"A Tale of Two Cities"
Sermon Transcript for June 6, 2004
Scripture Reading: Romans 12:1-2
By Dr.. Ken Kinghorn
Dr. Ken Kinghorn retired from Asbury Theological Seminary as a professor of church history and historical theology after nearly 40 years of service. He also served the institution as vice president at large. Dr. Kinghorn, a nationally known author, has written 11 books dealing with Methodist history, discipleship, the Holy Spirit, Christian doctrine, and spiritual gifts. Source Ashbury Theological Seminary Website.
Thank you very much, Pastor Dan. It’s my privilege and joy to be able to share with you in this historic town and historic church. And one of the joys of my life is to see former students in churches like this transcending their professors and doing God’s work in the world. One of my special thrills and delights is that former students now pray with you and they use to pray about you!
We have a great community at the Seminary. I must tell you that we had, several years ago, a big snowfall in January and some of the students, being from the deep south, had not seen that much snow. So they busied themselves constructing a twelve-foot replica of John Wesley. It looked like John Wesley in every way. The 18th Century portraits were faithfully executed and John Wesley stood there proudly holding a Bible showing forth a benign, noncommittal Mona Lisa smile. And there was John Wesley. No sign was required to identify Mr. Wesley. But the sun began to work on him and he began to shrink. And he dropped from twelve feet down to about four feet in the sun and dropped his Bible and his smile degenerated into a leer. And there stands Wesley pitiful. And an enterprising student from Mississippi scrawled a huge sign and put it in front of Mr. Wesley. And the sign read, “I felt my heart was strangely warmed.” But we do rejoice in the strangely warm heart.
I want to talk a little bit this morning from this Scripture passage about a tale of two cities. St. Paul in the Scripture talks about, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed to another world. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed to an alternative age and kingdom.” And you may recall back in the 5th Century when the vandals overran Rome itself, the mistress of the world. People were scratching their heads even as we might scratch our heads if an army would loot Washington, D.C. for example. It was unthinkable. But it happened to Rome. And St. Augustine wrote a book called, The City of God, in which he contrasts two cities, two kingdoms—The City of Earth and The City of God. And my mind thought through the centuries how this tale of two cities has been articulated by various writers, some secular and some theologically Christian. And my thoughts turned to the first long, long sentence found in Charles Dickens’s book, A Tale of Two Cities. And I want to read just part of that long sentence which goes on and on before it finally comes to a period. And part of that goes like this, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epic of belief, it was the epic of incongruity; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. We had everything before us; we had nothing before us. We were all going direct to heaven; we were all going direct the other way.” He says, “In short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received. A tale of two cities—a city of earth and a city of God.”
I was reading some time ago about a farmer in Illinois who went out early in the spring to check on his emerging corn crop in the field. And he spied several volunteer pumpkin vines that had come up unplanned. They just came up. And they were blossoming. He thought about pulling them up by the roots because he was concentrating on his cornfield. But he said, “I’ll just leave them.” And while he was there he had in his hand a one-gallon empty cider jug that he picked up in a ditch that some tourist had casually tossed out and he was going to put that in the trash somewhere. He had it in his hand. And on impulse he stooped down and slipped a blossom of a pumpkin inside the neck of a one-gallon cider jug, forgot all about it, and came back in the fall ready to bring in the corn harvest. And he thought about that pumpkin patch, checked on it, and discovered 27 90-pound pumpkins lying on the ground. Beautiful—but one pumpkin was the size and the shape of the inside of the jug. And I thought to myself, a J.B. Phillips translation of Romans 12:2, “Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold.” And I suspect if I were the devil, what I would want to do would be to get the principles of my kingdom, the City of Earth, I would want to get those principles into the minds of people the best I could. And what I would do, as a strategy, I believe if I were the enemy, would be go into the entertainment world, the publishing world, the legal world, the court systems, the university professorial chairs, ethics committees in business and Hollywood, and I somehow would want to propagate the principles of my kingdom and get them far and abroad in the minds of the people. I think that’s what I would do.
What are some of the basic principles of the City of Earth? Well, first of all, the fundamental assumption of the secular city is that you and I exist on this planet quite apart from the activity of a divine originator, a divine creator but rather by random chance for an accidental, unplanned purpose. Randomly life appeared somehow but it would never happen again. As Carl Sagan says, one of the secular scientists of the day would never mathematically ever occur again by random chance that the human species would even exist. But we do. But we are here without a divine creator. So number one, you and I are here without divine creation. Now any culture/society that lacks an understanding of human origins as rooted in the creation of God, lacks the necessary basis of which to value human life. And so we could develop business ethics, medical ethics, and all sorts of ethics about human life, which degrades human life because it is an accidental, random happening. Number one, we exist without a divine creator.
The number two principle of the City of Earth is that tolerance is the highest of the virtues. We should never say, “This is right and that is wrong because that would be intolerant and unloving and narrow minded.” So we must be open to all truth, which has no firm base in reality.
A third assumption of the secular city is the absolute human demand for personal economy. I will have no rule over me--no priest, no religion, no denomination, no code of ethics over me because I must be free to do what I want to do without any hindrance, any rule telling me otherwise. I guess Frank Sinatra summed up that in his song, “I did life my way”. And I think that is the fundamental assumption of the secular city. I must not have anyone tell me what’s right and what’s wrong and what I must and must not do.
A fourth assumption of a secular city is that you and I behave the way we behave because of the genes and environment that we have. We are ultimately really not free creatures in secularism. The psychological expression of that is called “behaviorism” which means that you act the way you do because of the way you were shaped in your genes and your environment and therefore you are really not responsible and shouldn’t be called to account for anything you do because you are made that way. And we must make allowance for the way you are made. We are shaped by forces over which we have no control.
A fifth assumption of a secular city is that there are no absolute moral values or permanent non-negotiable norms but all truth is relative and what is true yesterday may not be true today. What is true today might not be true tomorrow.
Another assumption of a secular city is that if I want to find resources to live life, I find those resources by looking within myself. There’s no one above to look to and I really can’t trust any one around so I must look within and there I will find all that I need to cope with life. And that is the essence of the new age theology so artfully articulated by the eminent American theologian, Shirley McClain. How many of you like her? The idea is I, myself, if I look deep enough within myself, that’s the only God I will ever find. In fact we are told we are Gods.
And the final assumption of the secular city is that the present life is the only life we will ever know so you better enjoy it now. Get all the gusto you can, you only go around once and all the fads that you hear about. I suppose that has been anticipated by the old nursery rhyme, “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.”
Now I’ve articulated assumptions of a secular city. There is another city that is an offshoot of that. It is not a secular city, but it is a pagan city that has a God but no specific God and therefore we will all come together in some sort of religious amalgamation since all God’s are the same. But we’re not going to get into that all this morning because I want to move from a secular city to talk about the alternative city—the one that St. Paul said you should be conformed to—the City of God. It also has certain principles, the kingdom of God, and those are articulated in the Bible in the Christian religion. And they go almost pound to pound contrary to the assumptions of the secular city. Let’s name some of them.
` First of all, the city of God affirms the unique infant worth of human personality. Human beings are creations of God made in His own image and likeness we are told in the scripture. And when God completed that creation of the natural order, the natural order was not enough for God. He said, “I will create the man and the woman.” And he did. And he said, “Very good.” And He made us in His image and likeness meaning that human beings are not repeat not, a part of a natural order. Our bodies are, yes, but we have spirits and we are made in the image and likeness of God. I remember some time ago a teacher of fourth grade students asking her children to name something that exists in the world today that did not exist ten years ago. And these fourth graders were ten years old. “Name something, boys and girls, that exist today that didn’t exist ten years ago.” And Mary Louise said, “Fiber Optics”. And Billy Mac said, “Laser beams and bullet trains and miracle drugs and computers and all kinds of scientific wonders.” But Mary couldn’t think of anything to say. She was the last to speak. And the teacher said, “Now, Mary dear, you surely can think of one thing that exists in the world that didn’t exist ten years ago.” And May brightened and she said, “Yes, I know one thing. Me!” And that is wonderful theology and I wish every kid in this world felt that. Me! And I wish every adult felt that because you are unique. God shaped you before you were born in your mother’s womb with unique special gifts and graces that have never been experienced ever before on this planet. And there will never be anyone ever again like you! And if you discover and learn how creatively and Biblically to manifest and express the unique you that God has made, I really believe you will make a contribution to the cosmos that will last forever.
And that’s why I think the Christian says, in contrast to the secular city, “Everything I do today matters forever.” Rather than saying, “Everything I do today doesn’t matter because I just want to please myself for the moment.” It’s a different philosophy; it’s a different understanding of reality. And I think if you fail to discover who God made you to be and somehow neglect through pride or whatever reason, laziness, to manifest that, the cosmos will be forever that much the poorer for the lack of what God had wanted you to contribute. So it’s a word of encouragement not a word of condemnation, a word of encouragement in the city of God to allow Him to make you everything He ever intended you to be. And that is right in harmony with the teaching of John Wesley whose 300th anniversary of his birth we celebrated last year. The unique value of human personality!
There’s a second assumption of the city of God that I want to talk about and that is the surprising rewards of radical obedience. The secular city says, “I don’t want to obey a God or a religion or a Bible or a book or some code or something because two things—I can’t have fun, and number two, I’m not free to express myself to become all I want to be. I want to do it my way—human autonomy. Scripture says there are surprising rewards for radical obedience. And Jesus said to the secular person, “If you want to save your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it.” So there are radical rewards in doing it God’s way and not my way and the two reasons why I shouldn’t do it my way—I’m finite, I’m not that smart and I’m sinful and not that able. But God is all wise and all-powerful and He working through us enables us to do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
I say obedience is really a great key. Scripture goes as far as to say to obey is better than to sacrifice. I had a lesson on obedience some time ago. My middle son we were ready to take him to college. He was a senior in high school. And I said to him, “Kevin, would you vacuum the car out because in two days we are going to drive you to college.” “Oh, yes, sir. Oh, yes, I’ll do that.” I came back in two days; I had to take a short trip. And Kevin was in the family room eating a half a cantaloupe watching the Cincinnati Reds and the car was not vacuumed out. So I said to Kevin—I thought I would approach this Biblically, I said, “Hey, Kevin, I was reading in the Bible the other day about this man who had two sons. He asked them to go out and work in his vineyard and sweep out his chariot. How’s that go, Kevin?” “Well,” he said, “Dad, you know the story.” He said, “The first son said, ‘I won’t do it. I won’t work in the vineyard.’” “Well, what did he do, Kevin?” “Changed his mind and went out and worked in his father’s vineyard. After all he repented and he did his fathers work.” And I said, “That’s right.” Now I’m closing in for the kill. I said, “Well there’s this other guy who says, ‘Oh sure, Dad, I’ll be happy to work in your vineyard and I’ll sweep out your chariot and the wife’s chariot. What did he do Kevin?” He said, “Don’t you know what it says in Luke, Dad?” I said, “What does it say in Luke, Kevin?” “It says in Luke, Dad, that he got cantaloupe and watched baseball.” Why do you call me Lord and do not do the things that I say? And God’s will for us is always what we would have chosen if we would have had sense enough to know it at the time. I think I’m so smart, I know better than God what’s good so I ignore His will. But Scripture says if you do His will, it’s what you would have chosen if you would have a sense of the world.
Now there are reasons, I think, that we don’t obey as we should. One of those reasons is fear. If I serve God I am afraid of what might happen. I might have to be a missionary and go to Africa and eat worms and stuff. Who knows what He might make me do. I’m just afraid. Do you remember the Parable of the Talents? Two of the men invested their talent. What did the third one say? “I was afraid! I knew you were a harsh God. I was afraid of you.” You really don’t have to be afraid. Back in the 16th century the dominant sea power was Spain. And they had excellent ships and very good cartographers, map makers, from Europe, but they didn’t know much about, they didn’t know anything about what laid beyond Europe because they thought the world was flat. And so out there on the big blue water they just kind of let it roll on and do you remember what they put at the edge of those medieval maps out there on the edge of the blue water? Dragons! And under the dragon would be in Latin, “Beyond this is nothing”. And for good measure in Spanish they put under that, “Beyond this may be dragons.” And so for centuries, people did not sail out very far from Europe because beyond this may be dragons. What they didn’t know was there was North America, South America, new plants, new animals, fish, flora, fauna, Grand Canyon, hardwood forests in Indiana, Redwood forests in California, citrus soil and climate of Florida, Nebraska top soil, clean water, buffalo, beavers. They didn’t know that. But Christopher Columbus overcame fear; and we’re glad he did. And we found out that we were fearing things that did not exist. Many people are afraid.
I was in a church in northern Michigan in what they call the UP, the Upper Peninsula. And they had redecorated the church. And I said, “This is a very nice decoration that you have.” “Oh, yes,” they said, “We wanted to decorate. For 40 years we put it off because we were afraid.” I said, “What were you afraid of?” They said, “Well, there use to be a pillar right in the middle of the church. It was a very disagreeable pillar. And the brides had to walk around it to get down to the alter and people couldn’t see around it. And we were afraid to touch it because we thought the roof would cave in. After 40 years of worry we got ladders and the men went to the top and there was four inches of blank space between the pillar and the roof. It was holding up nothing.” And I thought to myself, “Who in the world put a big pillar in the middle of the church?” I thought, well, have you ever been on a committee? Committee’s come up with strange sort of compromises. But they took the pillar out without any affect. But I’m saying that fear kept them. And I wonder if there is some fear keeping you? I think fear keeps us from obeying God.
And there is another reason, I think, we don’t always obey as we should and that is the simple matter of peer pressure. I don’t want to be the odd person. Did you know all through history God’s, saints, have had to go against the prevailing winds of modern culture? Whether your name is Abraham or whether your name is Paul or whether your name is Luther or whether your name is Wesley, you will have to go against the prevailing streams of contemporary culture. Sandian of Harvard said, “Throughout all the annuls of recorded history most people have been wrong about most things most of the time.” Think about it! I read of a French scientist who led a procession of caterpillars up the side of a flowerpot and got the caterpillars go head to tail around the pot. Food and escape were within easy reach of any caterpillar at any time. After three days of relentless marching, all of the caterpillars died of hunger and exhaustion because peer pressure—I don’t want to be the odd caterpillar—who steps out of line. I might me looked down upon by my caterpillar peers. But I wish one caterpillar would have said, “Hey guys, this is the dumbest thing we have ever done. Why are we going around this stupid flowerpot all day like this is beyond me. I’m going to go take a nap and eat some lettuce that the scientist over here has left for us and I’m not going to do this exercise any longer. It’s meaningless.” But I think that the caterpillars all said, “oh, I don’t want to be on the outside and I’ve got to do what everybody else does, even though it is leading to my destruction.” Do you know anybody like that?
You have to take an alternate route. And that is why St. Paul said, “I beseech you, brothers, do not be conformed to this present age. Don’t get stuck in the neck of a cider jug.” (That’s in I Babylonians or someplace there.) Be conformed that you might know what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Do you know what the highest thing on the planet to be desired is? --A million dollars, an island to yourself, a castle? No, the highest thing to be desired in the world is to know God’s will for you life and do it because He loves us and His plan for us is meant not to remove joy but to give joy and not to take away creativity but to give creativity. And the secular people have got it wrong. And St. Paul’s vision’s got it right--the surprising rewards of radical obedience.
I have time just to mention one other thing. I promise you, it will be very short. I mentioned the infinite worth of human personality, the surprising rewards of radical obedience, and finally--which is the best part of every sermon when the minister says, “finally”, but some times you just don’t know, they just keep on going, but one thing you know it’s time the choir should get its shoes on—the third thing is the amazing power of Christ. Did you know the secular world is wrong by saying it has to live life in its own strength and power? I must look within myself to find any resource. And did you know the Christian world says, “You don’t have to live life alone; in fact, you are not strong enough to do it.” But Jesus said, “I promise to be with you always even to the end of the age.” And like the vine gives strength and fruit to the branch, those who abide in me will bear much fruit and it will be 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold fruit. And once we know that the Christian life is not lived in our strength but in the strength that Christ provides by living within us, we are now free from the intolerable burden of having to be strong enough to be a good Christian. And that’s why some of medieval monks got it wrong because they thought they had to climb all of these ladders and beat their backs and put ashes on their food and sleep at night without blankets so that they might earn somehow God’s faith. And God says, “You don’t have to earn anything. I just want to give you everything.”
(Some transcript lost due to changing tape to other side.)
And even unto the Gentiles God has revealed the riches and the glory of this marvelous mystery which is what? —Christ in you, the hope of glory. That’s an amazing thing! That the God of the universe, who stands above us, reigns above us, stands beneath us, walks beside us, knows us more than we know ourselves, promises to come and live within us. Paul said, “That’s a great mystery.” And a mystery in the New Testament is something that was formerly unknown but now revealed and known. And it was a surprising reward and an amazing power that comes to those who are in Christ. Do not be conformed to this present age but be transformed by the renewing of your minds that you might prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And that’s what I want for myself and I think that’s what you want for yourself.
Let us pray, “Lord we ask in the name of Christ that you will transform us by the power of grace that we might set free from the secular bonds that seek to restrict us and draw us into a kingdom of lies and death. But be set free by the power of the Lord to become a full citizen of the Kingdom of God, which is eternal and life giving. Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen.”
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