Presented February 9, 2020 by Jim Guida
Good morning. As your preacher for the day, it is my privilege and responsibility to bring you the word of God as it is given to me.
“I don’t come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in fancy words or touting my graduate degree in theology. All I have is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his crucifixion and resurrection. And I came to be here in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.”
What I just said, with slight variations, did not originate with me. It is an adaption of Paul’s first letter to the Cornthians. But his humility and confidence solely in bringing the Gospel to the church in Corinth are words everyone who stands here in the pulpit, 2000 years later, should remember.
A good sermon, in the 21st century, is based first on the Bible—be it Psalms, Old Testament, the Gospel or the letters. In 2020 we are blessed with resources that would astound preachers even thirty years ago—less time than many of us have been attending Bethany, let alone hearing sermons in our lifetime.
Astonishing academic resources—where once we were limited to the printed Biblical commentaries we may have or borrow—now provide entire libraries of history at the stroke of a key.
And this is all well and good. But it is not enough. If we—you and I—are to speak God’s words, we must call upon one more tool: the Holy Spirit.
Whether or not we speak with plausible words of wisdom, it is the demonstration of the Spirit and of power which moves us, so that our faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
Those of us who speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, speak for eternity. The hero of my life is the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As I say his name, all of you, I’m certain, are thinking of four words. “I have a dream.”
Earlier in that same decade, President John Kennedy spoke words that we still remember. You can say it with me, if you want: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
This is my generation. If you are of the Internet age. you may have your own quotes to remember.
But great quotes didn’t begin one hundred years ago. History is littered with them. Yet, except for the rare exception of a William Shakespeare or an Abraham Lincoln, those human quotes are lost.
Not so with God’s words, the oldest of which go back more than 3,000 years. In fact, the oldest quote in history might be one you already know: “In the Beginning.”
Jesus knew the word of God—and the Testament that had been handed down, mostly through oral traditions, for centuries. Reading from my New International Version, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.”
While the NIV version is the one I prefer, for this particular passage, I enjoy the King James Version, which was written in the time of Shakespeare and reflects the language of the time in the 1500s. It reads, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.“
“... one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law …”
While we don’t see a lot of jots or tittles these days in our modern language, the phrase was extremely important in Jesus’ day. It is a greater measure of “crossing the Ts and dotting the Is.”
Pharisees at the time were in charge of “keeping the books,” as it were. They were more concerned with “God’s laws,” as handed down from Creator God to Moses … and to ensure that the laws would be specifically followed, Scribes would be carefully watched, so that every Hebrew letter and note—every “jot and tittle”—would be followed exactly. Take a moment to imagine that. Let’s say you have a handwritten page from your favorite book: The Grapes of Wrath, for example. You must exactly duplicate every mark that John Steinbeck made—every “jot and tittle”—while a Pharisee is literally looming over your shoulder, reading every word. A little intimidating, to be sure. This is what Jesus meant: that “nothing would be changed.”
Which is contrary to everything we have learned about Jesus—that he was sent to earth by his Heavenly Father so that we here may live by God’s will and not strictly by God’s law.
Yet, there it is.
Keep in mind that Jesus did not set out to create a new religion. To the contrary, he was a good Jew who obeyed the laws and saw his mission as taking the next step in the faith.
And this was not an idle proclamation, as Jesus went on to say.
“Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus knew he was not going to accomplish this alone. We are challenged with the schoolyard riddle that if God is all-powerful, can God create a rock too heavy for God to lift? I ask, if God is all powerful, then why doesn’t God just wave a heavenly wand and make us all what God wants us to be?
The answer to that is, of course … I have no idea.
But I do know that Creator God had no intention of doing so. Which is why God sent his son, Jesus, to us— to teach us God’s will.
And Jesus gathered up the 12 disciples, to teach them God’s will, through example and stories. And he spoke to the thousands, feeding their stomachs with bread and fish and their hearts with God’s words. And those people taught others … and the second testament was written … and churches were built to house the believers … and (phew) 2,000 years later, here we are—studying the Word and living the Life.
But it is not enough that we sit here politely in the pew, murmuring “amens” and joining Natalya in our beautiful music. Jesus tells us “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Go out and share the good news of Jesus Christ—of a life of love and service. Live the will of God.
Because “whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
And this, my friends, is the word of God.
