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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2007

THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Luke 18:9-14 (Lord, have mercy!)

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TODAY’S SERMON THEME:

If someone came up to you with a microphone and camera and asked you to describe yourself, what would you say?  In other words:  WHO ARE YOU?  Before you answer, stop, breathe, and think about who you are to God.

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1.   I realized this past week that, during my lifetime, I have lived in eight cities.  Fargo is number eight.  And in all eight, I have found things I like very much, and some things I do not like at all.  My favorite city so far is Austin, Texas -- capital city of the Lone Star State and home to the University of Texas.  I realized this past week that there is something I miss about Austin.  It’s NOT UT football.  Or state government.  WHAT I MISS about Austin is the great variety of public access channels on Austin Cable television.  Without question, Austin has the STRANGEST and GOOFIEST locally-produced programs on cable TV.  Maybe it is because of the fantastic radio-TV-film department at UT.  Or maybe it’s because of the great theater arts program at St. Edward’s University.  Or maybe it’s because Austin has always encouraged weirdness and goofiness.  Or maybe it’s because so many people in Austin are certifiably crazy . . . Or that Austin is home to thousands of people who wander around aimlessly in the Twilight Zone of live.  ALL I KNOW is that the public access channels in Austin contain some of the strangest -- and most thought-provoking -- programs I have ever seen.  Let me give a couple of examples from a dozen years ago:

                        (1)  There was one program where a group of fraternity guys filmed an entire jalapeno-eating contest in Laredo, Texas -- with graphic close-ups of the contestants.  It was spectacularly gross.  And funny.  Especially when the 300-pound UT football player LOST the jalapeno-eating contest to a shriveled up, 100-pound, 90-year-old man from Mexico.

                        (2) Then there was a DAILY program where a self-ordained preacher used to scream and shout into the camera so hysterically that he often passed out.  I guess he just flat swallowed all the oxygen in the room.  Or perhaps it was the strange incense that always seemed to be burning all around him.  Again, it was strange.  And funny.

                        (3)  And then there were the televised meetings of the Austin City Council.  These were beyond strange -- probably because the mayor pro tem of Austin was a 1960’s-hippy-turned-street-flower-salesman named Max Nofziger.  Old Max was irretrievably stuck in 1968.  And I’m convinced he wanted Austin to return to its former glory as a sleepy, drug-crazed, earth-friendly village of 40,000 people.  Strange TV.  And funny.

2.   But the funniest and strangest programs of all were the random interview shows.  These shows involved a couple of intrepid journalists wandering the streets with a camera and asking off-the-wall questions to perfect strangers.  These spontaneous interviews usually took place on 6th Street, and usually very early in the morning -- right after the bars closed.  One of these random interview programs caught my attention.  It involved an in-your-face question.  Now, it would be almost impossible for me to describe this program.  But let me characterize it this way -- to give you an idea of the power of an unexpected confrontation.  Suppose you were minding your own business, running errands around town, when an aggressively bold reporter walks up to you, sticks a microphone in your face, points a camera directly at you, and ASKS YOU WHO YOU ARE.  WHO ARE YOU? COULD YOU DO IT?  Think about it:  (1) You COULD start out by saying you’re about THIS tall, and THIS wide, and your hair is about THIS color.  But that’s NOT really describing WHO you are, is it?  (2) Or, you COULD say that you work at such-and-such company, doing such-and-such work.  But that’s not really describing WHO you are either, is it?  (3) Or, you COULD say that you are married, that you have 2.5 children, a dog, cat, bird, guinea pig, hamster, gerbil, and gold fish.  But that’s NOT really answering the question either, is it?

            These answers are really describing your appearance, the things you DO, the things you HAVE, your family, your belongings.  BUT THEY ARE NOT REALLY DESCRIBING WHO YOU ARE.

            Let me ask the question again:  WHO ARE YOU?

3.   Not too long ago, I came across an intriguing example of a self-description.  Here is what it said:  “In every hour of every day, it is the SPIRITUAL that leads me on.  I have annihilated in myself every EGOISM, and I feel that all people understand and love me.”  CAN YOU GUESS WHO WROTE THESE WORDS?  They were written by Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy and enemy of the free world during World War II.  You can just imagine what the rest of his autobiography was like.  MUSSOLINI’S SELF-DESCRIPTION was similar to another World War II self-portrait -- a self-portrait that sounds very much like the autobiography of a saint.  In this unbelievable piece of writing, a charismatic man clearly says that he has no sins to confess, no mistakes to acknowledge.  But he has, nonetheless, been the constant VICTIM of betrayal and injustice -- by almost everyone in his life -- while never himself being unjust or unfair to anyone.  His book became a best-seller.  And you can still buy it today.  It’s called Mein Kampf, and it was written by Adolf Hitler.

4.   But I think the most remarkable self-description -- from my perspective --  is the one uttered by the great reformer Martin Luther two days before he died in the year 1546.  As his health failed, and as his life flashed before his eyes, Luther said these words:  “We are all beggars before God, it is true.”   What an amazing way to sum up a life!  Especially HIS life!  After all, Luther was the man who stood up to kings and church councils, to bishops, archbishops, and popes.  He was the man whose theological writings fill more than 30 volumes; the man whose return to Holy Scripture hastened the end of the corrupt medieval church and reshaped the history, theology, and geography of the Western world.  And he called himself A POOR BEGGAR, totally dependent on the grace of God.

5.  But Martin Luther is only one in a long line of beggars before God -- those who knew only too well their weaknesses, those who boasted only in the cross of the Lord Jesus.  We come across many of these beggars in the pages of the New Testament:  (1) The woman with the horrible flow of blood, who wanted only to touch the hem of Jesus’ robe; (2) The Roman official with the dying servant, who believed so much in Jesus that he said he was NOT WORTHY for Jesus to come into his home, but that Jesus needed only to speak the word and his servant would be healed; (3) The Syro-Phoenician woman in the city of Tyre who begged from the crumbs that fell from Jesus’ table; (4) Blind Bartimaeus of Jericho who cast aside all he had to run after Jesus; (5) And even St. Paul, who made himself a fool for Christ so that others could know the greatness of God’s glory.  All of these people, by humbling themselves, were exalted by the Lord.  And we still talk about them today, some 20 centuries later.  They were all humble beggars, and they were MADE WORTHY by the Lord who loved them.

6.  In this context, let us hear again the story of the two men in Luke Chapter 18 -- two men who went up to the temple in Jerusalem to pray:

(1) Jesus tells this story as a warning to those who trust in themselves, and in their own righteousness. (2) Two men went to pray -- one a learned Pharisee, the other a hated tax collector.  In those days, these were the opposite extremes of society.  A BELOVED TEACHER and a HATED TAX COLLECTOR.  (3) The beloved teacher prays by telling God how good he is, and how thankful he is that he is not like others.  He fasts not once a week, but TWICE a week.  He gives 10 percent not on his NET income, but on his GROSS income.  What a faithful person I am, the beloved teacher says to God.  (4) The hated tax collector, on the other hand, does not even look up to pray.  He beats himself on the breast and says, “Lord, have mercy on me, for I am a sinner.”  (5) Jesus says that only the PENITENT MAN went home “justified” in the eyes of God.

          Two men went to pray, but only ONE was blessed.  Two men went into the house of the Lord, but only ONE encountered God.  The humble man.  The man who looked into his own heart, saw his shortcomings, and BEGGED GOD for mercy.  The one who threw himself at the feet of the Lord and cried out for help.  JESUS CONCLUDES BY GIVING A DOUBLE PROMISE:  “Those who humble themselves will be exalted.  And those who exalt themselves will be humbled.”  A double promise.

7.  The main point today is this:  If someone came up to you with a microphone and camera and asked you to describe yourself, what would you say?  In other words:  WHO ARE YOU?  Before you answer, stop, breathe, and think about who you are to God.

If we look humbly at ourselves, we will discover that we are so precious to the Lord that He gave His only Son for us, that all who believe in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life. We are who God says we are:  His beloved children.