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The Second Sunday After Pentecost – May 29. 2005 Matthew 7:21-29
How is your curriculum vita? Sound odd to you? Perhaps you used to hear it as “How is your resume?” If I am not mistaken, before it became a “resume” they used to ask you for your work history and references. Now it is your curriculum vita.
When you hear Matthew 7 today it seems Jesus is telling you that your spiritual resume or “history” does count.
I am reminded of an old joke I often see on the internet. It is usually rendered something like this: A fellow dies and arrives at the pearly gates and wants St. Peter to let him into heaven. He asks St. Peter: “What must I do to get in?” Peter replies, “You need 100 points to enter.”
The aspiring citizen of heaven then replies, “Well, I taught Sunday School all my adult life, for forty-one years to be exact. How many points will I get for that?” Peter replies, “One.”
Startled, the man continues, “I was always a faithful husband to my wife. Now, that ought to get to get me some points,” he proudly pronounces. “One” said Peter.
So startled by this news the man shouts out at St. Peter: “At this pace I can only throw myself on the mercy of God and pray the grace of God in Jesus is enough.” “One hundred points,” replied Peter as he opened the gate.
You see, it is by grace, through faith that we are God’s people.
But, we are so tempted to do it ourselves. Especially when we hear Jesus say, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.” You know what it means to have a “rock-solid” foundation. It means that our lives are built upon the firmest of foundations, secure, strong, the very key element of our lives that holds everything else together. Yes, Jesus wants a rock-solid foundation.
And we respond by getting busy. Let’s see, we say to ourselves, how can I improve myself so that I am rock-solid and acceptable to God? What do I need to do? And like the penitent in the old joke we want to know just how many points it will take.
Perhaps we can get a point for being at worship today? Perhaps we can get another point for being earnest in our listening to the pastor’s sermon and not fall asleep? And maybe we can get another point for…well, let’s see…what might we do to get another point? But, even if we get another point, we still have ninety-seven to go.
We’ll never make it. That is true. There is no way we can ever make it. The very act of thinking that we can somehow accumulate enough points is a sin itself. What we have done is break the first commandment. We have put ourselves in place of God and we are at the center of everything. This sin of ours keeps us from scoring points. The truth is, we are estranged from God and running in our little world of score-keeping like a gerbil inside one of those exercise wheels that squeak as the gerbil runs. Remember that the gerbil runs frantically and makes no headway. He simply goes in circles.
How do we have what might be called a “Copernican” revolution? You may recall that Nicholas Copernicus was the ancient astronomer who decided that the solar system revolves around the sun, not around earth. Before this insight from Copernicus, the standard thinking was that the earth was the center of everything. Not so. And Nicholas Copernicus pointed it out.
Can people have a similar experience in their spiritual life? Is it possible for you and me to give up thinking that we are the center of everything? Can we spiritually let go of the need to accumulate points and keep score?
Is it possible for us to trust God so completely that we become “rock-solid” by the grace of God?
That would be a Copernican revolution in our spiritual life. It would mean admitting that we are not the center but God is. It would mean having faith that centers in God and God alone. Are we ready for this? Are we willing to trust God so completely?
The good news today is that the cross is the means to our “Copernican” revolution. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus all our sin is forgiven and we are transformed into rock-solid people of faith. God is good, and God has made us in the cross what we cannot be by our own strength: rock-solid citizens of the kingdom yet to come.
You see, what counts about your spiritual “resume” or history is what God has done in the cross. It is all that counts. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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