Psalm # 14: 1, 4—6
Preached: 2010 Des Arc First UMC Nursing Home May 2, 2010
Two weeks ago, we talked about how when we think everything is going wrong in our lives there is no God or our God has forsaken us.
Today’s first verse tells it very plain “ONLY FOOLS SAY IN THEIR HEART THERE IS NO GOD”.
I do not know about you, but one thing I do not like to be called is a fool. A fool is “a person lacking in judgment or wisdom”
or is “a deranged person lacking in the common powers of understanding”. I am sure none of you would like to be called a fool either.
We as a people do not want to be known for how much we do not know and understand but as people who can understand and do mighty things.
Each one of us sometimes feel that we are able to conquer the world, and it is not until we are brought low by life that we
know in our heart there is something greater than us outside of ourselves. I think it is funny all of the great men of history
who have lived and who will ever live. They all have several things in common.
One: they were men who thought himself or herself more important than anyone else on this planet.
Hitler thought he was a God as did Napoleon and the Roman emperors and d most other emperors.
If the royalty of this world did not and do not think of themselves as God they think that they have God’s ordained right to do anything they well please.
We now have a Pope over a billion Catholics who helped, condoned, and hide pedophile priests. In addition,
he is so powerful he has to die to be removed from his place.
We have congressional representatives and women who are so powerful that they think they can do anything they want and no one needs to be answered to.
We have leaders of business who think it is all right to manufacture items that kill and maim and want no responsibility for their shortcomings.
We have financial people who have brought our economy to its very knees and still want their million dollar bonuses. In Fact, I heard there were 25 hedge fund managers who together made over 14 Billion Dollars last year.
Moreover, we have people who do not love God with all of their heart mind and soul and their neighbors as much as they love themselves, who feel they can bargain and buy their way into heaven.
AS verse 4 read—“Will those who do evil never learn?”
Will all of these true fools never learn who is in charge of their very existence? NOT ONE OF THESE MIGHTY INDIVIDUALS or any those are now DOING THESE SAME TYPE THINGS escape two things.
First: They will all Die. NO ONE has ever made it off this little blue marble without dyeing. No matter what we do in science and medicine, no matter how long we can keep people’s bodies functioning, we cannot nor will we ever prevent death of this mortal form.
The second thing will be that: not one of them will not be judged for what they have or have not done on earth. Just because they were mighty and powerful on earth, does not mean they have a free pass past this final judgment. As Heroes were welcomed back into Rome in a parade, a slave was always in their chariot telling them that they were mortal and would also die. When they stopped doing this their entire civilization collapsed upon itself.
We too, when we forget this will have our great civilization collapse upon itself also. At the Ash Wednesday service as the ashes are placed on the forehead the priest and ministers say. “Ashes you were and Ashes you shall become” We all need to be reminded of our mortality.
Many churches put a “pall” on the coffin at funerals. This is the white cloth that covers the coffin or containers. It is done so that it does not matter if you have a poor wooden coffin or a 24-carat Gold container, in the sight of God you are all the same.
I have royal blood in me and I have visited the site of the graves of some of my cousins, especially in Westminster Abby. Royalty could and do buy their place near the Altars of these churches, but just because you are buried in such a location, does not mean they will receive any better judgment than the poor pauper who is wrapped quilt and put out in the back 40 in some unmarked grave. At that, final judgment terror will grip them when they stand naked in front of God and be found lacking or magnificent in front of their creator.
How will you stand in front of God? Self-made and haughty and proud of yourself and how much wealth and power you created for yourself on earth. Nevertheless, lacking any redemptive attributes Or poor and humble, but complete with a heart full of God’s love and charity for all of your fellow creation, in what you knew was God’s kingdom, not our own.
No wonder the Christ said in his sermon on the mound. “God blesses those who realize their need for him for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them”. Are you a fool or one of God’s blessed? Not for what you have and have done, but because you have kept His love in your heart your mind and your very soul.