Street Signs of Life: Caution

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

  Sunday, July 2, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Road signs. What would we do without road signs? We couldn't go across town. We couldn't go across the country. We couldn't get anywhere without the road signs that are there. They help us out. They give us directions. We probably don't even pay attention to them. Maybe it's just a merge sign we see that tells us the lane's going to end so we have to get over. Maybe it's a one-way sign that tells us this is the direction we have to go. We can't go the other direction. Maybe it's simply a yield sign that says we better pay attention because the cross traffic isn't and, otherwise, we're going to get T-boned.

Whatever, signs help us navigate the roads, the highways, the byways. We see them all the time, and maybe we don't even pay attention to them. But there are a few signs that I've come across that kind of grabbed my attention because I'm not sure if they're helpful or not. For instance, this one. “Caution. Water on the Road During Rain.” That's our tax dollars at work, isn't it? There's another one that seems absolutely kind of obvious. “Absolutely Nothing the Next 22 Miles.” But my favorite is the schizophrenic sign. Okay. But for the most part, we couldn't get by without road signs.

But of all the signs out there, the one that should grab our attention more I think than any of the rest is the caution sign. Because the caution sign really isn't telling us for sure anything. It's not telling us it's a one-way street, which is a definite. It's not telling us we have to yield, which is something we must do. It's not telling us to stop. A caution sign is simply saying you better be ready. You better be on your toes because there's something ahead that may or may not happen. For instance, “Caution. Men at Work.” Well, there may be construction crews up ahead and you certainly don't want to run into them. “Caution. Children Playing.” Well, you want to be on your toes because, at any time, one of those little ones could dart out and you certainly don't want to run over them. “Caution. Slippery When Wet.” So if it's raining out, you're going to slow down a little bit more for that curve. But none of those are definite. In other words, maybe there are no workers at that time but you have to be ready just in case there are. Maybe there are no children playing but still you have to pay attention. You see, a caution sign is different. It grabs your attention and says you need to be prepared for the possibility of a situation up ahead.

Scripture is sprinkled with caution signs. Maybe it's Jesus saying, “Be careful,” or “Look out,” or “Watch out.” Or in the New Testament where it says to be on your guard. There are caution signs God gives us in His word. He isn't saying definitely there's trouble ahead, but the possibility is there. We need to stay on our toes. We need to be ready for that. One of the caution signs in scripture we read a few moments ago. It was in Paul's first letter to the Church of the City of Corinth . Corinth , if you will, was a rather unique city, a large metropolitan area where there certainly was a lot going on and they had a lot of problems. And so Paul writes a caution sign to them. Now we read it a moment ago like this, “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” You have to kind of take that apart a little bit. And I actually like the translation that you will find in the message. The message puts it this way. “Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean it's spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get away with, I'd be a slave to my whims.” This is the message St. Paul is trying to get across to the Church at Corinth . You see, Corinth was a Roman city, which means they enjoyed all kinds of freedoms, freedoms to do many things. But in that freedom, they abused that freedom. And that's why he says, “Sure, everything may be technically legal but is it spiritually appropriate?” And he says, “And if I go around doing anything I want to do instead of being free, I become a slave to my own whims.” If you will, the caution sign outside of Corinth was “Caution. Freedom Being Abused. Caution. Freedom Being Lost.” It seems an appropriate topic for this weekend because we're celebrating our freedom, our freedom not just as a city but our freedom as a country, our freedom as a nation. As we step back and remember the men and women who have given their lives defending and winning this freedom for us and all of the freedoms we enjoy on a daily basis, is there a caution sign? Is God not only speaking to the people at Corinth , but is He also speaking to us this morning? Is there a caution sign that says “Caution. Freedom Being Abused?”

Let's understand a little bit more about the City of Corinth . The City of Corinth was an ancient city that probably had several hundred thousand people living in it. So, like any major city, they would have crime and they would have corruption but Corinth was known especially for its immorality, specifically its sexual immorality. In Corinth , the idea was that anything goes, any whim they might have, any lustful desire they might have, that should be met by them. That's why he has the reference to prostitutes because there was a temple made especially for that. So not only was it condoned but it was even part of the religious makeup of the city. The whole idea was they had these freedoms and, therefore, they should use the freedoms.

Another confusing verse, at least I think it's confusing, is when St. Paul says, “Food for the stomach and stomach for food.” Okay. What does that mean? That's the thinking of the people at Corinth . It goes like this. It says, “If my stomach starts growling, then I'm going to get something to eat.” In other words, “If I have a need and a desire for food, then I'm going to go get food and have something to eat.” That's a pretty good principle except they transferred that to their whole life so any desire they might have, any whim they might have, according to them, it's only natural that need, that desire should be met. That's why St. Paul says, “Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean it's spiritually appropriate.” The City of Corinth was known so much for its sexual immorality, there was a phrase that was coined. It was to Corinthianize. To Corinthianize meant literally to be sexually immoral. That's what the city was known for. That was its claim to fame, that they would give in to all their desires no matter what they were. They took their freedom, and they abused their freedom and really abused freedom is lost freedom. Because St. Paul says, “If I do whatever I think I can get away with, I become a slave to my own whims.” What they thought they were doing in freedom, they were actually enslaving themselves to their own whims and lustful desires. So there was a sign that could be erected outside the skirts of Corinth . And it was a big yellow sign that said, “Caution. Freedom Being Abused. Caution. Freedom Being Lost.”

Could that same sign be on the borders of our country? Think of all we do in the name of freedom. Think of the erosion of the morality of our country, all done in the name of freedom. Could we erect a sign at the borders of the country saying, “Caution. Freedom Being Abused?” What once was unheard of in this country is now commonplace. What once was considered wrong now is considered a right. What once we would look upon shamefully, now we see done openly in the streets all around us. The erosion of the morality of our country is spinning out of control around us. There could be a sign that says “Freedom Being Abused.” Think of what we've done in the name of freedom.

In the name of freedom of speech, look at the erosion of our morality. Look no further than turning on your television set. They say entertainment mirrors society or maybe society mirrors entertainment. Either way, we're in a world of hurt. Think back just a few years ago what was not allowed on television but now is. For a more stark example, go back a couple decades. Let's go back to the 1960's. We have Rob and Laura Petrie. Remember that? The Dick Van Dyke Show . Rob and Laura Petrie. Whenever they'd show a bedroom scene with Rob and Laura in it, you noticed one thing. There were two twin beds with a night stand between them. That's because the censors said it had to be there. Maybe what you didn't know was there was another rule the censors had and that was, if Rob and Laura were in the bedroom together, one of them had to have both feet firmly planted on the floor. Compare that to today. You wouldn't even know a bedroom has a floor today. I watch the commercials for Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal and I blush at what's happening on the screen and that's just the commercial. That's not the show itself. But we don't stop there as a country. Oh, no. We have to push the envelope because we're “free” to do so. So in our freedom, we'll push it even further than that.

I read this past week a new show called Rescue Me . Dennis Leary stars in it. I guess, in a recent episode, Dennis Leary, the main character who's a firefighter, who is always having trouble with his ex-wife, gets into an argument with his ex-wife but, in the middle of that argument, he forces himself on her. And the scene starts with her scratching and digging and trying to beat him off. And then finally, she acquiesces and even looks like she's agreeing to what's happening. The scene ends with Dennis Leary leaving with a smirk on his face. Now what is the message of that scene? Is the message, in certain circumstances, it's okay to force yourself on a woman? It's okay, we're going to condone rape now? Is that what the message is? And you're sitting there saying, “Well, no, we'd never do that.” Well, answer me this. In the 1960's, when you were watching the Dick Van Dyke Show , could you ever imagine a show like Desperate Housewives coming into your living room? It is the erosion of our morality, whether entertainment mirrors society or society mirrors entertainment, we're in a world of hurt.

Turn on your radio. A recent study by Pediatric magazine said 40% of the lyrics of the popular songs out there right now have at least a sexual innuendo to them, if not stark reality. Click on your computer. Turn on the Internet. You know what you'll find there, what you'll find if you turn on the Internet? That there are 4.2 million pornographic sites out there, that it's a $2.5 billion industry. That's more than CBS , NBC , and ABC's revenues combined. Forty million Americans on a weekly basis visit those web sites. What's happening to the morality of our country all in the name of freedom? Because we're free to do so, it's perfectly legal for us to do so and, in most cases, it's socially acceptable for us to do so. But just because something is technically legal doesn't mean it's spiritually appropriate.

If I go around doing whatever I think I can get away with, I become a slave to my own whims. The freedom we enjoy, the freedom we hold onto is being lost because we are abusing the freedom and abused freedom is no freedom. It's lost freedoms because we become a slave in and of ourselves.

We need to heed the caution sign, the caution sign from God's word that says “Freedom Being Abused. Freedom Lost.” We need to heed the caution sign and to reclaim the freedom, the freedom God has blessed us with and given to us in this country. We need to reclaim the freedom, the freedom to follow God. The freedom to follow our God, to listen to God, to heed His call, and to follow His direction in our lives. George Washington once said, “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle.” He says, “We cannot have a national morality without religious principle.” One of our founding fathers understood the importance of listening to our God, the importance of having some sort of self-control, some sort of responsibility with the freedoms we have. But we can't have freedoms just to abuse those freedoms but to use those freedoms appropriately and the number one freedom we have in this land, the greatest freedom we have is we can worship our God without fear, without retribution. We can worship our God. We can study our God's word. We can follow God's direction in our life. That's the freedom we have in this country. You see, freedom is just as much about choosing not to do something as it is having the ability to do something. Freedom is just as much about choosing not to do something as it is having the freedom to do something.

It's time for us to heed the caution, to reclaim our freedom, and to make a difference. To make a difference in our community, to make a difference in our nation. We reclaim that freedom by starting with ourselves. We reclaim the freedom and we heed the caution sign when we begin with ourselves, and we begin by hitting our knees in repentance to God. Because, you know what, of all the Americans out there that are doing all those statistics I quoted, we're part of it. The TV shows wouldn't last if we didn't watch them. The show The Book of Daniel proves that. Christians stood up and said, “We won't put up with it. You've gone too far.” It lasted three weeks, off the air, never to return I hope. You and I can do the same thing. You and I are the ones watching those shows. You and I are the ones who are called to repentance because of that. You and I are the ones listening to the radio. You and I are the ones who are clicking on the Internet and going to those sites. Forty-three percent of Christians said they have visited those sites at one time or another. I don't know what the percent of those who are addicted to those sites. We need to hit our knees in repentance to God. God says, “Flee sexual immorality.” We hit our knees in repentance. And then we hear these words, the same words St. Paul said to the Church at Corinth , “You are not your own. You were bought at a price.”

You and I have been purchased, and the cost of our souls was the life of the Son of God. Jesus purchased us when He went on the cross and, as He hung there between heaven and hell, He paid the debt of all of our sins, of all the abusing we've done of our freedoms, all of our immorality, all of that, the debt of that sin was paid in full and through the blood of Jesus, we have been set free. That's real freedom. That's true freedom. It's the freedom God gives you. It's the freedom from your sins. It's the freedom from a guilty conscience. It's the freedom of shame. It's the freedom of the past. God sets us free from that because he wipes the slate clean and He presents us to His Father in heaven as perfect and holy. You have been bought. The price has been paid. It was the blood of Jesus and now you are free. You are free of all of that sin and now you're free to make a difference. You're free to make a difference empowered by God, empowered to make a difference like this. On your way home, if the song on the radio isn't something Jesus would listen to, switch the station or turn it off. When you sit home tonight, you grab the remote, and you click on the TV. If you wouldn't be comfortable with Jesus sitting next to you watching that show or watching that movie, then you click it off. When you go to the Internet and you click on the icon and you say to yourself, “I have a problem,” then get some help. It means we make a difference.

Could you imagine if all Christians made the commitment, made the commitment to stop the spiraling effect of the degeneration of our morality, to claim the freedom that is ours, the freedom to follow our God, the freedom to heed His caution calls, we could turn our communities around. We could turn our nation around. Maybe one day, some day, we could go to the borders and we could take that caution sign out and throw it away because we won't abuse our freedoms. We'll respect our freedoms. We'll accept the responsibility that comes with those freedoms. Because just because something is technically legal doesn't mean it's spiritually appropriate. Freedom is just as much about choosing not to do something as it is the freedom to do something. Amen

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church