June 14, 1998 - LESSON: Ephesians 2:1-10, NRSV (Especially verse 10)

SERMON TITLE: Smoking Guns

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INTRODUCTION:

1. The phrase, "Smoking gun," was coined during the Watergate affair in 1974,
1. When evidence among the White House papers and tapes were thought to show conclusively that the President was involved in the Watergate cover-up.
2. Smoking gun now refers to something negative.
2. There is an older image of "smoking gun" from which its application probably arose.
1. I can picture James Arness as Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke.
2. He stand on the street of Dodge, his gun in his hand.
3. There is a lazy curl of smoke which drifts upward from the muzzle of his gun.
4. The bad guy has just been dispatched.
5. Frontier justice has been served
3. Can we turn it into a positive.

MAIN BODY:

1. Let me suggest that there ought to be a smoking gun in the life of every Christian.
1. Smoking gun refers to evidence among the White House papers and tapes were thought to show conclusively that the President was involved in the Watergate cover-up.
2. Let's let smoking gun describe the evidence among the Christian's activities which demonstrates conclusively that the Christian is involved in the work of God.
3. What we are talking about is good works, instead of bad or illegal ones.
1. Good works are inevitable in a life of forgiven-ness,
1. They are no longer calculated.
1. They are no longer deeds done 'in order to' secure a reward.
2. They are deeds done 'because of' a gift already received.

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2. This is a gift which is the result of God's workmanship, grace
3. This is the result of being created in Christ Jesus for good works.
2. There are on the moral and ethical plane, two kinds of good works.
1. They may look alike to an observer, but they are essentially different.
1. One is legal, obedient to a law or a rational principle or ideal.
1. This kind requires compulsion and effort to perform.
2. This is a response to an "ought."
2. The other is the response of a changed heart and mind.
1. The other is the response to an "is."
2. We are reborn into good works.
1. Matthew 7:20, By their fruits you will know them.
2. (John 15:5 NRSV) I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
3. James 2:20, Faith without works is dead.
3. Often Jesus' parables portray the difference between the ought and the is.
1. One of the clearest is the parable of the good Samaritan.
1. The point in the parable lies in the contrast between the two questions with which the parable begins and ends.
2. The Lawyer, representing the Jewish legal system, wants to obey the law.
1. He knows that he ought to love his neighbor,
2. This is why he asks, "Who is my neighbor?"
3. He wants a legal definition.
4. Then he will regulate his conduct accordingly.

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3. Jesus ends his parable with an important and troubling question,
1. (Luke 10:36 NRSV) Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
4. The Samaritan had not asked the lawyer's question.
5. He simply was a neighborly person.
6. He was gracious inside.
7. His grace resembles the grace of God which gives freely without legal defining or bargaining.
8. His good works differed in kind from those at which the lawyer was aiming.
3. A Christian created in Christ Jesus unto good works will resemble the Samaritan and not the lawyer.
1. What kinds of work is the Christian engaged in.
2. Work takes on two forms.
3. One is work on ourselves
1. Sometimes, we come to feel that we (and maybe also our life, as well as others' lives) are "bad" -- inadequate, incompetent, incomplete, shameful, unworthy or unlovable.
2. There is a way to turn our negative feelings into a positive reality
3. Jonathan Kramer and Diane Dunaway Kramer, Losing the Weight of the World.⁽¹⁾ Tells the story of an experience of their son Nick.
1. Nick, our oldest child, was always a happy, energetic kid who'd usually come running or skipping out of school.
2. But one fall day, when Nick was 6 years old, Jonathan Kramer was parked at the curb when he saw Nick walking slowly toward him, his curly head hung low, his mouth turned down, a bunch of papers in his hand.
3. Nick seemed to drag himself along the sidewalk.
4. He slowly pulled open the car door and slumped into the seat.
5. "Hi, Nick. How are you doing?" he asked.
6. No response.
7. "What's goin' on? Did something bad happen today?"
8. Nick slowly nodded yes before turning his face away.
9. "Oh come on, Nick. Tell your old dad what's wrong," he prodded.
10. "I'm bad," Nick said at last.
11. "Bad? Why do you say that?"
12. Nick handed over a crumpled paper.
13. Smoothing it out revealed rows of math problems.
14. A big, red "-3" dominated the top.
15. "Look," Nick said, tears running down his cheeks, his lips quivering in an attempt at self-control.
16. He pointed at the glaring red mark. "Look, Dad, I got a bad grade."
17. After considering for a long moment, I said, "That minus three doesn't mean you're bad or that you got a bad grade, Nick.
1. It means you missed just three problems on this whole paper.
2. Your teacher wants you to learn from your mistakes.
3. But that's not all that counts. How many did you get right?"

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18. Nick had no idea. So I started counting up the correct ones that weren't marked, pointing at each one as I went.
19. By the 10th correct one, Nick had joined in the counting, and by the time we'd gotten to 27, Nick's tear-stained cheeks were showing signs of happiness.
20. I had him write a big, black "+27" next to the red "-3."
21. "There. Twenty-seven right." Nick absorbed the truth for a moment before his usual bright smile reinstated itself on his little-boy face. The subject was changed and the day went on.
22. Nick was able to find a good lesson in the red "-3."
4. God can help us to learn our own personal lessons of the red "-3"
4. In the words of Bob Benson, Laughter in the Walls⁽²⁾