7UP: Lust

Text: Matthew 22:34-46
Theme: “7UP: Lust” (8th in a series)
19th Sunday after Pentecost
October 23, 2011
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

IN THE NAME OF JESUS

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“The son of David,” they replied.
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”’[e]
45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

A few years back, during the halftime show of the Super Bowl game, popular singer Janet Jackson had what has been called a “wardrobe malfunction.” Something happened there on that stage with Justin Timberlake that caused quite a ruckus across the fruited plain – such a ruckus, in fact, that it was discussed in the halls of the United States Congress. In one week, our lawmakers spent more energy discussing over Janet Jackson’s exposure on TV than it did with American involvement and activity in the war with Iraq. America is at war, but leadership at our highest civic level is apparently more interested in discussing a matter not unrelated to the last of the seven deadly sins that we consider today. I’m talking about lust.
Dictionary.com defines lust as “an intense sexual desire or appetite”, a “passionate or overmastering desire or craving,” and “an ardent enthusiasm, zest, or relish for life.”

Once again, we learn – as we have in considering all the deadly sins – that lust has positive aspects. Remember the motion picture, a few years back, by Roberto Begnini? It was called Life is Beautiful. It was evident, at the Academy Awards and on other occasions, that Mr. Begnini had a lust for a life, a zest for living if you will, that was really something to see.

But there is, of course, that dark side to every one of these sins. Jesus picked up on it, as it relates to lust, in his famous Sermon on the Mount. He said to the crowd: “You have heard it said: ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that if you even look at a woman with lust in your heart, you have committed adultery with her.” That’s pretty intense. Jesus had a nagging tendency to stiffen the legal and moral code of the old covenant that was already impossible to keep.

In the Song of Solomon, an Old Testament book, you have a celebration of that intense desire and passionate craving of the lover for the beloved. There are sections of that book that if they don’t qualify as being erotic, then they should. But we Christians, at least publicly amongst ourselves, tend to be rather puritanical about lust as it relates to things erotic or sexual. I have yet to see a selection from the Song of Solomon as a lectionary reading during the church year, and I’ve preached on the lectionary for years.

When it comes to sex, which is in some ways connected to lust, the Bible really doesn’t have a whole lot to say. The fact is, some Christian denominations – our own included – have discussed it at far greater length than it is due given the attention paid to it in Holy Scripture. Maybe we’re just mimicking our culture in a thirty year attempt to be “relevant”; I don’t know. The subject of sex, and, yet more specifically, sexual orientation, has buffeted and beat up Christian denominations for decades. For over thirty years, the PCUSA, among other denominations, has played theological and political ping-pong with the subject of sex. We’ve had discussions on all kinds of levels – General Assembly level, synod level, presbytery level, session level and on. Presbyterian parachurch newsletters have weighed in with their various points of view pretty much all claiming to be the right one. But meanwhile, as debates regarding sex and sexual orientation go on (formal or otherwise), something else has been happening for the last thirty to fifty years or more.

It’s my considered view, looking back over the span of years so far allotted to me, that the church has been so distracted with other matters that it has all but overlooked the obvious. And the devil (or the “power of evil in the world”, or whatever you wish to call it) is sitting back and saying, “Okay, let’s just watch them shoot themselves in the foot!”

Let me put it this way. The arguments over sex, which in some ways has ripped at the seams of the church and tore it open, are little more than a thunderstorm compared to the religious “tsunami” that is starting to hit our nation. And I’m not sure, given how distracted the church has been, that we’ve even seen it coming. Sadly, in and of ourselves, we are not equipped to deal with it.

Christianity is being faced with a new form of religion. It is so pervasive that it has wriggled its way into our own churches. Dr. Michael Horton is onto it. In his writings, he is persuaded that we nearly have come to the point of having a “Christ-less” Christianity. Another author, thinker, writer, and youth worker by the name of Kenda Creasy Dean has published a book called Almost Christian: What the Faith of American Teenagers is Telling the Church. American teens, she claims, have a faith. They’ve picked up on it from their parents, their churches, their youth groups, and their friends. She has named this religion. She calls it “moralistic, therapeutic, deism,” and it’s as simple as it is sinister. It comes down to the following: 1) be kind; 2) take care of one another; and 3) believe that there is a force for good in the world (your conception of God) that is greater than yourself.

Now who could argue with that? At first blush, it sounds pretty good to me. But do you see what is missing? Better yet, do you see Who is missing from that? That’s right. There is no Jesus. And if there is no Jesus, then there is no church which is His body. You don’t need Christ or Christianity to be a kind person. One of kindest people I’ve met since coming to Denton lives right across the street from me. He’s a wonderful parent, too. Their family is not Christian. They are practitioners of the Bahai’ religion.

Likewise, you don’t need Christ or Christianity in order to know that it’s important to care for one another. Join Rotary or another service club. Last week, at Rotary, I learned that the world-wide organization, with the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has eradicated 99% of polio throughout the world. The 1% where it is not eradicated is in areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan where, apparently, some leaders think that anything that comes from western civilization, including vaccine, is evil. In any case, this attempt by Rotary to care for people is writ large and it’s great! But my point is that you don’t need Christ and His church for that.

As far as a power greater than yourself is concerned, even the most brash atheist would likely claim that he or she has laid awake at nights wondering if there is, in fact, some kind of rhyme or reason behind the life we lead and the world and universe we live in. You don’t need Christ and the church to believe that there may just be a power greater than yourself.

The thing about “Be kind, take care of one another, and believe in a power greater than yourself” (which is to say, moralistic, therapeutic deism) is this: it’s like a recreational drug. It can make people feel better for the moment, but it does not reconcile sinners to God. You can even find churches – many of which are packed to the rafters, some of them even Presbyterian – that can make you feel better for the moment, but they won’t reconcile sinners to God. For that, my friends, it takes not you, not me, not the Presbyterian Church, not our cherished points of view on lust or sexual sin or any sin for that matter, it takes Jesus Christ alone! For hundreds of years, we reformed Christians have talked about grace alone and faith alone and Scripture alone – the great “solas”, we call them in tones of polished, Protestant, piety. It’s time to bring back the “sola” that tops them all: Solus Christus --“Christ alone!”

Whether it knows it or not, it is my view that the world is crying out for it. A few years back, there was an incredible scene on the NBC TV program ER. A retired police officer was lying in a hospital bed dying from cancer. He confessed to the chaplain his long-held guilt over allowing an innocent man to be framed and executed for a crime that he didn’t commit. He asks the chaplain, “How can I even hope for forgiveness?” The chaplain replies, “I think sometimes it’s easier to feel guilty than forgiven.” “Which means what?” replies the dying man. The chaplain continues: “That maybe your guilt over his death has become your reason for living. May you need a new reason to go on.” The man said, “I don’t want to go on. Can’t you see I’m dying? The only thing that is holding me back is that I’m afraid – I’m afraid of what comes next.” “What do you think that is?” the chaplain inquires. Growing impatient, the man answers, “You tell me. Is atonement possible? What does God want from me?” The chaplain paused and then went on: “I think it’s up to each one of us to interpret for ourselves what God wants.” The man stared at her in amazement. “So people can do anything? They can rape, they can murder, they can steal – all in the name of God and it’s OK?” “No, that’s not what I’m saying,” the chaplain responds. “Then want ARE you saying?” asks the man. “Because all I’m hearing is some new Age, God-is-love, have-it-your-way crap! … No, I don’t have time for this now.” “You don’t understand,” the chaplain went on. “No, YOU don’t understand,” the dying man said. “I want a real chaplain who believes in a real God and a real hell!”

Missing the point of this man’s entire struggle, the chaplain collects herself and says in that familiar tone of condescension disguised as understanding, “I hear that you’re frustrated, but you need to ask yourself –“ “No,” the man interrupts, “I don’t need to ask myself anything. I need answers and all of your questions and all your uncertainty are only making things worse.”

The chaplain then tried to encourage calm. She said, “I know you’re upset,” she says. That provoked the man’s final outburst: “God, I need someone who will look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness, because I am running out of time.”
It is at this point – please, dear God! -- that the church can become Christian again. God has a message that is given us to deliver to human beings and to a world all of which are dying and running out of time. That message is the Gospel, the good news that there is that blood-bought forgiveness of Jesus Christ. It is the message of reconciliation in Christ alone which declares to us that our sins – amid all their damning variety and the confusion and despair that they create – are forgiven.

It is time to close this series on the seven deadly sins by borrowing a leaf from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. The passage is only two verses and it fits best in Advent, the season before Christmas, which is only two months away. Isaiah says:

“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.

“Double for all her sins!” Our Lord, crucifed on Calvary’s cross and risen victorious from the grave, has twice as much forgiveness as the world has sins.
Thanks be to God!

Amen.