When A Halo Slips
Sermon
A Long Time Coming
Cycle A First Lesson Sermons for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany
Object:
Many things are written with all of the excitement of some fresh truth recently received. Other things are written from anger. And there is much these days in any pastorate to make one mad. Still other messages are delivered from depression. I'm convinced that the majority of preachers I know are over the edge into burnout. And what of this particular study? Where am I coming from? Today, I'm writing from a broken heart, a heart shattered by a fallen comrade.
If I had to name ten people who've influenced my life positively in Christ, my friend would certainly be one of them. I chose to go to the graduate school I attended at least partly due to his influence. I can still quote you sermons and illustrations and theology and humor I received from his life over many years. But now my heart is broken.
You see, the police came and arrested my friend. He was tried and found guilty of sodomy, statutory rape, and incest. There were enough charges to put him away for life! But a merciful court reduced his sentence to ten years. And right now he's doing time in a federal penitentiary.
I'm still in shock. I just can't believe it could ever happen to such a man of God! Then I recall David the king, "a man after God's own heart." And I recall his coveting Bathsheba, his adultery, and the murder of her husband Uriah. And I know it can happen to some mighty good people!
But what to do? What is our Christian obligation to our brothers and sisters in the Lord when a halo slips?
Quite often we Christians resort to hostility. In fact, the army of Jesus Christ is at times the only army in the world that shoots its wounded. When a young, unmarried woman in the church gets pregnant, many a community simply tears her apart with their tongues. And we can do the same or worse with divorcees, convicts, adulterers, cheats, and drunks. Fail and you're a dead man, as far as some are concerned.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, is a powerful tale of adultery and heartache. Hester Prynne is forced to wear the scarlet letter "A" to mark her as an adulteress. The Puritan townspeople destroy her with their tongues. She is snubbed from social activities, openly taunted, devastated. Poor Hester lives with her small child at the edge of town, lonely and silently suffering.
That's one way we can respond when a halo slips -- just get our kicks in, step on them while they're down. Yet another way is to practice indifference. Simply quit caring about them. Write them off your list. Don't go to see them. Don't invite them over to see you. Leave them out of your plans, your prayers, and your affections.
Way back in 1635 the good citizens of the Massachusetts Bay Colony reacted with outrage at the radical ideas of Roger Williams, a Christian minister. And he was banished from the colony in the dead of winter. Now remember, this was New England in the 1600s. There was no hotel down the street and around the corner holding reservations for the man. He was banished to die in the wilderness for his liberal ideas. And it was all done in the name of God by a group of Christians who had fled Europe to escape the very things they now did.
Yes, when a comrade falls, when a halo slips, we can grow hostile, or we can be indifferent, simply walk out the door, and never speak to him again. And such behavior is more in keeping with the spirit of hell than it is with the spirit of Christ.
But I will show you a still more excellent way: the way of love; a love that is patient, that bears all things, a love that never ends.
Speaking of situations just like that of my erring friend, the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 6:1: "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted." What Paul is saying here has nothing to do with hostility or indifference. He is counseling us to take the way of active love.
Let's look at his words more carefully.
First, Paul begins by addressing the church. "Brethren," he says. He is speaking to the household of faith. "Brethren." Brothers and sisters.
Next he says, "If." "If a man is overtaken in any trespass ..." Paul didn't say, "When," but "If." You see, sin doesn't have to be inevitable in any Christian's life. Our temptation and falling into every sin is not a forgone conclusion. But it is in the realm of possibility.
Paul next speaks of being "overtaken" in some sin. The Greek word here is paraptoma. It means "to slip up."
The imagery here is that of an icy footpath. One walks along, is not paying attention to his footing, and suddenly he slips and falls hard. It's that type of world, isn't it? In each of our paths there are stumbling blocks, slippery spots, and inclines into sheer temptation. And it is so easy to fall down.
In my friend's case, he had gotten out from under authority ten years ago. He'd left one ministry to form his own, developed a board of directors who met twice a year to rubber stamp his plans, and, with precious little openness to correction and accountability, hit the road doing his thing as a speaker. You can add it up from there. Lonely hotel rooms. Extended periods away from home. The pressures and temptations of our sex-rated society blathering lust at us from the radio, the television set, the billboards, and magazines. A weakening theology and resolve. Perhaps a fantasy here and there. An opportunity. A sudden fall. And another and another. Then a habit. Then Satanic oppression. Then jail. No. Not an easy world to walk in, this. Slippery.
Paul goes on to talk of our being overtaken in "any trespass." He doesn't narrow his concern to "some trespasses" or the "trifling variety" or such. He is wide open. "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass ..." You see, there is no unforgivable sin for the Christian. Not adultery, nor theft, nor lying, nor murder -- no, nothing! No sin in the Christian is outside God's grace and our concern!
Next Paul speaks to "you who are spiritual." Those who are steadfast are called to action. The strong are to care for the weak, the healthy are to minister to the wounded. And next Paul tells us how.
"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." The Greek word for "gentleness" is often translated "meekness." It literally means "tamed strength." The word summons up one who is righteous and powerful, yet under control. You've seen those big Clydesdale horses like they use in Canadian logging camps. They harness them to huge logs and have them drag them out of the forest. But a Clydesdale is so gentle that a little child can play all about its feet with no threat of harm. That is meekness, gentleness, tamed strength. And that is the way we are supposed to go to our erring brothers and sisters.
Often when a brother is down we lose our temper, call him on the carpet, hold him up to public ridicule, and blow him away with both barrels of righteous indignation.
But Paul says that's not the way. "Strength under control" is the technique.
And now comes the really good news. Paul says one's goal in going to an errant companion is to "restore him." The Greek word for "restore" means to correct a fault or to heal. It is like a doctor restoring a broken leg by resetting the bone.
The really interesting thing about the word "restore" is that it is such a rare Greek word that it is used only one other time in the New Testament. In Matthew's Gospel the disciples are on the beach "mending their nets" when Jesus met them. The word "mend" is the same word as "restore." And what a beautiful parallel! Just as fishing nets get torn and need some mending, so do people. And just as nets can be mended to catch more fish, so can people be restored to useful service in the kingdom. Do you hear the Good News here? Anyone who fails and any form of failure can be forgiven and mended.
Now, I realize this Gospel is at odds with a lot of our thinking. You can see how we treat ex-convicts, Presidents who resign under a cloud of immorality, and slipped and fallen saints in the church, and see that we believe a person is worthy and useful until his first fall, and then he's had it, finished, benched!
H. Butterworth has a poem about all of this:
I walked through the woodland meadows,
Where sweet the thrushes sing,
And found on a bed of mosses
A bird with broken wing.
I healed its wound, and each morning
It sang its old sweet strain;
But the bird with a broken pinion
Never soared as high again.
I found a young life broken
By sin's seductive art;
And touched with Christlike pity,
I took him to my heart.
He lived with a noble purpose
And struggled not in vain;
But the life that sin had stricken
Never soared as high again.
That's a sweet poem. It brings a tear to one's eye. I bet you like that poem. But God thinks it stinks! He's just got one thing to say about birds with broken wings that never fly as high again -- "Bull!" Did you hear that? "Bull!" Jesus Christ saves completely. He saves us from the guttermost to the uttermost!
When the Jewish nation turned from God and fell into sin, she was conquered and ruined. Her temple was leveled. But God brought his people back. And Haggai 2:9 prophesied, "The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former." In Joel 2:25 God promises, "I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten...." In short, the Lord can mend our lives, restore our nets to full service ever again!
Now Paul closes. In his last sentence he shares a warning to all believers. "Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted."
Aye. Here is a call to self-examination, to humility. "Don't enjoy it," Paul is saying. "Don't look down your nose at those in the family who fail. Let your knees knock, your heart ache, that Satan could ever claim such a trophy. Be quite conscious that you, too, walk a slippery path and will no doubt be tempted and are quite capable of the same evil at 21 years of age or at 51 or at 94!
During the mid-1700s a preacher in England watched as the executioner's cart rolled by carrying a convicted murderer to the gallows. The rowdy street crowd jeered the criminal and pelted him with stones. The preacher only turned to his friend and whispered, "There but for the grace of God go I." Yes, and so it is. "Look to yourself, lest you, too, be tempted."
During the tumultuous 1960s and the Civil Rights activity, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., discovered the dishonesty of a trusted aide. When the full implications of the man's crimes came to light, most of his staff advised King to expose the man, fire him, and make a public example of him. But Dr. King would have none of it! "The church," he said, "is in the business of forgiving, reconciling, restoring. The world gives us enough examples of ruin. We shall give them an example of mercy and healing." And so may it ever be! So may it ever be!
Today, in all our concern for the lost and fallen of the world, let us also include a little concern for those in the family who fail, and let us thank God for mercy, restoration, and reconciliation. For at one time or another we'll all surely need it.
I close with James 5:19-20, a beautiful promise for those who practice the ministry of reclamation. "My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his ways will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."
If I had to name ten people who've influenced my life positively in Christ, my friend would certainly be one of them. I chose to go to the graduate school I attended at least partly due to his influence. I can still quote you sermons and illustrations and theology and humor I received from his life over many years. But now my heart is broken.
You see, the police came and arrested my friend. He was tried and found guilty of sodomy, statutory rape, and incest. There were enough charges to put him away for life! But a merciful court reduced his sentence to ten years. And right now he's doing time in a federal penitentiary.
I'm still in shock. I just can't believe it could ever happen to such a man of God! Then I recall David the king, "a man after God's own heart." And I recall his coveting Bathsheba, his adultery, and the murder of her husband Uriah. And I know it can happen to some mighty good people!
But what to do? What is our Christian obligation to our brothers and sisters in the Lord when a halo slips?
Quite often we Christians resort to hostility. In fact, the army of Jesus Christ is at times the only army in the world that shoots its wounded. When a young, unmarried woman in the church gets pregnant, many a community simply tears her apart with their tongues. And we can do the same or worse with divorcees, convicts, adulterers, cheats, and drunks. Fail and you're a dead man, as far as some are concerned.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, is a powerful tale of adultery and heartache. Hester Prynne is forced to wear the scarlet letter "A" to mark her as an adulteress. The Puritan townspeople destroy her with their tongues. She is snubbed from social activities, openly taunted, devastated. Poor Hester lives with her small child at the edge of town, lonely and silently suffering.
That's one way we can respond when a halo slips -- just get our kicks in, step on them while they're down. Yet another way is to practice indifference. Simply quit caring about them. Write them off your list. Don't go to see them. Don't invite them over to see you. Leave them out of your plans, your prayers, and your affections.
Way back in 1635 the good citizens of the Massachusetts Bay Colony reacted with outrage at the radical ideas of Roger Williams, a Christian minister. And he was banished from the colony in the dead of winter. Now remember, this was New England in the 1600s. There was no hotel down the street and around the corner holding reservations for the man. He was banished to die in the wilderness for his liberal ideas. And it was all done in the name of God by a group of Christians who had fled Europe to escape the very things they now did.
Yes, when a comrade falls, when a halo slips, we can grow hostile, or we can be indifferent, simply walk out the door, and never speak to him again. And such behavior is more in keeping with the spirit of hell than it is with the spirit of Christ.
But I will show you a still more excellent way: the way of love; a love that is patient, that bears all things, a love that never ends.
Speaking of situations just like that of my erring friend, the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 6:1: "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted." What Paul is saying here has nothing to do with hostility or indifference. He is counseling us to take the way of active love.
Let's look at his words more carefully.
First, Paul begins by addressing the church. "Brethren," he says. He is speaking to the household of faith. "Brethren." Brothers and sisters.
Next he says, "If." "If a man is overtaken in any trespass ..." Paul didn't say, "When," but "If." You see, sin doesn't have to be inevitable in any Christian's life. Our temptation and falling into every sin is not a forgone conclusion. But it is in the realm of possibility.
Paul next speaks of being "overtaken" in some sin. The Greek word here is paraptoma. It means "to slip up."
The imagery here is that of an icy footpath. One walks along, is not paying attention to his footing, and suddenly he slips and falls hard. It's that type of world, isn't it? In each of our paths there are stumbling blocks, slippery spots, and inclines into sheer temptation. And it is so easy to fall down.
In my friend's case, he had gotten out from under authority ten years ago. He'd left one ministry to form his own, developed a board of directors who met twice a year to rubber stamp his plans, and, with precious little openness to correction and accountability, hit the road doing his thing as a speaker. You can add it up from there. Lonely hotel rooms. Extended periods away from home. The pressures and temptations of our sex-rated society blathering lust at us from the radio, the television set, the billboards, and magazines. A weakening theology and resolve. Perhaps a fantasy here and there. An opportunity. A sudden fall. And another and another. Then a habit. Then Satanic oppression. Then jail. No. Not an easy world to walk in, this. Slippery.
Paul goes on to talk of our being overtaken in "any trespass." He doesn't narrow his concern to "some trespasses" or the "trifling variety" or such. He is wide open. "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass ..." You see, there is no unforgivable sin for the Christian. Not adultery, nor theft, nor lying, nor murder -- no, nothing! No sin in the Christian is outside God's grace and our concern!
Next Paul speaks to "you who are spiritual." Those who are steadfast are called to action. The strong are to care for the weak, the healthy are to minister to the wounded. And next Paul tells us how.
"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." The Greek word for "gentleness" is often translated "meekness." It literally means "tamed strength." The word summons up one who is righteous and powerful, yet under control. You've seen those big Clydesdale horses like they use in Canadian logging camps. They harness them to huge logs and have them drag them out of the forest. But a Clydesdale is so gentle that a little child can play all about its feet with no threat of harm. That is meekness, gentleness, tamed strength. And that is the way we are supposed to go to our erring brothers and sisters.
Often when a brother is down we lose our temper, call him on the carpet, hold him up to public ridicule, and blow him away with both barrels of righteous indignation.
But Paul says that's not the way. "Strength under control" is the technique.
And now comes the really good news. Paul says one's goal in going to an errant companion is to "restore him." The Greek word for "restore" means to correct a fault or to heal. It is like a doctor restoring a broken leg by resetting the bone.
The really interesting thing about the word "restore" is that it is such a rare Greek word that it is used only one other time in the New Testament. In Matthew's Gospel the disciples are on the beach "mending their nets" when Jesus met them. The word "mend" is the same word as "restore." And what a beautiful parallel! Just as fishing nets get torn and need some mending, so do people. And just as nets can be mended to catch more fish, so can people be restored to useful service in the kingdom. Do you hear the Good News here? Anyone who fails and any form of failure can be forgiven and mended.
Now, I realize this Gospel is at odds with a lot of our thinking. You can see how we treat ex-convicts, Presidents who resign under a cloud of immorality, and slipped and fallen saints in the church, and see that we believe a person is worthy and useful until his first fall, and then he's had it, finished, benched!
H. Butterworth has a poem about all of this:
I walked through the woodland meadows,
Where sweet the thrushes sing,
And found on a bed of mosses
A bird with broken wing.
I healed its wound, and each morning
It sang its old sweet strain;
But the bird with a broken pinion
Never soared as high again.
I found a young life broken
By sin's seductive art;
And touched with Christlike pity,
I took him to my heart.
He lived with a noble purpose
And struggled not in vain;
But the life that sin had stricken
Never soared as high again.
That's a sweet poem. It brings a tear to one's eye. I bet you like that poem. But God thinks it stinks! He's just got one thing to say about birds with broken wings that never fly as high again -- "Bull!" Did you hear that? "Bull!" Jesus Christ saves completely. He saves us from the guttermost to the uttermost!
When the Jewish nation turned from God and fell into sin, she was conquered and ruined. Her temple was leveled. But God brought his people back. And Haggai 2:9 prophesied, "The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former." In Joel 2:25 God promises, "I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten...." In short, the Lord can mend our lives, restore our nets to full service ever again!
Now Paul closes. In his last sentence he shares a warning to all believers. "Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted."
Aye. Here is a call to self-examination, to humility. "Don't enjoy it," Paul is saying. "Don't look down your nose at those in the family who fail. Let your knees knock, your heart ache, that Satan could ever claim such a trophy. Be quite conscious that you, too, walk a slippery path and will no doubt be tempted and are quite capable of the same evil at 21 years of age or at 51 or at 94!
During the mid-1700s a preacher in England watched as the executioner's cart rolled by carrying a convicted murderer to the gallows. The rowdy street crowd jeered the criminal and pelted him with stones. The preacher only turned to his friend and whispered, "There but for the grace of God go I." Yes, and so it is. "Look to yourself, lest you, too, be tempted."
During the tumultuous 1960s and the Civil Rights activity, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., discovered the dishonesty of a trusted aide. When the full implications of the man's crimes came to light, most of his staff advised King to expose the man, fire him, and make a public example of him. But Dr. King would have none of it! "The church," he said, "is in the business of forgiving, reconciling, restoring. The world gives us enough examples of ruin. We shall give them an example of mercy and healing." And so may it ever be! So may it ever be!
Today, in all our concern for the lost and fallen of the world, let us also include a little concern for those in the family who fail, and let us thank God for mercy, restoration, and reconciliation. For at one time or another we'll all surely need it.
I close with James 5:19-20, a beautiful promise for those who practice the ministry of reclamation. "My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his ways will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."
