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07.13.08

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

HOW MUCH IS GOOD ENOUGH?

PSALM 1; ROMANS 7:15-25a

• The Evil Within
• Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
• it’s a classic story we’re all familiar with, and it’s been made into a movie on several different occasions
• the novel was first published in 1886
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, is a story we can all relate to, and it was an instant best-seller in both England and America
• The story is loosely based on the life of a man named Deacon Brodie who lived in Edinburgh, and of whom it was discovered had been living a double life
• The story of Deacon Brodie, coupled with a dream Stevenson had about a doctor who drinks a potion that brings out his evil inner self, created a masterful story of horror and suspense
• The book has been hailed as a masterpiece psychological thriller and has often been studied by mental health professionals dealing with people who exhibit multiple personalities
• The good-natured and mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll experiments on himself with a potion he’s concocted made of a white powder
• He is instantly transformed from his mild-mannered self into a self-centered monster who wreaks havoc on the city and in the lives of its residents
• Jekyll discovers that the more he drinks that potion, the harder it becomes to banish Mr. Hyde from his life
• The results are tragic, for not only do people die at the hands of the murderous monster Mr. Hyde, even Dr. Jekyll himself becomes lost in the ulterior personality of Mr. Hyde
• The only way to stop this monster is to kill him, but to kill Mr. Hyde is to kill the good-natured Dr. Jekyll, for they are one in the same
• Dealing With Our Inner Self
• Someone once asked Stevenson where he found the model for the story’s principle character
• The author replied, “I found it in my nature.”
• This age-old story is truly a story of horror, for in it Stevenson captures the essence of the human condition
• This story is our story
• While many of us don’t turn into raging monsters who kill people, some of us do
• Yet, it’s still our story because within each of us there is a war—a constant struggle between good and evil, between right and wrong
• While our desire is to do what’s right, what we often end up doing is wrong
• While our intention is to do good, we often end up hurting ourselves and others with the choices we make
• It seems that Stevenson, in the writing of this tale of horror, truly understood the words written by the apostle Paul: “I do the very things I hate.” (v. 19)
• The Inner Struggle Between Good and Evil
• These words we’ve read this morning, written by Paul to the Romans, are intriguing words, yet they are difficult to understand
• The difficulty come from the fact that we don’t know for certain who Paul is talking about when Paul uses the word “I”
• Some people believe Paul is talking about his life prior to his conversion to Christianity
• In that life, Paul believed he was doing the right thing by persecuting Christians—placing them under arrest and seeing that they were executed
• After Paul became a Christian, he realized how wrong the decisions he made in his former life were, even though he believed he was serving God by seeking to eliminate the Christian faith
• Others believe that Paul is talking about his life after he became a Christian, and that he is admitting here that, although he knows his sins are forgiven and believes that Jesus has set him free from the bondage of sin, he still struggles on a daily basis to do the things he knows he ought to do
• Perhaps a better way to understand this passage is to read the word “I” generically
• Paul is using himself to illustrate a condition that is common to all humanity, so the “I” in this passage refers to you, and to me, and to every other human being that has ever lived
• The condition Paul is illustrating is our sin nature
• Paul discusses that sin nature throughout the first seven chapters of his letter to the Romans, and he paints a grim picture
• Left to our own devices, we human beings can make quite a mess of things,
• Yet, Paul couples this grim picture of the nature of human sin with the good news of salvation given through Jesus Christ, and he does so, so that we can see how glorious that Good News is
• The opening verses of chapter 8 is the transition point
• Listen to what Paul has to say—Romans 8:1-6
• In these words, Paul is echoing the words of Psalm 1
• Psalm 1 tells us that the person who is controlled by the Spirit of God is the person who is able to live a life that’s pleasing to God
• It’s through the Spirit working in us that we are able to understand God’s word, and the Spirit gives us the ability to delight in the law of the Lord
• It’s the Spirit-led life that is the fruitful life because it is nurtured by the word and will of God, and into this kind of life, God pours an abundance of blessings
• The Power of Temptation
• What Paul is talking about here in chapter 7 is the power that temptation continues to have over us
• Through our faith in Christ we are set free from bondage to sin, but that doesn’t mean that we will never sin again
• In my own life, I know that temptation became a much stronger power after I committed my life to Jesus that it ever was before
• I believe the reason for that is the fact that after I committed my life to Jesus, my desire to do good was so much stronger
• Before I committed my life to him, I didn’t really think much about good and evil
• My desire wasn’t to serve Jesus, it was to serve myself
• Temptation is a powerful force in the life of every believer
• Our faith makes us more sensitive to good and evil, right and wrong
• Our desire is to always to do the good—to do what’s right—but the reality is we don’t always do it
• We have the power to defeat sin by resisting temptation, but sometimes temptation wins
• Our sin nature takes control, and while we desire to do what’s right, sometimes we choose to do what’s wrong
• So we continue to struggle, we continue to war against sin
• Yet, at those times in our life when what’s wrong triumphs over what’s right, we’re able to find forgiveness through confession because we know that God still loves us, that Jesus died to save us, that he rose again to give us new life, and that the Holy Spirit picks us up and gives us the strength to go on
• The Problem of “Good Enough”
• We Can’t Save Ourselves
• This discussion has much to say about an attitude that’s popular in our culture
• That attitude is found in the “good enough” argument
• That argument goes like this:  “It doesn’t make any difference what you believe.  Everyone can make it to heaven if we’re good enough.  As long as we try our best to do what’s right and our intentions are good, and as long as we don’t purposely do things to hurt others, God will be pleased and we can earn our place in heaven.”
• But that argument begs the question “How much is good enough?”
• Consider a 30-foot wide chasm that separates two platforms, where jumping across the chasm guarantees one going to heaven
• An out-of-shape couch potato runs and jumps two feet off the platform, and a long jumper equals the world record and makes it 29 feet
• They both fall short because the standard isn’t how far, it’s far enough
• Despite their best efforts, they both end up with the same results: falling into the chasm rather than making it to the other side
• If Jesus sets the “far enough” as total perfection through his total forgiveness, then it doesn’t matter how good you are, how good Mother Theresa was, and how someone else compares on the scale between the two of you
• A good life will still not be good enough without the forgiveness God offers us through Jesus Christ
• We can never please God enough through our own efforts
• That’s why Paul’s question at the end of the passage challenges us: “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (v. 24b)
• And that’s why his declaration after the question is so liberating: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25a)
• Taming the Hyde Within Us
• Truth is, there’s a Jekyll and Hyde in each of us, and we can’t tame Mr. Hyde by our own efforts
• Left to our own devices, Mr. Hyde will overpower Dr. Jekyll every time
• Only God has the power to tame the Hyde within us
• That’s the reason Jesus went to the cross to die and was raised again to new life
• Through faith in Jesus, we are forgiven
• Through faith in Jesus, we have the opportunity for new life
• Our past is finished and gone, and everything becomes fresh and new, if we are willing to accept God’s offer of grace
• Six-year-old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes
• He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor
• He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor, which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten
• Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated
• He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad
• He didn’t know what to do next, whether to put it all in the oven or on the stove, and he didn’t know how the stove works!
• Suddenly, he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and he reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton on the floor
• Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting his pajamas white and sticky
• Just then, he saw Dad standing at the door
• Big crocodile tears welled up in Brandon’s eyes
• All he wanted to do was something good, but he’s made a terrible mess
• He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking
• But his father just watched him
• Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process
• That’s how God deals with us
• We try to do something good in life, but it turns out a mess
• Our marriage gets all sticky, or we insult a friend, or we can’t stand our job, or our health goes sour
• Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can’t think of anything else to do
• That’s when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over him
• But just because we might mess up, we can’t stop trying to “make pancakes” for God or for others
• Sooner or later we’ll get it right, and then they’ll be glad we tried