THE GLADIATOR OF GOD

Hebrews 4: 12-16

Years ago there was a commercial that said, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” Our world is filled with people who, when they speak, have millions of listeners. When Rush Limbaugh speaks, maybe you don’t listen, but millions do. When Nancy Grace speaks, maybe you don’t listen, but millions do. Outside of the news media, when John Stewart or Oprah Winfrey speaks, maybe you don’t listen, but millions do. Our world has had its master orators as well. Just 25 years ago, President Ronald Reagan began a role that landed him the title “The great communicator.” During World War II, British citizens and many around the world hung on the strong words of Winston Churchill for courage, and for spirituality, C.S. Lewis in his radio broadcasts, captured in the book MERE CHRISTIANITY which is being discussed each Sunday here at Westminster. After the Great Depression, millions hung on the words of President Franklin Roosevelt who offered hopeful fireside chats to listeners who had lost everything. Students since the mid 1800s in this country have learned the words of President Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” said to have been written on the back of an envelope while traveling on a train.

What about the Christian pulpit? In our own church library and in my own library is the 20 volume set of Dr. Clyde Fant’s: 20 CENTURIES OF GREAT PREACHING. In that set one can read Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” and Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. Included is the word of God spoken through St. Augustine, St. Francis, John Wycliff, Bernard of Clairvaux, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, John Wesley, Lyman Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, Jonathan Edwards, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Phillips Brooks, George Buttrick, Henry Sloane Coffin, Dwight L. Moody, Rienhold Niebuhr, John Henry Newman, Norman Vincent Peale, James S. Stewart, Fulton Sheen, Martin Luther King, Jr. Billy Sunday, and Billy Graham to name a few. Last week I named more recent preachers like Barbara Brown Taylor and Gardner Taylor (no relation) as well. The Word of the Lord has been sent forth from Old Testament prophets, from New Testament apostles, from our Lord himself, and from men and women who felt called to preach. I have been told that in the Columbia Seminary pulpit is the sign, only seen by the preacher, with the words of John’s gospel that someone in the crowd said to Phillip: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” From classrooms and pulpits, from stages and street corners, from hospital rooms and college campuses, the Word of the Lord has changed lives. For some it has been a word of guidance, as from a trusted person of power. For others it has been a word of judgment, like a conscience that refuses to let one’s mind find peace. For still others it has been a word of instruction, like a crowd of people in Galilee coming to learn from a Rabbi. And for others it has been a word of inspiration that sheds light onto our paths. This month and last our Sunday School children have been learning to sing Amy Grant’s song “Thy Word,” with both voice and sign language. They offer it for God to both see and hear as a prayer. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path…. When I feel afraid and think I’ve lost my way, still you’re right there beside me. Nothing will I fear, as long as you are near; please be near me to the end.” Amen. To mix the metaphors for a moment: how glad we are that God offers us the Word, that is sharper than any two edged sword, to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Millions look for light in their lives, and they settle for darkness; they search for truth, and they settle for opinion; they look for love and settle for sex. There are millions of people in the world today looking for love and truth and light, and they settle for what is around them rather than for the one who is above them. We learned last week that the Bible says that above us are angels, and above them is Jesus at the right hand of the Father. We heard last week the words of our Lord: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.” But too many seek personal gratification and seek to fit God into schedules crowded by activities that bring children to stress, youth to angst, and adults to franticness. Too many do things because others are doing them. Too many look put together on the outside when they are torn apart inside. What does it take to quiet a noisy heart? It takes quiet time, sometimes journaling, and deliberate moments listening for that still small voice of God.

Once faithful people have reconnected with God, they use their voice to interpret or share God’s word. Jesus, along with preachers in our day and in days of yore, became Gladiators of God, not by fighting humans or animals to the death for the sport of it, but by speaking out, being willing to go to the cross if necessary to fight sin, and to lift up the word of salvation, redemption, and repentance. Listen to the magnificent words from Hebrews again: “Indeed, the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Before God no created thing is hidden, we are laid bare before the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” What fearful words! “The word” here does not mean Jesus; it means the utterance from the mouth of our Maker. With a word, God made the earth according to Genesis. With a word, God could destroy the world, but God chooses a battle against evil instead, and for those who take part in anything that pulls them away from God and collaborates with sin, God has a target on your back! God’s word judges you with dreadful results! Just as a sword can pierce a heart, God’s word can pierce our spiritual hearts, telling the difference between a human charade and true faith. God’s word knows your soul, and if you have remade it with sinews of self, packed it with pride, and put someone besides the Lord in the driver’s seat, then God’s word is judges you; but if your soul has been baptized in the blood of Christ, forgiven by Christ the Great High Priest, and you are living for Jesus, God’s word encourages you! God knows if your spirit is just a lot of hot air, or if the breath of God has resuscitated your soul, bringing it from death to life. The writer of Hebrews, in an exaggerated metaphor, says Jesus has so much authority that he “has passed through the heavens” plural. Some sources outside of Protestant Bibles cited seven heavens, such as 2 Enoch 3-20, but as we learn in studying “Revelation,” seven is a number of perfection so “seventh heaven” would mean “highest heaven,” as a superlative, not a different place. That’s what Jesus does for sinners: He allows the glow of God’s word, from which no shadow is hidden, to teach us how to be led by light instead of being afraid of it. All the preachers who have ever dared to thunder or whisper God’s word from pulpits have done so, with varying results, to get you and to get me, and to get the world to see the eternal benefit of living in the light rather than dwelling in darkness. How many stories, from the Biblical poor man Lazarus in Luke to Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” have expressed warning about living differently in this life? “If only,” one person says with regretful hindsight; “I was stupid,” announces another, thinking back; “I just wanted to have some fun” another cries ruefully. In sending us Jesus, God offers us new life now and eternally. What a gift. But many turn it down; and some forget that their lives and words should give gratitude and glory back to God. What have you done with the gift of salvation? More importantly, will your answer stand up to the scrutiny of cross examination by the one on High who judges the “quick” (living) and the dead? Think about it: The two edged sword that issues from the mouth of God will either protect your God-bearing life, or shred your excuses for living without God. Which is it for you?

Jeffrey A. Sumner October 15, 2006