A message by
Rev. T. Franklin Harmon
April 13, 2008
Scripture: Matthew 7:7-14
As we get started today I want to ask if there is anyone here who has not read the title of today’s sermon and does not know what this is? (Holding up a wood shim). I know it might be a little hard for some of you to see. For those of you who did read the title of the sermon or who are close enough to see what I am holding, you probably know that this is a piece of wood. More specifically it is a wooden shim.
Shims can have a variety of uses. They can make a window or door square. They can help level a floor. They can give you the extra length that you need under a wobbly table. They can lengthen a short pew leg. They can be used to separate wires that aren’t supposed to touch. Shims can even be used to pick locks, something I recently learned from the internet. Our scripture lesson today deals with two things that often need shims: doors and gates.
Matthew 7 is the closing statements of Jesus’ most famous sermon, The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus starts off his sermon by telling us who are blessed. He says “Blessed are the poor in spirit…Blessed are those who mourn…Blessed are the pure of heart…Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you” (Matthew 7:3-ff). From there Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (v.13-16). If we had been in attendance for this sermon, at this point we would probably feel pretty good about ourselves. We would feel like Jesus was talking directly to us, and despite what the world may tell us, we have better things in store for us.
He tells us from the beginning of his sermon that “[He has not] come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; [rather he] has come to fulfill them” (5:17). From there Jesus goes on to redefine the law as people understood it. He says, “You have heard it said ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you, if you look at someone lustfully you have already committed adultery” (5:27). “Do not commit murder, but if you are angry with someone you will stand in judgment” (5:21-22). He covers oaths, (where he says let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no,’) divorce (the law about taking an eye for an eye), loving your neighbor, giving to the needy, fasting, worldly possessions, and even how we should pray (5:33-ff). He ends the body of his sermon by saying, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (7:1). This is the part of Jesus’ sermon where we go from feeling good about ourselves to not so good. We start justifying our actions in our heads so we don’t feel so bad about what we have done or are doing.
At this point in Jesus’ sermon, He is starting to wind down. It is in this closing section of his sermon where we find today’s scripture. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened (7:7,8). As well as: Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (v.13, 14).
It is strange for me that within six versus of each other we have Jesus saying that if we ask it will be given to us followed by him telling us that narrow is the road that leads to life. Being a logical person it would seem to me that if all we have to do is ask, wide would be the gate and broad the road that leads to life. Who wouldn’t ask for it? And if we do ask for it, it is ours.
The more I thought about it, the more I was drawn to an experience I had in Mexico two weeks ago. If you were here last week you heard that on our mission trip to Mexico, Mark Bass and I spent a day shimming doors. Putting shims in doors isn’t really that difficult. If there is a gap you put a shim in. However, putting enough shims in and in the correct space to make the door open and shut properly is a little more difficult. When we shimmed the doors, Mark worked on one side of the door and I worked on the other. We had to constantly be talking and letting the other one know how far the shim needed to go, if we needed to add another one or if it was too far in. You see, shims can be very helpful when properly used, but just one little shim can make it so a door doesn’t shut properly or doesn’t shut at all.
As I thought about these shims, I thought about our lives and the gate that leads to life. Jesus tells us that it is narrow, yet most of us try to make it a little wider. You see, we take a shim, maybe it is getting angry as we drive, at work, at our spouse, children or parents and we try to justify it and put it in the gate to make it a little wider to fit our lives. Or we take another shim, judging others, maybe for how they look, what they wear, who their friends are, and we justify our judgment in doing what is right and we try to put it in the gate. We make oaths. We say to our parents, to our children, to our friends, to our coworkers “yes” and don’t keep our word, yet we tell ourselves it is ok because…. Putting another shim in the gate.
We have all of these shims that through the course of a day, week, year, and our lives have gone into the gate, and now the gate is wide. And, because of all of the trips we have taken to put our shims in the gate, justifying our actions to make ourselves feel better, we have also made the path broad. What we lost site of the entire time is that we are going to the wrong gate. We are no longer going to the gate of life, we are heading down the path of destruction and we don’t even know it.
Unfortunately, once we realize that we are heading down the wrong path , there are one of two things that typically happen: we get prideful, like the Pharisees, and once again justify our actions, telling ourselves it is ok, trying to convince ourselves that the sins we commit really aren’t that bad, which only drives another shim into the already widened gate. Or we do the opposite. We recognize that we are lost and need help finding our way, so we ask, seek, and knock on the door before us, because we know the direction we are heading isn’t where we want to be and the only way out is to ask the one who paved the way for us for His help, and that is Jesus.
We are three weeks removed from Easter, and how has your life changed? Or has it? We all have shims in our lives that push us away from God. Scripture tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).” There is not one person here today who doesn’t sin, but not all of us deal with it the same way. No matter what our current state of affairs is, I want to leave you with this: Make today the day that each of us asks, seeks and knocks on the door of Christ’s salvation. I will not presume to know what is on anyone’s heart, I am not God, but I do know that each and everyone one of us needs that relationship with Jesus, even if we think we are “good” Christians and what I am saying doesn’t apply to you. I assure you it does.
So, is today the day that we ask Jesus for forgiveness, seeking and knocking on the door of life, for the little things as well as the big that keep us from truly experiencing God’s path for our lives, or is it just another day of justifying our actions and driving yet another shim into the gate, widening the path of destruction? Amen. |
