Jan. 31, 2010

 

2010 01 31

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Jeremiah 17:5-10
Psalm 1
Luke 6:17-26

 

You've probably all eaten spaghetti, right?  You've probably all watched a western, right?  But are you familiar with the term "spaghetti westerns"?  Anyone?  Back in the 60's and 70's, most of the movies that you would see were made here in the U.S., made by the Hollywood movie studios.  However, there were a number of Italian movie studios that wanted to get into the U.S. market.  So they began to make westerns.  

 

When you think of a western movie, you think Dodge City, KS.  You think Tombstone, AZ.  You think of Texas, Mexico, the American Southwest...but spaghetti westerns made them in Europe, using mostly Italian actors.  The English would be dubbed in later for American audiences.

 

Most of these movies were low budget and low quality.  Generally they did poorly in the U.S.  But one director, Sergio Leone, wanted to do things differently..  He wanted to make dramatic, powerful westerns, unlike anything Americans had seen before. 

 

Sergio Leone had a budget and a plan.  His camerawork was cutting edge, and the music was riveting.  To draw in the American crowds, he hired a young American television actor...named Clint Eastwood.  Leone and Eastwood collaborated in three films, the third of which and the most popular was: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.  How many of you remember the theme from this movie? (whistle theme)

 

This has been one of my favorite movies.  But, along with most of the spaghetti westerns, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly was a departure from the typical American western.  Up until that time most American westerns followed a similar line.  The bad guys were usually dressed in black, while the good guys always wore white.  There could be a five minute gun battle.  Hundreds of shots would be fired and amazingly no one would be killed.  The bad guys would eventually run away or be put in jail, and the good guy would ride of into the sunset with the town beauty.  Good was good.  Evil was evil.  In the end, good always triumphed over evil.

 

Again, the spaghetti westerns were not like this.  They were not white washed or sugar coated for the viewing audience.  Characters were shot and killed right on the screen.  Sometimes the bad guys won, an in others you were not really sure who was bad and who was good.  In The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, all three characters were bad.  All three of them had no trouble pulling the trigger and killing whoever was on the other end of the gun.  And their motivation for killing?  It was greed.  All three of them were trying to steal a treasure of gold from each other.  In the end, the good gets the gold, kills the bad, and abandons the ugly in a graveyard to die.  Sounds like a good guy, doesn't he?

 

I know that I am only talking about movies, but it really signifies a change in our culture and our society.  In the late 60's and early 70's our nation was in turmoil.  There was Vietnam and Watergate.  The counterculture and hippie movement was in full swing.  The youth of the 60's and 70's were rejecting the values of the 50's.   They were questioning what was right and wrong, what was good and evil. 

 

Because of this, I think that a lot of our values have been lost.  We have been told to believe in ourselves, to trust in our own abilities, and to create a world in our own likeness.  It is at this point in our nation's history that I believe a lot of people have stopped trusting in the Lord.  Look at Jeremiah 17:5.

 

⁵ This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. ⁶ He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. ⁷ "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. ⁸ He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

 

In the 1980's, we were bearing the fruits of the 60's.  We were a nation of free thinkers and individuals.  We were inventing and investing in a new future.  Life was good.  Business was good.  There were jobs...lots ofjobs   The sweat of our brow would provide for our needs.  We were comfortable and in control of our own destinies. 

 

Now we have entered a new decade, and it just seems like we're lost.  We live in such a pluralistic society.  Each person has his or her own views on everything.  We have confused right and wrong.  And to even claim that there is a right and a wrong draws dirty looks and raised eyebrows from many people.   "How can you dare to think that you know what is right and wrong?"  What we need is a reality check.

 

This is what Jesus brought throughout his ministry on earth.  The people of Israel had been following teachers of the law for years.  The Pharisees and the Scribes had become positions of respect and comfort.  They were the prosperous and comfortable among the community.  And even though they taught the Law, they had fallen so far from its truth, that their teachings had become lifeless and powerless.  The Law had gone from blessing to burden.  Their teachings had become like chains and dead weight on the backs of the Jews. 

 

So along comes Jesus.  He has come to show them the way to freedom...salvation from the burden of sin and Law in their lives.  He does not have to act righteous.  He is righteous.  His words and teaching are new, powerful, and relevant.  And because he comes to them with power, they will listen. 

 

A large crowd of his followers was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸ who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, ¹⁹ and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

 

He is the Son of God.  They do not know this yet.  It is still beyond their grasp to understand this, but he has the power, and he has their attention.  Now he will set them straight because they have been led astray for too long.    He gives them four blessings and three curses. 

 

The first is this: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

 

The kingdom of God is not for the rich, but for the poor.  If you have the money and the wealth and possessions here and now, you have received your reward.  I hear people and churches say if you are poor, then you don't have enough faith to become rich.  Baloney.  Jesus does say, (John 16:23) "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.   But it is not his will that we all be rich in earthly possessions. 

 

Again, it says, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Who is poor, and who is rich?  If you are not sure just how you are going to make ends meet   You are probably poor.  It is when we are poor that we actually look to God to provide for our needs.  If we have no needs on earth, then we start to think that we do not need God in heaven.  That is why Jesus said that  "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

 

The last three blessings that Jesus gives also come with curses for the opposites

 

²¹ Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. AND  ²⁵ Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.   Again, when we are hungry, we look to God.  We are better off hungry, yet full of faith.  We are better off starving to death, yet trusting God to deliver us in eternity.  I tell you, that there are people in Haiti who are better off than we are.  We complain about a great many things although we are rich (yes, we are rich), and I know that there are people in Haiti without a roof, without food and water, without a future on earth, who are still praising God. 

 

We are supposed to be a people of prayer and fasting.  Lent begins in just a couple of weeks.  We should each be praying and thinking very seriously about a Lenten fast.  What in my life will I surrender for the sake of Lord?  Because in that time of hunger and suffering, I will be reminded of Christ's suffering on the cross...and his resurrection.  It is better to be hungry in our bodies here and now, than starving for God when it is too late.

 

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. AND Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.   For those who believe that Christians will suffer no hardships in this life or the life to come, they have been led astray.  We suffer much, but we also love much, as Christ loves us.  Our happiness is not based on the things of this world, but our joy is in Christ.  As I said last week, we are the body of Christ, and what happens to one of us happens to all of us. We celebrate our joys and we comfort each other in our sorrows. 

 

Unfortunately, we have become a nation that likes to be entertained.  We enjoy our movies...perhaps a bit too much (myself included).  We enjoy our sports...perhaps a bit too much (again, myself included).  We enjoy a good joke every now and then, but I think that sometimes the joke is on us.  Because many of us are entertaining ourselves to death.  We don't want to cry.  We would rather laugh, and our laughter sometimes keeps us distracted.  It keeps us form from focusing on God, dealing with our sorrows, and being there for each other. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

 

²² Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man (because of Jesus). AND ²⁶ Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

 

To be a follower of Jesus will bring rejection and ridicule.  The world does not know or understand Jesus and his teachings.  They ridiculed him, and they will ridicule us.  Don't be surprised if they try to make your workplace or your school a living hell for you, because that is what their lives are like.  When people see Christians...see us living a life of faith and joy, Some of them will put a target on our backs because they don't want us to have something better.  They might reject Christ, but they also want our lives to be as miserable as theirs.

Don't be surprised if the world rejects you.  After all, they crucified the Lord whom we follow. 

 

In fact, if people have nothing but nice things to say about you and your faith, there is probably something wrong.  The Israelites have a long history of killing God's prophets, and elevating false prophets to positions of high esteem.  Our world is doing the same thing today.

 

There are a lot of false prophets out there.  They want to tell the world that Christianity doesn't make sense.  It is not logical.  Its God is not a physical tangible god, and its followers are fakes and phonies.  False gods like materialism, relativism, and universalism have come.  And these prophets now seem to have a larger voice than we do. Many of our own have been led astray.

 

The power of Christianity...the power of our faith does not come in its prosperity, position, or popularity, but rather from its poverty...poverty of heart and of spirit.  The strength of the Church comes in its brokenness, because then we will let ourselves be healed by God.  In our brokenness, we see others around us...their hearts and lives broken too.  And we reach out to them.  In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul writes, 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

 

We are not to be comfortable, but comforters to a world that is hurting....and most of them don't even know it because they are the rich, the well-fed.  They are those who seem happy and have been given high places on the earth on which to sit.  Psalm 1 is my favorite Psalm, and the passage from Jeremiah echoes it very closely.  I would like for us to re-read aloud our call to worship this morning.  But this time let it sink in.

 

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD,  and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.  In all that they do, they prosper. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,  but the way of the wicked will perish.

 

As Christians, this place is not our home.  We are travelers, sojourners on our way to heaven.  But let us not be led astray.  Sometimes, we look at the world, and we see the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and it all looks the same.  We must look to God alone for our guidance.  Our society has gotten away from this.  We must look to him for goodness.  We must look for him for truth.  Then we must look to him for the strength to follow him, when the world wants to leads us elsewhere. 

 

If all you say and do makes everybody happy... you're just playing to the masses, you are no better than the Pharisees and teachers of the Law.  But you are blessed when you are poor, hungry, weeping, and hated for the sake of the Lord.  The suffering we endure is no match for the celebration we will receive.