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Delivered at the United Church of Jaffrey
March 11th, 2018
A Can Opener
A can opener.
Ah, the everyday tool, sitting on your kitchen counter, or mixing with the spatulas and meat thermometers in your kitchen drawer.
Would you be so kind as to bring your can opener to your mind’s eye?
Got it?
Good.
I start my sermon this morning with a can opener.
A can opener, of course, is a tool that is used to open a can.
The can, usually, is filled with food — nourishment.
The can opener itself, of course, has no relation whatsoever with the clam chowder, baked beans, or tomato sauce that is inside the can…
…but without the can opener, we’d have a hard time accessing the nourishment provided in the can.
Not long ago, I came across a quote.
The author was a man named Hocking.
William Ernest Hocking.
William Ernest Hocking
Turns out this fellow Hocking — I did a little research — was quite a distinguished scholar — a professor of philosophy, metaphysics and religion at Harvard University, and the author of some 22 books.
Hocking’s quote has been following me around for the last few months.
And I’m going to use it, this morning, as a kind of can opener.
It’s nice, sometimes, when you are working with a Biblical text, to have a can opener that you can use to open up its meaning.
So, what, you are asking, is this quote?
Well, here it is. If you want to read along, it is printed at the bottom of the insert, in today’s bulletin.
No religion is a true religion, that does not make men tingle to their fingertips with a sense of infinite hazard.
Let me read it again…
No religion
is a true religion,
that does not make men
tingle to their fingertips
with a sense of
infinite
hazard.
Hazard?
But this is a peculiar can opener…
Why does Hocking suggest that the test of a true religion is its ability to make you tremble with the sense of infinite hazard?
…Hazard?
When I think of hazard I think of danger:
I think of black ice out on Rte 124,
I think of downed power lines
Flash floods
Drunk drivers.
What does this have to do with religion?
And Hocking takes it even farther — he talks of infinite hazard
What is Infinite hazard?
Let me see?
Going for a dip during a tsunami?
Playing pin the tail on the donkey on top of the Empire State Building?
Hang gliding during a tornado?
Riding a roller coaster without a safety harness?
Taking a nap in the middle of the interstate?
What does this have to do with prayer?
What does this have to do with singing hymns?
What does this have to do with coffee hour?
I don’t see the connection.
So why?
Why does Hocking say that religion cannot be true unless it makes you tingle to your fingertips with a sense of infinite hazard?
John 3:16
Owen just read two scripture passages for us:
John 3:16 through 21
And Psalm 137.
These are two very different biblical passages. They are both well known, and, interestingly, they have both inspired a strong response from our contemporary American culture.
John 3:16 has been embraced by many Evangelical Christians who consider the verse a concise expression of the essence of Christian faith.
For this reason, not only the verse, but the scripture reference itself: the words “John 3:16” have taken on a kind of cultural value.
Evangelical Christians eager to spread the good news of Jesus Christ, have been known to hold up signs that read “John 3:16” at sporting events, in hopes that Television viewers at home would take the hint, go look up the verse and become Christian.
The words “John 3:16” have also taken on a kind of talismanic quality for some sports figures. A quarterback named Tim Tebow wrote the words “John 3:16” in the black paint under his eyes during a championship college football game that his team won in 2009.
Apparently the stunt worked. According to the Boston Globe the words “John 3:16” were Googled 94 million times while the game was on the air.
But what is the verse itself?
The version of this text that you are most likely to recognize comes from the King James Version:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
What is the secret behind this verse?
Why has it captured our attention so effectively?
Certainly, part of its significance must come from its purposeful tone.
There are no maybe’s or I don’t knows in this verse.
It is not a question.
It is a statement.
And the statement makes a very straightforward claim about the nature of reality.
A claim that is not a hard to understand —
God loved the world so much
That God was willing to give us his son.
All we have to do, in return is believe in this son and, as a reward, we “shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
There you have it.
If you want a straightforward answer, there it is.
There does not seem to be much mystery here.
And when there is no mystery…
Where is the infinite hazard?
If this is the essence of Christianity, than Christianity does not seem to pass William Ernest Hocking’s test.
It does not make us tingle to our fingertips
with a sense of infinite hazard.
Or does it?
Psalm 137
Psalm 137 is well known, like John 3:16, but our culture has responded to it in a very different way.
There have been a number of songs that are based on the Psalm, that have been made popular.
We will sing one of these songs later in the service.
Psalm 137 is often quoted in church…
By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
But if a great deal of energy has been put into publicizing John 3:16, a great deal of energy has been put into trying to hide a certain part of Psalm 137.
Everytime this psalm is sung, the final verse of the psalm is cut out.
Everytime this psalm is read in church (other than today) the final verse is removed.
There is good reason for this.
It is an awful verse.
If you are a self respecting, moral person, and even if you are not — this verse is repellent and repugnant.
We would like this verse to be removed from the Bible.
The Psalm concludes with the horrifying image of jewish people taking revenge on their Babylonian captors by
taking their little ones and dashing them against the rock!
Infinite Hazard
Forget going for a dip during a tsunami
Or hang gliding during a tornado.
Those things are trivial compared to this.
Riding a roller coaster without a safety harness?
That is not infinite hazard.
Killing an infant by dashing it on a rock?
That is infinite hazard.
Taking a nap in the middle of the interstate is nothing — its just danger.
But threatening to kill a child? That is infinite hazard.
Why?
Because what is at stake here is not your safety, or even you life.
What is at stake is your soul.
There is nothing more repugnant than killing a child.
If you do this, you have lost your soul.
And that, is infinite hazard.
The can opener has opened up Psalm 137.
Can it open John 3:16?
Well, if you look at John 3:16 from our human perspective, it looks pretty good.
All we have to to is believe in Jesus and we are promised everlasting life.
Nice.
But what if you look at John 3:16 from God’s perspective?
What happens when god “gives” his only begotten son to the world?
His son is nailed to cross and left to die a bloody death.
That is not nice.
That is infinite hazard.
As a parent, I can tell you that the greatest fear that I have is, without a shadow of a doubt — the fear of losing one of my children.
This is the worst thing that can happen to a person.
It is infinite hazard.
This, I am sorry to say, has happened to some of you.
This reality is woven into our religion.
It helps us to understand how serious it is to have a soul.
It helps us to know how profound a gift we have been given, when we were given life.
Religion helps our souls live when we
tingle to our fingertips
with a sense of
infinite Hazard.
Amen