RESCUED FROM DARKNESS

 

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

 

July 11, 2004

 

Text: “He has rescued us from the power of darkness.” (Colossians 1:13)

 

First Reading: Amos 7:7-17
Second Reading: Luke 10:25-37

 

            Today, you’re going to hear about something we haven’t touched on too much from this pulpit and that’s what Calvin calls our total depravity.  Calvin in his usual blunt style says two things about our total depravity.  One, that “we are so vitiated and perverted in every part of our nature that by this great corruption we stand justly condemned and convicted before God, to whom nothing is acceptable but righteousness, innocence, and purity.”  And secondly, “that this perversity never ceases in us, but continually bears new fruits—the works of the flesh that we have already described—just as a burning furnace gives forth flame and sparks, or water ceaselessly bubbles up from a spring.” (Book II, Chapter 1:8)

 

            What brought this to mind so forcefully this past week was an article I read in the Presbyterian Outlook.  It was written by an Edward Mullins about his experience during the Korean War.  He was a young second lieutenant in the infantry and had been assigned as the regimental duty officer.  That meant that he was to be the personal representative of the regimental commander, who in this case was a full colonel.  It meant further that any order he gave had the same authority behind it as if the colonel himself had issued it.

 

            About two o’clock in the morning shots rang out and he was summoned to the security platoon tent where a Korean male civilian was seated cross-legged on the floor, blood streaming from his head and nose and mouth, and holding his side where a sergeant was kicking him viciously with his heavy combat boot.  He ordered the abuse stopped.  As one of the sergeants began to argue with him that he was new and didn’t understand the situation—saying in effect that the values he had back home didn’t apply in Korea—a corporal quietly went to a phone and called his platoon leader.  In a few minutes the platoon leader arrived and lit into the young lieutenant for interfering with his platoon.  They went outside away from the immediate presence of the enlisted men.

 

            The platoon leader continued to call the young lieutenant everything in the book. When he stopped to take a breath the lieutenant asked what that was on his right collar.  It was obvious that the platoon leader out-ranked him until he said, “No, you are mistaken. That is an eagle on my collar which only looks like a gold bar.  As the regimental duty officer I am the regimental commander’s personal representative and only he can countermand any order I give.  You have my permission to go inside and call him on the telephone and wake him up at two o’clock in the morning and ask him to rescind my orders.”  He declined the invitation and the lieutenant suggested that he go back to bed, which he did.  The lieutenant then returned to the tent to the scene of the abuse and directed the master sergeant in charge to assure that the prisoner would receive no further abuse, and to handle the situation in accordance with established procedures.

 

            The next noon when he appeared at the officers’ mess he was greeted by a sudden dead silence and stares.  Not knowing how to take that, he went to the only chair that was vacant and sat across from a captain who had fought on Guadalcanal with the 1st Marine Division in WW II.  Captain Buck said to him, “What you did last night is all over the regiment.  Not one man in this room would have done what you did.  All the looks and stares are jealousy, for they admire what you did, but none of them would have had the guts to have done it himself.”  The young lieutenant was surprised and pleased for he had done what his parents and the Presbyterian Church had taught him. (“Let’s Return to Righteousness,” The Presbyterian Outlook, June 28, 2004, Page 7)

 

            Why that story made so much sense to me is the feeling I’ve had for some time that no one takes responsibility for their actions these days.  The sergeant was only kicking the Korean in the ribs because his superiors told him to do so.  There was no thought given to the fact that he was another human being and humans should show some respect for another human being or for any of God’s creation for that matter.

 

            The story also made it clear that given the proper circumstances any one of us could have done the same thing.  That’s what Calvin meant by our total depravity.  Captain Buck was right.  There was no one in the Officer’s mess who would have done what the Lieutenant had done.  How many of us would have the courage, given the proper circumstances, to stand up to someone in authority and call a halt to a wrong we saw being committed?

 

            In light of that what Paul writes to the Colossians takes on added meaning.  Paul prays that they will lead lives worthy of the Lord and fully pleasing to him, as they bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God.  We are accountable for everything that we do and only when we take responsibility for who we are and how we live do we take seriously what God has done on our behalf. 

 

            Undoubtedly no one of us would ever think of kicking someone in the ribs.  We just don’t do that.  But how often do we laugh at an ethnic joke or spread some gossip we’ve heard over coffee?  Sin is very pervasive and has a way of permeating what we think is so innocent.  That’s why having the confession of sin and the assurance of our pardon at the beginning of our worship is so critical.  It’s a time to remind us of our responsibility to God and one another and our accountability for everything we do.  Humbly coming before God right after the call to worship and our opening prayer of praise and adoration, we confess that we do fall short of God’s will and recognize that we are completely dependent on God’s grace and goodness for the life God gives us to live.  It’s in that confession that we proclaim week after week that God is an absolutely holy and righteous God who will not truck with wickedness of any kind, on any scale. 

            The prayer of confession this morning picks up on the story from Luke about the Good Samaritan.  We’ve heard the story so often, yet how many times have we had the opportunity to assist someone and passed by on the other side.  The sentence we read said, “We have mocked their misery by making excuses to avoid their plight.”  Again, that’s what Captain Buck meant when he told the young lieutenant that no one else in the mess hall would have done what he did.  We all mock other people’s misery when we make excuses to avoid their plight.  The prayer goes on to say, “We who have been taught the law of love practice instead the law of self-interest.”  Again, Paul prays that the Christians in Collosae may be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled them to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

             

            A minister, in a sermon on marriage, shocked his congregation with the frank acknowledgment that: “Yes, the grass is greener on the other side.  No matter whom you marry, inevitably there will be someone younger, funnier, smarter, wealthier or more empathetic than he or she is.  But marriage is not a matter of comparison shopping.  ‘The only way to find happiness and stability in the presence of seemingly attractive and tempting options is to say, I’m simply not going there.  I’ve made my decision.  I’m not in the market—period.’  Considering your decision irreversible allows you to pour your energy into making your marriage better.” (The Christian Century, July 13, 2004. Page 20)

 

            Sin is indeed pervasive, just as the grass is always greener on the other side.  We may be totally depraved as Calvin suggests and we need to take seriously the sins we commit both knowingly and unknowingly, all of which makes God’s judgment, God’s anger and God’s punishment all the more real and necessary.  We will all stand before God’s throne of grace and be held accountable for all that we’ve done and left undone.  In the meantime remember what Paul writes, “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  That is our hope.  Our mission is to live into the kingdom of his beloved Son.

 

Thanks be to God,

Amen