Good Works And Evil
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Special Edition for the July 7th Terrorist Attacks on London
Dear Fellow Preachers,
Although you have already received material from The Immediate Word for July 10th, you may now want to respond in your sermon to the news of the bombings in London. So in keeping with our mission to provide material on the immediate news, we offer you this sermon, written by team member George Murphy.
In addition, we have also provided some team responses.
Blessings on your ministry.
The Immediate Word team
Good Works And Evil
As he begins to explain his parable in today's gospel, Jesus says, "the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart." He's talking about what happens when the Word of God is proclaimed. In some people it never takes root because "the evil one" steals it. That's the typical work of evil -- something negative, anti-creation, death, and destruction.
The theme of Jesus' parable today, hearing God's Word, is very important. It's one of Jesus' most basic parables and deserves our undivided attention, but we can't just talk about it in a vacuum. The sower goes out to sow in the real world -- a world in which terrorist bombs have gone off in London subways and buses, a world that echoes with cries of the wounded, mourning for the dead, and renewed anxiety among those who have to travel anywhere. For some people there are frightening flashbacks to 9/11. We have to think about what it means for the seeds to be sown, for the Word to be spoken, in a world in which such things happen. And maybe the best place to start is with what Jesus says about evil.
"The evil one" -- Jesus means the devil, Satan. But perhaps it's just as well for us that this relatively neutral, antiseptic, term is used here. The phrase "the evil one" doesn't have to call up for us all the familiar caricatures of devils in red suits with pitchforks or the misleading stories in which the devil is really a pretty interesting guy with a lot of depth to him. Instead we're confronted just with "evil," with what all the old stories and pictures of the devil have been trying to express. The evil one opposes the work of God and tries to destroy it. God is love -- and evil is hate. God creates, freely gives being to all that exists -- and evil can only destroy. The devil is finally very interesting because he can't do anything interesting. The German poet Goethe somewhere calls the devil "the spirit who always denies." Evil can only say, "No."
In that light we can begin to get a clear picture of what was going on last week in Great Britain, where so much attention was focused this past week. In Edinburgh the leaders of the major industrialized nations of the world were gathered, as were crowds of people gathered to protest some of the actions of those nations and to demand new policies. Some of the people in both groups had quite different ideas about what should be done to try to solve major problems like AIDS, poverty in the third world, global warming, and different degrees of commitment to solutions, but they all wanted somehow to deal with those difficulties. With all of their differences, they wanted to improve the state of the world and its people.
What a contrast with the people who were at work in London planting their bombs! We can't get inside their heads and maybe they imagined that they were accomplishing something good or even doing the will of God. But what they did, like other terrorists in recent years, was simply to destroy. It's quite likely that they wanted to disrupt the summit conference so that it couldn't accomplish anything.
Of course it's all too easy -- seductively easy -- to see evil only in others, in terrorists, serial killers, or those who abuse children. In all of them we can see that negative, destructive, anti-creative, rage at work -- and congratulate ourselves that we're not like them. But if we think about our own reactions at stressful times in our lives -- the hurtful word that didn't have to be spoken but was just because it would hurt, or the object smashed to vent our anger -- we can see the seeds of the same kind of thing.
We are not immune from evil and sometimes we welcome it. Even our reactions to the terrorist bombings may show that. Wipe 'em all out!
So what are we to do in this world in which terrible things can happen so suddenly? It would be easy to start making lists of the good, positive, creative actions that are possible and vow to do them. But Jesus' parable -- yes, we are getting back to that -- suggests that we need to start with something more basic. We need to listen -- not first of all to some suggestions for good deeds but to the creative Word of God that is able to change and renew lives. "Let anyone with ears listen!"
The seed that is sown, Jesus says, is "the word of the kingdom." It's what Jesus proclaims when he says, "The kingdom of heaven has come near." It is a proclamation -- not just a piece of information but news! It is the Word of which God says, "It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it." The seed that is sown is the Word by which God spoke the universe into being in the beginning. It is Jesus Christ, the Word that was with God in the beginning and through whom all things were made.
Since that is the case, we are called first of all simply to hear that Word, to be open to its creative and transforming power. If we expect to be able to do good things, we must first of all become good people, and that comes about through the creative power of God. When we hear the good news of Jesus Christ, we encounter Jesus Christ with his life-changing power, and we are called to a new type of life that is conformed to the pattern of Jesus Christ.
Jesus reminds us that we must indeed listen. There is evil in the world that tries to oppose the Word and to keep new life from taking root. We can be content with a superficial faith that doesn't hold up in times of difficulty or trial. We can allow ourselves to get entangled with other concerns that will choke our growth in the new life to which we are called. So the command is simple -- listen and keep on listening with faith and with the understanding that grows out of faith.
Those who listen and come to faith will be guided into the kinds of actions that are in accord with God's creative purpose for the world, each person with the talents and abilities that God has given. We are often called to action, but at times that action may be the passive action of hearing the Word. The theologian Philip Hefner has said that human beings are to be "created co-creators." We are and will always remain creatures of God, with no claim to divinity. But God graciously calls us to be instruments of the divine creative work, to be agents through whom creation is protected and nurtured toward the future that God desires for it. We are to be creators rather than destroyers, and even if we sometimes have to do the hard work of demolition, as when a surgeon must amputate a limb, it is to be for the healing and the ultimate well being of the world.
The work for which the Word motivates and empowers us is to be Christ-like work. In the Gospel of John, Jesus set out as clearly as possible the difference between the actions that characterize evil and own his work. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
Team Comments
Carter Shelley responds: I am planning to alter my sermon content this week to include bombings in London. I will go with either/or reading of Matthew rather than the four readings of early church. There's an old first season West Wing episode in which the president must decide whether to intervene in a death sentence. Toby's rabbi preaches a sermon about vengeance being God's right and not ours. The president consults his hometown priest who offers a similar take. It is not our right to decide who lives and who dies, but God's. Leave the vengeance up to God. The textual emphasis would be upon our call to love God and to follow Christ and not to let other things become our idols. Vengeance certainly qualifies as an idol. It may be the news slant, but I've been struck by how calm and willing to deal with this blow in context the English have been.
Wesley Runk responds: Of all the major terrorist attacks there are but a few that have not been committed by Muslims. Granted this is a fanatic fringe, but it is the fanatical that drives the religion and the politics of our day. The street protestors in Iraq and other areas like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, and so on are the direct result of the influence of the most fanatical and the most dangerous.
Jesus listened to the fanatical Jewish leaders of his day and, like John, dismissed them as people who used religion as their hammer and cared little about the worship of God.
It is time that Christians ask the Islam believers to disassociate themselves from these killers. How do they disassociate from them? By refusing to support financially their political movements. They disassociate from them by refusing to give them shelter, food, and all of the other necessities. If they want to commit suicide in the name of Allah, they can do so by refusing to follow these killers.
I understand that we are talking about another culture. I understand that we shall not change the world with weapons. But when we are dealing with a lack of reason, we must find some way to disarm those filled with hate.
Have we done some harm? We have done a lot of harm. But it is not a Christian movement that seeks to kill and maim. Maybe democracy is not what the people want, at least a western democracy but the people had no way of making a choice. They have been and will continue to be run by the insane and greedy leaders of the Middle East.
Most Christians applauded the birth of Israel. Was that a mistake? Your answer depends upon what you believe and see with your own eyes. But the people are free to worship God, educate their young, defend themselves against their enemies, and build a future in a very hostile world. We are accused of being Zionists because we work with Israel, support their desire for a free democracy, and an independent worship of God.
I really wonder if acts like today in London will break the will of people. A nation that could stand almost alone against a great military power like Nazi Germany will see this as a test of their will against terror.
Would Jesus raise his hand against the terrorists? Probably not, but he would speak out against them, rally his followers to his side, and show people the difference between the ugliness and cowardice of this Islam terrorist.
It is not politically correct to refer to the terrorists as followers of Islam but unless there is another popular front supporting the same war it is what it is. I hear individual Muslims speak out against the horror that has been created by the fringe. But I do not see a Martin Luther King rising up and putting down the hatred that is spewing over from the other side.
So, what are westerners, devoted to Jesus Christ, going to do? Are they going to put on military uniforms? Are they going to walk away from the course of war because we have no argument with the average Muslim? Is there a prophet among us who can rally the world to overcome terror with a plan of peace?
I for one do not accept the theory that these are not Muslims who wage war. I think they are and with everyday they appear to be winning by choosing their field of battle in subways, buildings, ships, and lonely highways. They receive encouragement from the rank and file: the people who stay home, mind their own business, send their children to school, work in their bazaars, and gather around CNN and the Arab news media.
I believe it is time to meet my Muslim friends, acquaintances, and strangers and ask them to make a choice and declare it before we have launched the final war of terror and death for all.
Another View
See this link from the September 19, 2001 Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0919/p23s1-hfcs.html
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 10, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Dear Fellow Preachers,
Although you have already received material from The Immediate Word for July 10th, you may now want to respond in your sermon to the news of the bombings in London. So in keeping with our mission to provide material on the immediate news, we offer you this sermon, written by team member George Murphy.
In addition, we have also provided some team responses.
Blessings on your ministry.
The Immediate Word team
Good Works And Evil
As he begins to explain his parable in today's gospel, Jesus says, "the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart." He's talking about what happens when the Word of God is proclaimed. In some people it never takes root because "the evil one" steals it. That's the typical work of evil -- something negative, anti-creation, death, and destruction.
The theme of Jesus' parable today, hearing God's Word, is very important. It's one of Jesus' most basic parables and deserves our undivided attention, but we can't just talk about it in a vacuum. The sower goes out to sow in the real world -- a world in which terrorist bombs have gone off in London subways and buses, a world that echoes with cries of the wounded, mourning for the dead, and renewed anxiety among those who have to travel anywhere. For some people there are frightening flashbacks to 9/11. We have to think about what it means for the seeds to be sown, for the Word to be spoken, in a world in which such things happen. And maybe the best place to start is with what Jesus says about evil.
"The evil one" -- Jesus means the devil, Satan. But perhaps it's just as well for us that this relatively neutral, antiseptic, term is used here. The phrase "the evil one" doesn't have to call up for us all the familiar caricatures of devils in red suits with pitchforks or the misleading stories in which the devil is really a pretty interesting guy with a lot of depth to him. Instead we're confronted just with "evil," with what all the old stories and pictures of the devil have been trying to express. The evil one opposes the work of God and tries to destroy it. God is love -- and evil is hate. God creates, freely gives being to all that exists -- and evil can only destroy. The devil is finally very interesting because he can't do anything interesting. The German poet Goethe somewhere calls the devil "the spirit who always denies." Evil can only say, "No."
In that light we can begin to get a clear picture of what was going on last week in Great Britain, where so much attention was focused this past week. In Edinburgh the leaders of the major industrialized nations of the world were gathered, as were crowds of people gathered to protest some of the actions of those nations and to demand new policies. Some of the people in both groups had quite different ideas about what should be done to try to solve major problems like AIDS, poverty in the third world, global warming, and different degrees of commitment to solutions, but they all wanted somehow to deal with those difficulties. With all of their differences, they wanted to improve the state of the world and its people.
What a contrast with the people who were at work in London planting their bombs! We can't get inside their heads and maybe they imagined that they were accomplishing something good or even doing the will of God. But what they did, like other terrorists in recent years, was simply to destroy. It's quite likely that they wanted to disrupt the summit conference so that it couldn't accomplish anything.
Of course it's all too easy -- seductively easy -- to see evil only in others, in terrorists, serial killers, or those who abuse children. In all of them we can see that negative, destructive, anti-creative, rage at work -- and congratulate ourselves that we're not like them. But if we think about our own reactions at stressful times in our lives -- the hurtful word that didn't have to be spoken but was just because it would hurt, or the object smashed to vent our anger -- we can see the seeds of the same kind of thing.
We are not immune from evil and sometimes we welcome it. Even our reactions to the terrorist bombings may show that. Wipe 'em all out!
So what are we to do in this world in which terrible things can happen so suddenly? It would be easy to start making lists of the good, positive, creative actions that are possible and vow to do them. But Jesus' parable -- yes, we are getting back to that -- suggests that we need to start with something more basic. We need to listen -- not first of all to some suggestions for good deeds but to the creative Word of God that is able to change and renew lives. "Let anyone with ears listen!"
The seed that is sown, Jesus says, is "the word of the kingdom." It's what Jesus proclaims when he says, "The kingdom of heaven has come near." It is a proclamation -- not just a piece of information but news! It is the Word of which God says, "It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it." The seed that is sown is the Word by which God spoke the universe into being in the beginning. It is Jesus Christ, the Word that was with God in the beginning and through whom all things were made.
Since that is the case, we are called first of all simply to hear that Word, to be open to its creative and transforming power. If we expect to be able to do good things, we must first of all become good people, and that comes about through the creative power of God. When we hear the good news of Jesus Christ, we encounter Jesus Christ with his life-changing power, and we are called to a new type of life that is conformed to the pattern of Jesus Christ.
Jesus reminds us that we must indeed listen. There is evil in the world that tries to oppose the Word and to keep new life from taking root. We can be content with a superficial faith that doesn't hold up in times of difficulty or trial. We can allow ourselves to get entangled with other concerns that will choke our growth in the new life to which we are called. So the command is simple -- listen and keep on listening with faith and with the understanding that grows out of faith.
Those who listen and come to faith will be guided into the kinds of actions that are in accord with God's creative purpose for the world, each person with the talents and abilities that God has given. We are often called to action, but at times that action may be the passive action of hearing the Word. The theologian Philip Hefner has said that human beings are to be "created co-creators." We are and will always remain creatures of God, with no claim to divinity. But God graciously calls us to be instruments of the divine creative work, to be agents through whom creation is protected and nurtured toward the future that God desires for it. We are to be creators rather than destroyers, and even if we sometimes have to do the hard work of demolition, as when a surgeon must amputate a limb, it is to be for the healing and the ultimate well being of the world.
The work for which the Word motivates and empowers us is to be Christ-like work. In the Gospel of John, Jesus set out as clearly as possible the difference between the actions that characterize evil and own his work. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
Team Comments
Carter Shelley responds: I am planning to alter my sermon content this week to include bombings in London. I will go with either/or reading of Matthew rather than the four readings of early church. There's an old first season West Wing episode in which the president must decide whether to intervene in a death sentence. Toby's rabbi preaches a sermon about vengeance being God's right and not ours. The president consults his hometown priest who offers a similar take. It is not our right to decide who lives and who dies, but God's. Leave the vengeance up to God. The textual emphasis would be upon our call to love God and to follow Christ and not to let other things become our idols. Vengeance certainly qualifies as an idol. It may be the news slant, but I've been struck by how calm and willing to deal with this blow in context the English have been.
Wesley Runk responds: Of all the major terrorist attacks there are but a few that have not been committed by Muslims. Granted this is a fanatic fringe, but it is the fanatical that drives the religion and the politics of our day. The street protestors in Iraq and other areas like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, and so on are the direct result of the influence of the most fanatical and the most dangerous.
Jesus listened to the fanatical Jewish leaders of his day and, like John, dismissed them as people who used religion as their hammer and cared little about the worship of God.
It is time that Christians ask the Islam believers to disassociate themselves from these killers. How do they disassociate from them? By refusing to support financially their political movements. They disassociate from them by refusing to give them shelter, food, and all of the other necessities. If they want to commit suicide in the name of Allah, they can do so by refusing to follow these killers.
I understand that we are talking about another culture. I understand that we shall not change the world with weapons. But when we are dealing with a lack of reason, we must find some way to disarm those filled with hate.
Have we done some harm? We have done a lot of harm. But it is not a Christian movement that seeks to kill and maim. Maybe democracy is not what the people want, at least a western democracy but the people had no way of making a choice. They have been and will continue to be run by the insane and greedy leaders of the Middle East.
Most Christians applauded the birth of Israel. Was that a mistake? Your answer depends upon what you believe and see with your own eyes. But the people are free to worship God, educate their young, defend themselves against their enemies, and build a future in a very hostile world. We are accused of being Zionists because we work with Israel, support their desire for a free democracy, and an independent worship of God.
I really wonder if acts like today in London will break the will of people. A nation that could stand almost alone against a great military power like Nazi Germany will see this as a test of their will against terror.
Would Jesus raise his hand against the terrorists? Probably not, but he would speak out against them, rally his followers to his side, and show people the difference between the ugliness and cowardice of this Islam terrorist.
It is not politically correct to refer to the terrorists as followers of Islam but unless there is another popular front supporting the same war it is what it is. I hear individual Muslims speak out against the horror that has been created by the fringe. But I do not see a Martin Luther King rising up and putting down the hatred that is spewing over from the other side.
So, what are westerners, devoted to Jesus Christ, going to do? Are they going to put on military uniforms? Are they going to walk away from the course of war because we have no argument with the average Muslim? Is there a prophet among us who can rally the world to overcome terror with a plan of peace?
I for one do not accept the theory that these are not Muslims who wage war. I think they are and with everyday they appear to be winning by choosing their field of battle in subways, buildings, ships, and lonely highways. They receive encouragement from the rank and file: the people who stay home, mind their own business, send their children to school, work in their bazaars, and gather around CNN and the Arab news media.
I believe it is time to meet my Muslim friends, acquaintances, and strangers and ask them to make a choice and declare it before we have launched the final war of terror and death for all.
Another View
See this link from the September 19, 2001 Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0919/p23s1-hfcs.html
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 10, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
