Another sermon: My addiction
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 28And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." 29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
Hi. My name is Drew, and I am addicted to being right.
I discovered that I was addicted to being right when I realized that I would always try for the last word in any discussion. This would lead to fights over the smallest things. But I am not only addicted to being right in the small things. I want to be right when it comes to politics and religion. My addiction to being right has cost me friendships, and it has also hurt my relationship with God.
I never thought that it would hurt my relationship with God, because it always seemed like the people that talked the most about God WERE always right. People that talk about God talk about God with conviction, and they live their lives with conviction. They say things like, "if God is for us, who can be against us?"
Which means that church enabled my addiction to being right all the time, at least for a while. It was a place where I met other addicts, and it was a place where we got our fix of being right, every time we compared ourselves to the wrong people that didn't go to church, or went to the wrong church.
Come to think of it, while some Christians re- enforced my beliefs, others indulged my addiction by believing different things. Church life gave me a whole new list of things to argue about. I could argue theology, soteriology, eschatology, worship style, stewardship, hymn selection, the color scheme of the sanctuary, clothing choices, what kind of car a person ought to drive, what kind of food that we serve--anything at all, it seemed, could be turned into a "spiritual issuse," with a "right" and a "wrong," and I would always be on the right side.
My faith turned into an exercise in making sure that I was right. I wasn't alone. So many Christians in this country spend so much time focusing on being right that they never get around to doing right.
We'd rather argue than work.
We'd rather try to change another persons mind than change our own heart.
I'm addicted to being right. Fortunately, I know that I have this addiction, and I am working on it, so I guess I am a recovering addict, but I know that I will always be addicted.
Would you please stand up if you would like to admit being addicted to being right.
Here's the good news for those of us who are standing. While churches sometimes feed this addiction, especially when they aren't healthy, the church also breaks us of this addiction.
Confessing our sins is one of the practices that we do to fight this addiction. Every week, together (and hopefully every day, on our own), we look at ourselves and ask: "How have I been wrong? How I have I fallen short?" We admit, again and again, that we cannot be good enough without the grace of God.
And the stories like the ones we hear today are great for breaking our addiction.
Lets look at our Gospel lesson for today.
The lawyer in this story had an encounter Jesus, God in flesh. During that encounter, Jesus gave him a mission--it wasn't new, it was something that had been part of the Jewish tradition for ages, but it was a clear and concise. Jesus said, "if you love God, and love your neighbor, you will have life."
What more could he want? He found the meaning of life. Jesus gave him purpose. Jesus gave him a job.
but then there's that one phrase that is a hinge that turns the whole story. "But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus . . ."
The lawyer shared our addiction.
Following God's mission wasn't enough. He wanted to be right. He wanted the last word.
Can I give a piece of advice? Don't try to have the last word with God.
That's what King Jeraboam wanted to do in our first reading.
The King of Israel thought he deserved the last word with Amos. After all, he was the King, ruling in God's place. And Amos came and told him he was wrong.
This is when Israel and Judah were separate nations. The King was King over Israel, and Amos was from Judah.
Worse than that, Amos was not a professional prophet. He was a shepherd from another nation that came and told the King that he wasn't doing the right thing.
This King, by the way, was good for the religious community at the time. Everybody made their sacrifices. Everybody went to church.
They made a big show of how much they loved God, but they ripped off their neighbors. They didn't care about justice.
And Amos told the King that they were not being faithful.
And the King didn't want to hear it.
The King didn't want to hear it from anybody, but why especially should he listen to a foreigner, an uneducated shepherd, a nobody with no credentials?
When we don't like to admit that we are wrong, we especially don't like to admit that an outsider is right.
But God likes to use outsiders.
The king was wrong. Amos was right.
And it gets even worse when Jesus tells his story.
Jesus flipped the script in his story.
I could imagine the story being told. The stage is set with the man getting attacked by robbers.
But! says Jesus, "along came a Priest,"
and the crowd cheers,
"but the Priest walked past"
but soon a Levite, another church leader came by
and the crowd cheers again
The priest was limited by his rules and duties, but Levite was a good guy that was bound by less rules. He could have done something. The crowd knows that he can be the hero.
but the levite walked past.
And then the Samaritan comes around the corner
The hated minority comes around the corner
The religious heretic comes around the corner
The illegal alien comes around the corner
The enemy comes around the corner
The outsider comes around the corner (PAUSE!!!)
That's what people heard when Jesus said, "Samaritan."
and that man becomes the hero of the story.
The supposed good guys were actually the bad guys. The bad guy ended up being the good guy.
This story is still relevant today.
People see us church folk just as this story shows the Priests and the Levites to be.
We worry about appearances, and we ignore those that suffer.
We say that we're the good guys, but we act like the bad guys.
And who shows mercy?
People come to church and they feel judged. They are more likely to find mercy at the bar. Or the gay pride festival. Do you know why the Unitarian church is full? It's not because of their theology--it's because they show mercy.
The people that are supposed to be our enemies are, in reality, our examples.
The supposed enemies of our faith practice it better than we do.
The story of the Good Samaritan is hard therapy for people that are addicted to being right.
But our addiction will kill us.
And in loving God and loving our neighbor, in showing mercy, in breaking our prejudice against Samaritins, we find life.
Dueteronomy 31 says it. It was our call to worship:
God has placed in front of us Life and Good, Death and Evil.
We can imitate the Samartains and live, or blame them and die.
When I was being controlled by addiction, I thought that I could only find life in being right.
But real life came when I let God be right.
Are you trying to justify yourself? I'm inviting you to quit. Cold Turkey. Let it go. How will you do that?
Find your Samaritan--an outsider that shows mercy--and imitate him or her.
Life is available to you in these four words:
"Go and do likewise."
Hi. My name is Drew, and I am addicted to being right.
I discovered that I was addicted to being right when I realized that I would always try for the last word in any discussion. This would lead to fights over the smallest things. But I am not only addicted to being right in the small things. I want to be right when it comes to politics and religion. My addiction to being right has cost me friendships, and it has also hurt my relationship with God.
I never thought that it would hurt my relationship with God, because it always seemed like the people that talked the most about God WERE always right. People that talk about God talk about God with conviction, and they live their lives with conviction. They say things like, "if God is for us, who can be against us?"
Which means that church enabled my addiction to being right all the time, at least for a while. It was a place where I met other addicts, and it was a place where we got our fix of being right, every time we compared ourselves to the wrong people that didn't go to church, or went to the wrong church.
Come to think of it, while some Christians re- enforced my beliefs, others indulged my addiction by believing different things. Church life gave me a whole new list of things to argue about. I could argue theology, soteriology, eschatology, worship style, stewardship, hymn selection, the color scheme of the sanctuary, clothing choices, what kind of car a person ought to drive, what kind of food that we serve--anything at all, it seemed, could be turned into a "spiritual issuse," with a "right" and a "wrong," and I would always be on the right side.
My faith turned into an exercise in making sure that I was right. I wasn't alone. So many Christians in this country spend so much time focusing on being right that they never get around to doing right.
We'd rather argue than work.
We'd rather try to change another persons mind than change our own heart.
I'm addicted to being right. Fortunately, I know that I have this addiction, and I am working on it, so I guess I am a recovering addict, but I know that I will always be addicted.
Would you please stand up if you would like to admit being addicted to being right.
Here's the good news for those of us who are standing. While churches sometimes feed this addiction, especially when they aren't healthy, the church also breaks us of this addiction.
Confessing our sins is one of the practices that we do to fight this addiction. Every week, together (and hopefully every day, on our own), we look at ourselves and ask: "How have I been wrong? How I have I fallen short?" We admit, again and again, that we cannot be good enough without the grace of God.
And the stories like the ones we hear today are great for breaking our addiction.
Lets look at our Gospel lesson for today.
The lawyer in this story had an encounter Jesus, God in flesh. During that encounter, Jesus gave him a mission--it wasn't new, it was something that had been part of the Jewish tradition for ages, but it was a clear and concise. Jesus said, "if you love God, and love your neighbor, you will have life."
What more could he want? He found the meaning of life. Jesus gave him purpose. Jesus gave him a job.
but then there's that one phrase that is a hinge that turns the whole story. "But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus . . ."
The lawyer shared our addiction.
Following God's mission wasn't enough. He wanted to be right. He wanted the last word.
Can I give a piece of advice? Don't try to have the last word with God.
That's what King Jeraboam wanted to do in our first reading.
The King of Israel thought he deserved the last word with Amos. After all, he was the King, ruling in God's place. And Amos came and told him he was wrong.
This is when Israel and Judah were separate nations. The King was King over Israel, and Amos was from Judah.
Worse than that, Amos was not a professional prophet. He was a shepherd from another nation that came and told the King that he wasn't doing the right thing.
This King, by the way, was good for the religious community at the time. Everybody made their sacrifices. Everybody went to church.
They made a big show of how much they loved God, but they ripped off their neighbors. They didn't care about justice.
And Amos told the King that they were not being faithful.
And the King didn't want to hear it.
The King didn't want to hear it from anybody, but why especially should he listen to a foreigner, an uneducated shepherd, a nobody with no credentials?
When we don't like to admit that we are wrong, we especially don't like to admit that an outsider is right.
But God likes to use outsiders.
The king was wrong. Amos was right.
And it gets even worse when Jesus tells his story.
Jesus flipped the script in his story.
I could imagine the story being told. The stage is set with the man getting attacked by robbers.
But! says Jesus, "along came a Priest,"
and the crowd cheers,
"but the Priest walked past"
but soon a Levite, another church leader came by
and the crowd cheers again
The priest was limited by his rules and duties, but Levite was a good guy that was bound by less rules. He could have done something. The crowd knows that he can be the hero.
but the levite walked past.
And then the Samaritan comes around the corner
The hated minority comes around the corner
The religious heretic comes around the corner
The illegal alien comes around the corner
The enemy comes around the corner
The outsider comes around the corner (PAUSE!!!)
That's what people heard when Jesus said, "Samaritan."
and that man becomes the hero of the story.
The supposed good guys were actually the bad guys. The bad guy ended up being the good guy.
This story is still relevant today.
People see us church folk just as this story shows the Priests and the Levites to be.
We worry about appearances, and we ignore those that suffer.
We say that we're the good guys, but we act like the bad guys.
And who shows mercy?
People come to church and they feel judged. They are more likely to find mercy at the bar. Or the gay pride festival. Do you know why the Unitarian church is full? It's not because of their theology--it's because they show mercy.
The people that are supposed to be our enemies are, in reality, our examples.
The supposed enemies of our faith practice it better than we do.
The story of the Good Samaritan is hard therapy for people that are addicted to being right.
But our addiction will kill us.
And in loving God and loving our neighbor, in showing mercy, in breaking our prejudice against Samaritins, we find life.
Dueteronomy 31 says it. It was our call to worship:
God has placed in front of us Life and Good, Death and Evil.
We can imitate the Samartains and live, or blame them and die.
When I was being controlled by addiction, I thought that I could only find life in being right.
But real life came when I let God be right.
Are you trying to justify yourself? I'm inviting you to quit. Cold Turkey. Let it go. How will you do that?
Find your Samaritan--an outsider that shows mercy--and imitate him or her.
Life is available to you in these four words:
"Go and do likewise."
