Larry E. Lenow
FUMC
7-6-08
“Facing the Truth”
Text: Romans 7:15-25a
This morning I challenge you to face the truth. And the truth, the simple truth, the bare truth, the harsh truth is that we need God. We don’t need God a little; we don’t need God sometimes; we don’t need God when we get in over our heads. Rather the truth is that we need God chronically, completely and eternally.
Our inherent need for God, the limitations of our own human nature has been recognized throughout the human experience. Our Bible begins with the Genesis stories. Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden, the representation is of a perfect world, a paradise. Remember? Adam and Eve can partake of everything except one thing, one fruit. Oh, yeah, the apple. No! There is no apple in the story. The forbidden fruit, the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do you see? Once you have the knowledge of good and evil, you’re in trouble. Because of our human nature we are incapable of always doing good, we are drawn to our won self-interest. In Greek mythology Prometheus gets in trouble with the gods. Why? He shares fire with humans. Why don’t the gods want humans to have fire? Because human beings are dangerous. In 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We all remember that the scientist Dr. Jekyll becomes the monster Mr. Hyde after drinking a strange potion. What we forget is that the purpose of the potion was to make Dr. Jekyll feel better; it was to suppress his feelings of guilt and remorse. The monster was produced by his own human nature truly unfettered. Flip Wilson’s Geraldine said, “The devil made me do it!” And in J. K. Rawlings’ Harry Potter series Doby, the house elf is constantly beating himself for his constant disobedience. We know it. Deep down we know it; it is in our very nature. That, by the way, is the very definition of Greek tragedy. The hero or protagonist is undone not by his or her action but by the innate character flaw that causes the action in the first place.
Many people come to church and expect to hear from the pulpit “Do good. Don’t do evil. Obey God. Avoid sin.” That’s fine as far as it goes. I’m all for it, do the best you can. But understand that’s superficial. It’s trite. And it’s futile. You can’t be good enough. You can’t be righteous enough. And you can’t help it. The problem is our own flawed human nature. We are our own worst enemy. We cannot save ourselves. And no one has expressed that more beautifully or more powerfully than the Apostle Paul. “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” You see? We need God; we need God chronically, completely, eternally. It is a basic truth. Fail to understand this, try to do it on your own and you will spend your life running in circles. Accept this simple truth and you are well on your way to true life. We need God. That truth leads us to this table and to confession as we approach it.
But what I also want to suggest to you this morning, and this should not surprise us, is that is true for you and me and all of us human beings is equally true of the human institutions we create. Our nation for example. This weekend we celebrated our nation and its independence. We have much to celebrate. The very independence we celebrate has led to the longest and best functioning constitutional republic in history. Republicans and Democrats will battle this year with ideas and words but I’m fairly confident that they won’t be slaughtering each other in the streets. Civil liberties are protected. We have created the largest economy in the world, we produce more Nobel laureates than any other society, the beacon of the American dream and freedom continues to attract newcomers from around the world, our society assimilates them, provides upward mobility and we feed a good bit of the world. Yes, we have much to celebrate and I think we can be forgiven if patriotism borders on excessive pride. But, our society, this human institution looks like us and we need God.
No when I say that we need God I do not mean that in a Religious Right, civil religion kind of way. I do not mean that we should force or bully our faith on the others. Jesus never did that nor should we. I do not mean any of the legalistic controversies prayers of council meetings, monuments to the Ten Commandments, crèches on public property, etc. Those are symbols. When I say that we need God I am talking about substance. I am talking about our faith and understanding of our own sinful human nature. So we achieve independence and self-government, while keeping part of the population enslaved. We subdue the continent but largely wipe out the native population. We build great cities, but put immigrants and children in sweat shops. We feed the world and we are the biggest gun dealer for the world. We are great and we are sinful. It’s not that we need to do things differently or do things better – though we should never stop trying – but the truth of the matter is that we need God.
And that’s where you come in, my brothers and sisters. If, along with the Apostle Paul, we have the courage to face the harsh truth, if we too can confess, “Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?” then we humble ourselves before the Lord. We humble ourselves before the Lord and we take that into our world because we are part of a people, we are part of a country. If we are who we are called to be our faith, our honesty, gives our people the courage to face the truth both good and bad, to see our own faults and sinfulness , to avoid the arrogance and hubris that has been the downfall of so many societies. Know the truth. We need God.
As a nation we have much to celebrate and as a people of faith we have holy yoke placed upon us. This country needs you. Let us confess our need of God. Let us pray…