Years ago, when Sonja and Larry Nixon were living in Waco, on one of their anniversaries Larry rented a highway billboard and had, “Sonja, I love you, Larry,” written on it.  But, as far as Larry could tell, Sonja never saw it because she never said anything.  That is until one night after dinner when he got up to wash the dishes.  Somewhere in the middle of that, Sonja slipped up beside him and said, “Thanks for doing the dishes, Larry.  That shows how much you love me so much more than that sign on the highway.”  Isn’t that something?  After all that money only to learn that the way to a woman’s heart all along was through the kitchen sink!

It’s not that Sonja didn’t appreciate the sign.  It’s just that she didn’t need it.  Who Larry was and how he behaved said how much he loved her so much more than just what he was willing to say where everyone could see it.  In simple acts of kindness he proved his love so that, even if he’d never said it on the sign, Sonja would have known.  The question for us is whether Jesus knows that about those of us who claim to be his followers.  “‘Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?’” he wanted to know.  What we put on our sign for everyone to read is one thing.  The real sign of who we love is how we live. 

Speaking of signs, several months ago Dr. Phil Berry emailed me a picture he had taken outside a roadside convenience store on the Texas border on the way to Colorado.  It was one of those portable advertising signs meant to lure in passersby.  “Last chance Lotto Texas, clean restrooms, snacks,” it read at the top of the sign.  Then, at the bottom, almost like an afterthought, it read, “Jesus is Lord.”  It’s like, on the way out of Texas, whatever you need, they have it.  A little snack?  A place to freshen up?  A place to do a little gambling?  A little bit of Jesus?  Whatever you need, they’ve got it.  It made me wonder what’s on our sign for people to read as they pass by.  Is Jesus just one thing among many we offer?  An afterthought, perhaps?  Or, is it the Lordship of Christ that is the first and last of all we say and do in this place? 

Growing up in a Baptist tradition profoundly shaped by 19^th century revivalism, our worship gave primary emphasis, almost exclusive emphasis, to getting people to make “a public decision” for Christ.  While there is actually nothing in scripture about getting people to walk an aisle in public worship as the primary sign of their commitment to Christ.  There is substantial emphasis on the importance of baptism as an expression of faith.  Even at that, as Baptists, though our name might seem to indicate otherwise, we were never as worried about the baptistry part as were, say, our Church of Christ friends.  We were so afraid of giving anyone the idea that there was anything they could do to earn their salvation that, paradoxically, beyond the public decision, our emphasis was so exclusively on the inner commitment a person made to Christ that we inadvertently minimized nearly every other outward expression of one’s salvation.  Jesus doesn’t let us off so easy.  “‘Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?’”

Now, I don’t want to minimize inward spiritual commitment.  “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.”  (Romans 10:9-10)  Yet, even in that great text that so heavily emphasizes one’s inner commitment as the starting point of a relationship with Christ, do you hear what it says about the impossibility of faith existing in one who does not in some way give expression of it? 

Clearly, for example, the New Testament calls us to repentance.  Repentance is many things.  At a minimum, it starts with sorrow for sin, specifically the sin of not following Christ.  So, when one repents, when he tells God he is sorry, that is a good starting point.  Jesus said, that it’s what we do after we say we’re sorry that verifies whether we’ve really come to a faith-kind of repentance or we’re advertising more on our sign than we actually have in our storeroom. 

To drive home that point, Jesus told a little parable in which he defined the central role obedience to his Lordship plays in preparing us for eternity.  Two people built houses.  Both were tested by a great flood.  One stood and the other fell.  And, the only difference in the two was the foundation.  So, it’s not just what we say to Jesus but what we do after we say it that is the foundation, the real substance, of everything else we are busy doing.  Specifically, Jesus said, the only foundation that can stand the test eternity will bring is obedience to all that he said we should do.

By the way, it’s amazing what gets on that list of things we should do that doesn’t belong there.  A letter came this week from a friend who is struggling with what genuine Christianity demands of her.  She said, “Sometimes I think organized church robs people of joy through subtle jabs.  Sunday before last in Sunday School, people were responding to (questions about) how we fall short in loving God and one person’s response was (that we do so) through poor attendance on Sunday night.”  She went on to express profound personal disgust that someone would so narrowly define what it means to be a disciple.  So, let’s let Jesus define it.

Before he told the parable, Jesus defined those things that we should be busy doing that characterize genuine discipleship.  For time’s sake, I’ll summarize.  This is not an exhaustive list but it covers some of the most crucial matters.  Among other things, Jesus said that we should love our fellowman, even our enemies, and seek justice in an unjust world.  (Luke 6:27-36)  He said that, instead of playing God by drawing final conclusions about the motives and actions of others, we should primarily devote our time and energy to doing good, even to those who do evil.  (Luke 6:37-38)  He said that we should not use the spiritual failures of others to detract attention from our own spiritual inadequacies.  (Luke 6:39-42)  He said that the character of our hearts is of paramount concern because, more than any other thing, it is a transformed heart that empowers a person to live in ways that honor God.  (Luke 6:43-45) 

Then, having said that, Jesus said that if we want to call him our Lord we should not only believe on him in our hearts but actually go and live like we know that what he has just told us is so true that we are willing to bank, indeed, build our eternities, on it.  Those of us who came out of rather legalistic backgrounds and who celebrated our freedom by letting out the reigns of moral restraint a little too much would do well to let Jesus’ words guide us carefully back toward a firmer moral ground.  Otherwise, we may find our lifestyles tilting us toward a very dangerous state of imbalance with respect to what we claim to believe.

Too often we behave as though we can live any way we want as long as we believe the right thing about God.  Jesus doesn’t cut us that kind of slack.  He said that it is in fact how we live that proves what we believe.  Believing in Christ may be what secures our salvation but it is how we live after we say we’ve come to believe that verifies our security.  Dan Williams, who is president of the Texas Baptist Laity Institute, was recently interviewing Foy Valentine.  He wanted the old sage’s advice as to how to go about training lay people in matters of faith and ethics.  Foy told him, “Forget about ethics textbooks, Dan.  Teach them the Ten Commandments and tell them to not sleep with people they’re not married to.”  (George Mason, “The Word Strange and New,” The Wilshire Pulpit, Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas, TX, January 21, 2000)

Do you remember when you were little and you would go to the park and play on the seesaw?  Do you remember how important it was to have someone on the other side of the seesaw roughly your same size and weight?  Do you remember what happened when someone too big or too little got on the other side and things got out of balance?  Could you ever forget?  If you say you believe the Ten Commandments and all they say about living in right relationship with God and others but you are sleeping with someone who isn’t your wife or husband then how you are living is so terribly out of balance with what you say you believe you shouldn’t waste very much energy calling Jesus your Lord.  He’s not interested in what you put on the sign.  How you’re living outweighs it and is sign enough.  But, please know that following Christ as Lord is about so much more than just not picking the wrong bed in which to sleep. 

When I was growing up in Brownfield, Hispanics made up a significant portion of the population.  And, the whites and Hispanics got along well as long as everyone remembered their proper place, you know.  So, though we all went to school together, as I recall, there were no Hispanics on the Student Council and they never got elected cheerleader and so on.  Everyone had their place.  The farmers took real advantage of what we would call “undocumented workers.”  They’d pay them paltry wages and let them live in shacks out on their farms because they knew they wouldn’t squawk too loudly.  For one thing, they couldn’t squawk in English and, for another, they didn’t dare risk being deported.  Some of those same farmers came to church on Sunday and taught me the Bible and served as Deacons and such because, well, you know, the depth of your love for Jesus was most accurately tested by your faithful Sunday attendance.  I had just finished seventh grade when Martin Luther King was assassinated and I never associated what was happening in West Texas with anything like what got him killed.  Only later did I come to appreciate that racism is not just when mean white people beat up or murder innocent blacks.  It can take on forms that are subtle and quiet but just as vicious.

But, of late, it’s come to my attention that Jesus is not really interested in what I believe about the goodness or badness of those who taught one thing at church on Sunday and then did whatever they had to in order to keep their farms up and running thirty years ago and four hundred miles away.  He’s more interested in what I am doing now about the injustice I allow to perpetuate itself where I live.  And, it’s not that I’m doing anything to keep anyone down.  On the other hand, if I’m not helping them up, isn’t that the same thing?  Kirbyjohn Caldwell, a black Methodist minister from Houston said that we’ve lived for so long by the proverb that, if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day but if you teach him to fish you feed him for a lifetime.  He said that’s not necessarily true.  He said that whether one can fish for a lifetime also has to do with who owns the pond.  Racism can be as subtle as just being real careful about who gets to fish in our pond.

Martin Luther King once wrote, “I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate.  I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the . . . Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice . . ..  Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”  (Martin Luther King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail)

If those words don’t get your attention, then listen to these words written by John in which he records something the Holy Spirit said to some folks who claimed to be followers of Christ.  “‘I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish that you were either cold or hot.  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.’”  (Revelation 3:15)  Maybe what Jesus needs, and wants, is not more moderates or fundamentalists as much as people committed to living in ways that radically demonstrate that, when we told Jesus we loved him, we meant it so much that we were willing to build our eternal hope on it. 

I’ve spent so much time and energy telling you how much Jesus loves you since becoming your pastor.  I just needed to stop for a moment and ask you whether or not you’ve told him you’re sorry for the times you failed to love him.  And, then, to ask you what you’ve been busy doing since you said you were sorry.