When Nothing Is Sacred
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series II, Cycle B
The television season of 1997-1998 included a series on ABC called Nothing Sacred. I was sorry it only survived that one season, for it was a program that made viewers think about how God works in the world. It featured actor Kevin Anderson in the role of Father Ray, a young, self-doubting priest who struggled with maintaining his faith while trying to run a church, maintain a soup kitchen, advise troubled Catholic school kids, and have a life. Ray was a modern, conflicted character who sometimes questioned the existence of God and how to preach his word in today's world.
The show, which by the way was created by a Catholic priest, was opposed by some Catholic groups and supported by others. But in my opinion, despite the show's name, Nothing Sacred, it did far more than most of the portrayals of religion on television to affirm that there are things that are sacred.
On this show, unlike the Father Dowling Mysteries of a few years back, the characters actually prayed. In fact, prayer was taken so seriously that when Father Ray was troubled, he sometimes could not find the energy and concentration to pray. When he did, however, it came across as eloquent and holy.
The show also demonstrated that people's lives are sacred, too. In one episode, a young couple, in this country illegally, sought asylum in Father Ray's church, and the lengths to which the church staff went to aid this couple showed that both the couple's lives and the concept of asylum were sacred.
Ironically, a series titled Nothing Sacred conveyed just the opposite.
This show came to mind this week when reading our text from Isaiah 6, which tells of the call of Isaiah to be a prophet. In narrating his call story, Isaiah helps us understand something about sacredness.
Isaiah's call was not a "once upon a time" experience; rather, it occurred at a crucial juncture in Judah's history -- "the year that King Uzziah died." This was probably 738 B.C., and the king's death marked the end of a period of relative independence. Seven years earlier, Assyria had begun to gain power in the region, and Judah now came under the shadow of the Assyrian threat.
Sometime in that year, young Isaiah found himself in the temple, and there he had a vision in which he saw God seated on a throne. That sight overwhelmed Isaiah with the sense that he was in the presence of absolute holiness. The seraphs he saw were heavenly beings whose function was to attend and praise the deity, but their pose tells us even more about holiness. They had six wings, and used two to remain aloft, but the other four served to protect them from the intense glory emanating from the throne. These beings praised God saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts." (That triple use of "holy," by the way, is probably the reason the lectionary committee picked this passage as the First Lesson for this day, Holy Trinity Sunday.)
Hearing this expression of holiness, Isaiah was immediately hit with a compelling sense of his own sinfulness -- or unholiness. Thus he cried out, characterizing his guilty self as "a man of unclean lips" who lived "among a people of unclean lips"; even worse, in that unclean state he had come before the king, the Lord of hosts, which was an offensive act toward any royalty. In response, however, God provided a ritual of cleansing. A live coal was brought from the altar of incense to touch Isaiah's lips, and his sin was "blotted out." Thus his sin was no longer an impediment to standing before the holy God.
Although Isaiah now had clean lips, he continued to live "among a people of unclean lips." Still, this was not his sin, and the new spiritual cleanliness of his situation set him apart. Thus when he heard God ask "Whom shall I send?" Isaiah at last felt qualified to volunteer.
Before hearing God's call, Isaiah first had to "get right" with God. His confession of sin and God's cleansing of him were critical first steps before the call could be heard. In other words, Isaiah had to have his lack of holiness addressed.
In religion, when the word "sacred" or the related word "holy" are applied to something, they denote that the concept or thing in question is separated from common use and dedicated for the worship of God. The sacred thing is secured against violation by reverence and a sense of right.
The opposite word from sacred is "profane," which, in its original sense, meant not something vulgar, but "common" or "for every day use." It was a synonym for "secular." Profane is from the Latin word profanus, which means "in front of the temple" or "outside the holy place." Thus, to profane something was to use in a common way that which was set apart for holy use.
How many things can you think of today that are actually secured against violation? Many objects, ideas, institutions, vows, and rules once considered holy or sacred have been infringed upon for common use.
Consider, for example, the American flag. Most of us were brought up to honor the flag and treat it with respect. But in our lifetime we have seen news footage of the flag being burned by Americans protesting various things. In college, I can remember students who wore a small version of the flag as a patch on the seat of their blue jeans.
Sunday was once considered a special day, set apart for the purpose of worship, reflection, and restoration. There were so-called "blue laws" that forbade merchants to open on that day. That has now changed, of course, and for many, Sunday is just another day of the weekend. A few years ago, the Catholic Bishop of New York City chided the officials of Little League for scheduling games on Sunday, pointing out that the day was intended to be set apart for worship. In our anything-goes world, that pronouncement may seem out of step, but was he wrong?
There was a time long ago, when marriage vows were held so sacred that unfaithfulness was punishable by stoning to death. Now we have people parading their infidelities on the Jerry Springer Show.
The issue of sacredness has come up over land use as well. Sometimes modern development bumps up against ancient Native American burial grounds. Typically the Indian peoples say that land is sacred or holy and should not be disturbed, while developers maintain that the land should be for the use of the living.
There are still people for whom their word is their bond, but for many, promises simply aren't sacred. As a society, we are a people who stand in danger of having nothing considered sacred or holy any longer.
Now you may well say, "So what?" Aren't we maybe better off when nothing is holy, when all things are available for common use? After all, it's possible for us to latch onto the symbol of something sacred and worship the symbol while forgetting the thing toward which the symbol points. We could, for example, question the practice of spending a lot on beautifying a church building while people are starving outside.
Nonetheless, despite the abuses that come with misunderstandings of sacredness, there is real danger in declaring everything secular. When nothing is sacred, we all lose.
For one thing, when nothing is sacred, there is no ground for moral and ethical behavior. The meaning of the Ten Commandments, for example, can be summed up in the word "reverence": reverence for God, for the name of God, for God's day, for parents, for life, for property, for personhood, for truth, for others, and even for ourselves.
But, if there is no sacredness to those laws, if they are simply an optional moral code that we can use or not use, as suits us, what good is it?
For another thing, when nothing is sacred, life itself is cheapened. Christians maintain that all human life is sacred. When we forget that, it becomes possible for all sorts of atrocities to be committed. Consider what happened in the area we now call Bosnia as the former Yugoslavia broke up. We heard the awful term, "ethnic cleansing." What it meant was that people of one ethnic line were seeking to wipe out the people of another. What allows anyone to do that? One thing is the loss of belief that all life is sacred.
Some of you may remember hearing about Albert Schweitzer, the famed doctor who gave up all sorts of personal advancement opportunities to become a missionary doctor in Africa. He once explained that decision this way: "Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life, and that to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil."
But when nothing is sacred, life itself is cheapened.
For yet one more thing, when nothing is sacred, we have a hard time making room for God in our lives. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had a good life as the result of following God's instructions, but when they stopped holding God's words as sacred, when they started believing that doing what they wanted was more important than listening to God, they lost their beautiful home and their good life.
And so it is with us. When there is nothing we prize or hold in awe beyond our own right to do as we wish, when God's calling is not sacred for us, then we usurp God's role as the master of life.
Sacredness means that we recognize that Someone is greater than any of us, and he is holy, sacred. Sacred things, concepts, and practices at their best help us to find our way to God. Isaiah discovered this, and the truth of his discovery has not changed.
So what am I asking you to do? Allow there be that which is sacred in life, that which has one primary function, to point us to God. Holiness is a characteristic of God, and when we recognize the sacredness or holiness of anything, we are in the presence of something that can help us hear God's call and draw closer to him.
The show, which by the way was created by a Catholic priest, was opposed by some Catholic groups and supported by others. But in my opinion, despite the show's name, Nothing Sacred, it did far more than most of the portrayals of religion on television to affirm that there are things that are sacred.
On this show, unlike the Father Dowling Mysteries of a few years back, the characters actually prayed. In fact, prayer was taken so seriously that when Father Ray was troubled, he sometimes could not find the energy and concentration to pray. When he did, however, it came across as eloquent and holy.
The show also demonstrated that people's lives are sacred, too. In one episode, a young couple, in this country illegally, sought asylum in Father Ray's church, and the lengths to which the church staff went to aid this couple showed that both the couple's lives and the concept of asylum were sacred.
Ironically, a series titled Nothing Sacred conveyed just the opposite.
This show came to mind this week when reading our text from Isaiah 6, which tells of the call of Isaiah to be a prophet. In narrating his call story, Isaiah helps us understand something about sacredness.
Isaiah's call was not a "once upon a time" experience; rather, it occurred at a crucial juncture in Judah's history -- "the year that King Uzziah died." This was probably 738 B.C., and the king's death marked the end of a period of relative independence. Seven years earlier, Assyria had begun to gain power in the region, and Judah now came under the shadow of the Assyrian threat.
Sometime in that year, young Isaiah found himself in the temple, and there he had a vision in which he saw God seated on a throne. That sight overwhelmed Isaiah with the sense that he was in the presence of absolute holiness. The seraphs he saw were heavenly beings whose function was to attend and praise the deity, but their pose tells us even more about holiness. They had six wings, and used two to remain aloft, but the other four served to protect them from the intense glory emanating from the throne. These beings praised God saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts." (That triple use of "holy," by the way, is probably the reason the lectionary committee picked this passage as the First Lesson for this day, Holy Trinity Sunday.)
Hearing this expression of holiness, Isaiah was immediately hit with a compelling sense of his own sinfulness -- or unholiness. Thus he cried out, characterizing his guilty self as "a man of unclean lips" who lived "among a people of unclean lips"; even worse, in that unclean state he had come before the king, the Lord of hosts, which was an offensive act toward any royalty. In response, however, God provided a ritual of cleansing. A live coal was brought from the altar of incense to touch Isaiah's lips, and his sin was "blotted out." Thus his sin was no longer an impediment to standing before the holy God.
Although Isaiah now had clean lips, he continued to live "among a people of unclean lips." Still, this was not his sin, and the new spiritual cleanliness of his situation set him apart. Thus when he heard God ask "Whom shall I send?" Isaiah at last felt qualified to volunteer.
Before hearing God's call, Isaiah first had to "get right" with God. His confession of sin and God's cleansing of him were critical first steps before the call could be heard. In other words, Isaiah had to have his lack of holiness addressed.
In religion, when the word "sacred" or the related word "holy" are applied to something, they denote that the concept or thing in question is separated from common use and dedicated for the worship of God. The sacred thing is secured against violation by reverence and a sense of right.
The opposite word from sacred is "profane," which, in its original sense, meant not something vulgar, but "common" or "for every day use." It was a synonym for "secular." Profane is from the Latin word profanus, which means "in front of the temple" or "outside the holy place." Thus, to profane something was to use in a common way that which was set apart for holy use.
How many things can you think of today that are actually secured against violation? Many objects, ideas, institutions, vows, and rules once considered holy or sacred have been infringed upon for common use.
Consider, for example, the American flag. Most of us were brought up to honor the flag and treat it with respect. But in our lifetime we have seen news footage of the flag being burned by Americans protesting various things. In college, I can remember students who wore a small version of the flag as a patch on the seat of their blue jeans.
Sunday was once considered a special day, set apart for the purpose of worship, reflection, and restoration. There were so-called "blue laws" that forbade merchants to open on that day. That has now changed, of course, and for many, Sunday is just another day of the weekend. A few years ago, the Catholic Bishop of New York City chided the officials of Little League for scheduling games on Sunday, pointing out that the day was intended to be set apart for worship. In our anything-goes world, that pronouncement may seem out of step, but was he wrong?
There was a time long ago, when marriage vows were held so sacred that unfaithfulness was punishable by stoning to death. Now we have people parading their infidelities on the Jerry Springer Show.
The issue of sacredness has come up over land use as well. Sometimes modern development bumps up against ancient Native American burial grounds. Typically the Indian peoples say that land is sacred or holy and should not be disturbed, while developers maintain that the land should be for the use of the living.
There are still people for whom their word is their bond, but for many, promises simply aren't sacred. As a society, we are a people who stand in danger of having nothing considered sacred or holy any longer.
Now you may well say, "So what?" Aren't we maybe better off when nothing is holy, when all things are available for common use? After all, it's possible for us to latch onto the symbol of something sacred and worship the symbol while forgetting the thing toward which the symbol points. We could, for example, question the practice of spending a lot on beautifying a church building while people are starving outside.
Nonetheless, despite the abuses that come with misunderstandings of sacredness, there is real danger in declaring everything secular. When nothing is sacred, we all lose.
For one thing, when nothing is sacred, there is no ground for moral and ethical behavior. The meaning of the Ten Commandments, for example, can be summed up in the word "reverence": reverence for God, for the name of God, for God's day, for parents, for life, for property, for personhood, for truth, for others, and even for ourselves.
But, if there is no sacredness to those laws, if they are simply an optional moral code that we can use or not use, as suits us, what good is it?
For another thing, when nothing is sacred, life itself is cheapened. Christians maintain that all human life is sacred. When we forget that, it becomes possible for all sorts of atrocities to be committed. Consider what happened in the area we now call Bosnia as the former Yugoslavia broke up. We heard the awful term, "ethnic cleansing." What it meant was that people of one ethnic line were seeking to wipe out the people of another. What allows anyone to do that? One thing is the loss of belief that all life is sacred.
Some of you may remember hearing about Albert Schweitzer, the famed doctor who gave up all sorts of personal advancement opportunities to become a missionary doctor in Africa. He once explained that decision this way: "Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely that good consists in maintaining, assisting and enhancing life, and that to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil."
But when nothing is sacred, life itself is cheapened.
For yet one more thing, when nothing is sacred, we have a hard time making room for God in our lives. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had a good life as the result of following God's instructions, but when they stopped holding God's words as sacred, when they started believing that doing what they wanted was more important than listening to God, they lost their beautiful home and their good life.
And so it is with us. When there is nothing we prize or hold in awe beyond our own right to do as we wish, when God's calling is not sacred for us, then we usurp God's role as the master of life.
Sacredness means that we recognize that Someone is greater than any of us, and he is holy, sacred. Sacred things, concepts, and practices at their best help us to find our way to God. Isaiah discovered this, and the truth of his discovery has not changed.
So what am I asking you to do? Allow there be that which is sacred in life, that which has one primary function, to point us to God. Holiness is a characteristic of God, and when we recognize the sacredness or holiness of anything, we are in the presence of something that can help us hear God's call and draw closer to him.
