"Doing the Right Thing"
How listening, learning and living in the Lord will help you know what is the right thing to do
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. John Harries
Sunday, May 6, 2001
Text: 1 Samuel 3:10b, 21; Ephesians 5:16-18
A few weeks ago, I had a phone call from a member of our church who wanted to arrange a meeting in my office. He needed some pastoral support in the making of a serious and complex decision. Several people were involved. Their lives would be changed forever. His reputation, his family and his career were at stake. “The reason I am here,” he said, “is because I want to do the right thing.” Don't we all!
The Netherlands recently became the first country in the world to legalize mercy-killing. Dutch doctors will soon be able to provide medically-assisted suicide for chronically ill patients who are no longer able to bear their suffering.1 Can euthanasia or abortion or capital punishment or human cloning be immoral in one moment of time and ethical in the next? Are there no absolutes? How can we know the right thing to do?
When I was growing up, divorce was generally considered to be wrong. One was expected to stay married for better or for worse. But not now! Divorce is often thought to be the right thing to do. Is rightness just a relative and changing thing?
When I was a young adult, sexual intercourse before marriage was considered to be immoral. But not now! Over 90 per cent of couples who come to our church to be married are already living together. Is the right thing to do just a moving feast of situational possibilities?
Is it ever right to tell a lie? Are little white lies okay? To what degree should telling the truth be guided by compassion? Is it ever right to steal or to kill? Would you steal food to feed a starving family? Would you murder someone who was about to kill your best friend? Does a moral objective ever warrant an unethical means of getting there?
Should the U.S. spend $60 billion on a missile shield program? Should Ontario welfare recipients be tested for drugs and literacy?2 What's the right thing to do and how must Christians decide?
St. Paul, the great defender of the Christian way, knew exactly where he stood on the matter of maintaining an ethical life. Writing probably from Rome around 60 AD, to the port city of Ephesus in modern-day Turkey, he says: “These are evil times, so … don't be stupid … find out what the Lord wants you to do … (and) let the Spirit fill your life.” (Ephesians 5: 16-18)
It sounds good! But how does one find out what the Lord wants us to do?
This morning, I want to travel back in time to a period just like ours in the history of the Hebrew people - 11 hundred years before the birth of Christ - to a time of great moral confusion. Israel's world - like ours - was upside down. God's people had new dangers to face - Philistine power, violence, affluence and technology. The graven image of Dagon, the Philistine god, hung over the heads of the people. Memories of a time when right was right, and when wrong was wrong were distant. To save the people from moral chaos, God chose to lead the nation back to righteousness.
To an infertile and trusting woman by the name of Hannah, a boy was miraculously born. The government of the day would soon be upon his shoulders. He was called Samuel, which means “name of God.”3
1. LEARNING IN THE LORD
When we pick up his story in the early pages of the Book of First Samuel, this human instrument of God is Learning in the Lord. Do you want to do the right thing? This is your first step - Learning In The Lord!
Samuel was studying with Eli the priest in the temple. What do you think he would be learning? What moral rules first come to mind? Exodus 20 - The Ten Commandments - the Laws of the Hebrew people - Do not misuse the Lord's name. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not tell lies. Do not wish that you had your neighbour's possessions.
For Christians, the Golden Rule is also a fundamental moral principle - St. Luke 6:31: “Treat others just as you want to be treated.” Or how about Matthew 5 - The Beatitudes: “God blesses those people who are merciful. God blesses those people whose hearts are pure. God blesses those people who make peace.” Or The Great Commandment in Mark 12 - Jesus said: “You must love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love others as much as you love yourself.” But then what? If Samuel was learning in the Lord in our time, what else would you have him study at Eli's house?
For many of us at this point, the mind will go blank. It's called biblical illiteracy! We don't know our own scriptures. Thousands of Christians haven't looked at the Bible in any serious way since Sunday School. At best, that leaves them with an infantile understanding of God's Word.
A recent survey by the Canadian Bible Society reveals that two-thirds of church-goers do not read the Scriptures regularly, and that 15 per cent of us have never read anything from the Bible.4
As a Church and as a society, we're fast losing touch with the primacy of the Bible in moral decision-making - the fundamental affirmations that come first in any discussion about Christian ethics. That's why I went on study leave recently to prepare to teach the Bethel Series - one of the world's best-known methods for learning the Bible. 100,000 Bethel teachers have been trained to teach in 30,000 churches in 44 denominations. Biblical literacy - life-long Learning in the Lord - is the starting point for doing the right thing! That's why Dr. Stirling and I, in the months ahead, plan to introduce this approach to biblical learning.
2. LISTENING IN THE LORD.
Despite the importance of God's Word in counteracting the moral confusion of our time, the Scriptures by themselves are not enough. A thoughtless or literal understanding of the Bible can lead to immoral action. Interpretations of the Scriptures have, on the one hand, been used to justify slavery, war and apartheid, as well as the oppression of women, non-believers and homosexuals; and on the other hand, to support a new world order in which all will be united as one in Jesus Christ. People tend to find what they are looking for in the Bible! As the English poet, William Blake once wrote:
The Vision of Christ that thou dost see
Is my vision's greatest enemy;
Thine has a great hook nose like thine,
Mine has a snub nose like to mine …
Both read the Bible day and night,
But thou read'st black and I read white.5
This is why Listening in the Lord is an essential second step whenever we are attempting to do the right thing. That's what Samuel is up to in our sermon text. “Here I am,” he says, “I'm listening. What do you want me to do?” (1 Samuel 3: 10b) Each time that God spoke to Samuel, he thought that Eli was calling him. Finally, Samuel began to discern God's Spirit more clearly. How do you do that in your own life? How do you listen to the voice of God within so that it too can support you to doing the right thing?
One of the most helpful approaches to this question comes to us from John Wesley, the great British theologian and evangelist, who founded Methodism at the University of Oxford. God came to Wesley on May 24, 1738.
“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street,” he wrote in his diary, “where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle of the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation … ”6
As a result of this conversion experience, John Wesley began to articulate what later became known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral Method for the making of moral decisions. Learning the Scriptures is not enough. Listening to the Lord is also essential. In striving to do the right thing, we must listen not only to the Bible, said Wesley, but also to our personal experience, to our reason and to our tradition. What in fact does this mean?
Your experience means what do you really believe about abortion or euthanasia or whatever ethical decision you are facing? Not what does the Bible say, not what does the Church say, not what does my minister say, not what does some book say! We must trust what God's Spirit is saying to us through our own EXPERIENCE, the still small voice of divinity that burns within us, as well as in the life experience of others. Too often, our every day experience is ignored as a viable vehicle for God's revelation!
But then must follow the voice of REASON. Think about your decision! Become rational and thoughtful and hear the voice of the Lord in your thinking. Then test your thinking with your TRADITION, which includes, of course, the Bible - with Christ as our prime authority - but also the Church and its history, as well as spiritual inspiration of all kinds from the human community and culture. John Wesley helped us to understand that these four - THE BIBLE, HUMAN EXPERIENCE, REASON and TRADITION are all a part of Samuel's Listening in the Lord.7 The whole quadrilateral must be involved to do the right thing!
American theologian John Cobb puts it this way: “We tend to hold our beliefs doubtfully and insecurely. It is time for all Christians to take responsibility for their personal beliefs. Professionals can help, but believing is something that each Christian must do.”8
3. LIVING IN THE LORD
But even this is not enough! Learning and Listening in the Lord prepare us to do what Samuel did for the rest of his life. It's called Living in the Lord!
Samuel led the Hebrew people through their darkest hour - the theft of God's sacred covenant by the Philistines. As the nation waited for a spiritual reformation - as we wait in Canada - he ushered in a time of moral compassion for the poor and oppressed. He was the last of the Old Testament Judges and the first of the Prophets. His Living In The Lord was a great divide, the transition into a united monarchy under King Saul, and later King David - a spiritual parable for our time, of how God gives birth to new life from the barrenness of moral decline.
Learning and Listening In The Lord - yes - but the third step in this process, as Samuel knew well, is Living in the Lord. That's what we must do but it isn't easy.
One of the most difficult ethical decisions that I have ever had to make had to do with the death of my father in 1995. He wanted to die but he could not. His heart was too strong. His only source of sustenance was from intravenous. His dementia was advanced. Any quality of life had long since disappeared. Despite his condition, I shall always remember how it felt to sign the form that authorized the doctor to withdraw intravenous feeding to hasten Dad's passing. Seven days later, he died.
One might argue that our family's decision was not within the letter of the ancient Hebrew law that Eli taught to Samuel. Yet we believed ourselves to be within the Christian ethic, as we tried to live in the Lord through the Scriptures, human experience, reason and tradition. But it's not easy! In the midst of such complex decisions, how can we know for sure that the right thing has been accomplished?
Living in the Lord is an act of faithful participation in the real-life issues that surround us each day. If we are living in God's presence, all of our actions - including any wrong ones that we may make - are ultimately justified and made right by Jesus Christ. This is the meaning of the cross. This is the power of God's grace. Guilt is not required.
As sure as the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb, and as sure as the new life that came to Israel in its time of moral decline, the Lord performs a miracle for us, as our wrong decisions are transformed and made right by the amazing hope that comes to us in the Gospel of Christ. If you've ever made a life-or-death decision, you'll know what great news this freedom is!
The close of the Timothy Eaton Memorial Church Poverty Conference yesterday afternoon was one of those moments in time that will long be an inspiration. It had been a challenging day of Learning in the Lord as Terry Finlay, the Anglican Archbishop of Toronto, led us in biblical reflection.
Listening in the Lord had been shocking to us all, as Toronto City Councillor Jack Layton and many others helped us to struggle with a wide array of troubling ethical questions surrounding emergency food relief, homelessness, child poverty and affordable housing.
The conference was almost over. Edward Connell was at the piano in the auditorium. He invited us to stand and to lift our voices. More than 90 conference delegates rose to rededicate themselves to Christian justice, to Living in the Lord, to the stamping out of poverty in our city - some of you who are here this morning were among them - each standing tall in the courage of Christ, shoulder to shoulder in one community, in faithful solidarity with people of poverty and front-line workers. For me personally, it was like God speaking to John Wesley in centuries past. I was listening yesterday afternoon. And I heard our people sing …
Here I am Lord, Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
KEY REFERENCES:
1. Time , April 23, 2001, p 66.
2. The Toronto Star, May 4, 2001, p l.
3. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary For Teaching and Preaching (First and Second Samuel), John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky: 1990, pp 9 - 47.
4. Michael McAteer and Michael Styeinhauser, The Man In The Scarlet Robe: Two Thousand Years Of Searching For Jesus, The United Church Publishing House, Toronto: l996, p 60.
5. William Blake, The Works Of William Blake, Wordsworth Editions Ltd., Hertfordshire: 1994, p 110.
6. Arnold Lunn, John Wesley, Dial Press, New York: 1929, p 96.
7. John Cobb, Becoming A Thinking Christian, Abington Press, Nashville, Tennessee: 1993, pp 61-70.
8. Ibid, p 13.
9. Voice United: The Hymn and Worship Book of The United Church of Canada, The United Church Publishing House, Toronto: 1996, p 509.
Other:
Bruce Birch and Larry Rasmussen, Bible & Ethics In The Christian Life, Augsburg Fortress Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota: 1989.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.