“Isn’t Being Good, God Enough?”         January 24, 2010
Mark 24:  17–27                                 The Rev. Dr. Beth Braxton

INTRO. Okay I have been bought again! This time my sermon auctioned off last April in the Kibwezi Auction was bought by a married couple in the congregation. “Isn’t Being Good, Good Enough” was their topic. Here are their questions and comments for me:

“Isn’t being good, good enough?  What price heaven? Can’t a good person get into heaven on good deeds alone?  Surely God doesn’t disqualify those from heaven that haven’t been exposed to him.  How literal is “I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”?  Do Presbyterians believe that admission to heaven is purely by faith and grace?  Most Americans probably don’t believe that.  And probably many that do, don’t want to.  Is a good atheist less likely to gain their intrinsic goodness?  Does it take both faith and deeds “a la Swedenborg”?  Does the average good guy in America who goes to work, pays his taxes, feeds and educates his 2.1 children, treats his friends and family well and does a little bit of charity work on the side and generally tries to do the right thing, get past the pearly gates?  Isn’t that good enough?  Or does that merely make him average?  Does he have to have faith? What’s your bet?”

The scripture I choose for this topic is Mark 10:17-27.

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’”  He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Last week I heard some children in the hallway singing, “…He knows when you are sleeping.  He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. Oh, you better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout, I’m telling you why –Santa Claus is coming to town! He’s making a list; he’s checking it twice, goin’ see whose naughty and nice. Santa Claus is coming to town.”

I was not surprised with this singing. Now what parent, if they are really truthful, does not use that song through the month of December to keep children’s behavior under control at a time when there are far too many activities and expectations in our families?! Even if the child has moved beyond the really “I believe” stage, they know that Mom or Dad is the “Santa Claus” ticket to the gifts they want so badly. The threat often works – for a little while. “Better not pout Henry and eat all those beans – Santa Claus is keeping a list.” “Is that a whine I hear, miss Sarah? Remember Santa Claus is noting who is being naughty and nice.”

We want our kids to be good. We teach them to be good. We have rules for being good. On all our list of “being good” is remembering manners; saying “please” and “thank-you,” particularly to grandparents! sharing your toys, doing assigned chores around the house, helping – helping mother carry in the groceries, helping the older neighbor rake her leaves, not fighting or calling names, doing homework, completing all assigned homework, practicing piano, or violin or French horn – we could continue with a longer list, for sure. Probably each family has its own particular set of rules for “being good:” feeding the iguana, taking the food scraps out to be composted, writing a hand-written thank you letter to grandparents for gifts, etc.

Being good is what we want from our baptized children, but will our rules for being good, be good enough to sustain them as a teenager and beyond? After all they have good Muslim friends whom they see playing trumpet beside them in the marching band and they haven’t eaten all day; they haven’t even drunk from the water fountain; they are observing Ramadan. Our teens are impressed. They go to a Bas Mitzvah and realize that their Jewish friends have had to learn a whole different language – Hebrew - to read the scripture. Our teens are impressed. Their “no church, no synagogue, no mosque” friends go with their parents every month to SOME (So Others May Eat) soup kitchen and serve a meal and they also organize a community race for MS each year. Our teens are impressed.

Our teens also accompany their mother to ECHO to work sorting clothes. They don’t like it because Ms. Smith from St. Hilda’s Methodist Church is there and she is always seems angry as she does this “good work.” She complains about the poor who rip off everyone; talks about some of the clients who don’t really need these clothes; complains about persons who gave away clothes that were too good for the poor. She is a miserable Christian to be around. Our teens are impressed.

Will knowing our rules for being good sustain them?

I have had a teenager from a wonderful Church family come to me (when I was a Youth Director) and told me she had had two abortions – (her method of birth control); I was shocked!

I have seen the son of a good church family go off to college and go off the deep end – full of self-centered Playboy behavior.

I have seen a wonderful church family, here in church every Sunday: Mother an elder, father heading up a couple of mission ministries, implode with anger and all sorts of bad behavior between parent and children.

Will the parent rules for being good sustain these young people for their life of faith in this world? Will the parent rules for being good, be good enough? The jury is still out.

My guess is they will become good citizens, voting when convenient, taking cookies to new neighbors, running the school craft sale, and participating in the Race for Cure.

Will their good works save them – our “Here Comes Santa Claus” singers? what about the “average Joe” they spoke about:

“Does the average good guy in America who goes to work, pays his taxes, feeds and educates his 2.1 children, treats his friends and family well and does a little bit of charity work on the side and generally tries to do the right thing, get past the pearly gates? Isn’t that good enough? Or does that merely make him average? Does he have to have faith?”

Being “good” can get you far in our world, no doubt about it. Good behavior wins praise, can commute jail terms, and can give tangible rewards, a la bonuses! Good deeds net accolades and often tax benefits. Good things come to those who wait, who do good for others.

Atheists tell us that we should be good for goodness sake, that people can be good without God. But they don’t tell us how they know or how they measure what is “good.”

The problem with the world’s understanding of “goodness” is that there’s no foundation, no solid definition. Actually there are forty-one definitions in the Random House Dictionary! We all have our own ideas about what’s acceptable and what’s not or what deserves praise and what doesn’t. In small and big ways, it is the “slurping” example – to slurp our soup in America is not good, in Japan slurping one’s soup is good. In fact, one person may condemn what another person sees as “for the greater good.” (Iraq War)

Let’s look at our scripture for today.  The young man who comes running up to Jesus wants to know what he needs to do to get eternal life?  to get into heaven? to escape any damnation?  And the first thing Jesus says to him is “Why do you call me good?”

Excuse me, Jesus, but you are the one who healed the blind man turned water into wine at the wedding, who gave that loose woman her dignity back with forgiveness, you are the one teaching us and showing us the law of love in a new way!  Yes you are good!!

Jesus responds to the man, “No one is good but God alone.”  DRUM ROLL.  MUSIC.  KEY POINT.  THIS IT IT! Yes, only God is good! This story is not so much about wealth, money and stuff we have as it is about God and our relationship to God. This man says I have kept all the commandments: I don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, bare false witness, defraud and I honor my father and mother. Actually it is Jesus who names these commandments and the young man interrupts and says “I’ve kept all these commandments from my youth.” But he left out the most important – the first one –“Thou shall have no other gods before me.”

When Jesus put a challenge before this man, he was unable to do it. This challenge exposed the barrier that could keep him out of the kingdom; his love of money and possessions. Money represented his pride of accomplishment and self-effort. Ironically his attitude made him unable to keep the first commandment, to let nothing be more important than God! “God alone is good.”

Well, what about our own efforts to be good and to do good deeds?

The prophet Isaiah says,
“For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6)

The truth is that “being good” is not good enough by itself – something is missing – the peace of a restless heart! Paul says to the church at Ephesus, “By grace are you saved through faith, that it is not of your own doing (your own good deeds), but a gift from God.” (Ephesians 2:8) God who alone is good.

We don’t have to make our own way – we don’t have to hope that we’re doing enough good deeds. God’s free gift is the gift of self, in Jesus who came to show us the way. Yes, the really good thing that happened a little over 2,000 years ago is that God came to earth in the person of Jesus to reconcile us to God’s goodness – to God’s self.  Jesus knew our own attempts at being good ended up in power struggles, misunderstandings, wars and hurt and pain. He showed us the way of forgiving love, even sacrificing his own life in obedience to God to bring us back to our true goodness.

Is being good good enough? I think trying to be good without Goodness itself, that is, without God, often comes up empty – like the woman at ECHO.

God is our goodness and God manifests that goodness to us in giving eternal life. Heaven is not just getting through the “pearly gates” after death; heaven is now. Heaven is being in relationship to God, to goodness itself. And likewise separation from God, from that love and goodness is hell now and in eternity. Heaven and Hell are not somewhere you go after you die; they are conditions of your life in relationship to God now and through eternity!

Yes, being good without God is a struggle. Our good deeds are often covering up a guilt we feel we can never satisfy without more good deeds. St. Augustine said it correctly in his confession, “You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” We need Jesus’ love to bring us back into relationship with God – our goodness, then our good deeds flow from that relationship. They come naturally because as James says, “Faith without works is dead.” You cannot not do good when you are in relationship to God, when your faith and trust is in God.

We hold grace and works (good deeds) in balance – Barbara Brown Taylor says it well when she is describing how the disciples were sent out by Jesus. “It was important for the disciples to say what they did and do what they said. Preaching the kingdom without doing  anything about it is just politics, and good works without good news is not more than a temporary reprieve, but to proclaim the kingdom while acting it out – that is powerful, and that is what Jesus sent his friends out to do” – and us too. You know they were sent out by Jesus with no money, no shoes, not even a walking stick! “When it comes down to being a provider of God’s love, there is really only one provider, who send us out with nothing at all and with everything we need: healing, forgiveness, restoration resurrection. Those are the only things we really have to share with the world, which is just as well, since they are the only things the world really needs.”  

It’s faith and works – You do good works because the very DNA of Jesus is in you; you cannot not do good deeds for others. It is Jesus way of life. It is your way of life as a Christian, a disciple of Christ!

The day before Christmas Eve, I got a third call from a single Mom whose voice was a desperate plea for presents for her children for Christmas. I called a young mother of our church who I knew had children of her own she had to prepare Christmas gifts for; I was anxious knowing that it was late and so much on everyone’s plate at this holiday time. Well, her response was instinctual – she knew she was needed in that moment. She went out that day and bought beautiful gifts for the children. I thought her response comes from something deeper than being good. It comes from a relationship with the One who is goodness; who has loved her with an everlasting love.

One is not chalking up brownie points to get into heaven, but is living out heaven – a relationship with our creator, redeemer and sustainer.

Now what about others who are not Christians – the good Muslims, good Jews, good Hindus and other good people? That is really a whole other sermon, but let me share a statement written from a paper called “Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ” which was written by our Theology and Worship Division of the Presbyterian church (USA) in response to a discussion about John 14:6 – “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.” It gives an answer in a nutshell – listen carefully:

“Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord, and all people everywhere are called to place their faith, hope, and love in him. No one is saved by virtue of inherent goodness or admirable living, for ‘by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). No one is saved apart from God’s gracious redemption in Jesus Christ. Yet we do not presume to limit the sovereign freedom of ‘God our savior who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (I Timothy 2:4). Thus, we neither restrict the grace of God to those who profess explicit faith in Christ nor assume that all people are saved regardless of faith. Grace, love, and communion belong to God, and are not ours to determine.”

Who knows what our God, who is the essence of goodness, steadfast love and mercy will do? I like to think that God will be true to God’s character in relation to all the people of the world!

God IS so good! Ms Julianne, I know will continue to challenge our Santa Claus singers with other songs like, “God is so good.”  Join me in song: “God is so good; God is so good. God is so good. He’s so good to me.” Amen – Thanks be to God!