"Everything You Can Do"
Romans 14:1-12
October 31, 1999
David Beckett, D.Min.

Americans, especially the Alaskan variety, like to pride ourselves on our "can do" spirit. It was this conviction that helped a scruffy band of colonists defeat the great British army. It was this gritty determination that rode with thousands of rattletrap wagons full of families moving out to settle and tame the wild West. Immigrants from a hundred different countries seemed to catch this spirit the moment they set foot on American soil. In the early part of our century Irving Berlin characterized this "can do" spirit in the musical, "Annie Get Your Gun." In it, the sharpshooter Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody are bragging to each other. Do you remember the song? Everything you can do I can do better. I can do everything better than you. No you can't! Yes I can! No you can't! Yes I can!

Today we are involved in our own version of this light-hearted musical. Only nowadays we are not so light-hearted. In sporting events athletes are often taught that winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. More than ever self-esteem is linked to financial or performance success. We've got teens prowling the streets of America packing guns just looking for an opportunity to use them. It seems that no one is immune to the power of this competitive phenomenon, not even persons born nearly a century ago.

Barry Bailey tells the story of two sons of a Fort Worth, Texas woman of 90 who were worried about her safety. "We are going to get you a pistol, mother, so you can take of yourself. And we're going to teach you how to use it. There is too much violence out there." So they bought their mother a pistol, which she dutifully packed in her purse. One day when she left the Shopping Center to get into her car she found two young men sitting in the car. She took out the gun, pointed it at them and said, "Get out of my car or I'll shoot!" The two men jumped out of the car and ran off. The lady then got into the car and put the key into the ignition, but it didn't fit. Only then did she realize she was in the wrong car. She went over and found her car. She said she would have apologized to the two young men, but she could not find them.

The problem with this "everything you can do" attitude is that I cannot do everything you can, much less do it better. When it comes to abilities we are not all created equal. And when we assume we CAN do everything, that we have no limits or boundaries, it buys us nothing but trouble. We need only look at this week's Old Testament lesson to see just how dangerous CAN-DO can be. Convinced that they could do anything that a scraggly band of escaping Hebrew slaves could do, Pharoah's army plunged headlong into the muddy sea bottom of the divided Red Sea. Halfway through, they discovered that this was one thing they could not do better than the former slaves and the sea caved in on them.

"Everything you can do I can do better" is not a Christian attitude. It not only fosters an unresolvable competitive spirit, but it also promotes uniformity. When everyone is busy trying to be just like his or her neighbor...only a little better...the diversity necessary for a vital community is lost. Paul's admonition to the Romans is not just that it is all right for a variety of interpretations of Christian life to exist, but that in order to remain true to one's own faith convictions, these differences MUST continue to exist. If the church has consistently missed the mark on one aspect of the Christian life, this is it.

Ever since the Reformation the church has found it easier to create new congregations and new denominations rather than to tolerate genuine diversity within its ranks. When I was living in Georgia in the mid-70's three different churches experienced conflicts about the same time. Their way of dealing with it was to split up and three churches became six different churches, all within a few miles of one another. The fact that people disagree and fight with each other is not new. What is becoming more true is our desire to run away from diversity. We'd rather be with people who think like us, talk like us, and look like us. But friends, this is not the pattern Christ gives us for his church. We are living in a day when we can no longer ignore the people with whom we share this planet. The spirit of independence that America has long prided itself on is contradicted by our everyday existence. It is not independence, but interdependence that now defines our lifestyles.

Catholic theologian Lawrence Cunningham illustrates our dependence on each other from his own experience. He writes, "I sit at my word processor assembled in the US with chips made in Japan; in a pair of Levis sewn in Mexico while wearing a British brand of sneakers which a discreet tag inside informs, were manufactured in South Korea. For lunch I will eat a salad made from vegetables grown in South Florida which were harvested by a vast army of migrant workers who are Hispanic or contract workers from the Caribbean. The ordinary circumstances of my not uncomfortable life, in short, are dependent on a large number of people who are alien to me in culture, language, and economic status."

I imagine that the controversy surrounding what foods to eat was a significant one in Paul's day. Jewish Christians had a few thousand years of religious teaching and practice in the area of dietary laws. A hundred years ago Christians divided themselves on the issues of card playing, jewelry wearing, dancing, drinking, and movie going. Today we are a people divided on such concerns as abortion, gay rights, ordination of women, and economic development vs. environmental health. Do Paul's words call us to find a place for a multitude of "Christian" convictions on these issues? Or are there simply some truths that are not open for debate?

Who is there among us who claim to have perfect perceptions? No matter how hard we try, mistakes always creep in. Even the most careful editing of Bibles has allowed misprints into the text. Some of the most famous include one version that had Christ saying, "Blessed are the placemakers"(instead of peacemakers). Another subsituted WIFE for LIFE in Luke 14: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father...yea, and his own wife also..." In 1632 this missprint appeared in the printing of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt commit adultery." The printers of this Bible paid a stiff fine.

Hal Brady of Dallas, Texas, tells the true story of a 9-yr old boy whose father was a lawyer. One day the boy was sitting in his father's chair when his father walked in. Immediately, the boy began imitating his father's role as an attorney and said, "Have a seat. I'll be with you in a moment." The dad played along. The boy said with the best professional demeanor, "Now, what can I do for you?" The father replied, "Well, I've been having trouble with my neighbor's dog. He's pooping in my yard." The 9-yr old thought a minute and said, "I see. Sounds to me like a case of illegal dumping."

How many times have you and I been guilty of illegal dumping? Are we dumping on someone right now? What about women who have a right to choose what happens to their own bodies? What about the rights of the unborn? What about men and women whose sexual orientation is different from ours? What about immigrants who come to this country seeking the same chance at freedom that we often take for granted? What about our brothers and sisters in our own church family with whom we disagree and whom we find disagreeable? Are we guilty of illegal dumping?

Does all this talk about non-judgement mean there are no absolutes, no lines? It is clear that Paul draws a very definite line. For Paul it all boils down to this: All believers are united by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Accepting the Lordship of Christ is Paul's indisputable starting point. With the simple confession of a God-breathed, Christ-centered, Spirit-driven life, we all are welcomed into God's household, and we all share in the same humble rank as "slaves" or "servants" in that household. Honest differences are bound to exist within any body of Christ. But accepting them, not throwing them out, is the attitude Paul encourages.

Richard Allen Farmer tells of his younger sister Roslyn asking their mother, "Did God ever die?" His mother said, "No, of course not." Roslyn then went on to ask, "Did Jesus ever die?" Mother replied, "Yes, dear, he did." Roslyn paused a few seconds and said, "I'm sticking with God."

We all have our reasons for sticking with this person or that person, with this position or that position. Perhaps it is time to reevaluate our convictions in light of Paul's words to us. Perhaps we, like Roslyn, are afraid that something within us will die if we stick with Jesus. But then again, if there is no death, there is no resurrection.