It’s All Right

Luke 18:9-13; Romans 3:21-26

Back in 1963 Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions had a hit song entitled “It’s All Right.” The lyrics say in part:

When you wake up early in the morning
Feelin' sad like so many of us do
Hum a little soul
Make life your goal
And surely something's got to come to you
And say it's all right (it's all right)
Say it's all right (it's all right).

Bob Dylan had a song called, “Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.” Just by mentioning those I risk that you will be humming one of those songs in your mind for the rest of the service. I am mentioning these songs because they came to my mind when I came up with the title for this message. People want things to be all right. A few weeks ago I preached about the pursuit of happiness, but many people don’t even strive that high – to be happy. They just want things to be all right. My message this morning is about having everything right in your life.

For a Summer Sermon Suggestion someone in our congregation asked me to preach on righteousness, which is a central concept in Christianity. Righteousness is also one of those very misunderstood words in Christian vocabulary. When it is said that someone is righteous, we immediately think of some type of moralistic, do-gooding, self-righteous person, which is exactly the opposite of what the word means. So the words righteous and righteousness are problematic. It is better to use a word like rightness, the state of things being right. That is why I am entitling this message “It’s all right.”

Righteousness means “being in right relationship with.” That can mean being in right relationship with God, with other people, with the world, and with oneself. Those are the areas I am going to talk about this morning.  I am not talking about having all your “ducks in a row” as they say, having all the external circumstances in your life just right. That is like building a house of cards. As soon as you get it built, the slightest puff of wind will knock it down. Everything is never going to be exactly the way you think they ought to be. If you ever find yourself in that situation – where everything is just right - enjoy it, because it won’t last. I am talking about having an inner attitude of rightness that will transform our way of seeing the world.

I am going to start off with a central doctrine of NT Christianity - that this rightness – righteousness - is only achieved in one way: by grace through faith. Theologians use the big theological term “justification by faith” to describe this idea. It is based on the truth that I just stated – that we can’t make everything all right. The church can’t make everything all right. Some people think that becoming a Christian will magically make everything all right in their lives, and they are disappointed to find out that Christians have just as many problems as anyone else. They just know where to look for the solution to the problems. The government can’t make everything all right. The courts can’t make everything all right. 

A lot of Americans seem to be under the delusion that the government can fix things, that they should be able to fix things, and when they don’t we get upset. We think that somebody ought to be able to fix things and make them right. That is the big deception of politics, thinking that if we just pass the right law or get the right person in office or have the right regulations, then things will be all right. The truth is that nobody can fix things. I can’t fix things. I can’t even fix things in the church. Only God can fix things, and even he won’t fix things the way we want them to be fixed in the time frame we want it. We want things fixed now and the way we want them to be fixed. That ain’t gonna happen!

Rightness – what the Bible calls righteousness – is found by faith. By faith I mean that we trust God. God is the only one who can make things right. Our hope is that ultimately God will make everything all right, and in a spiritual sense has already done that, if we have the eyes to see. And we can have the peace and joy of that rightness right now in our lives. With that basic principle in mind, let’s look at some areas of human life that need fixing.

1. First is our relationship with God. Every religion in the world – Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, etc. - admits that something is not right between humans and God, however they conceive God or the Divine to be. They will call this unrightness by different words, and propose different solutions, but it always boils down to the fact that something is not right.  The whole purpose of religion is to propose a solution to what is not right.

Christianity calls that not-rightness by the name “sin.” That is another one of those words that conjures up so much emotional reaction that the biblical meaning of it can hardly be heard any more. But the Greek word that is used for sin 90% of the time in the Bible means ‘to fall short.” It is an arrow that falls short of its target, a bridge that falls short of reaching the other side, a rope that falls short of reaching a person trapped in a hole. It means that we are disconnected. Sin means that all our efforts fall short, and that we are separated from God.

But the prophet Isaiah said, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save;

Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. ² But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” We can’t set things right. Our hand is too short. But God can. His hand is not too short. As Christians we believe that this bridging of the gap has been done through Jesus Christ. As the apostle Paul says in our epistle lesson:  “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified [made right] freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, … to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

In Western religion there has been a lot of fear. Fear of punishment from God, fear of hell, fear of not being worthy in God’s eyes. Fear is absolutely eliminated in Christ. Christ is the love of God incarnated, and perfect love casts out all fear. There is no place for guilt or fear in Christianity. God has addressed those issues in Christ as only he can. So if you have those feelings or thoughts, just believe and trust that God has taken care of it in Christ. And don’t worry about it anymore. That is not part of the Christian experience. That is what the Gospel says.

2. Now I want to move on to our relationship with the world. Our relationship with the world is also broken. Things are not the way we want them to be. That is the cause of much of human suffering. Our physical health may not be the way we want it to be. Our emotional or mental health may not be the way we want it to be. In the bigger world we look out and we see the suffering of others. Wars and rumors of wars, hunger, injustice, disease. There is a lot of suffering in the world. And God does not seem to be doing anything about it. This has led some people to despair that there really is a God, or if there is that he is a God who cares about what happens in the world. If he were that type of God, why doesn’t he do something? Those are big question, but we have a big God who can take our big questions.

There is a solution to this. It is not a philosophical solution. It is not a theological answer. If you are looking for the perfect explanation to the existence of evil and suffering in the world, you are not going to hear it here from me, and I do not think you will find it anywhere. At least I haven’t, and I have looked more thoroughly than many people. The solution is the same as the solution to our relationship with God: Faith. By faith I do not mean blind trust. I do not mean posing like the three monkeys: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Close your eyes to the real world, and close your ears to truth, and pray it all works out all right in the end. No! Some people use religion as a blindfold and ear plugs, but that is not faith; that is fear. By faith I mean trusting God, and seeing and hearing God at work in the world.

There is a story in the OT book of Second kings about the prophet Elisha. The King of Syria was attacking Israel. They had sent a great army to surround the city of Dothan. The servant of Elisha got up on the wall and saw the Syrian army surrounding the city and he was understandably fearful for this life and the life of all the Israelitea in the town. “And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:15-17) The point of the story is that there are forces at world in the world that are unseen to human eyes but can be discerned through eyes of faith. Faith is not the three monkeys seeing, hearing, and speaking no evil. Faith opening eyes and ears to a greater reality and speaking that forth.

Things might not seem all right to our human eyes, but seen with spiritual eyes God is discerned to be at work in the world. We don’t have to blindly hope that God will act. We can see God acting. In his 1927 poem "Desiderata" American writer Max Ehrmann says, “And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God.” Through faith we can see that things are all right, even though things may appear to be falling apart. God really is in control and things are unfolding as they should.

3. Third, I want to talk about our relationship within ourselves. I am talking about our mental and emotional health. 2012 figures released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that 11 percent of Americans ages 12 and older used Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil or other antidepressants. A federal study found the these medications are used by 23 percent of middle-aged women — almost one in four. So it is an issue. Are things all right inside your head and heart? Are you all right? I don’t want what I have to say next to be a substitute for medication that you might need to take for depression or anxiety.  I am not one of these preachers who say that taking medicine is lack of faith in God. I am not against medication. Brain chemistry problems can be treated with brain changing pharmaceuticals.  But I am saying that there is also a spiritual dimension to mental and emotional health – a spiritual solution to making things all right inside our heads and hearts.

We don’t have to believe everything our brain tells us. That is what I tell people: You don’t have to believe your thoughts. We don’t believe everything other people tell us. We don’t believe everything the news tells us. Why should we believe what we tell ourselves? Our thoughts and emotions can really take us on a wild ride, if we let them. We don’t have to let them. We can step back from our thoughts and emotions. When you are troubled, I invite you to take a step back into what the Bible calls Spirit – the human spirit, that innermost part of us, which is united with the Holy Spirit. We can find rest in God. When we step back from our thoughts and feelings – when we put some distance between them and us – then we are no longer at their mercy. They no longer have control over us. We don’t have to let our thoughts and feelings pull us into dark places. This is a real practical spiritual solution to much of our suffering. The old hymn says: “There is a place of quiet rest,Near to the heart of God. A place where sin cannot molest, Near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blest Redeemer, Sent from the heart of God, Hold us who wait before Thee Near to the heart of God.” There is a real spiritual liberation from our self-inflicted suffering. It is found in God.

4. The final point, that I want to make very briefly is, rightness in relationships. This is harder than the other points I am talking about because it is dependent not just on us but on others. And we have no control over others. But we have – by the grace of God and faith in god – some control over ourselves. As Paul says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends upon you, live at peace with all men.” (Romans 12:18) It may not be possible, but as far it is depends on us, we can live in right relationship with others.

The key element in relationships is forgiveness. This is one of my major themes in ministry. I am devoting a whole sermon to it this afternoon at the East Sandwich chapel. Forgiveness removes a huge barrier in human relationships. Forgiveness is absolutely essential to healthy relationships. And it is not optional in the Christian life. It is a command of Christ. And we have the power to do it. We cannot say we can’t forgive – that it is not in us to forgive - because God has given us the power to forgive. He has placed it in us. He has given us his own power to forgive in the Holy Spirit. By the grace of God forgiveness is possible in any situation through faith in Christ.

Beyond forgiveness is reconciliation. That takes two. It takes two in our relationship with God – it takes God and us. God has done his part in grace by forgiving us, and we have to do our part in faith by accepting God’s forgiveness and also forgiving God for anything that we think he has done to us in life. It also takes two in our relationships with others. We can extend the grace that has been extended to us in Christ. We can forgive people for what they have done. That is all we can do. Whether it is accepted, and whether others will forgive us in return depends on them. We can only do so much, but we must do what we can.

But in any case, whether there is reconciliation in our relationships or not, we are free. We can be at peace in our own hearts and souls. Sin – either our sin or other people’s sin – no longer has power over us. We have been set free. We have inner peace in our thoughts about our relationships with others regardless of other’s attitudes or actions. This is what the Bible calls righteousness. Everything can be all right - right with God, right with the world, right in ourselves and right with others. As Browning says, “God's in his Heaven/All's right with the world!” Everything really is all right.