Sermon Preached at Northbrae Community Church, October 9, 2005 By Ron Sebring

Herman Melville’s novel, Billy Budd, poses an interesting question:

Wherein hides good and evil?

What is the hidden source of good and evil?

The year is 1797:

· France is suffering from a bloody revolution.

· England is struggling with the Industrial Revolution.

· The colonies are coming out of the American Revolution.

Mutiny, the big issue is handled by publicly hanging mutineers.

A British navel ship, the HMS Indomitable, stops a merchant ship, needing sailors.

Billy Budd, a handsome young sailor, is taken for navel duty.

The merchant ship doesn’t want to give him up. He’s a peace-keeper.

But the British navel ship insists and presses Billy Budd into the Royal Navy.

He quickly runs into conflict with John Claggart, the Master of Arms.

John Claggart is a shady character, with a dubious past. Joined the Navy to escape trouble. Everyone gossips about John Claggart.

Billy Budd is an innocent and handsome youth, a peacemaker whom everyone likes. His behavior is impeccable.

The story develops the conflict between these two characters.

Even though Billy’s behavior is impeccable, John Claggart, the disciplinarian aboard the ship, finds little things wrong with him. This escalates.

He eventually implicates Billy Budd in a mutiny attempt and Billy Budd is hung from the mainyard.

Billy Budd, with no sense of "bad" in others, does not see it coming.

The story suggests that Claggart was born evil.

He sees evil, and an evil intent, even in the best good.

He is too mean for his own good.

The story suggests that Billy Budd was born good.

He sees goodness, and a good intent, even in the worst evil.

He is too nice for his own good.

The theme of the novel seems to be the purely good against the purely evil.

The beautiful rosy dawn against the meaningless black sea.

And in this classical "crucifixion-resurrection" drama … while evil prevails in the end, good survives in legend and influence.

The novel manifests a Christ image.

The mainmast upon which Billy Budd was a watchman supports the mainyard upon which he was hung.

The sign of the cross, one of many allusions to a Christ-figure.

 

Good and evil, good things and bad things that occur, are NOT entirely shaped by what happens to us.

Good and evil are not external forces that sweep us up, some devil hiding behind a rock or an accident waiting to happen.

What predominately defines good or evil is the attitude we take toward what happens.

The same thing can happen to two people.

One will embrace it, and wrestle a blessing from it.

The other will be defeated by it.

This is behind the great wisdom that Paul share with the church at Philippi.

Consider carefully the passage that was read this morning.

This is one of Paul’s so called "prison letters."

Paul is in prison, as he was often.

The jailer walks by, looking through the bars. Perhaps he drags his night-stick across the bars to announce his presence.

Paul sits on the stone bench, and cautiously glances up.

Then he looks down and continues writing his letter.

The church at Philippi has just sent him a "care" package.

Paul is writing a "thank you" letter, to encourage them as they encourage him.

In this passage, he tells us three things:

(1) Not to worry about anything.

Just pray. Let our concerns be known to God. Then get on with it.

(2) He tells us to put a guard in front of your heart and a filter over the mind.

That guard, that filter, is named "inner peace."

And it is a peace that passes anything we can mentally understand.

(3) And, he tells us how to think.

He tells us what kind of thoughts we are to allow in our heads.

Listen to what he says:

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think – about – these – things."

There is a famous Hebrew proverb that can be paraphrased: "As people think inside themselves, thus they become."

This proverb, as it appears in the King James Version of the Bible, is in a language that we would question today, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

The point is profound:

What we become evolves out of the thoughts and images that populate our minds.

The battle ground of faith is not that with which we struggle "out here."

The battle ground of faith is "in here."

Or to change the metaphor a little:

The garden of faith certainly needs sunshine and rain.

But the fundamental nature of what makes it grow is in our spiritual DNA.

It’s here. [point to the head]

And it’s here. [point to the heart]

This seems to me to be the main message of Jesus.

In the "Sermon on the Mount," Matthew collects together the sayings of Jesus and arranges them in the form of a sermon.

Matthew 5-7 has an internal structure, like a sermon.

If we put aside all of our Christologies we argue about and ask, "What is the core teachings of Jesus?" I think we have it here.

People find themselves under the yoke of their religion, with all of its rules and regulations.

"This is how you should live." "This is what you ought to do."

"Here are the behavioral ‘don’ts’ for life."

Religion can be very oppressive.

After his introduction with the beatitudes, Jesus gives his thesis for the sermon.

He didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.

Not one comma or dot over an "i" will be removed until all is fulfilled.

What is means to fulfill the law follows a pattern.

Jesus wants to change religion from an outside act, to an inside attitude.

Chapter five is the "don’t" chapter.

"You have heard of old, thou shalt not kill. I say to you, don’t even hate.

Outside act. To an inside attitude. This pattern repeats.

Chapter six is the "do" chapter.

And it follows the same pattern.

· When you give alms, don’t make a big show of it.

"Don’t let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.’

· When you fast, don’t go around droopy faced.

Keep it in the heart, where the real change can take place.

· When you pray, don’t go public with a big drum roll.

God into your closet and pray.

Outside ritual. To an inside attitude.

· Don’t be like dirty cups, clean and pretty on the outside, but filthy inside.

First clean the inside of the cup. Then let the outside shine.

· Don’t be like whitewashed tombs.

Pretty on the outside, but filled with dead men’s bones on the inside.

· Make the tree good, and the fruits will be good, …

For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.