Sermons for the Month

From Aught to Ought
DATE: December 26, 1999
SERVICE: Christmas I
TEXT: Galatians 4:4-7

“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

I have a question for you. What should we call the new decade we are about to enter? How are we going to refer to it? This hasn't been an issue for many decades, since it's been a no-brainer to refer to the 1960s as "the Sixties," followed by the Seventies, the Eighties, and the Nineties. But what about the decade 2000 through 2009? In a recent poll by USA TODAY, a number of suggestions were offered: The 2Ks, the Zeros, the Ohs, the Zips, the Ones, the Singles, the Digits, the Tens, the 2000s, the First Decade.

But the overwhelming favorite was: The Twenty-Aughts, or Aughts for short.

Aught is an Old English word for zero. It is still in use in Britain, but not used very much on this side of the Atlantic -- folks have joked, you know, that we are "two countries separated by a common language." But a few generations ago, people in America did refer to 1903 as "nineteen-aught-three."

Perhaps we should move into the new millennium with aughts in mind. And not just the aughts spelled with an "a" but the oughts spelled with an "o" -- the oughts that remind us of our moral obligations or duties. If God made contact with us today, what would God say to us? What do you think he would want us to think about as we move into the Twenty-Aughts?

Here is a clip of some "Man on the Street" interviews done in Dayton, Ohio a couple of years ago. (Possible Video Clip)

There is a great deal that we ought to do as Christians as we hold our breaths and take the plunge into the Twenty-Aughts.

Our reading from Paul's letter to the Galatian church suggests that Jesus came at the right time, "when the fullness of time had come" (4:4), in the year traditionally seen as the unexpected, unprecedented and altogether original aught: The year zero. At that time so full of mystery and possibility, "God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children" (vv. 4-5). This is for us who claim the name Christian, the turning point of history. And it means that we are freed from slavery to the law, and adopted as children of God -- children who are filled with the Spirit of the Son and able to cry to the creator of the cosmos with the longing of a daughter for her daddy, saying, "Abba! Father!"

"So you are no longer a slave but a child," the apostle Paul assures us, "and if a child then also an heir, through God" (v. 7). These are words of great comfort, but the question remains: How "ought" children of God behave in the Aughts? What might our God say we ought to do in this new millenium?

These questions can be answered today by a Top Ten list of "Christian Oughts for the Twenty-Aughts." This list has not shown up on Letterman with some of his others, like The Top Ten Ways Y2K Will Affect Disney World, The Top Ten Hilarious April Fool's Day Pranks in the Mafia, or the Top Ten Song Titles on the Pope's New Album.

But here anyway is my Scripture-based Top Ten Christian Oughts for the Twenty-Aughts.

OUGHT TEN: THE PRAYER OUGHT. "The Spirit helps us in our weakness," promises Paul; "for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words" (Romans 8:26). We are not orphans, cut off from the help of the Father as we face the slings and arrows of outrageous adversity. No, God is with us in a powerful and permanent way--through the Spirit of the Son sent straight into our hearts. This supercharging Spirit not only strengthens us in times of weakness, but maintains a communication link with God in every time, place and situation.

OUGHT NINE: THE PUTTING-UP-WITH OUGHT. "We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor" (Romans 15:1-2).

Chantelle Thomas, a 7-year-old from Washington, D.C., was recently a hit at the International Women's Business Conference in Maine. Then she received an invitation to Ghana from a group of female entrepreneurs there.

Just who is this girl, and what does she do? "Chantelle sells goodies--lollipops, candy, and chips--and gives half the money she earns to needy children and adults. She practices what her grandmother, Juleta Contee, has taught her: 'If you give somebody something, it will double all the time, and it will bless you'" Chantelle can teach us a lot about doing well by doing good, pleasing our neighbors and building them up. God calls us to put up and lift up the weak and needy. (Patrice Gaines, "7-Year-Old Entrepreneur Honored," The Washington Post, May 11, 1998).

OUGHT EIGHT: THE PAY ATTENTION OUGHT. "Therefore, we [ought to] pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it" (Hebrews 2.1,[ KJV]). The church needs to grab some intellectual Velcro so it can catch and hold what God is trying to teach it. We are becoming a church with short-term memory loss and the attention span of a 5-year-old, forgetting the ancient traditions that assure our future. No, I am not talking about the traditions born of the 1940s or 50s but those traditions born of the Bible. If we forget these traditions -- service above self, reaching the unchurched, being guided by God's Word -- we will "drift" and a drifting church is an aimless church.

OUGHT SEVEN: THE MARITAL BLISS OUGHT. "So men ought to love their wives as their own bodies," says Paul to the Ephesians (5:28-30 KJV). "He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body." Enough said.

OUGHT SIX: THE GET-RID-OF-THE-SPEECH-IMPEDIMENT OUGHT. "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone" (Colossians 4:6). When it comes to expressing our faith, we suddenly start stammering instead of sharing. What Paul is addressing here is the need for Christian apologetics, which, as Hugh Hewitt points out, is not the science of saying you're sorry (The Embarrassed Believer [Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998],115). Just because we sometimes do not have answers to questions put to us about our faith, does not mean those answers do not exist. Hewitt says: "Christians at the end of the millennium do not have to reinvent the wheel. Even the most tentative Christian has available to him or her thousands of pages of persuasive arguments. The faith can be defended quite vigorously using replies and explanations that have stood the test of many years and many skeptics" (117).

OUGHT FIVE: THE HUMBLE OUGHT. Do not "think of yourself more highly than you ought to think," Paul writes (Romans 12:3). Here's what he means.

C. W. Metcalf tells the following story: "Put together a passel of piglets in a muddy corral, then add a dozen farm kids dressed in their raggediest clothes. Turn the panicked pigs loose to run amok and send the kids in to slip and slide after them. Shrieking in glee, each child attempts to be the first to capture and pull a porker across the finish line. Surround this scene of pandemonium with grandstands full of parents, grandparents and less-courageous peers who cheer on the participants, and you have a glorious bit of Americana that demonstrates, among other things, how desperate for entertainment were those who were born before MTV.

"I was six years old when I participated in my first and only, 4-H Greased Pig Grab. I came in last. Thirteen pigs, 12 kids--and everyone else caught at least one.

"That woeful day, I trudged into the bleachers where my grandmother sat watching the event. After a few moments, she looked me in the eyes and said, 'Butchie, you did real well.'

"'What do you mean?' I asked. She patted me on the head. 'Way I see it,' Gramma said, 'you got it half right that time.'

"'But I didn't even catch a pig,' I moaned.

"'You were right to take chasin' the pig seriously--it's about as important as most things people chase after. But you shouldn't take your self so seriously.'" (Lighten Up [New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1992], 92-93).

This is humility. This is not "thinking more highly" of ourselves than we ought. Chasin' greased porkers, doing what we have to do, getting muddy and messy, and doing it all without taking ourselves too seriously.

OUGHT FOUR: THE WILL OF GOD OUGHT. So many people make big plans for the new millennium, dreaming of doing business and savoring success in the days to come. "Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring," says the letter of James. "Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that'" (4:14-15).

"We're so commercialized on this side of the world," observes Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin. "I wanted to detach, so I went to India. There, a bed could be made of palm branches, and people are grateful for what they have. There's something in their eyes that we don't have. They just appreciate every second." So should we ("Raves," Rolling Stone, April 29, 1999, 40).

OUGHT THREE: THE SACRIFICE OUGHT. We ought to sacrifice for others, as Jesus did. "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us -- and we ought to lay down our lives for one another" (1 John 3:16). Small sacrifices will do for starters. In his book Say Please, Say Thank You, theologian Donald McCullough discusses simple sacrifices: listening respectfully, apologizing when you've blown it, noticing and appreciating people in service positions, even the need to "hold your wind." His premise is simple and straightforward: "People deserve to be treated with respect," he writes. "The neglect of courtesy leads to the collapse of community" (Armin Brott, "Family Issues," The Washington Post Book World, November 8, 1998, X10).

OUGHT TWO: THE SUPPORT OUGHT. We ought to support those in ministry, writes John, "so that we may become co-workers with the truth" (3 John 1:8).

One day a local charity representative was looking through his records and realized that the wealthiest man in their town had never given any contributions. So he thought he would pay a visit to the man. "Sir, I was looking through our records and noticed you have never given a contribution. Would you like to give a small donation?"

The man looked at the rep and in disgust said to him, "Did your records also tell you that my brother, a Vietnam veteran, is in a wheelchair? And that my mother is blind and unable to work? ... Did your records also tell you that my sister's husband was killed and left her with a mortgage and three young children?"

Not knowing what to say, the rep, in total embarrassment, said, "Sir, I had no idea. I ..." Cutting in, the man said to the rep, "Now if I won't give THEM any money, what makes you think I'm going to give some to you?" (Liane Rowlette, jokes@eurweb.com. Available: April 15, 1999). Generous support of God's work in the world is an imperative for those wanting to spread joy and truth, help and harmony.

OUGHT ONE: THE LOVE OUGHT. "Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another" (1 John 4:11). No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. Reflecting the love of our Lord to one another remains the number one ought for Christians of any era, new or old.

So there you have it: The Top Ten Christian Oughts for the Twenty-Aughts. As we enter the Aughts, we should be spirit-filled, united, thankful, generous and loving, focused always on what we ought to do as children of God. Following these "oughts" this next millenium and God will have very positive things to say when he comes again say in the year 3 triple aught.

AMEN

---