"Hey Jude, Part 1: Saints and Sinners"
God's grace takes our sad lives and makes them better.
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, May 18, 2003
Text: Jude 1-8
The story goes that when the great astronomer Copernicus was dying, somebody asked him what he would like to have in his hands during his last moments. One of his colleagues asked if he would like a copy of his magnificent work, "The Revolution of Heavenly Bodies" (which is a book I've always wanted to read, but thought had more to do with fashion than anything else - it doesn't). He said, "No, I don't want that. Rather, I would like to tell you now what I would like as my epitaph: Oh, Lord, Oh, Lord, I do not have the faith of Paul and for this I cannot ask. Dear Lord, I do not have the mercy that you gave Peter. For that I dare not ask. But for the grace that you gave the dying robber on the cross, Lord, for this, show me."
Even the great Copernicus, for all his wisdom, ability and knowledge, for all the run-ins that he had with the Church and how he revolutionized the way that the world was seen, still knew what sinners needed and what saints knew: namely, that at the heart of life, faith and hope is the loving grace of Jesus Christ, the grace that was revealed on the cross to the robber - the least likely to be the recipient of same.
Now, I think that if you transfer the idea of Copernicus back into the New Testament time of the writing of the letter of Jude, you will understand the passion of Jude for exactly the same concern that Copernicus had: the very theme of what saints know and sinners need.
Over the last few years, the authorship of the Book of Jude has been debated by scholars. Was it an early book written by the brother of James and probably the brother of Jesus, or was it a later book with a pseudonym that was addressing the problem of a theosophy called "gnosticism" that was emerging in the church? There was considerable debate as to which one of these it was, and when it was written and who wrote it would probably tell us a great deal about the problem that Jude was addressing in this wonderful, short and very much to-the-point, little book.
Modern scholarship now seems to have come down more on the side that it is an early book, probably written by a brother or step-brother of Jesus. It was written by a man who had followed the life of Jesus but who hadn't really believed that Jesus was who He was until after the resurrection, but after the resurrection became very involved in the Jewish church and community that was gathering around their common faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
Now, this is important because what concerned Judas, I believe, was not just a Greek idea or theosophy that was coming along later, but something that was happening to the earliest Christian community right at the very beginning. For Christians, the timing of Jude's writing was at both the best of times and the worst of times.
It was the best of times because it was very soon after the death and the resurrection of Jesus. The early church had apostles and others who had witnessed the life of Jesus of Nazareth and they were full of excitement and buoyed by what they had seen and heard. Many of them were still thrilled by the power of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit and this new community that had been created in Jesus' name. Like anything new, there was a passion about the events surrounding the life of Jesus of Nazareth and His impact on their lives.
It was also the worst of times for the earliest Christian church. As a new and emerging group that the Romans didn't really understand, it was being persecuted. Christians were considered to be outcasts and troublemakers within this great empire, and were looked upon with suspicion. The stories of the martyrdom of those early Christians are legion.
It was also a time when a group known as Libertines believed that anything goes morally and spiritually. They looked at this new Christian movement and saw its sense of freedom and joy and that Christians were no longer tied to the laws of Moses in very strict ways, and they allied themselves with these new Christians. They worked their way in amongst them and said: "Jesus of Nazareth has freed us from the power of sin, so you can do what you please."
This led to all kinds of problems. There were some who were coming into the church who had no idea of the faith at all, but wanted to use the church and their own personal revelations as the source of authority. Then there were others who were turning Communion into an orgy. They were gluttons who dived in, ate the bread and wine and made pigs of themselves at the table of the Lord. There was no order, no structure, no holiness - everything was up for grabs, it was a new religion - anything went, they thought. They infiltrated the new faith and nearly destroyed it.
Jude understood this threat. He knew that all the changes by those who had come into the church were moving it away from its original purpose, its original calling. In his glorious letter he calls on the young Christians: "Contend for the faith." Defend what you believe. Hold true to what the apostles have told you because if you don't, you will be led astray and what's at stake is what the saints know and sinners need. Unless you contend for these things, unless you're strong and sure about your faith in Christ, then indeed the faith itself could be hijacked and come to an end. These were serious times in the life of the early church.
I have thought a great deal about the Book of Jude over the last few weeks. I must confess it was a purely secular reason that got me to reflect on it. As I was driving down the highway one day I listened to the Beatles song "Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better." I just couldn't help but think... "Hey Jude" for about a week. I went back to an old tape I had and listened to the whole song, and that line hit me on the head again: "Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better."
That's exactly what the Book of Jude does. When you first read it you think "Oh, mercy, this guy is rough on people!" Hellfire, damnation, burning people - ooh, I'm not sure I'm going to preach on Jude - until you think about what was at stake. Then you realize that there is more to this book than meets the eye. So, over the next few weeks we're going to look at it.
I want to start this morning by seeing how, at the very beginning of the Book of Jude, he takes a sad song and makes it better. In other words, how he expresses what Copernicus had experienced: What the saints know and sinners need.
The first thing that we need to understand is that there was a sad song being played at the time of Jude. As I mentioned, the earliest Christians were confronting something terrible: the paganism around them. These were young Christians. Some of them had been brought up in the Jewish faith and understood the Bible of the Old Testament. Others, however, were new converts and had no idea what to do or how to act. They'd lived their lives worshipping, all manner of different deities, and had led lives of sexual permissiveness, gluttony, and often of thieving. Many of the people who came into the earliest Christian church were people who had lived a life of debauchery, but having heard about the grace of Jesus Christ, had turned their lives around and joined this new community of faith that supported them.
Those were difficult days to be a Christian. There were sad things taking place in the world. My friends, as I contemplate what I have heard and seen over the last couple of weeks, I must confess that I believe we, too, live in a sad world, where people aren't sure quite what to believe. It's sad, what has happened in our city to young Holly Jones. It's a tragedy that something like this has happened in "Toronto the Good." It is a sad thing and surely must be a burden on all our hearts. It is sad that for all the religion in the world, they are discovering graves of people who were buried alive in Iraq - it's a sad world. It's sad when out of vengeance and hatred for a country, people are blowing up businesses in Riyadh - it is a sad world.
A week ago last Friday I sat down at the Kennedy School of Government with a visiting scholar from Congo who told me that in the last few months hundreds and hundreds of people have been executed there for what they believe. In parts of that country churches have been shot up when people are leaving and hundreds and thousands of people have died and nobody knows about it - certainly nobody goes to war to solve it. It's a tragedy when one hears that these kinds of things are happening in 2003. It's a sad world, oftentimes playing a sad song that needs to be made better. But it's not just in the greater scheme of things, it's also in personal lives, where the sad song came alive.
This week I did the dumbest thing I've done in years: At about 12:05 p.m. last Sunday, I locked the keys of my car in the trunk on Interstate 89 in Vermont. I can now attest to the fact that my car cannot be broken into - that's the good news. The bad news is: I couldn't get into it either! And so, for 48 hours I had to stay in a dingy little motel in Vermont, waiting to have keys couriered by the factory to a garage to get me going again. In the midst of my humility and my obvious anger at my own stupidity, I had to get into a tow truck. The tow truck driver could not get my car onto his truck because there was something he needed from the trunk, which of course was - locked.
So I had to leave my car on the side of the highway, and drive 35 miles in pouring rain back to Burlington with this truck driver next to me. He laughed at me - delighting, I think, in the problems that a minister was having - and proceeded to tell me his life story. I paid attention, for I had never seen such tattoos on such a big arm in all my life! In fact, I decided to hang on every word that he said.
He told me about his life. He told me that he had had two marriages, three children and was now with another woman. He told me how he had been in the National Guard, had been called up for Desert Storm and the week before he was due to go, blew out his knee playing football and had to spend six months in hospital. He explained how, because of the pain, he took a lot of drugs and became hooked on them. (I began to watch how carefully he was driving after he told me that!)
Then, in an absolutely incredible moment, this tough, extremely large, multiply-tattooed individual, who had a life that was probably far, far away from anything I would consider a standard of good, moral behaviour, began to talk about his 12-year-old son. Suddenly his harsh exterior and unshaven face seemed, for a moment, tender, warm and sincere. He told me how proud he was of his son and how he loved him. I said to him: "What do you want for your son?"
In something right out of a movie such as "As Good As It Gets," he said: "I don't want him to be like me."
This man was 38 years old and in his heart of hearts was ashamed of what he had done and who he was, and he wanted his son to be something better. He knew what saints know and sinners need. He knew that he wanted something better. He knew that the life that he had lived was a life that hadn't been good but he didn't know the way out. It was a sad song.
I really didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to tell him. All I said to him, when I got my case and walked into the garage to take a taxi to the hotel, was: "You know what I know? There is always a second chance for everybody."
He looked at me, winked and smiled and said: "Yeah, I know."
He knew his need and he knew what saints know: that through the grace of Jesus Christ there is always something better that God can give us and do for us.
You see, Jude knew that there are many people who are like that man, who find that when they get themselves into a life that is spiraling downwards, they need to be reassured that there is something better. Jude was concerned that the early church would quickly become lost if it didn't understand that there was something better. That's what he was contending for - not the faith in some sort of tough doctrine, but the belief that Jesus Christ had come for something better.
Which brings me to the something better. Jude knew what had happened in Old Testament times: The people of God had forgotten that they had been taken out of Egypt and moved to the Promised Land. When they got to the Promised Land, they forgot the law. And so, in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, as one example of many within the Old Testament, the people of Israel had gone back on what they had been taught. They forgot what God wanted for them.
Many times, my friends, we do the same. Often (and this is altogether too sad) we seem to think that things only get better in the next life - in the life that is to come - rather than understanding that the Christian faith makes a profound change in the life that we live now.
I love the story that I heard just recently about a Sunday school teacher who asked his class the following question: "If I give all my money to the church, if I have a garage sale and give it all to the minister, if I take everything that I have and trade it in to give it to God's Kingdom, will I go to heaven?"
The children cried out: "No!"
So, he said: "Well, if I clean up my room, if I clean the garage, clean the kitchen and do the dishes for my wife, will I go to heaven?"
The children cried out: "No!"
He said: "Well, if I'm nice to animals, if I kiss my baby, if I bring flowers to my wife and if I'm kind to my next-door neighbour, will I go to heaven?"
The children again cried out: "No!"
So the teacher said: "Well, how can I get to heaven?"
One of the children cried out: "First, sir, you have to die!"
My friends, we think that that is what Christianity is like. That before any good can come or the "better" happen, we've got to get out of here.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Jude understood that living the Christian life and contending for the Christian life is something that makes a huge change now.
Just recently I've been reading a book that I'm suggesting is changing my whole view of the faith. It is titled "The Next Christendom," by Philip Jenkins. In this book he tells the story, in part, about the emergence of the Christian church in Latin America, Africa and Asia. He says that very soon the majority of the world's Christians will be in the southern hemisphere and not the north, and that this is having a profound affect on the Christian faith. He tells the story, particularly, of one of the examples of the growth of Christianity in the barrios, the tough places of Brazil. He talks about the many, many young people - particularly young men - who have lived lives of promiscuity, violence and drug abuse. They've slept with prostitutes, squandered their money and left their wives and children in misery and penury.
In a book by Elizabeth Brusco, to which he refers, titled "The Reformation of Machismo," it says that many of these young men, because of the ministry of the church, are turning their hearts and lives over to Christ. What is absolutely astounding is that as they turn their lives over to Christ their lives change. In a glorious statement, a young woman who lives in one of those barrios says to Elizabeth Brusco: "I don't know much about Jesus, but this I do know: My husband now comes home clean. My husband comes home sober. My husband comes home with money and he comes home with an embrace since he has become a Christian. I might not know anything else about the faith but that is all I really need to know."
My friends, we often don't understand the depths of the sadness in some people's lives. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, for which Jude contended, is so powerful, so strong that it can take what saints know and sinners need and bring it into the lives of ordinary people. That is one of the great joys and the transforming things about our faith.
This Victoria Day, this wonderful time of the year, may we look into our own hearts and say, as Copernicus did: "I thank you Lord for the grace that was given that robber on the cross, and this I seek." For this is the heart of our faith. It changes our lives. It's what saints know and sinners need and it is worth struggling for. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.