Sermon by the Rev. Andrew S. Rollins

Proper 13C (August 5, 2007)

Text: Luke 12:13 – 21

Title: “What Evil Lurks”

Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

How People Really Are

Many of you already know that the chapel offices were broken into about a month ago. Someone kicked in the double door and stole some cash -- and an enormous bag of peppermints. We suspect that the same mastermind tore the chimes off the wall here in the chapel. So we met with the police, who responded quickly and conducted a thorough investigation. Consequently, we’ve made some changes to tighten our security.

In our conversations with the police, I was struck by the way they seemed to feel the need to inform us about the way people really are. They did this with every desire to be helpful. The police told us, “People will steal. People will take advantage of an opportunity, if you give it to them. That’s just the way the world really is out there.” Their assumption, which is shared by many, was that the church is naïve when it comes to human nature. We must be awakened from our dreamlike innocence and see people for who they really are. In their defense, the Church may often be that way. But Jesus was not.

What Evil Lurks

The exchange recorded in today’s gospel is a case in point. Someone from the crowd approaches Jesus with a request: Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. This person wants Jesus to settle a family dispute over land and property. This person wants Jesus to play Judge Judy. Who will get how much of this estate? Inheritance is the issue that must be addressed.

But Jesus reaches a different conclusion. Jesus feels no urgency about this estate. From his perspective, the issue that must be addressed is greed. The request for a legal judgment is simply a cover for greed. Jesus immediately unmasks that flimsy illusion and goes on to tell the crowd a parable about the danger of wealth and riches, “The Parable of the Rich Fool.”

The gospels are full of encounters with Jesus that begin in just this way. A pressing question, or bold request, is brought to Jesus (By what authority do you do these things? What must I do to gain eternal life? Give us the seats of honor when you come into your kingdom. Why are you healing on the Sabbath?). But Jesus refuses to address the question or statement on its own terms. Instead, he speaks to the real issue.

Jesus was never fooled by the “Games People Play”. He knew what was in everyone. At the beginning of John’s gospel is a short passage which states this succinctly. John writes: When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone (John 2: 23 – 25). All hearts were open to Jesus. From him, no secrets were hid.

Jesus was not surprised by David Vitter. We were. We collectively expressed not only disappointment and dismay, but shock! How could he do such a thing? Imagine. A man giving in to lust. And a politician, no less. Shocking! We were surprised. Jesus was not.

There was a pulp fiction hero of the 30’s and 40’s called “The Shadow”. The character was made popular in a radio series narrated by Orson Welles. The line that everyone remembers from that radio show is, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.” Jesus knew what evil lurked in hearts of men. He was never deceived. He knew what was in everyone and dealt with everyone on that basis. Fact over illusion, one hundred percent of the time.

We Love the Illusion

We deal with people more on the basis of illusion than fact. We hold tenaciously to our illusions about others instead of the facts. This happens in every area of life. We talk about the perfect job, the perfect husband, the perfect parish. You were looking forward to the perfect vacation. It’s all illusion. You thought you’d found the perfect job until you came up against your bosses temper one day. You thought you had the perfect husband, until he began to retreat into the newspaper, TV, or any distraction he could find. You thought you’d found the perfect parish until you actually start getting to know some parishioners. We all thought we’d found the perfect football coach until he goes and signs with Alabama! Still, we cling to the illusion.

There’s a wonderful passage about friendship from the book Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. Wilbur the pig learns that his new friend Charlotte, who is a spider, traps, kills flies. She drinks their blood. This presents a real crisis for the innocent pig Wilbur, who’s never left the pig pen. He thinks to himself: “Well, . . . I’ve got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty – everything I don’t like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course clever?” How can he continue to be friends with Charlotte now that he knows the truth about who she really is? How indeed.

But if a relationship – any relationship (friendship, marriage, employment) – is going to grow, it eventually has to move past illusion to truth. For any relationship to survive, we have to get over the disturbing fact that human beings are human. Then we can love them as they truly are and not as we imagine them to be. Otherwise, we love someone that doesn’t really exist.

When I was in college, I remember briefly falling for a young woman. We started dating. Things were going well. Lot’s of infatuation, that sort of early stage of romance where you both believe the other is too good to be true. One evening I remember she put in a CD of Kenny G. (Do you know Kenny G?) I said, “What is that?” “It’s Kenny G” she said. “I just love Kenny G.” I don’t want to offend anyone here, but there is just no room in my life for Kenny G. We broke up several weeks later. I don’t remember the presenting issue. But the real issue was Kenny G. It was Kenny G or me. That was the truth of it. Our relationship could not survive the truth of Kenny G. You have relationships in your life that haven’t survived the truth.

Total Depravity

In theological language, what I’m describing is called “total depravity.” And I don’t mean Kenny G! I mean the fact that no thing, no one, no area of life is untainted by sin. Total depravity does not mean that we are never able to do any good. It means that depravity, or sin, reaches every corner of our lives. No exceptions. Sin extends to every part of us and to everything we do. This means that, this side of heaven, we can never experience the perfect boyfriend, the perfect friend, the perfect job, the perfect spouse, the perfect Church, the perfect vacation (whatever). That perfection is dream, an illusion, and a dangerous one at that!

When we persist in our illusions about someone, we’re prone to judge them severely when they show themselves to be simply who the Bible always said they were. When we hold to the illusion, we demand of human beings what they cannot give. We demand of human beings what only God can give. And when they can’t live up to our illusions, we become cruel and vindictive.

How Jesus Is Different

And that is precisely where Jesus is different. Where we either love someone, but don’t really know them. Or, we come to really know them and withhold our love. Jesus knows us and loves us. Jesus knows us and loves us. That’s the message of the gospel.

Jesus sees us as we really are, yet is not bitter and cynical. He had confidence in what God’s grace could do with any man or woman. His trust was in God. There was nothing soft or sentimental about his love. It was entirely sober. From the cross, he looked into the eyes of his executioners and instead of pouring down curses on them, he prayed, Father, forgive them . . . .

A Mark of Being Christ-like

One of the marks of being Christ-like is that we love people as they really are and not as we imagine them to be. We are like Christ when maintain no illusions about the grip that sin has on every human being. Sin and its effects cannot be fully healed in this life; it can only be forgiven. Some corner of our lives always remains in bondage.

But we are like Christ when we love people in their sin, as they truly are, as Christ loves us.