Here’s an excerpt from my sermon series, “Things Jesus Wouldn’t say;” preached this past Sunday, June 27, 2018. This excerpt is edited and embellished for the blog.  This sermon was entitled, “Jesus would never say, “I forgive you, go and sin some more.”

“Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you” (John 5:14).

That’s some statement. What does it mean and why would Jesus put that burden on us? What if Jesus wasn’t “putting a burden on us,” but instead was teaching us how to align ourselves with reality, a reality that our rebellion had created but his mercy and grace could guide us in navigating? What if nature itself, including human nature is so constructed that bad behavior get’s punished, not by God but by nature itself.  What if the term, “I am the way, the truth, the life,” means that Christ doesn’t only represent a philosophy of belief but a philosophy of behavior? I believe that Jesus was simply saying that bad behavior and violating natural law is extremely risky.  Regardless of what it means, Jesus wasn’t afraid to tell it like he saw it.  I love that about Jesus.

Let me let you in on something.  If you were a fly on the wall at a conversation of a group of 21st century pastors & veteran Christians you would conclude that we think all of you are: A) very fragile and can only handle being told that you are wonderful just like you are, B) that you have very short attention spans and therefore can only listen for 20 minutes, C) that you are very simple minded and get confused by 3 syllable words and D) you are totally incapable of controlling your impulses therefore you must be reminded every few minutes that your salvation is by grace and not works.

You know what? I think we’ve insulted you and got you completely wrong.  A) You’re not fragile, you give birth, battle cancer, commute to Boston every day, climb power lines in sub zero temperatures, clean up unbelievable messes every week, take care of aging parent, etc. etc, etc, B) You are not unable to sit still and absorb information.  You have college degrees, you watch three hour movies and sports, you read books, and I’m not being sarcastic when I say, you play video games that require you to pay close attention to complicated detail for three or four hours. C) You are not mental midgets, you engage and and successfully perform complex task involving math equations, computer functions, sales negotiations and you even put together furniture from Ikea.  D) And the vast majority of you control your impulses of violence, pleasure, gossip, slothfulness and sex extraordinarily or else everything about this day would be complete chaos.

Be suspicious of people  who coddle you; they’re either weak and don’t deserve the title leader or they are devious and power hungry. Proverbs 29:5  “A flattering neighbor is up to no good; he’s probably planning to take advantage of you.”  Besides, I am convinced that the numbers who really think we are benefitting from what Jonathan Haidt calls “the morality of fragility,”  are miniscule. Human infants are indeed helpless vulnerable little creatures that need to be handled with extreme care and caution, but you’re not an infant, you have gotten up, gone out into the world, become literate, mastered some skills and you haven’t even scratched the surface of your genius. There’s that iconic courtroom  scene from, “a few good men” where Col. Jessep says to Lt. Kaffee, “you can’t handle the truth!” It’s now time for some reverse mentoring,  you should shout to those you look up to with, “not only can we can handle the truth, we demand it!”