| • Home • Worship • Christian Education • Sermon • Calendar • • Children • MIddle School • High School • Women • Men • Older Adults • • Contact Us • |
Sermons |
The Rev. Dr. Dennis E. Morey, Pastor
Scripture: Mark 9:38-50
Under the Influence
If you do something ridiculous these days, young people say, “What have you been smoking?” That means you must be under the influence of a foreign substance or you wouldn’t be doing what you are doing.
I read this letter on-line this week and wanted to share it with you. It is one of those things that doesn’t have an author, or at least doesn’t have one who wants to be identified.
Dear Mother: “I’m writing this slow ’cause I know you can’t read fast. We don’t live where we did when you left. My hubby read in the paper where the most accidents happened within twenty miles of home, so we moved. I won't know the address for awhile yet as the last family that lived here took the numbers with them for their next house so they won't have to change their address.
This place we’re rentin’ has a washin’ machine. The first day I put three pairs of sox in it, pulled the chain, and I haven't seen ’em since. It only rained twice this week: three days the first time and four days the second time.
The coat you wanted me to send that you forgot here was too heavy to send in the mail. So we cut off the big buttons and put them in the pockets.
I heard that Sis had a baby this morning but I haven’t found out if it’s a boy or a girl so I don't know if I’m and Aunt or an Uncle.
Our neighbor up the road fell in the whisky vat. Some men tried to pull him out, but he fought them off, so he drowned. We cremated him and he burned for three days.
Three local kids went off the bridge in a pick-up truck. The one that was driving rolled down the window and swam out. The two sitting in the back drowned. They couldn't get the tailgate down.
Not much to tell this time. Nothin’ much happens ‘round here.
Love, Your Daughter
To that we would ask, “What have you been smoking?”
More than funny, it is ridiculous and surely written by someone sampling the moonshine, someone under the influence.
All of us are under the influence of something. Of course we don’t take or smoke illegal drugs, or use alcohol in excess that would alter our ability to think and make decisions, but we do live and work with many voices calling for our attention and allegiance influencing us perhaps to a greater extent than we can imagine.
Every person who has ever breathed is a deeply religious being. Even those who claim there is no God worship something outside themselves. It is their family, their job, the charity they work for, their own body, their pet, their grandma’s antiques, their status in the community, their bank accounts and investments; something gets our time and devotion.
In the scripture for today, Jesus’ disciples came to do a little tattling. There was someone, who was not one of the disciples, using Jesus’ name to cast out demons. Wasn’t that a breach of conduct? Doesn’t that border on blasphemy? He was using Jesus’ name when he was not a part of those who followed Jesus.
They said, “We told him to stop. What do you say, Jesus? Aren’t you offended? He is not a part of our group.”
Jesus said, “Offended? Are you kidding? If he is doing good things in my name, he is part of God’s plan to spread the word about me. He is not working against us. When he casts out demons in my name, he is helping to establish my authority.”
In our day we have this jealousy among Christians; we can be easily offended by the success of someone whose beliefs don’t line up 100 percent with ours. That attitude has always done great harm to the cause of Christ.
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that we would all be one. It is the fragmentation on minor points of doctrine that keeps the church weak in its collective influence in the world.
Often we magnify our individual differences and thus minimize our collective effectiveness. Presbyterians have different beliefs and a different approach than the Assembly of God or the Roman Catholic Church, and we often let those differences keep us from working together.
We forget that we all believe Jesus is God’s Son, and the way to know God. We should be glad when the Assembly of God gets a new bus, or the Catholics build an expansion. We should rejoice that the Christian Church remodeled and the Methodist Church completed their stained glass restoration project.
We aren’t competing against them as though we are opponents with different goals or in some race to please God. That is offensive to the cause of Christ. We aren’t so Presbyterian that we can’t see that all the churches work together to move the Kingdom of God forward.
Jesus said that as far as that man not being connected to the disciples’ small group, any kindness he showed to someone by releasing them from Satan’s grip, even giving them a kind word or a cup of water, is a part of God’s plan.
The Gospel of Mark goes on to say what is offensive to Christ. “If anyone would cause one of these little ones to lose faith in me, it would be better for that person to have a large millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea.”
Jesus was saying, “More than trying to keep someone else using my name on the straight and narrow path, make sure you are looking out for your own influence. If you live a life that causes a child to stumble in his or her faith, you would be better off dead drowned in the deep sea.”
Jesus said, “If it is your hands, or feet, or your eyes that cause your faith to falter, you would be better off to cut them off entirely than to allow them to drag you and others into losing your eternal relationship to God. Greater than your responsibility for your own soul is your responsibility for the soul of someone else.”
The worst kind of blasphemy is doing something to make someone else doubt God’s love.
Perhaps you have heard that this coming Wednesday is International Blasphemy Day. I want to read a few paragraphs from an article entitled “Next Week, Blasphemy gets its own Holiday” by Leanne Larmondin. Here is the whole letter:
September 24, 2009
NEWS STORY from Religion News Service:
Next week, blasphemy gets its own holiday
By Leanne Larmondin
TORONTO—You’ve never seen Jesus like this before: dripping red nail polish around the nails in his feet and hands, an irreverent riff on the crucifixion wounds. The provocative title of the painting: “Jesus Does His Nails.”
Blasphemous? Absolutely. Deliberately provocative? You bet.
It is part of an upcoming art exhibit in Washington that will mark the first-ever International Blasphemy Day next Wednesday (Sept. 30) at the Center for Inquiry DC near Capitol Hill.
Artist Dana Ellyn says her “Blasphemy” paintings are a tongue-in-cheek expression of her lack of belief in God and religion. The self-described “agnostic atheist”—she doesn’t believe in the existence of any deity but can’t say for sure one doesn’t exist—says her introduction to religion was in college when she studied art history. Stories from the Bible, she says, are just that: stories.
“My point is not to offend, but I realize it can offend, because religion is such a polarizing topic,” Ellyn said of the exhibit.
Atheists, skeptics, freethinkers and free-speech advocates around the world will mark Blasphemy Day by mounting their soapboxes—figuratively and literally—and uttering words and displaying images that may cause offense.
And they’re making no apologies.
“We’re not seeking to offend, but if in the course of dialogue and debate, people become offended, that’s not an issue for us,” said Justin Trottier, a Toronto coordinator of Blasphemy Day and executive director of the Ontario chapter of the Center for Inquiry. “There is no human right not to be offended.”
St. Thomas Aquinas described blasphemy—deliberately showing contempt or irreverence for something considered sacred—as a sin “committed directly against God … more grave than murder.” In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus said, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”
While it may sound as anachronistic as a witchcraft trial, blasphemy remains punishable by death in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. In addition, Ireland recently introduced a defamation law making blasphemy punishable by fines up to 25,000 euros ($37,000 US). What’s more, six U.S. states (Massachusetts, Michigan, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wyoming) have laws that, in some way, prohibit or regulate blasphemy, noted Ron Lindsay, a lawyer and president of the CFI International in Amherst, New York.
CFI also cites efforts by the United Nations to introduce anti-blasphemy resolutions that many say would curtail free speech about religion.
Sept. 30 was chosen for the inaugural Blasphemy Day because it is the anniversary of the 2005 publication of the controversial Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The cartoons resulted in worldwide riots by outraged Muslims and widespread self-censorship by media.
Lindsay said the Blasphemy Day events are part of his group’s larger Campaign for Free Expression, which encompasses more than protection of speech about religion. CFI, he said, aims to expose all religious beliefs to the same level of inquiry, discussion and criticism to which other areas of intellectual interest are subjected.
Besides the Washington art exhibit, Blasphemy Day events include:
— a Blasphemy-Fest! at CFI Los Angeles that will feature a talk about free speech followed by three provocative films;
— supporters worldwide have been encouraged to take up The Blasphemy Challenge by uploading their denials of faith to YouTube. A typical recording: “Hi, my name is Ray and I deny the Holy Spirit. (pause) No lightning. Maybe next time.”
— a Speaker’s Corner, modeled after the famed soapbox in London’s Hyde Park, and a Blasphemy Challenge at CFI Toronto;
— a blasphemy contest held by CFI International, in conjunction with its Campaign for Free Expression, in which participants are invited to submit phrases, poems, or statements that would be, or have been, considered blasphemous. Winners will receive T-shirts and mugs printed with their winning phrases.
Will the public events and demonstrations disturb some people? Without a doubt, said Lindsay, but causing offense is not the intention. Participants are encouraged to avoid vulgarity and profanity.
“We’re stressing that we want something that is insightful and thoughtful,” Lindsay said. “The point we’re trying to make is that we’re against restrictions on speech based purely on the possibility that some people might be offended, because if you go down that path there’s no end to it.”
Their point is that most everything is offensive to someone. So they are going to basically target those who have a religious belief and go after whatever it takes to offend God.
While it is true that we have to be careful what we say so we don’t offend anyone who is a different nationality, race, or sexual orientation, religion, political persuasion, those who suffer any kind of addiction, those too fat, or too thin, those who never bathe, those who wear too much perfume, those who are too rich or too poor, those who don’t like the President’s proposals, those who eat different food, those who prefer to live homeless, those who prefer to eat only meat, those who don’t send their kids to school, those who do send their kids to school, those who don’t believe in mowing their lawn, and the list goes on and on and on until in order to accomplish the goal of not offending anyone, we have to live in silence and seclusion which of course is open to being identified as one who practices all kinds of prejudice.
We are so afraid of offending. We live in a political climate that is constantly judging whether someone is speaking or acting judgmentally.
The point is we are all judgmental. It is what keeps us out of trouble and living within the law. We have to judge between right and wrong, which the scriptures teach is put in us by God himself.
Jesus said the one sure way to live within God’s laws is try to conduct ourselves so we would not do anything to harm the faith of a little child. Influencing a young child do something that would harm himself or herself or cause the child’s faith to diminish is offensive to God.
We have to remember we are all under the influence of many people and many things. We need to constantly be examining those influences and make sure they line up with what we believe about God so that the influence we have over children is one that points them toward a closer relationship with God.
And I want to say this: younger ones are watching you.
If you are three years old, you are being watched by someone just learning to walk. They want to be like you.
If you are five years old, you are being watched by someone who is three years old. They want to be just like you.
If you are seven or eight years old, you are being watched by five-year-olds who want to be just like you.
If you are ten years old, there are seven-year-olds watching you who will want to do what you do.
If you are twelve to 15 years old, you are being watched by kids who are eight to ten years old who want to say the words they hear you say, and wear the clothes you wear, and listen to the music you listen to.
If you are a 17-20 year old, there are ten-year-olds and teenagers watching how you drive, noting where you have a tattoo and what it means, how you treat your friends, how you talk, and your attitude about school.
If you are in your mid twenties and thirties, you have kids who are in high school and college carefully watching you.
And that goes on until we are well into our old age. Did you see the man on the news lately who is 113 years old?
The oldest person alive in our country is being asked for advice on his decision making, what he eats, how much sleep he gets, what he reads, how he spends his time, and what he plans for the future.
Every one of us is influenced by someone just a little older.
My question to you is this: Under whose influence are you? What choices, what person or persons have you chosen as a pattern for your life? You are under the influence.
And a second question: Who is watching you? Who is being influenced by how you look and what you say, what you wear, how much you drink, the words you speak and the opinions you spout so easily? They, too, are under the influence.
Salt, like, influence is good. But just as salt that has been contaminated by other minerals loses its saltiness and is no longer of any value, what good is your influence if it has been contaminated by other influences to the point it is no of value to God’s Kingdom?
Amen.
|
Mark 9:38-50 “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. “For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” (From the
New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Top
of page |
|
|
Home • Worship
• Christian
Education • Sermon • Calendar
Children
• MIddle
School • High
School • Women
• Men
• Older
Adults • Contact
Us
First Presbyterian Church, Oskaloosa, Iowa