Matthew 21:6-11;  7:21-23     Not Enough to Call Him Lord    Mar 16, 2008

Shortly after joining the Navy, a new recruit asked his officer for a pass so he could attend a wedding. The officer gave him the pass, but informed the young man he would have to be back by 7 p.m. Sunday. "You don't understand, sir," said the recruit. "I'm one of the Groomsmen.  I’m in the wedding."  "No, you don't understand," the officer shot back. "You're in the Navy!".  There are certain obligations we enter into which override all other obligations.  There are loyalties in our lives which demand an absolute loyalty, not a half way commitment.  A wife who is 85% faithful to her husband is not faithful at all.  And in the same way, there is no such thing as part-time loyalty to Jesus Christ.

This morning, we are closing in on the end of our sermon series on the Words of Jesus.  Today we remember the Sunday which begins the last week of Jesus’ earthly life.  Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem with the crowds shouting, “Hosannah, Blessed is the Lord.”  Yet, by the end of the week, they will shout, “Crucify him.”  The crowd is always fickle.  That is why Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me “Lord, Lord” shall enter the Kingdom of God but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven.”   A Gallup poll showed that 78 percent of Americans expect to go to heaven when they die. However, many of them hardly ever pray, read the Bible, attend church, or live in any way a Christian life.   Many call Jesus “Lord” by their words, but they do not do the will of God in their lives and actions.  This morning, I want to see how our faith must be a visible faith lived out in our real lives or it really is no faith at all.

   A large number of people today claim to be spiritual people but not religious people.  They say they worship God privately in their own way alone but not in the company of other people in a House of Worship.  It is true that the spiritual life is always a deeply personal matter between me and God.  However, it is equally true that the spiritual life is never a private matter between me and God.  The spiritual life is not privately saying in my heart, “Lord, Lord.”  The spiritual life is a shared action with other people.  As we interact with other people—yes, flawed, imperfect, hard to get along with people—there we grow in the grace of God.  How many of you have seen a stone tumbler?  You place rough stones into the tumbler and they spin round and round, knocking against each other and over time they are worn smooth and beautiful.  We are all like rough stones and as we rub against each other, knock against each other, we are made perfect.  You cannot do that in a private spiritual life. Take just a moment with me and ponder the difference between a personal faith and a private faith.  Why a personal faith is absolutely necessary for spiritual life but a private faith is stagnating to our growth.    

     Another reason our faith cannot be private is that Jesus says, “Not everyone who says Lord shall enter the Kingdom of God but the one who does the will of my Father.”  Our lives should actually reflect what we say.  How many of you have been frustrated by sales people who make a long list of promises but then little of it is accurate after you have made the purchase?  There is always the fine print at the bottom of the page.  There is always the “Well, yes, we did say that but we meant that….”  The world is so filled with pretension, superficial words and empty promises.  But the life of the Christian is not to be so.  If you say “Lord, Lord,” then live it out in your real life.  Otherwise you are taking the name of the Lord in vain.  Have you ever thought of that?  You are breaking the third commandment when you pray the word “Lord” but you do not live the word of the Lord.  You speak and pray to God in vain because your actions show that He is not your Lord. 

A Glamour magazine survey showed a group of people who like to say “Lord” but who do not live it.  A survey of 25,000 readers, mostly women between the ages of 18 and 35, showed that 77% of them pray to God and this makes them feel better about life.  87% of them feel that God is always helping them or has helped them through a particular time in their lives.  These readers enjoy those aspects of religion that make them feel good.  However, they disregard anything religious that places a challenge upon their actions in life.  The same poll finds that nearly half disagree with their church's teaching on premarital sex, and a third disagree with the church’s teachings on abortion.  You see, we want a faith that makes us feel good but not one that changes us.  We are much like the people on Palm Sunday in Jerusalem.  They enjoyed the big party, the good feelings as everyone was shouting, “Lord, Lord.”  It was so exciting that day when they thought Jesus would get rid of the Romans and set up a new government to give them everything they wanted.  But as the challenges of the week emerged, when Jesus told them of the work it takes to build that new world, well then, the crowd shouted, “Away with Him.  Crucify Him.” 

   We are much the same today.  As I have watched the recent Presidential Primary Debates, I am struck at how every candidate has played to our fears and to what we want them to give us.  For some it is free health coverage.  For others it is building a wall to keep out the immigrants.  But they all promise to give us what we want and they tell us how easy and free it will be.  In fact, the couple of candidates who ever said that building a better nation will take hard work and sacrifice, well, those candidates quickly fell out of the election, unable to get votes.  That’s what happened to Jesus.  On Sunday, when the crowd thought he would give them stuff and destroy the Romans, they were ready to elect him the new king.  But on Thursday and Friday when they saw that the way is hard and narrow and that Jesus calls us to do the will of his Father, then they voted him out.

    The church is often the same.  Rev. Colin Morris, a Methodist pastor serving in Africa, wrote a book entitled “Include Me Out.”  He tells the story of how an African man dropped dead of starvation one day not a hundred yards from his church door.  That same day, he received his Methodist monthly newspaper filled with debates and concerns over meetings, issues, and church offices.  That evening, he attended a Board meeting where they argued over the color of the new curtains in a Sunday School room.  He was suddenly struck by it all.  He said he was finished with all the cheap talk of God and church.  Include him out of it all.  He wanted to live his faith in a real way in the real world.     

 In the Emmaus Walk Community, they ask three questions.  When this past week did you feel closest to Christ?  When did you feel you were responding to God’s call to be a disciple?  When was your faith tested this week through failure?  Think for a minute.  In the past month, when have you failed?  You say, “Lord, Lord.”  But where have you failed to do the Will of God?   Not everyone who says…only those who do….This morning can be a time of confession for you.  This morning can be a time to give up your private religion and make it a deeply personal and public faith.  A faith that is ready to do, to take action to reach the world for God.  The crowd will be with us when the days are good and easy and everyone is getting along.  But the true disciples are those who stick with Jesus when the road grows narrow and hard on the way to the cross.  Who are you in your life?  One who shouts on Sunday, “Lord, Lord?”  Or one who walks and does the Will of God all week long to the very end of the cross?  Amen.