“No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”

“No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”      June 3, 2018      Dr. Roger Ray, pastor   

 
 

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 Mark 3:1- 6 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ² They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” ⁴ Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵ He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Marcus Aurelius    The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. 

The largest food chain in the world is McDonalds. 1% of the world’s population will eat at least one meal at a McDonalds today. In the United States, about 10% of us will eat at McDonalds today. 

The golden arches is now a more recognized symbol than the Christian Cross. There are more than 30,000 locations world wide and one of them is owned by the Queen of England. They are selling 75 hamburgers every second of every day. The consistent taste of McDonalds food has become so familiar to so many people that, along with the fact that they have become the largest toy distributor in the world, we find that when we are serving lunch at our local domestic abuse shelter, and we prepare really good home cooked meals that we serve for free, still, a large portion of the clients walk two blocks to feed their children at a McDonalds. 

But with millions of people eating there every day, does that mean that it is good food? Does that mean that it is healthy food? And it isn’t even inexpensive, especially when compared with the free food that we provide. They have huge numbers but their product is overpriced, the legal equivalent of poison, and a lot of it only vaguely tastes like what it is supposed to be. 

If people voting with their feet were any clue as to what is great food, you would have to give the prize to McDonalds but we know by lots of different factors that it not only is not the best but it is some of the worst and it is contributing to childhood obesity and early onset of diabetes the world over. McDonalds is proof that you can serve what may be among the worst of food products, but win the economic and numbers contest through successful marketing.

I have good friends who were active in our congregation before they moved to Florida. On some holidays, Ron and June would invite me to go with them to the Chateau on the Lake for the special Easter or Mother’s Day buffet. Our route of travel from our Sunday service took us by the gargantuan mega-church, the original 6 Flags over Jesus, whose campus is visible from the highway as we headed south. We would pass by as their thousands of members were being guided out by dozens of off-duty police officers managing the traffic. And Ron would jest, “Why don’t you draw crowds like that?”

Well, he was teasing but it is not an illegitimate question. Why do we have only a few dozen people here on Sunday mornings? When I travel and speak in Ohio, Texas, California, South Carolina, or in all of the communities where I just spoke in England, in St. Albans, Malvern, Hove, and Brighton, why is it always just a few dozen or maybe a hundred at best, when progressive thinkers gather to discuss our issues?

And I don’t want to fall prey to sour grapes interpretations of those numbers. I don’t have any aspirations of having a warehouse sized church building with a Starbucks in the lobby but it would be affirming if we had several hundred people here on Sunday mornings and if my book sales would at least rise to somebody’s best seller list but the fact is that progressives are not in the main stream. We are destined to be in a rank minority because we are thought innovators, thought leaders, we are prophets in the sense that we have accepted the challenge of speaking truth to power.

There is a bell curve of innovation. A hundred years ago, electrical power was a for profit product. The wealthy could get a power line run to their home so that they could enjoy the benefits of electrical light and refrigeration and electric fans and heaters.

But some progressive theologians at the time, people like Washington Gladden, who history remembers as a social gospel preacher, insisted that the benefits of electricity should be shared with the rich and the poor alike. It was not, initially, a popular idea. A small group of innovators protested, spoke up, demonstrated, and slowly there were early adopters and final a majority that made sure that electricity was available in all neighborhoods. 

Progressives offer innovative ideas for a society, suggesting that water, electricity, and gas lines be run through all neighborhoods. That public schools are free and available to all, with even transportation assistance and after school programs as needed. Then that schools should be racially integrated. 

None of these ideas were initially welcomed, and, as you know, some were violently opposed and took generations to implement, but that is what we do. 

The gospel lesson we took today from the 3^rdchapter of Mark tells one of those stories about the tension that Jesus had with the prevailing culture. This is one that was a standout story for me throughout my tenure in a denominational church . . . Jesus’ critics are watching him, looking for some flaw in the fabric, some Achilles’ heel that they could exploit. So he is presented with a disabled man on the Sabbath when Jews are not supposed to work. He asks the rhetorical question, “Are such religious laws intended for our good or as punishment?” No one answered the question. Jesus heals the man, and then the text wraps up the disfunction of group think, of majority rule, of the sacrament of the status quo – when Jesus heals a disabled man, Mark tells us, They went out immediately and conspired against him, plotting how to destroy him. It is often true that no good deed goes unpunished. But if you are an innovator, you do the right thing when the whole world is telling you not to care, not to get involved, to mind your own business. 

The only proverb I can claim to have created myself, I came up with 30 years ago after my first decade in parish ministry. My proverb says, “If you light a candle in a dark place, you will draw bugs.” That is, no matter what good thing you try to do, you can rest assured that critics will show up to tell you that you did it the wrong way, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, or for the wrong people. Because of that, most people give up quickly on even trying to be a social reformer, in order to stay in the good graces of the majority. 

That’s why I love this 2000-year-old quote from the Roman Cesar, Marcus Aurelius, The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. Let me say this very clearly:  Ethics has nothing to do with majority opinions. If we had waited for a popular vote to end slavery, child labor, racial segregation, or gay rights, we would still be living under severe Puritan rule. I would love for us to have some big numbers. I would love for our advocacy of social justice to be a lot more popular, but on matters where the majority gets it right, there is no need for us to do anything but applaud.

Over my 25 years of writing opinion columns for the Springfield News-Leader, I have lost count of how many arguments I had with publishers and editors who objected, not to the facts of my articles, but to the sheer public offense and unpopularity of the topics I tackled. The thought is not original to me, but I certainly used it liberally in my meetings with editors, “Journalism is when you write something someone doesn’t want you to write. Everything else is just advertising.” 

I understand that newspapers have to run some fluff pieces, some sports scores and recipes, and some just had data reporting, but where is the journalism in newspapers today? Where is the challenge to authority, the investigative reporting? Where is the courage to speak truth to power? I have to keep reminding my Christian friends that they did not kill Jesus for being a moderate who avoided offending people. No innovation, no progress, ever takes place without someone being willing to make nearly everyone uncomfortable and is it any wonder then that we almost never hear that moral challenge coming from beneath tall steeples?

There is a very helpful saying about this, that has been falsly attributed to Gandhi, but probably originated among early 20^thcentury union organizers, that says: “First they ignore us, then they make fun of us, then they fight us, then we win.”

Genuine innovation always starts with a tiny minority that is willing to face social isolation, ridicule, and opposition, but when your cause is right, you don’t give up just because you are always in the minority. It is perhaps quoted too often, but Margaret Mead’s encouraging proverb deserves to be repeated:    Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. 

But I can tell you this: living heroically doesn’t make most people see you as a hero. If you want to be popular, if you want people to like you, if you have some hope of being famous, then you have to set your sites on the top of the bell curve and not at the humble beginning where real prophetic and innovative thinking begins. And if the gospel stories about Jesus are a good teaching tool, when you really knock yourself out to help someone, to assist in some cause, for reasons of jealousy, resentment, competition, or just plain meanness, there will be those who will respond by immediately plotting to bring about your demise. 

Even on the personal level, I have known for 35 years that the fastest way to lose a church member is to agree to loan them the money to get caught on their rent or their utility bills, or even to agree to provide long term counseling. People are more likely to disappear than to simply be polite about having accepted help. But if we are sincere spiritual people, we don’t do good things in order for people to feel indebted or to use such generosity in exchange for loyalty or popularity. We do what we do because of who we are, not because of who they are, and if we are certain about who we are, then it really doesn’t matter whether other people deal with our sincere efforts well or not. 

I don’t know who originally said it, except that I know it wasn’t actually Mother Theresa, no matter how many people try to give it to her, but the wisdom stands on its own two feet:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.  Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  

Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  

Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  

Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  

It was never between you and them anyway.

My friends, you are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth, you will most likely never be recognized or treated kindly for the good that you do but regardless of the plotting and scheming of the majority, you go get busy changing the world for the better. There will be bugs but you have more important things to worry about.