A WALK WITH THE SPIRIT
A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk
Harundale Presbyterian Church
Text: “who walk…according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4)
First
Second
Cal Thomas writes of “Our Moral Bankruptcy” in his column this past Tuesday in The Sun. He begins with the startling quote, “Greed is the universal motive, sincerity is a pose, honesty is for chumps, altruism is selfishness with a neurotic twist and morality is for kids and fool.” That was written by Walt Harrington in The Washington Post in December of 1987. Not much has changed since then. President Bush made a visit to the New York Stock Exchange this past week and the market has continued to decline since. Corporations like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Xerox, and Rite Aid have become household names tainted by ethical violations.
Greed seems to be the pervasive force driving not only the economy, but our great national pastime as well. Now baseball players want to strike for higher wages when ballgames this summer have played to only 40 percent capacity. “The Senate chaplain Richard C. Halverson looked at the ethical scandals in high places nearly 20 years ago and offered this diagnosis of their source: ‘Abandoning an absolute ethical (and) moral standard leads irresistibly to the absence of ethics and morality. Each person determines his own ethical/moral code. That’s anarchy…Evil becomes good – good becomes evil.’
“It isn’t
that we don’t know where to look for guidance in how to build lives of personal
integrity and governments and institutions that reflect them. It is that we have chosen to ignore such
things in the pursuit of immediate gratification. Reflecting on the monetary scandals of the
1920s, which led to the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover observed, ‘Monetary
loss or even the shock of moral sensibilities is perhaps a passing thing, but
the breaking down of the faith of a people in the honesty of their government
and in the integrity of their institutions, the lowering of respect for the
standards of honor which prevail in high places, are crimes for which
punishment can never atone.’” (The
Then we come to Paul who puts it quite succinctly, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” A week ago I sat in hospital with Wes Baker. Those of you who don’t know Wes, he was interim pastor sixteen years ago before I came. Wes is dying of cancer. He knows it, the doctors have confirmed it and Corinne can’t accept it. His hope is that he’ll live to celebrate his 80th birthday this coming January. Sitting there with him, I had no doubt in my mind that I was in the presence of someone who truly spent his life in a walk with the Spirit. Of course he doesn’t want to die. When I entered his room he was working on the order of service for last Sunday’s service of worship. He continues to preach every Sunday. On Tuesdays he leads a group of clergy who gather to study the scripture reading for the next Sunday. He looks forward to his family’s reunion in August. He doesn’t want to give up a thing, but he’s also realistic. The cancer has spread to every bone in his body and it’s just a matter of time when his quality of life will decline.
He mentioned to me how his life has been such a blessing. He would not have done one thing differently. What a testimony to God’s grace and God’s gift of goodness! Wes has no rancor, no bitterness nor regret of any kind. All he has is thanksgiving for each day he’s been given and the zeal to live each day to God’s glory and honor. I left his room with a lighter step in my walk than when I’d entered.
It’s so easy for us to get caught up in the greed of which Cal Thomas writes. So often you see people whose only concern is to get what’s theirs and who take no account of who may be hurt in return or who’re in need of a great deal more. Paul strikes the theme again and again, to set your mind on the things of the flesh is death, but “those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”
Friday we had the service for Leona Booze. She lived to be 93 years of age, but it was how she died that so impressed me. I mentioned to the people on Friday that in my forty years of ministry I’ve never experienced such a witness to the resurrection as I did with Leona. She entered hospital Friday a week ago. On Sunday, I got the call that the end was near and I was needed. When she saw me enter the room her eyes grew wide, her arms stretched out to embrace me and she held my hand in a grip that brought tears to my eyes.
That went on for almost a week. Her grandchildren would come to visit. She welcomed each one in their turn. Her great grandchildren came to visit. They received the same welcome. When at the end she had greeted them all she went into a coma and eventually died. Anyone in the room could have no doubt that Leona walked with the Spirit of the living Christ and she knew Christ was with her as she bade her farewells. That’s not to say the she didn’t enjoy each day in the flesh. But her life wasn’t about the flesh. It was about the Spirit. It was her life in the spirit that allowed her to enjoy each day in the flesh, and that’s the difference Paul wants us to understand.
Henri
Nouwen makes two comments that may be helpful.
The first is his journal entry from
The second is his story about how, “During the Second World War, a Lutheran bishop, imprisoned in a German concentration camp, was tortured by an S.S. officer who wanted to force him to a confession. In a small room, the two men were facing each other, one afflicting the other with increasing pain. The bishop, who had a remarkable tolerance for pain, did not respond to the torture. His silence, however, enraged the officer to such a degree that he hit his victim harder and harder until he finally exploded and shouted at his victim, ‘But don’t you know that I can kill you?’ The bishop looked in the eyes of his torturer and said slowly, ‘Yes, I know—do what you want—but I have already died.’ At that moment the S.S. officer could no longer raise his arm and lost power over his victim. It was as if he were paralyzed, no longer able to touch him. All his cruelties had been based on the supposition that his man would hold onto his own life as to his most valuable property, and would be quite willing to give his confession in exchange for his life. But with the grounds for his violence gone, torture had become a ridiculous and futile activity.” (Reaching Out, Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City; 1975. Page 84.)
Whether it’s Cal Thomas, Wesley Baker, Leona Booze or Henri Nouwen, the theme is the same, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” So take a walk with the Spirit. Everything else you do will gain new meaning.
As the soot and dirt and ash rained down,
We became one color.
As we carried each other down the stairs of the burning building,
We became one class
As we lit candles of waiting and hope,
We became one generation.
As the firefighters and police officers fought their way into the inferno,
We became one gender.
As we fell to our knees in prayer for strength,
We became one faith.
As we whispered or shouted words of encouragement,
We spoke one language.
As we gave our blood in lines a mile long,
We became one body.
As we mourned together the great loss,
We became one family.
As we cried tears of grief and loss,
We became one soul.
As we retell with pride of the sacrifice of heroes,
We became one people.
We are
One color
One class
One generation
One gender
One faith
One language
One body
One family
One soul
One people
We are The Power of One
We are United
We are
(by Cheryl Sawyer, Ed.D. “We Are the Power of One,” Read by the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, Moderator, 214th General Assembly (2002) PCUSA.)
Thanks be to God,
Amen