Day 258 - Enter Through The Narrow Gate - The Problem with Being Chosen

A sermon delivered at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy Daisy, TN Aug. 25, 2013

Old Testament reading: Isaiah 58:9-14

New Testament Reading:  Luke 13:22-30

If you have looked at my blog, or read it over the years, you will realize I think the narrow gate, or door, is an important lesson for us. It is actually an honor when the lectionary gives me the opportunity to talk about it.

For the last two weeks we have faced a medley of passages from Luke, Isaiah and Jeremiah that on first blush seem to give us messages that are a little puzzling, if not contradictory. We hear assurance and promise of grace, warnings to be prepared or be ready. We hear the words that on their face seem to threaten retribution if we are not prepared . Yet we know the scriptures say Jesus reconciled humanity to God, his death and resurrection defeated retribution. What is going on?

If you missed some of these sermons, let me recap. First we heard Jesus say, “Do not be afraid, my little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, but be ready for the knock at the door, for if you are not ready, you will prove yourself unworthy because from those who are given much, much is expected. (Luke 12:32-48).

Last week we heard Jesus continue with a lament in his final journey to Jerusalem, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! … You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? (Luke12:49-56)

Today, we hear Jesus say to the Jewish crowd, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.  Those will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ ²But he will say, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers! There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. (You will see) people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22-30)

We know that Jesus heavily drew on the prophecies and warnings of the prophets and the writings of the Old Testament. Maybe we have a clue there. Last week we heard Job compare God’s action to that of the metallurgist who purifies silver. We hear the same in Psalms, Zechariah, Daniel, and Malachi. God says he will purify his people as if we were precious silver. In Jeremiah, the Lord refers to those who cannot be purified as “rejected silver.” Jeremiah says there will be people who seek to be stumbling blocks to our faith.  The question lingers, “Who can’t be purified, who are the ‘rejected silver’?” because last week we heard the Lord say to Israel through Isaiah, “For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, so that I may not cut you off.  See, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.” (Isaiah 48:9-10) God’s wrath always seems subordinate to the covenant of his compassion.

And today in Isaiah 58: 9-14, we hear that same compassion, “You shall cry for help and I shall answer, ‘Here I am. If you love your neighbor by offering your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, stop pointing your finger and speaking evil, if you remove the yoke (of sin) from among you then your light will shine and if you honor the Sabbath as a delight and the day of the Lord, you shall ride upon the heights of the earth, fed with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’”

If the Lord of the Hebrews is the Lord of us all, then we must figure out how these verses from the Old Testament complement the words of the New Testament. I suggest to you that the answer lies in the idea whose fancy name is “sanctification.” Jesus knows we cannot live by the law, whether Jew or Gentile. Those who seek to do it will fail and deceive themselves. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead he claimed certain salvation from the curse of the law for his people.  But Jesus did not deny the law. He emphasized two commandments as exemplary of his own life and as a model that we shall follow in our own lives.

Paul said as new Christians we are like babies. We need baby food as we grow in Christian stature. Sooner or later, we will become strong enough and able to take giant steps and graduate from baby food to the real thing. This process is the refiner’s fire. It is the learning process that strengthens our Christian character.  

We are not gaining our salvation by this process of sanctification. Only faith is required for that. There is no way we can earn our salvation because God would not be necessary. The process of sanctification is our own striving strive  to increase our incomplete holiness. (There is that word again, striving, I am coming back to it in a minute.) Sanctification is striving to show the compassion of Christ until it becomes second nature for us.

So what does Jesus mean when he gives us these threats and warnings?  I think about it like a freezing cold winter morning when I go out to my car and sit down inside it and close the door. I am blind and unable to see the hood or anything for the thick layer of frost on the windows. I start the car and turn on the defroster. As the engine warms up slowly the frost melts and gradually the road appears before me and I can drive away safely.

In the same way, as we work to love our neighbor and our enemy; and to feed the poor and tend to the afflicted, and to forgive those who seek our harm, our faith becomes more and more second nature and visible to the world.  Our actions mirror of our faith. It is not good enough to just show up and warm the pews listening to the reading of  the words of Jesus. If that is all we do, we have not heard the word and our faith is weak.

Jesus points to the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees who take widow’s money and spend it on themselves, who pray loudly on the street corber, who impugn Jesus for healing a person on the Sabbath, who condemn a person for illness and who ignore the needy and afflicted. Jesus says, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:17-20)

Neither Luke nor Matthew say those who break the commandments will face retribution. Both say the same thing, those who strive and fail, encouraging others to fail will be least in Heaven, but still in Heaven. Those who seek and do follow them and teach others the same will see greatness in Heaven.

The key word is strive. In the Greek text, the world refers to an athletic contest or combat in warfare. It means to exert oneself with the greatest effort to reach our goal in the face of threatened defeat.

There is another way to express what these verses mean. I knew a young man who had exceptional talent in a sport. Every coach said the same thing, the fellow had natural talent and all he needs to do is practice his skills until they become natural to him.

Unfortunately, every time something came along he would get distracted and do that rather than practice. For a while when he was young it really didn’t matter too much because his skills far exceeded his young peers. But as he grew and his teammates practiced and improved, his lack of dedication to the sport began to show.

By the time he reached late high school when the college coaches came looking, his on-field performance, while still showing glimmers of greatness mostly fell into the “average” category.  He got a modest scholarship but kept up the same habit in college. I think he felt cheated when he thought about one of his less skilled teammates who also got the scholarship and went on to play at the professional level.

That young man may go on and play at the intramural level, maybe even coach some youth team and get some satisfaction for remaining part of the sport, but I think every day he will think about how he missed out, and the other guy who got the scholarship and the chance for the big time professional career.

 Maybe he will learn and strive to put the energy into refining his coaching skills and see young people under his tutelage go on to play in college or the next level and take some satisfaction in a job well done. If he does that, he will get through the narrow door before it closes. If he does not, like the crowd in Luke, he will remain in the street at the closed door, ruing his youth with the others who failed to strive for the best.

Will someone exact retribution upon this fellow for now refining his skills ? Did someone judge him and send him away? Maybe we could say the college scout judged his performance, and maybe even his motivation to excel and decided “no.” But God gave him the talent and skill to excel in the sport. No one condemned him; rather he essentially convicted himself because he had the ability but not the focus and motivation. Perhaps he did not value his blessings  as much as God does.

But even in the face of that conviction, the promise to excel and recover remains. He may never gain the level of performance to play professionally but with his knowledge and innate skill he may become a great coach and teach others a lesson about skill and perseverance. It all depends on how he uses his gifts.

That is what the gift of grace is all about. God promises and gives his little flock the blessing of greatness. But if we inherit that greatness we will to shine like a light, like a city on a hill. To do that requires a single-minded focus and commitment to excellence. We must strive for perfection with the blessing and encouragement of our family and friends, or in the face of adversity from those who are stumbling blocks.

The gift is ours, as individuals and as a congregation. The path to the gift may be hard and the door may be narrow, but with focus and commitment the gift is ours for the taking.