When belief takes a wrong turn: “good enough street” Reinbeck UMC 1/24/16

When belief takes a wrong turn: “good enough street”

Reinbeck UMC

1/24/16

Play “the good-o-meter” video- then go to first slide 

“The good-O-meter”… That’s more than just a cute little video… it is a hard pill for many to swallow.

It is human nature to think we would pass the good o meter test. It is very common because many people think that they live on   “Good Enough Street.” But you think you live on: Good Enough Street” you have a wrong turn somewhere.

Actually, we get that message from a lot of different places. There is a whole secular religion built on,   “You’re good enough.” “You deserve it.” “You are OK just the way you are.” And “I’m OK you’re OK.”

Worshipping at the altar of “I’m OK You’re OK” has brought us to the point of

•           every child getting a trophy whether they win or lose,

•           permissive parenting,

•           grade free schools,

•           every yahoo thinking that their life is important enough to publish to the world on face book, and

•           Religiously it has come to 1 out of 3 unchurched, and one out of 5 Americans saying, “I am spiritual but not religious” The sad thing is that they think that is good enough. Good Enough Street is a very crowded place these days.

People were living on Good Enough Street long before 1967 when Thomas Harris wrote his bestselling book, “I’m OK You’re OK.”

 It was even invented before Pelagius defended his view that there is no original sin, humans are innately good, and live on Good Enough Street which caused Pope Zosimus to condemn him as a heretic and excommunicate him in 418 AD. That is why we call this the heresy of Pelagianism.

 It was even invented before the Pharisees who believed that God would have favor on them because they were good enough to follow all 613 laws of the Talmud and they lived on Good Enough Street.

 I think Good Enough Street was first built in the story of the Tower of Babel. That’s the story Genesis 11 in which the people say, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves”  The address of the tower of Babel must have been #1 Good Enough Street, because basically they were arguing that they didn’t need God, they could get to heaven under their own ingenuity. They were good enough all by themselves.

Ever since the Tower Of Babel, people have tried to do it without God. People have argued that they are good enough without God’s help. People have argued that they don’t need God.

 In Psalm 14, which we used for our call to worship, the Psalmist says,

Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”

  They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;

  there is no one who does good.

2 The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind

  to see if there are any who are wise,

  who seek after God.

3 They have all gone astray, they are all perverse;

  there is no one who does good,

  no, not one.

“There is no one who is good. No not one”. Which reflects today’s scripture reading from Romans. “There is no one who is righteous, no not even one.”

Paul’s scriptural argument in chapter 3 of

Romans is a composite of scriptures from Exodus, the Psalms, and Isaiah. We might call it proof texting, but it was a common rabbinic teaching technique in Paul’s day.

Paul is arguing against the Pharisees who believed that salvation came through following the law. He is saying that the law does not bring salvation. It only brings the knowledge of sin. It only points out that none of us lives on Good Enough Street. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” That is the key. Sin is not just breaking the law; sin is why we break the law. Sin is not being all that God created us to be. Goodness is not measured by keeping the law. It is not measured by keeping the rules, or going to church, or wearing a cross. We are created in the image of God, and for those who fall short of reflecting the fullness of God’s love and grace, there is no Good Enough Street. Humanity’s “good enough” is not good enough for God.

So what does this wrong turn look like today?

•           There are folks who make a wrong turn down Good Enough Street by saying “I am spiritual but not religious.” Well that is their prerogative, whatever that means to them. But usually it means they believe in God, but their lives are just fine without God. Maybe they have a participation trophy, but the prize is not theirs.

•           There are folks who make a wrong turn down Good Enough Street by saying “I can be a good a Christian outside the church.” Good for them, but salvation is not being good. It is about being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t say, “Be good” but “pick up your cross and follow me.”

•           There are folks who make a wrong turn down Good Enough Street by saying, “I see God in nature. The camp ground is my sanctuary.” OK, but is the campground going to suffer and be raised from death in order to save them from their sins?

•           There are folks who make a wrong turn down Good Enough Street by saying “I am a good member of the church even though I never step foot in the building.” They volunteer here and there, and they serve on this and that. And all that community service is great, if it is an outgrowth of our relationship with God. But it is not a replacement for worshipping the one true God.

•           There are folks who make a wrong turn down Good Enough Street by saying, “I am a good person. I don’t hurt anyone. I don’t steel or lie.” They may in fact behave better than some Christians, but they lack one thing… faith in someone outside themselves, namely Jesus.

•           There are folks who make a wrong turn down Good Enough Street by showing up on Sunday and saying, “That’s good enough.” Or put in their dollar a week and say, “That’s good enough.” It may satisfy their expectations, but it does not impress God.

•           There are folks who make a wrong turn down Good Enough Street by rejecting the idea of original sin; the idea that we have in us a natural propensity to sin. They claim that people are basically good. In a George Barna poll, more than seventy percent of “professing evangelical Christians” in America expressed the belief that people are basically good. That would be great if it were true. Look around you. Let’s watch the news together and then try to convince me that people are fundamentally good. Yes, we were created in God’s image to be good, but something went very wrong, and we call that something original sin.

•           There are folks who make a wrong turn down Good Enough Street by saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” In fact, 80 % of Christians agree with that statement. It isn’t in the Bible and the initiative never lies with us. ALL have sinned and fallen short… We are unable to help ourselves. It is not we who first reach out to God. It is God who first reached out to us in Jesus Christ.

One time we were leaving Chicago following the GPS and it told me to take the next right which made sense, but then it told me to take the next right which on a cover leaf put me going back to Chicago, That was bad enough, but I looked at the screen and it had me going right again and again. We got the map and headed home, but if the GPS had its way, I would still be going around and around that cloverleaf. I would have put a lot of miles on, but would I be getting where I want to go? NO.

That’s the way it is living on Good Enough Street. People spin their wheels year after year under the illusion that they are good enough, when “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” There is nothing we can do to be good enough. Not one single thing.

They sing the song of the three year old, “I can do it myself. I can do it myself.”

On the contrary, Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”

This wrong turn says we are like a person who can’t swim, who falls overboard in a raging sea, and God throws us a life preserver. Unless we take hold of the life preserver, we will drown. We take hold of that life preserver by doing the right things, saying the right things, and generally being good enough. But if we are not good enough, we will surely perish.

This wrong turn says we are like a person who is desperately ill, sick unto death, lying in our hospital bed with a disease that is fatal. God has the cure and walks into the room with the medicine. God pours it on the spoon. God has to lean over and open up our mouth for us. God has to bring the spoon to our lips, but we still have to swallow it.

You might say that sounds right. But you would be on the cloverleaf spinning your wheels. We aren’t going under for the third time; without God, we are stone cold dead at the bottom of the ocean. That’s where you once were when you were dead in sin and trespasses and walked according to your ways, on Good Enough Street.  And while you were dead, God in Christ dove to the bottom of the sea retrieved your lifeless corpse and breathed into it the breath of his life, raising you from the dead.

Again, it’s not that you were dying in a hospital bed of a certain illness, but rather, that you were stillborn in sin, dead before you ever lived, and it is only by God’s work on the cross, God’s grace, and God’s love in Jesus Christ that you are able to live at all.

All have sinned… none are good enough! No not one!

Good enough street? I wouldn’t go down there if I were you.