Sermon for the 8 th Sunday after Trinity, August 2, 2009
HOW smart are you? How would you do on an IQ test, or the SAT? Does your mind play with abstract physics while handling calculus equations? Can you count backwards from 1000 in sevens? Have you memorized whole pages of Shakespeare? What is the measure of the human mind, and what makes us smart or dumb?
The measure of a person's intelligence used to be how far they got in school. If they finished high school, they were average. A college degree required above average intelligence, and on up through a doctoral degree. An IQ of 130 or so rates a person a genius . A famous university often gave symbolic rating to its alumni's smarts, as a degree from Stanford meant more than from Hayward or Chico. Another rule of thumb might have been the graduate's eventual earnings, or position, or status, or possessions. A guy who became vice president of a major corporation, owned houses, boats, planes and honor was always regarded as brainy, or at least very clever.
Now, if a man or woman is very intelligent, it certainly doesn't prove that he or she is good . They may be good at what they do, but can we trust what they say or intend? A very smart person may appear to have it all together, Harvard law degree, lots of cash, high placed friends and credit to the sky, but at the heart he is cold and ruthless and cares nothing about anyone else at all. A book entitled The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout says that one out of every 25 people is a sociopath , that is, a person with no conscience, one who has no empathy or affection for others, is deceitful, impulse and lacks remorse . They often have superficial charm, which they exercise simply to get what they want. Intelligence Quotients don't measure the conscience, so what is a conscience and how does it work?
Your conscience tells you what is right or wrong. It informs you, from inside of you, that you did a good thing or a bad thing—gives you a warm, happy glow or a pain in the pit of your stomach due to your thoughts, words or actions. Hearing confessions, I notice that many people carry one guilty fact about themselves for decades, from the time they stole candy from a drug store or money from their mother's purse. It was the awakening of their conscience, and they've had that candy wrapper stuck to the sole of their shoe ever since. But where does a conscience reside? Where does it come from, and do we need such an annoying thing?
Your conscience is a voice that is partly your own, and partly divine. In cartoon terms, we have illustrated the contest over the conscience with a little devil sitting on our left shoulder and a tiny angel seated on our right. The devil whispers temptations to do wicked things we can get away with in one ear, and the angel urges us to resist and stay on the path. A better illustration comes from the prophet Ezekiel. God said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them… you shall be My people, and I will be your God.” Ezek 36:26-28 From this we conclude that God's Spirit given to us will move our hearts to do right, or act as our conscience, if we are willing.
This indwelling Spirit is necessary for us because we have acted against our conscience so often it has, in many of us, ceased to function. I see this somewhat like ear wax. The conscience is our ear, and sin is wax that builds up so that eventually we can't hear, and the little angel on our right doesn't even get heard. Forgive this cartoonish concept, but the image is useful. Sins deafen us. Only God's Spirit entering in to our own spirits and making them once more alive can awaken our consciences again to hear the Voice of God and know right from wrong.
A person with no conscience has deadened his or her feelings of dread or guilt about doing evil. If he is stupid , his sins catch up with him pretty rapidly because his cover up will be found. Riding with police, I see this all the time. Typical criminals are not smart people, and their crimes mere burglary of apartments, stealing TVs and computers. They get little money for their desperate acts and waste it all on drugs. They never have anything and live in complete disorder. Their lies convince no one.
But a smart crook steals identities, gets others to do his dirty work, looks respectable, works in lofty places and invests his ill-gotten gains. I once stood in a conference room on the 20 th floor of the Embarcadero, overlooking Coit Tower and Fisherman's Wharf through a floor to ceiling glass wall, plush carpeting, walnut table, leather chairs: nice . My attorney said, “Boy, I'd love to have an office up here.” I said, “Would you sell your soul for it?” The attorneys represented Planned Parenthood and were suing me for telling the truth.
A sociopath uses others, manipulates the world to suit himself, injures or abuses others without a thought and takes without feelings of obligation or need to reciprocate. His spirit truly is dead, and he considers no objection to his actions, feels no remorse, sleeps soundly, and thinks us Christians are fools. Anyone who worries about sin or forgiveness is an idiot.
Now, anyone can sin. It's in our spiritual genes, unfortunately, but how we deal with it afterward is the test of who we are. How smart we are may have no play in this: the simpler the heart of a sinner, the more likely— very often —will be his or her repentance. And repentance can lead to our invitation of God's Spirit to live in us. This comes by faith in Christ, and through a humble submission to His Word and Commands. One of His Commands is Baptism.
On the day the Holy Spirit was given in power to the disciples, St. Peter preached to a large crowd in Jerusalem, people from all over the globe. He told them of their common Jewish heritage, how the prophets spoke of God's Spirit to be given, how Jesus was God's incarnate Son and how His own people had Him executed on a Roman cross. “When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter… ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?' Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit . For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.'” Acts 2:37-39
This Spirit indwelling us as a mark of Christianity is the most unique in all the world's religious pursuits. Some may sit and meditate to gain spiritual insight. Others pray endless prayers, go on pilgrimage, live in community, fast and oblige themselves to rules and rigors. These methods may all be employed by followers of Christ to their profit, but will do no good unless the Spirit of God is in them, and functioning with their spirits . God Himself wants to live in you. People may enter temples built for the gods of nations, wonderfully carved and adorned with gold, jewels and artful paintings. But the faithful Christian is a temple , wherein God truly dwells, and must not be defiled. Our very bodies are graced with the Presence of the Living God, and we need to glorify Him in whatever we do.
Jesus warns of false prophets and instructs His disciples to discern between true shepherds and wolves. The wolves are clever. They dress in sheepskins—or today in expensive suits, ecclesiastical finery, state of the art lighting, video and sound production, gloriously built castles to glorify themselves. They own networks, get elected to high office, amass huge organizations, make powerful secret alliances, and fool most of the people most of the time . We like them. They look good. They speak straight. They convince us— almost . Bishop James Pike, the herald of the Episcopal Church's modern downfall, disbelieved in the Virgin Birth, the Bodily Resurrection, the miracles, and even the Deity of Jesus Christ. And still, most of his astonished priests and parishioners liked him. Jim Jones was the favorite religious figure of his age, until he moved his operation to South America. How do we know when an attractive person is trying to pull wool over our eyes? The Holy Spirit informs us. We are not sheep going to slaughter if the Spirit of the Living God is in us, and we listen to His urgings.
We are children of God, joint heirs with Christ. Part of our great inheritance is the Holy Spirit. Think of it . The Holy Spirit, the Third great Person of the Holy Trinity, is God in every way: all powerful, all knowing, loving, merciful, wise, forgiving, life-giving, sanctifying, miracle working. Everything the Father or Son can do, the Spirit can do. The creative might that made everything is consciously living inside of you. Let Him revive your spirit within you, build lines of communication to your soul, and let God do within you whatever He will. And you know what? You'll be smarter , instantly. A great deal smarter. The wisdom that made all things is available inside the temple that He has made you to be.
Is it really important how smart you are? Our measurements of human intelligence are quite arbitrary, linked to certain outcomes or narrowly defined objectives, as we hold a 12” ruler up to God's fingerprint and try to measure the whirls. God has confounded the wise and given His greatest mysteries to simple hearted people who, having their consciences awakened and informing them of good or evil, will also hear the Voice of God within them, telling them who to trust, who to turn away from, and what they may do to please their God.
The smartest thing you can do is to know how inadequate you are, to stand in awe of the wisdom God simply is, and to accept His path for you, His Spirit within you, His grace for you, and His forgiveness and forbearance with you. You are not your own. You have been bought with a great price. You are His Temple, a place where He seeks to be known. The Spirit in you is calling to you. Please answer the call.
PFH+