To Do What?

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

July 30, 2017

To Do What?

Selected Texts

It was John Milton, in his classic Paradise Lost,

who imagined God speaking of his children:

“I made [them] just and right,

sufficient to have stood,

though free to fall….

Authors to themselves in all,

both what they judge and what they choose;

for so I formed them free

and free they remain.”

(Book 3, line 96ff)

Poetry—fiction— to be sure,

words written in 1667,

but still, it sounds right, doesn’t it:

that God made us just and right,

though free to fall.

We can look,

we can examine,

we can decide;

we can choose.

We can choose wisely and well;

and we can choose poorly and painfully:

“sufficient to have stood,

though free to fall.”

We are free to fall;

free to make bad choices;

free to go down wrong paths;

free to turn away from God;

free to close our hearts and minds to God;

free to deny we’ve done any such thing.  

Last week we talked about Jacob,

and you heard me refer to him as a liar, a cheat,

a thief and a coward.

Jacob, one of the patriarchs,

a man found in the very first chapter of the Bible,

and yet the words I used were apt and accurate:

he was a man who lied to his father,

stole from his brother,

and then ran away like a coward

rather than face the consequences of his choices.

Milton assumed we were

made for the good as children of God,

and Augustine made the same assumption

a thousand years before, writing,

“God…made man upright,

and consequently with a good will.”

(City of God, 14.11)

And yet, for as much as

we would like to believe that,

believe that of ourselves,

the Bible begins with Adam and Eve making bad choices,

Cain making a truly horrifying choice,

Isaac’s wife Rebekah making a bad choice,

Jacob making one bad choice after another.

Keep reading, chapter after chapter,

book after book,

and that’s what we find –

children of God,

followers of the Lord God,

“Authors to themselves in all,

both what they judge and what they choose;

… formed .. free and free they remain….

free to fall.”

If we are free,

it begs the question, free to do what?

Read through the Bible and it seems

that we are free to turn from God

and make bad choices, small and large.

major and minor.

And always free to deny we’ve turned,

slipped, strayed.

Born just and right we may be,

born with good will each of us,

but can we think ourselves any better than

those whose stories run through the pages of the Bible?

Aren’t their stories our stories, too?

When we are baptized,

as we just heard,

the liturgy of the sacrament

reminds us that we are given

the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.

Doesn’t that protect us, help us,

if not keep us from making bad choices,

at least keep our bad choices,

to a minimum?

The very fact that we are here on Sunday,

when we could be somewhere else,

every one of us,

doing something else –

doesn’t that somehow inoculate us,

immunize against the virus of waywardness,

against making bad choices?

                                                                       

If we are honest with ourselves

—and that’s often no easy thing—

we know the answer is, no.

Churches of all denominations,

including our own,

are filled with Jacobs, Rebekahs,

Adams, Eves;

Peter, the rock,

denied our Lord 3 times.

We come to church,

come to this place to learn,

to learn how to live good lives,

godly lives,

to learn how to make good choices,

godly choices,

to learn what God wants from us,

to learn what God wants for us,

to learn what Jesus has to teach us.

We learn here in worship,

with the pastor the “teaching elder.”

We learn in the hymns we sing;

we learn in classrooms;

we learn as we work and serve;

We learn from one another;

we learn with one another.

God knows his children well

knows you and me–

“Formed free, and free we remain”

free enough to have led to this lament from God:

“I was ready to be sought out

by those who did not ask,

to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”

to a nation that did not call on my name.

I held out my hands all day long

to a rebellious people,

who walk in a way that is not good,

following their own devices;”

(Isaiah 65)

This text isn’t just about

a particularly troublesome group

who lived long ago and far away.

Every text in the Bible is a text about us,

about you and me, here and now.

God knows we walk our own paths;

That we pride ourselves on our independence,

our freedom, our ability to choose.

And so God uses grace and love to call us to him.

God uses grace and love to teach us.

God uses grace and love to remind us

that no matter how far we might stray

we can never stray from God’s loving embrace:

“But now thus says the Lord,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior….

you are precious in my sight,

and honored, and I love you.”

(Isaiah 43)

Even though you may fall,

our Lord says to us,

do not fear;

Even though you may choose poorly,

our Lord says to us,

do not fear.

Even though you may follow your own way,

your own will,

your pride and your stubbornness leading you

to stray far from me,

our Lord says to us,

do not fear:

“for you are precious in my sight…”

Frederick Buechner has observed,

“The world does bad things to us all,

and we do bad things to the world

and to each other,

and maybe, most of all to ourselves.”

As though we cannot help ourselves.

As though there is a bit of Mr. Hyde within us

fighting our outward Dr. Jekyll.

Still, here we learn a better path

a better road to walk.

Here we learn how to make good choices.

Here is where Liam and Regan will learn.

Here is where you and I,

even as we qualify for senior discounts,

continue to learn,

all the days of our lives.

Follow Jacob’s life through the pages of Genesis,

and you’ll follow a path that seems so ordinary.

Jacob continues to chisel and lie,

but less so as time goes on,

less so as he grows in faith, mature faith.

He finally is reconciled with his brother Esau,

for that is always God’s hope for us,

that we live reconciled with one another.

But even Jacob prevailing against an angel

could not turn Jacob into an angel.

Life is to be lived,

lived fully and without fear.

Life for us is to be lived in gratitude to God

as we follow our Lord Jesus Christ

learning to live Christ’s grace,

Christ’s love,

Christ’s compassion and peace.

We have been made just and right,

sufficient to stand,

though free to fall….

Authors to ourselves in all,

both what we judge and what we choose;

for so God formed us free

and free we remain.

Free to choose.

Free to do.

But free to do what?

AMEN