Integrity: Words With Meaning
Sermon
Sermons on the Second Readings
Series III, Cycle B
Object:
My yes means yes.
-- 2 Corinthians 1:18b (NLT)
Integrity means that your words have meaning. Paul writes, "... am I like people of the world who say yes when they really mean no? As surely as God is true, I am not that sort of person. My yes means yes" (2 Corinthians 1:17-18b NLT).
That is extremely important today because more and more we are surrounded by meaningless words. You can't turn on the radio without an announcer yelling at you that there has never been a better time to buy a car. Infomercials have products that if you act now, they will throw in an additional dicer and mincer at no extra charge. I heard a story of meaningless words about a high-level executive who traveled weekly for his job. Every Monday morning he went through the same routine. He arrived at the airport early, picked up his Wall Street Journal, sipped his Starbucks coffee, boarded the plane in first class, and waited for his breakfast to be served. On one occasion, as he was glancing at the headlines, he lifted the cover off his bagel and saw this huge, ugly roach upside down on his bagel, legs still twitching.
He came unglued. Not only did the flight attendant hear about it, but the entire airplane could not help but overhear his ranting about the roach. He demanded the name of the flight attendant and the pilot and the caterer and their next of kin. As soon as he got to his first-class hotel, he wrote a letter on his impressive stationary to the president of the airline, issuing his complaint.
To his satisfaction, he received a prompt letter back from the president of the airline. It read: "I am terribly sorry about your unfortunate incident on our airplane. I take full responsibility. We have canceled our contract with the meal service, fired the flight attendant and the staff, removed all the upholstery, and fumigated the entire plane. It will be out of service for the next nine months. I hope this is acceptable to you and that you will consider flying with us again. Signed ..."
The executive felt pretty good about himself and the fear he caused in the airline until he noticed a sticky note absentmindedly left on the back of the letter from some secretary. It was from the president's assistant and read, "Send this guy the roach letter!"
Meaningless words. Every day we need to sift through the muck and mire of empty words to find some real substance, integrity, and truth. Faced with this same uncertainty, Paul had to defend his decisions in 2 Corinthians 1 by claiming that he was a man of his word because of the integrity found in being a follower of Jesus.
I have a friend named Susie who told me the story of growing up as a pastor's child. While there was always lots of love, there was not always a lot of extras. When they went to the movies, it was a real treat.
She remembered one time going to a movie with only her father. Susie has always been a small person -- especially as a young teen. When they got to the ticket booth, her father said, "Two adults, please." The lady behind the counter said, "How old is your daughter?" "Thirteen," he said. "Oh, she looks twelve. I'll just charge you for the child's price. Nobody will know." Reaching for his wallet, her dad said, "She'll know," and he put down money for two adult tickets.
Do your words, do your actions have integrity or are you part of the noise and chatter of meaningless words? Does your yes mean yes and your no mean no?
What about in your business? Do your words have integrity? I remember hearing a story about the boardroom in which the CEO felt the company had lost its focus. So, as an illustration, he wrote on the whiteboard, "2 + 2," and asked the entire board, "Let's get down to basics once again. What is two plus two?"
There was a mathematician on the committee who said, "The answer is 4." The vice president of marketing said, "I agree. The answer is 4, give or take a margin of error of 1 point." However, the CPA silently got up, shut the door, pulled the shade, and whispered, "What do you want it to equal?"
Can God trust you when you are alone with the door closed and shades pulled? Integrity means that you are the same person in or outside the spotlight, with or without the cameras running, standing alone or in front of the audience. Integrity doesn't mean perfection. Integrity means authenticity, consistency, and an undivided life. Do your words and your actions have meaning? Are you a person of your word? George Burns once said, "The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
The people of Corinth were watching Paul. If he could be trusted, then his message could be trusted. We in the church are being watched, also. People can sniff out a fraud. They want to know if you are a person of integrity.
I heard a pastor tell the story of a hectic and busy day. It was one of those days that had to be divided into fifteen-minute segments for it all to fit. As he went from meeting to meeting, visit to visit, he actually found himself ahead of schedule by thirty minutes. It was then he saw it. It was a music store that advertised CDs on sale at half price. Knowing he couldn't pass up such a bargain, he checked his watch, parked his car, and ran into the store.
He didn't have much time. He grabbed the CD he wanted, hurried to the counter, gave the young lady the CD and his credit card, quickly signed the receipt, and ran back to the car. Back on time. With any luck, he could make it to the next meeting.
It was then he glanced at the receipt for the first time. Instead of charging him $6.99 for the CD, the clerk charged him 69 cents. Now what? For a moment he thought about letting it go. No one would know the difference. Then he glanced at his watch, grabbed the receipt, and ran back into the store.
He quickly found the clerk, showed her the receipt, and told her that there had been a mistake. The young woman was speechless. The pastor didn't quite know what to think of it. Then she spoke. "You don't know me but I visited your church last Sunday. I sat in the back row. It has been a long time since I've been to church. I couldn't take all the hypocrisy. And then I heard you talk about integrity from the pulpit. When I saw you come in here, I wanted to see if you really meant it or if you were just one more religious phony. You actually believe this stuff, don't you?"
And with that, the clerk excused herself from the till and sat down with the pastor to tell him more. Not once did he even glance at his watch.
The people of Corinth were watching Paul. The people in your neighborhood and at work are watching you. In a world of meaningless words, in business where two plus two equals whatever you want it to equal, in politics where the spin is endless, in the home and church where we often live behind a cheap facade, you represent Jesus. If you can be trusted, then he can be trusted. If your yes means yes and your no means no, the same is true about Jesus. So when they hear that Jesus forgives sins, promises them a new life, and prepares a place for them for all eternity, they figure his words have meaning, his words have integrity. They may not know Jesus, not yet, but they know you. Amen.
-- 2 Corinthians 1:18b (NLT)
Integrity means that your words have meaning. Paul writes, "... am I like people of the world who say yes when they really mean no? As surely as God is true, I am not that sort of person. My yes means yes" (2 Corinthians 1:17-18b NLT).
That is extremely important today because more and more we are surrounded by meaningless words. You can't turn on the radio without an announcer yelling at you that there has never been a better time to buy a car. Infomercials have products that if you act now, they will throw in an additional dicer and mincer at no extra charge. I heard a story of meaningless words about a high-level executive who traveled weekly for his job. Every Monday morning he went through the same routine. He arrived at the airport early, picked up his Wall Street Journal, sipped his Starbucks coffee, boarded the plane in first class, and waited for his breakfast to be served. On one occasion, as he was glancing at the headlines, he lifted the cover off his bagel and saw this huge, ugly roach upside down on his bagel, legs still twitching.
He came unglued. Not only did the flight attendant hear about it, but the entire airplane could not help but overhear his ranting about the roach. He demanded the name of the flight attendant and the pilot and the caterer and their next of kin. As soon as he got to his first-class hotel, he wrote a letter on his impressive stationary to the president of the airline, issuing his complaint.
To his satisfaction, he received a prompt letter back from the president of the airline. It read: "I am terribly sorry about your unfortunate incident on our airplane. I take full responsibility. We have canceled our contract with the meal service, fired the flight attendant and the staff, removed all the upholstery, and fumigated the entire plane. It will be out of service for the next nine months. I hope this is acceptable to you and that you will consider flying with us again. Signed ..."
The executive felt pretty good about himself and the fear he caused in the airline until he noticed a sticky note absentmindedly left on the back of the letter from some secretary. It was from the president's assistant and read, "Send this guy the roach letter!"
Meaningless words. Every day we need to sift through the muck and mire of empty words to find some real substance, integrity, and truth. Faced with this same uncertainty, Paul had to defend his decisions in 2 Corinthians 1 by claiming that he was a man of his word because of the integrity found in being a follower of Jesus.
I have a friend named Susie who told me the story of growing up as a pastor's child. While there was always lots of love, there was not always a lot of extras. When they went to the movies, it was a real treat.
She remembered one time going to a movie with only her father. Susie has always been a small person -- especially as a young teen. When they got to the ticket booth, her father said, "Two adults, please." The lady behind the counter said, "How old is your daughter?" "Thirteen," he said. "Oh, she looks twelve. I'll just charge you for the child's price. Nobody will know." Reaching for his wallet, her dad said, "She'll know," and he put down money for two adult tickets.
Do your words, do your actions have integrity or are you part of the noise and chatter of meaningless words? Does your yes mean yes and your no mean no?
What about in your business? Do your words have integrity? I remember hearing a story about the boardroom in which the CEO felt the company had lost its focus. So, as an illustration, he wrote on the whiteboard, "2 + 2," and asked the entire board, "Let's get down to basics once again. What is two plus two?"
There was a mathematician on the committee who said, "The answer is 4." The vice president of marketing said, "I agree. The answer is 4, give or take a margin of error of 1 point." However, the CPA silently got up, shut the door, pulled the shade, and whispered, "What do you want it to equal?"
Can God trust you when you are alone with the door closed and shades pulled? Integrity means that you are the same person in or outside the spotlight, with or without the cameras running, standing alone or in front of the audience. Integrity doesn't mean perfection. Integrity means authenticity, consistency, and an undivided life. Do your words and your actions have meaning? Are you a person of your word? George Burns once said, "The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
The people of Corinth were watching Paul. If he could be trusted, then his message could be trusted. We in the church are being watched, also. People can sniff out a fraud. They want to know if you are a person of integrity.
I heard a pastor tell the story of a hectic and busy day. It was one of those days that had to be divided into fifteen-minute segments for it all to fit. As he went from meeting to meeting, visit to visit, he actually found himself ahead of schedule by thirty minutes. It was then he saw it. It was a music store that advertised CDs on sale at half price. Knowing he couldn't pass up such a bargain, he checked his watch, parked his car, and ran into the store.
He didn't have much time. He grabbed the CD he wanted, hurried to the counter, gave the young lady the CD and his credit card, quickly signed the receipt, and ran back to the car. Back on time. With any luck, he could make it to the next meeting.
It was then he glanced at the receipt for the first time. Instead of charging him $6.99 for the CD, the clerk charged him 69 cents. Now what? For a moment he thought about letting it go. No one would know the difference. Then he glanced at his watch, grabbed the receipt, and ran back into the store.
He quickly found the clerk, showed her the receipt, and told her that there had been a mistake. The young woman was speechless. The pastor didn't quite know what to think of it. Then she spoke. "You don't know me but I visited your church last Sunday. I sat in the back row. It has been a long time since I've been to church. I couldn't take all the hypocrisy. And then I heard you talk about integrity from the pulpit. When I saw you come in here, I wanted to see if you really meant it or if you were just one more religious phony. You actually believe this stuff, don't you?"
And with that, the clerk excused herself from the till and sat down with the pastor to tell him more. Not once did he even glance at his watch.
The people of Corinth were watching Paul. The people in your neighborhood and at work are watching you. In a world of meaningless words, in business where two plus two equals whatever you want it to equal, in politics where the spin is endless, in the home and church where we often live behind a cheap facade, you represent Jesus. If you can be trusted, then he can be trusted. If your yes means yes and your no means no, the same is true about Jesus. So when they hear that Jesus forgives sins, promises them a new life, and prepares a place for them for all eternity, they figure his words have meaning, his words have integrity. They may not know Jesus, not yet, but they know you. Amen.
