August 31, 2008 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Jeremiah 20: 7-9 + Psalm 63 + Romans 12: 1-2 + Matthew 16: 21-27
In the film “As good as it gets” Jack Nicholson had a memorable line that compliments Paul’s council today. A bitter cynic, Nicholson’s character is mellowed by Helen Hunt’s character whose kindness and caring finally made him declare: “You make me want to be a better man.”
This is the response Paul proposes to those who have a sense of the goodness and mercy of God. This becomes the heart Pauline morality. The law is no longer the standard of perfection or the way to holiness. We all know how it is possible to be rule keepers and yet be cruel and selfish, self-justified sorry representatives of God’s mercy and love. Failure comes from what is not done while keeping the law. This is the risk of becoming nothing more than law-keepers. Paul suggests that there is in those who follow Christ something more than the law motivating a moral life. It is an awareness of the goodness and mercy of God and desire to live in worthy humble response to that God. “You make me want to be a better man.”
Life in Christ which Paul has spent 11 chapters describing brings about a change that transforms one’s life into a living liturgy – into a continual day in and day out sacrifice that gives praise to God by everything that is said and everything that is done. Paul’s suggestion for offering one’s body is fulfilled by living in the presence of God all day long so that whatever one is doing becomes an act of worship, an act of praise, an act of thanksgiving to God. This what he means by “offering one’s body.” It is the essence of “liturgy” which literally means “work done for pay.” It describes a worker who gives service in exchange for pay. In this case, the “pay” is the glory of God. Eventually the word came to mean that to which a person gives their lives: in other words someone who is dedicated.
Paul’s plea is that we who know what God has done for us would respond with dedication – would give our lives, what we do as an offering of thanks and praise. “You make me want to be a better man.”
This is the heart of morality in Paul’s teaching: a truly moral person is not someone who keeps the law, but someone who seeks to discover the will of God. They no longer turn to the rules to determine what is right and what is good, what is just or what is best. They discern what it is that God wills and wishes for creation and for those who live in God’s presence. We can go wrong by following the rules, but we can’t go wrong be discerning the will of God. The law is not enough in Paul’s teaching. It is not that the law is wrong, it is simply not enough and without a Spirit filled life that seeks to live in God’s presence and seeks to fulfill God’s will by the decisions of one’s life one cannot be good and pleasing and perfect to quote the last verse of today’s readings.
This is what today’s Gospel calls for – making one’s life an offering to God, doing what is asked of us in this life for the sake of God’s glory. This is the conduct of service that the returning Son of Man will recognize and repay. It is the kind of life lived by the Son of Man himself and by all who would belong to the Son of Man. This what an unenlightened Peter could not figure out. This is what Peter before Pentecost did not understand: that in obedience to the Father’s Will Jesus reached perfection – the Will of the Father was the embracing of the cross. To not take it up and seek the Father’s will in doing so would have meant being conformed to this age: an age that does not care about what God wills, an age that is concerned with career and power, possessions and prestige rather than service, love, and sacrifice for the glory of God,
This is the transformation Paul calls for: a transformation, not a conformation. Being conformed to this age leads one to avoid what is difficult and troublesome, service and sacrifice. But being transformed leads one into Christ, into Christ’s way, Christ’s obedience and desire to know and follow the will of the Father. It is the only way to holiness: asking what God desires. It is the only norm for morality: doing what is the Father’s will. It is the only way to distinguish those who belong to this age, and those who belong to the age to come.
Wanting to become a better person, like Jack Nicholson’s character leads one to desire and seek first with Will of God. Doing so is what it means to gain one’s life.