Shattered
Stained Glass
A Sermon By Jim Hammond from 2 Peter 2:17-22
Part of the
“Make Every Effort” 2 Peter Series
Opening Illustration:
The Broken Glass Metaphor and Pedophile Priests
By Leonard Sweet
Jesus was a master of metaphor. Pastors
must never underestimate the power of metaphor. Metaphor is metamorphosis
– for good or for ill. That’s why those of us who preach need to be
skilled in metaphorical development and deployment.
More than a little of the trauma of the
Roman Catholic Church today around pedophile priests is because of the
faulty use of metaphor. One that’s been circulating in the highest
echelons of the Roman Catholic hierarchy has been the broken glass
metaphor. Allegedly originating with Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, the future
Pope John XXIII, the story begins with a dinner one evening between
Roncalli and his priest-secretary.
The Cardinal was questioned about his
tolerance of a priest in the diocese who was the source of much scandal.
Roncalli picked up a wine goblet and asked his young secretary, “Whose
glass is this, Father?”
Startled by the question, the priest was
silent for a moment, then answered, “Why, it’s yours, Your Eminence.”
Without saying a word, the future Pope
threw the goblet on the floor, where it shattered into a thousand pieces.
He then asked the young priest, “And whose glass is it now, Father?”
Again the priest was quiet, but eventually
he replied, “It’s still yours, Your Eminence.”
The Cardinal looked into the young man’s
eyes and asked one final question: “Is the priest you asked me about any
less my brother because he is shattered and broken, than this goblet is
still mine despite its brokenness?”
Over the last 40 years, the metaphor of
the broken glass has been told many times. The late Cardinal John
O’Connor told it in the course of his homily at a chrism Mass in Saint
Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The metaphor is moving, and has
moved many in the church to protect those priests who are broken and need
help.
The problem is that the metaphor cries out
for further development. Yes, the glass is still the cardinal’s glass.
But the cardinal now has a problem. He has broken glass all over the
floor – glass that’s a danger to anyone who enters the room. And the very
fact that the glass is the cardinal’s means that he’s responsible for
making sure that no person, especially the most vulnerable and
unsuspecting, gets cut by all the broken glass.
In other words, the power of the metaphor
to elicit the ownership question should also have led to a follow-up
question: “Whose responsibility is it to clean the mess up?”
Only after the glass had been cleaned up
so that it can’t hurt anyone is there the final question: “Now what do I
do with my glass?” How broken is it? If it’s only chipped, it might be
possible to repair it so that it could still function as a wine goblet.
But if it shattered into dozens of sharp shards, it can no longer be used
as a vessel to serve wine. If the pieces are not too small and
splintered, the church might find another way to use it: in a mosaic, for
example, or after being ground down, in a rosary.
But sometimes the broken glass needs to be
carted away from the cardinal, away from the church, and recycled for use
in the wider culture. But those outside the church need to know that the
box contains a badly broken, dangerous glass. Do we really want people
plunging their hands into the box thinking it’s a “present” from the
church? In other words, abusers have to be punished according to the laws
of society (jail time, sexual abuser registry, and so on). The church has
a responsibility to keep everyone safe from these glass shards, not just
those in the church.
Every metaphor eventually breaks down.
But don’t leave the metaphor too soon, and don’t underestimate its power.
Leonard Sweet is the
E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism
at Drew University and keynote contributor to
www.preachingplus.com.
Focus: Though God can make stained
glass out of broken glass, shattered stained glass is dangerous and
sometimes irreparable.
As we read the text for this morning, I want you to
be looking for the themes of freedom versus slavery, and escape from sin,
error, or corruption versus entanglement.
2 Peter 2:17-22 These men are
springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is
reserved for them.
18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the
lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just
escaping
from those who live in error.
19They promise them
freedom,
while they themselves are
slaves
of depravity--for a man is a
slave to
whatever has
mastered him.
20If they have
escaped
the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
and are again
entangled in it and
overcome,
they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.
21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the
sacred command that was passed on to them.
22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and,
"A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
I.
Broken Glass is Dangerous and Destructive
Broken Glass is dangerous. And we are using this
metaphor to describe the condition of people. And we have all been broken
at one time or another and we have all exposed dangerous edges that have
hurt others at one time or another. We all have the potential to hurt
each other, but the more dangerous glass is the broken glass that denies
that it is broken. Listen as we read again a description of those false
teachers who not only say, “I’m not broken”, but attempt to convince
others to live out the same broken ruined lives.
17 These
men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest
darkness is reserved for them.
18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the
lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just
escaping from those who live in error.
19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of
depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
A. Freedom is Promised But
Depravity is Delivered
The greatest slavery we
can experience is slavery to our passions. “I can’t help it!” has been the
cry of those addicted to drink, drugs, and sexual depravities down through
the ages. The surest road to misery is to do just what you want, whenever
you want to do it. Soon you find that you no longer want to do what you
do—but you are unable to help yourself. That, slavery to one’s own
depravity, is the most terrible slavery of all.
The
amazing thing is the denial that takes place before someone will admit
they are “broken.” There is little help for those who cannot admit they
have a problem. God brings healing to those who admit they need him.
Mark 2:17 On hearing this,
Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the
sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
II. Stained Glass is Saved and Redemptive
God ministers to those who come before him with a
broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart.
Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O
God, you will not despise.
Everyone Is Broken
What God sees is that everyone is broken. What
pleases him is when we admit it and go to him for help. Where are you
broken? Has the broken pieces been fixed and redeemed? What has mastered
you? What sin has its sticky tentacles wrapped around your heart? What
has enslaved you? God loves you and wants to help you. The people that
are most dangerous are those that are broken and won’t admit it. They
hide their dangerous sharp edges. But God can make something beautiful
out of the broken pieces from the lives of those with a broken and
contrite heart. Once he has done that you become a beautiful piece of
stained glass where the light of his grace shines through you.
Authentic Stained Glass knows what it is like to be
broken and doesn’t want to be broken again. These are the ones he
has described in 2:20 as those who have “escaped the corruption of the
world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2:20)
III. The most Dangerous Glass is
Shattered Stained Glass
Here is where the metaphor breaks down. As far as I
know real shattered stained glass is no more dangerous than regular broken
glass. But if stained glass is a metaphor for the Christian leader, one
who is supposed a person through which God’s grace and goodness shines,
then broken stained glass can be the most dangerous glass. What is
designed to be safe and redemptive has become dangerous and destructive.
One who is twice broken, is one who is in a very dangerous position.
These false teachers were broken and would
not admit it. What’s worse, they were teaching that they had it all
together and others should live lives just like theirs. They were
arrogant about their lifestyle. They became dangerous predators preying
on those who had just barely escaped the corruption. They pulled them
right back into it.
Jesus
had already spoken of predators like this when he said,
Matthew 18:6
But if anyone causes one of these little ones who
believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone
hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
You know you have sunk to the bottom when
Jesus says it would be better if you did sink to the bottom. How could it
ever be better to be drowned with a millstone in the bottom of the sea?
Notice what this is NOT saying. It does not say it would be better for
the children if the predator was killed although this is also true. That
truth would be too obvious. Jesus says it would be better for him,
the one who causes the sin, for him to be drowned before he could do it.
In other words, a quick and sudden death would be better than the judgment
they will receive this. That’s the point. Wow, this is serious stuff.
Jesus was not advocating a witch hunt, and
literal killing of these people, but while using the strongest words
possible he tells us the dangerous spiritual condition of one who causes
weaker ones to sin. What does this say about the preacher or priest who
methodically molests the children, or seduces the weak?
A. The One condition that is worse than having never known Christ
ð
To have escaped Corruption only to be Entangled and
overcome
Entangled, Caught, Trapped, Controlled, overcome by
corruption again, when freedom was yours.
20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome,
they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning
Don’t allow yourself to be entangled AGAIN by the
defilements that Jesus rescued you from. Jesus already told you what
would happen after sweeping your house clean if you do so. Your
corruption will be 7 times as bad. You will have made your heart and life
a playground for demons. Your life will have so many demonic strongholds
you will have a spiritual condition that has become worse than before you
heard about Christ!
Matthew 12:43-45 "When an evil
spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and
does not find it. [44] Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.'
When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in
order. [45] Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked
than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of
that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked
generation."
Some of you may be wondering why Christianity doesn’t
seem to work for you. The answer may be right here. Because you
willfully and repeatedly refuse to obey Christ you make your life more
miserable than it was before you knew him. You say you want to be stained
glass but you keep breaking what God puts together. This is not grace
living, this is the abuse of grace. This is not Christianity but the
abuse of grace. You wanted forgiveness but you didn’t want change. You
swept your house clean, but you didn’t refurbish. You didn’t replace the
old with the new, you only attempted to turn from the old. If you don’t
replace the negative with the positive, there’s a spiritual vacuum that
you will fill with something. Watch out!
ð
To Have Known The Way of Righteousness only to Turn Your
Back On It
21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the
sacred command that was passed on to them.
Why is it better to have not known? In this
case, it is better not to have known at all because it is easier to reach
those who have not known Christ, than to reach those who have inoculated
themselves against the real disease, with small diluted doses of Christian
truths.
ð
To Return to the Vomit or Muck
22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and,
"A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
I don’t mean to be gross, but Peter was
gross purposely in order to show how gross this is, so bear with me. When
one vomits, something bad is inside and your whole body convulses
practically turning it inside out to finally get rid of it. That’s what
it takes to get rid of sin. Painful confession. It is like vomiting.
But once it is out of you, you feel much better and you are on the road to
recovery. Don’t be like the dog who goes right back to that vomit! Have
you seen this before? It is gross when a dog does this. It is worse when
a person does. As a pastor I have seen this too often, and it is very
difficult to watch, and even more difficult to stop.
I’d like to end on a positive note. Let’s
turn to a more positive passage.
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit; [my sacrifice, O God is a broken spirit;] a
broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
PRAYER
Lord, I confess I am broken and there are rough and
sharp edges in my life. They show up when I… ________________ Thank you
for the forgiveness you offer. I give you my broken pieces and ask you to
apply your healing touches. My sacrifice, O God
is a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Would you piece my life
back together so that the beauty of your grace shines through me. Thank
you. In Jesus’ powerful name I pray, Amen.
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