all appearances, are doing the kinds of things we lift up as good and righteous. What’s wrong with this picture? What is Jesus talking about?
As though to clear things up, Jesus continues with a parable to illustrate his meaning. This part of the text I am more familiar with, and I admit I tend to remember out of context – I couldn’t have told you that those confusing verses we just covered were what led into this parable. Here Jesus speaks of two men who were building houses. The wise man built his house upon rock, a sturdy, solid foundation. The rains and winds and floods came, but the house was not toppled, because of its foundation. The foolish man, however, built his house on sand, and when the storms came, the weak foundation couldn’t support the house, and it fell, and, Jesus declares, “great was its fall!”
The people respond to Jesus’ little parable by being astounded and declaring that unlike the scribes, those who acted as “professional interpreters” of the laws, the scriptures (1), Jesus taught as one having authority. It sounds good, but I have a gut feeling their astounded response was more out of confusion about what Jesus was getting at then over being impressed with his authority. Because Jesus’ parable about sturdy foundations has a couple of catches, as usual, a couple of parts to it that should make you take a second look.
First, you’ll notice that in both situations, for the wise man and the foolish man, the storms still rage, the winds still blow, and the floods still come. Having a house built on a firm foundation is certainly no guarantee of good weather. I had a couple I was marrying choose this passage for their wedding ceremony, and I preferred it to the more traditional love passage from 1 Corinthians 13, because it was upfront about the reality of life: there will be hard times, there will be miserable conditions sometimes. But how you weather these times has a lot to do with where and how you’ve built your life.
But still, that is not what is most tricky or subtle about Jesus’ words. What is this good foundation the wise man builds on? What does this have to do with those who are calling on the name of the Lord but still being called “evildoers” in return? To answer our questions, we have to focus in on a few words in Jesus’ teaching that we are likely to skim right over as we dive into the story of the wise and foolish men. Jesus begins his parable by saying this, “everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man,” and then again, “and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man.” To understand the parable, we have to connect the first part of today’s passage with the second part. Jesus has been teaching that not everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, or even who does certain deeds in God’s name – not all of these will be people Jesus recognizes, because they are not doing the will of God – they are not living as part of the kingdom of heaven. Who is doing the will of God? How do we do the will of God? Jesus answers the question right away, if we don’t miss it: everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them. These are the wise ones, these are the ones who are doing God’s will.
We are called to hear and act on Jesus’ words – to obey his teachings – to do God’s will. OK. But still, we might be wondering, how is calling on God’s name, how is doing deeds of power and casting out demons and prophesying in God’s name or in Jesus’ name not doing God’s will? How is that evil-doing in God’s sight?
Of course, the answer is there in front of us. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them.” Hearing Jesus’ words and acting on them – that is doing God’s will. That much seems clear and simple. Not just words, not just claiming Jesus’ name, but action is true and God’s will. But more than that, not just action, but right action. Jesus is telling us that we can’t just get away with adding a Christian spin to anything we do and pretend that we’re doing the will of God. Not even casting out demons in Jesus’ name will get the stamp of approval, because those aren’t the right actions that Jesus has been calling us to do.
So what are the right actions? What are these mysterious and elusive things we’re supposed to be doing that will help us lose the label of “evildoers”? How can we attain the kingdom? The answer is so easy, so often repeated here, that you’ll wonder if it was worth the whole sermon to get to it! Jesus tells us we must first hear his words. Well, what is it he has been telling us all along? What are the greatest commandments? What must we do to inherit eternal life? Over and over and over Jesus tells us – the answer should be no surprise. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And your neighbors are your enemies, those you’d normally exclude, those you dislike, those who don’t fit in, those who have the least, those who need you most. I think, maybe, we’ve heard this stuff before, right?
The surprise is not the answer, but that we’re still not doing what Jesus has made it so clear we are supposed to be doing! Instead we try to make cheap substitutes for the actions we’re really meant to be doing. Jesus seems concerned here that people are attaching his name to things and trying in that way to make them good actions. Today, we simplify one of the 10 commandments by saying “thou shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.” And we put it into practice like this: if someone uses ‘Jesus’ as an exclamation instead of a proper noun, or if they say, “Oh my God!” we might say, “don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.” But I think the commandment is more powerful and meaningful than that. I think really taking Jesus’ name in vain is when we try to justify what we do by adding Jesus into the mix, instead of doing what Jesus asks us to be doing. At the opening of our text, Jesus talks about people who are doing all these different deeds of power in his name. When had they been asked to do these things? When did Jesus teach that this was God’s will and desire? When did Jesus ask to have his name attached to such projects? In the worst way, they’ve been using his name in vain, trying to pass of as God’s will what is really just their own will.
As individuals, and as a community of faith, our task as clear. As individuals, we are called to love God with our whole selves, and to share this love with others without boundaries or limits. We’re to seek out those who have the least, and be advocates, friends, to them. As a church, our task is clear to: we’re to make disciples of Jesus Christ – we’re to cultivate lives here that will be students of Jesus, and as his students, follow his commands to love God and love neighbor. When we examine our ministries here at St. Paul’s, and when we look at ourselves and our deeds each day, acting out these commandments should be the foundation of rock that we are building upon. Everything else we do that we try to pass off as Jesus-endorsed will be washed away as a vain project and foolish foundation, and great will be our fall.
“Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority.” Amen.
(1) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13634a.htm