This Week's Sermons

Sermons for the Month
"10 Things to tell you Kids About Bill Clinton
(and the whole White House Mess)"
DATE: September 13, 1998
SERVICE: Pentecost XV
TEXT: 1 Timothy 1:12-17
"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

Despite all the advances in building materials and our better understanding of ergonomics and physics, one of the greatest challenges that still confronts designers is how to build a comfortable dining chair. The problem that won't stop harassing designers is how to make a chair that won't splinter apart when a 200-pound diner does the inevitable "tip-back," rocking all his weight onto the back two legs of the chair, as the front legs rise into the air. Style after style of chair has been instantly rendered into kindling by this universal need of diners to turn straight chairs into recliners.
When chairs are finally too fractured to salvage, we can get rid of them and invest in a new set. But what do we do if it's our reputations that are broken? What do we do if the public reading of our characters has been reduced to splinters by the repeated bashing and abuse they have received? There is no easy way to replace a reputation. There is no quick fix for a critically cracked character.
This morning we rally for Christian Education. If what we teach this year we prefer to be kept abstract, academic, safe then I for one think it is a waste of our teacher's time. But if what we will be talking about in our Explorers' Club has to do with character, integrity, and behavior, then the gospel has very practical application. The gospel hits the pavement especially where people live in fallenness, seediness and messiness even if that living space is, perhaps, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If we want the gospel to be real—and that for some is the question—it must deal with everyday life in all its sin.
And the most obvious issue we face at the moment not only politically but also morally, is the whole White House mess. I want to speak clearly and carefully here. I am not assuming at this point that the president is guilty of any of the legal charges leveled against him. As of this writing, nothing has been proven, and it is not our place to cast stones. But we are speaking in the context where charges have been made and not disproved, moral lapses have been acknowledged to the embarrassment of many and the pain of others.
With the media itself referring to the Oval Office as the Oral Office; with the vocabulary used by newscasters increasingly bringing subjects into our living rooms that used to be strictly relegated to the bedroom ... What should we do? Theologians (both lay and professional) have already been talking to each other about "the character issue" and have eagerly written reams on the alleged Monica and Bill affair.
In such a climate of speculation and unproven allegations, is there anything we can say to our kids that is helpful when they ask, "Mom, Dad, what's Monicagate?" I believe there is.
To begin with, don't waste time on angst and worry about what to say. Be a parent. Take charge of your kids' moral development. Tell the truth to your kids. Or more accurately, tell the truths to your kids. Among the truths you tell (in age-appropriate terms) include:
1. Don't rush to judgment. Give others the benefit of the doubt. God is the ultimate judge. We should "judge not that we be not judged." Whenever we gloat over someone else's sin -- whether real or only asserted, we ourselves are sinning.
2. There are many temptations in life. Mention your own struggle with being tried, tested, tempted. Sometimes we take wrong paths (drugs, booze, zippers), and have to pay the consequences. There are right paths and wrong paths. The game of life is called "Truth or Consequences." Behaviors have consequences, and those consequences are not just paid by us individually, but paid by those who love us and surround us. Amidst the current accusations against her father, Chelsea Clinton should be in our family prayers each evening, and so should Hillary.
3. We have all sinned. The Bible teaches that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Paul said it best: "The good that we would, we do not, and the evil that we would not, we do." Take a glass of water and show it to your kids. [Do this in front of your congregation.] Have them look down on it. It looks clear. Take the same glass of water. Look up at it. It looks clear. Take the same glass of water and look through it, especially with a light behind it or in front of a window. What do you see? Impurities. Humanity equals impurities.
4. This family has standards. We expect you to measure up. Promiscuity is bad. Adultery is bad. Adultery is mentioned 40 times in the Bible: 17 times in Hebrew Scriptures and 23 times in the New Testament. Sixty-seven percent of Americans may approve of the president's handling of his job. But, when the assumption is made that the charges against him are true, 77 percent reject the president of the United States as a role model for their kids.
5. Don't spend time looking for the faults in others. Spend four years and $30 million in investigative agencies and you could dig up dirt on just about anyone. Nine million dollars was recently spent on a three-year investigation into former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, which ended in an indictment that accused Espy of having accepted $35,458 worth of inappropriate gifts, including things like tickets to a basketball game that cost $90, opera tickets, etc. (See Deborah Tannen, The Argument Culture: Moving From Debate to Dialogue [New York: Random House, 1998.]
6. Don't spread rumors. Christians condemn sexual misconduct. But we also condemn the spreading of rumors and innuendoes about sexual misconduct. In fact, one reason Christians ought to be cautious about embracing allegations against others is that the story of the Bible is the story of God's prophets and priests being falsely accused and condemned. Nobody throws stones at a dry, fruitless tree. Christians believe the best of people, while fully prepared to acknowledge the worst that people can do. If anything, we err on the side of gullibility. We hope for the best, but are not confounded by the worst.
7. Live the biblical command not only to "Love the family of believers" and to "Fear God," but also to "Honor the emperor" (1 Peter 2:17). If you want an Old Testament verse, try Proverbs 24:21: "My child, fear the LORD and the king." Note that neither admonition makes any reference to the character of the leader. Honor the king. Period. Does that mean excusing wrong behavior in a leader? No! But it does remind us that while a person is our leader, honor is due before judgment. We should be as quick to assign praise as blame.
8. Don't make light of sin. In our obsession with self-esteem, we have sugarcoated sin. What makes this epistle lesson so timely is that it demonstrates how the doctrine of grace is impossible unless we accept as real the doctrine of sin. We must admit our fallenness. Doesn't the Bible say, "While we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us"?
Not one of us is without sin: no, not one, except Jesus. In today's epistle lesson, Paul admits that he was the biggest sinner of them all. He names himself a "blasphemer" and a "man of violence." He persecuted Christians with vehemence and vigor. His goal was to wipe out that strange new sect called "The Way" entirely.
But even this mean-machine terrorizer was completely and utterly forgiven by Christ's mercy and forgiveness. Paul the Terminator rejoices that God's "super-abundance" of grace was enough to transform even him, the "foremost" among sinners.
No character is too crushed for it not to be redeemed by Christ's cross. No reputation is too smashed to be beyond repair by an outpouring of the love of Christ. Humans, created in the image of God, are not like repeatedly broken chairs that ultimately move from furniture to fire starters. God has given our poor, broken, sinful selves "an end." But it is not the conclusion the world expects. The wood of Christ's cross is able to splint any flaw or fracture. The blood of Christ's sacrifice is able to glue any weakness or failure. This is why Paul the "foremost sinner" celebrates "that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"!
9. We must be forgiving. We must forgive much in others because we have much in ourselves to forgive and be forgiven. This is especially true when the offending person acknowledges the guilt. It may not be breaking marriage vows. But it may be breaking other kinds of sacred vows: promises to God, to our friends, to our families, to our children. --When King David was confronted with his adultery by the prophet Nathan, he acknowledged his sin and asked God's forgiveness (2 Samuel 12:13). --When Jonah was confronted with his disobedience by the entombing walls of a fish's belly, he acknowledged his sin and asked God's forgiveness (Jonah 2:7).
--When Peter was confronted with his cowardice by the sound of a cock's crow, he acknowledged his sin and asked God's forgiveness (Matthew 26:75). Those who refused to fess up to their sins and shortcomings; those who let arrogance, pride, self-delusion keep them from bowing in repentance before God: Those have the names that are synonymous with tragedy: Absalom; Saul; Ananias; Judas.
10. Be a part of the solution. When someone was living out of sync with God's plan and purpose for them, Jesus' response was not to beat them up, but to heal them. In fact, Jesus was less interested in other people's sex lives than in their openness to fresh outpourings of God's grace and love. There was more mercy than judgment in Jesus' moral sensibility. That's why the best way you can end your conversation with your kids is to help them pray ... for Bill Clinton, for his family and for our country.
I leave you with this story that Bob Hartz emailed me over the weekend. Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins."
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?
Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," protested his friend Francie, the author of our story.
"Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your behavior. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: it's your choice how you live."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers.
While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robber took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live.
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."
""What did you do?" I asked.
"Well there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything. And the attitude of the gospel is forgiveness and life.

AMEN