As many of you know, I am a life-long fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. It then comes as no surprise that I was very pleased with the way the Super Bowl went. I know many Bills fans were also pleased to see the Chiefs soundly defeated. I confess that part of me was enjoying not only seeing the Chiefs lose, but clobbered so soundly that it was among the worst defeats the Chiefs ever suffered and that even some records were near being broken. Revenge against arrogance is sweet.
But then there was the half-time
show. I did not understand it and I did
not like its tone. But, as I have since
learned, it was a carefully crafted condemnation of American white
culture. Samuel Jackson dressed up as
Uncle Sam was a condemnation of slavery by whites of blacks. Uncle Sam warns the black rapper that this is
the biggest show on earth and therefore to play game that American whites want
and not be ghetto. The Squid games stage
symbolized the rich killing the poor.
The red, white, and blue colors represented the flag and its
hypocrisy. Serena Williams appearance
was a statement protecting black women after the disrespect from Drake, and reminding
Drake that America is an exclusivist whitest nation but black culture is
diverse and authentic. Therefore turn
the TV off, organize and unite, ultimately leading to the “game over” message
that appeared in the crowd meaning game over to white people in America.
Well, I can critically take issue
with it in any number of ways. That’s
not my intention and that’s not what sermons should do. In as much as it was a strategic artistic
expression of rage, it had every First Amendment right to be expressed. It also reminds me that much as I liked to
see the arrogance of the Chiefs put in place by the Eagles, so too do many in
this nation want to see what they perceive to be the arrogance of white people
put into its place.
Now, I have probably managed to
offend just about everyone at this point.
That’s not my intention. I find
that race, class, gender, and sexuality dynamics in this nation have become
venomous and filled with hate. People
create caricatures of the “other” (whoever the other is), over-simplify their
situation, weave together tidbits of fact by flawed logic and then make broad
condemnatory statements against the other – whoever that may be. It seems like that’s the norm across the
board and with each claiming to have the moral high ground for their position
and arrogantly enjoying the downfall of the other. There’s no such thing as a neutral position
in these situations. When you are
wrapped up in a system suffering from such incredibly unhealthy dynamics
there’s no way to not be affected yourself.
So, let’s learn a
completely different approach to things from Jesus as we read in the passage
from Luke. Two things stand out. First, we have the scene of the leprous man
begging Jesus to be healed. Notice how
he asks Jesus. He does not immediately
beg for healing. He says, “Lord, if you
choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus
replies, “I do choose. Be made clean.”
Notice the man’s
appeal respects Jesus’ will and his sovereignty. He does not say he deserves to be healed
because he is a good person. He does not
say he deserves to be healed because he is a victim of injustice. There is no leverage of Jesus at all. It is simply an honest humble request.
The second thing
is in the healing of the paralytic man.
His four friends lower him through the roof of the house. That’s plenty bold! There’s no humility or gentleness in that
scene! But notice Jesus’ first
words. “Man, your sins are forgiven
you.”
I picture myself in
the crowd and think, “Fine words Jesus, but what good are they? Words are cheap. This guy has real needs and you’re not
helping.” The religious people there
take issue with Jesus claiming for himself the ability to forgive sins. But all of this is a setup so that when Jesus
does heal the man Jesus shows that he truly does have the ability to forgive
sins.
While our
attention is easily diverted to vividly imagining this man being lowered
through the roof and then walking away healed, we should not miss that the
central point here is forgiveness.
Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Forgiveness.
Perhaps you didn’t
like the Chiefs being soundly beaten, or perhaps you were offended by the
racial messages of the halftime show, but let’s not overlook that this
forgiveness message is the most deeply offensive of all. It is also the only one that can give us any
hope at all.
Why is forgiveness
so offensive? It can be easy to be the
person offering the forgiveness. You can
stay on the moral high ground and feel good about yourself for being kind and
generous. It can be immensely harder to
accept forgiveness. Before you can
accept forgiveness you first have to admit that you did something wrong that
has to be forgiven. We humans don’t like
to be wrong. We want to be right.
When I look at
race and gender and political dynamics in this country today I see a common theme. It is rooted in the answer to an age old
question. Are people by nature good or
are they bad? Or perhaps said a little
differently, are people by nature good or by nature fallen? While we can easily skirt the issue by saying
we are both, and that would have some level of accuracy, you can’t get out of
this one by sitting on the fence. Either
people are by nature good and we can count on goodness to rise up in people, or
people are by nature bad and cannot be counted on to do good things; especially
under pressure.
I don’t care where
you are in the political spectrum, or where you see yourself in issues of race
and gender, or whether you are an Eagles fan or a Chiefs fan, the dominant
answer I see in our culture is the wrong one.
That answer is, that people are by nature good. Everyone wants to say that the trials and
struggles of their life are not their fault but someone else’s. If it’s someone else’s fault then I get to
claim the moral high ground. I do not
have to change and I will benefit when someone else is forced to change. I get to win and someone else looses.
Doubt me? How would the halftime show of the Super Bowl
be if it was a message that we are all sinners in need of God’s grace? How would it be if the halftime show were a
middle school chorus from some small obscure rural school district singing Amazing
Grace simply and in unison? No
complex lights show and fireworks, no diss track, no arrogance, no anger, no
winners and losers, no desire to take someone down. Just the simple message that we’re all a
bunch of messed up sinful losers who can’t get anything right no matter how
hard we try.
USA Today reported
that the average cost of a ticket for the Super Bowl this year was $6,645. I hear that a 30 second ad was $8
million. The truth of our sinfulness
doesn’t sell tickets or make money.
Calls for equality
are a big thing in our society today.
But here’s an ugly yet undeniable truth that many people are hell bent
and determined to deny. By all
measurable standards we are not equal.
Some of us are smarter than others.
Some of us are stronger than others.
Some of us are born better looking than others. Some of us have genetics which give us robust
health while others have genetics which lead to endless health problems. Some of us have great eye-hand coordination
and others of us are so klutzy that we can barely walk and talk at the same
time. We aren’t equal and life’s not
fair. Those are undeniable truths. We are not equal, at least not in any
earthly measure.
Jesus roots things
in the truth – the offensiveness of being fundamentally flawed, fallen, and in
need of God’s grace. That is the only
thing that makes us equal. And that is the
only path of hope. Endless virtue
signaling and seeking the moral high ground does nothing but make more
problems.
We read these
words from Galatians 3:28 in our second Bible reading today: “There is no
longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male
and female; for all of you are one in Christ.”
That is a very audacious statement.
It is true equality. It is based
on a common need for forgiveness. Only
by recognizing our common need for forgiveness can we ever get to
equality. And you can’t recognize your
need for forgiveness as long as you run around through life thinking you are
basically a good person and bad things are other people’s fault. Perhaps there are many things that are bad
that can be blamed on other people. But
that is false sight. When we recognize
that our fallenness (our tendency to not trust God but to trust in ourselves)
is woven in and through ourselves every corner of our thoughts and actions can
we see the truth.
That’s not about
beating ourselves up all the time.
That’s not going to get us anywhere and it’s not what God wants from
us. But it does bring to our thoughts
and actions: authentic humility, authentic equality, and an authentic common
need. That authentic common need of God is
the community Christ builds as his kingdom on earth.
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