Some Things You Don't Want To Know
Preaching
Lions And Cows Dining Together
And 111 Other Sermon Ideas
Object:
Purpose Statement: Knowledge brings responsibility.
"What you don't know won't hurt you" is an interesting idea to ponder. The refutation I have always heard is, "like a tack on a chair." But in one sense, when it hurts you, you could say that you now "know it." There is the rumor about you that is being passed around. The rumor isn't true, and you don't know about it, and may never know about it. Even though you may never realize how it has hurt you, it in fact is hurting you. In a related way, there is the theological issue of knowledge and responsibility. Can we be held responsible for things of which we are ignorant? Remember the Garden of Eden situation, where Eve and Adam were instructed not to eat of the tree of knowledge and when they did, they then knew right and wrong and suffered the consequences for their disobedience (Genesis 3:1-13, 22-24)? Are there things you do not want to know? Let us consider three.
a. The more you comprehend the rules, the more responsible you will be for obeying the rules. The Catholic church used to have a policy that if you were a non-Catholic and unfamiliar with the catechism or the beliefs of the Catholic church there was still a chance you could be saved. However, if once you became familiar with the doctrine of the Catholic church, and then did not accept Christ and join the church, you were lost. It all hinged on how much you knew and in certain situations you were better off not knowing. The basic philosophy behind this thinking has merit. If you eliminate the salvation part and perhaps the implication, there may only be one true church. After all, Jesus expressed the same thought in John 15:22 when he said we did not understand sin until he came and now we no longer have the excuse of ignorance. If I understand civil law, we are held culpable for knowing the highway regulations of a state we are traveling in but may not live in. We cannot plead ignorance. If we don't know the laws of that state, we need to get off the road or get out of the state. Can we plead ignorance of God's rules and not be held responsible?
b. The more you know about injustice, the more responsible you will be for serving others. There is a powerful sermon idea, F-9, "Out Of Sight; Out Of Mind: The Ostrich Approach To World Hunger," in the first book. We think that it helps alleviate our troubled conscience if we aren't very much aware of the hunger and suffering going on around us in the world. If the plight of starving children in Bangladesh is vividly portrayed before us on our television screens or in an especially poignant sermon, we feel disturbed and moved to respond. Can many of us honestly say concerning the suffering in the world, "I didn't know?" It is the mandate of every responsible Christian to become informed concerning our social and political world situations through assiduous study. We have some awareness; now we must get the full facts.
c. The more sensitive you become the more you will hurt. Ecclesiastes 1:18 tells us the wiser we become the more we will worry and the more we know the more it will hurt. To be like Jesus, or grow in God's love, is to become more sensitive to the pain of others. The suffering and injustice in the world will seem intolerable. Serving others and doing much to alleviate suffering around us will assuage some, but not all, of the pain. Being sensitive necessitates loving and caring and hurting when others hurt. Just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, we weep with those who weep. Psychologists tell us we must have "empathy" in place of "sympathy": the latter is to "feel" the pain of others, while the former is supposed to be caring without so much "feeling." However, the dictionary doesn't differentiate that clearly between the two ideas. If we don't feel disturbed over the suffering of others, we aren't sensitive or loving enough. Nevertheless, the point is we mustn't let so much tragedy in our world spoil our lives or destroy our peace of mind and our appreciation of beauty, joy, and love. There is a time (Ecclesiastes, again) for joy and celebration, and a time for weeping and commiseration. The secret is a healthy and wholesome balance.
Facetiousness aside, of course, we want to be cognizant of these things. The more we know, the more responsible person we can become: thus the greater our integrity, the more extensive our service to others, and the more generous our love.
"What you don't know won't hurt you" is an interesting idea to ponder. The refutation I have always heard is, "like a tack on a chair." But in one sense, when it hurts you, you could say that you now "know it." There is the rumor about you that is being passed around. The rumor isn't true, and you don't know about it, and may never know about it. Even though you may never realize how it has hurt you, it in fact is hurting you. In a related way, there is the theological issue of knowledge and responsibility. Can we be held responsible for things of which we are ignorant? Remember the Garden of Eden situation, where Eve and Adam were instructed not to eat of the tree of knowledge and when they did, they then knew right and wrong and suffered the consequences for their disobedience (Genesis 3:1-13, 22-24)? Are there things you do not want to know? Let us consider three.
a. The more you comprehend the rules, the more responsible you will be for obeying the rules. The Catholic church used to have a policy that if you were a non-Catholic and unfamiliar with the catechism or the beliefs of the Catholic church there was still a chance you could be saved. However, if once you became familiar with the doctrine of the Catholic church, and then did not accept Christ and join the church, you were lost. It all hinged on how much you knew and in certain situations you were better off not knowing. The basic philosophy behind this thinking has merit. If you eliminate the salvation part and perhaps the implication, there may only be one true church. After all, Jesus expressed the same thought in John 15:22 when he said we did not understand sin until he came and now we no longer have the excuse of ignorance. If I understand civil law, we are held culpable for knowing the highway regulations of a state we are traveling in but may not live in. We cannot plead ignorance. If we don't know the laws of that state, we need to get off the road or get out of the state. Can we plead ignorance of God's rules and not be held responsible?
b. The more you know about injustice, the more responsible you will be for serving others. There is a powerful sermon idea, F-9, "Out Of Sight; Out Of Mind: The Ostrich Approach To World Hunger," in the first book. We think that it helps alleviate our troubled conscience if we aren't very much aware of the hunger and suffering going on around us in the world. If the plight of starving children in Bangladesh is vividly portrayed before us on our television screens or in an especially poignant sermon, we feel disturbed and moved to respond. Can many of us honestly say concerning the suffering in the world, "I didn't know?" It is the mandate of every responsible Christian to become informed concerning our social and political world situations through assiduous study. We have some awareness; now we must get the full facts.
c. The more sensitive you become the more you will hurt. Ecclesiastes 1:18 tells us the wiser we become the more we will worry and the more we know the more it will hurt. To be like Jesus, or grow in God's love, is to become more sensitive to the pain of others. The suffering and injustice in the world will seem intolerable. Serving others and doing much to alleviate suffering around us will assuage some, but not all, of the pain. Being sensitive necessitates loving and caring and hurting when others hurt. Just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, we weep with those who weep. Psychologists tell us we must have "empathy" in place of "sympathy": the latter is to "feel" the pain of others, while the former is supposed to be caring without so much "feeling." However, the dictionary doesn't differentiate that clearly between the two ideas. If we don't feel disturbed over the suffering of others, we aren't sensitive or loving enough. Nevertheless, the point is we mustn't let so much tragedy in our world spoil our lives or destroy our peace of mind and our appreciation of beauty, joy, and love. There is a time (Ecclesiastes, again) for joy and celebration, and a time for weeping and commiseration. The secret is a healthy and wholesome balance.
Facetiousness aside, of course, we want to be cognizant of these things. The more we know, the more responsible person we can become: thus the greater our integrity, the more extensive our service to others, and the more generous our love.
