Sermon delivered by
The Rev. Dr. Augustus E. Succop III
Quail Hollow Presbyterian Church
Charlotte, North Carolina
March 19, 2017
“The Boast”
(Romans 5: 1-11)
You have a friend, I have a friend, we all have a friend who likes to boast. When I
was at my high school reunion last October, I was hoping to see certain classmates, long
time friends, many of whom did not and could not attend. And isn’t that always the case at
reunions? The ones you had hoped to show never do, while the ones you really were not
crazy about, they are the ones who do show up, and they are the ones who end up sitting
next to you at the class dinner.
A certain classmate I was not fond of landed next to me at our class dinner, and all
through dinner he reminded me of why I was not fond of him in high school. If he had
changed since high school, I failed to notice. In high school, he was a braggart, and at our
reunion he bragged the whole night about himself, his kids, his job, his salary, his wife, his
in-laws, his home, his cars, and the number of times his name has been in the local
newspaper. By the time dessert was served, I was about to strangle him. But I resisted, and
I resisted because dessert was a tasty not to be missed, and while my classmate went on and
on, I had seconds on dessert. He, on the other hand, had no dessert because, as he informed
us, he runs marathons.
People who brag, people who boast about themselves and their accomplishments,
people like that are no fun to be with, at least I find them to be very poor company, no
matter what they avoid for dessert. Over the years, I have come to know most of you quite
well, and I have learned that some of you have a great deal to boast about, but you choose
not to brag. Some of you have huge bragging rights, but you do not exercise those rights,
and I am proud of you. You are whom you are, whom you have always been, and I doubt
you will change now and find it necessary to exercise your bragging rights. Instead, some of
you who could boast prefer to give thanks to God. You know Who deserves all the credit.
You know Who is behind all of your blessings, and, thus, you know that at the end of the
day if you brag about anything you will brag and boast about God’s love for you.
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In the early years of the church, an interesting dynamic cropped up. People would
join the church and then proceed to make it known that they did not need what Jesus Christ
had to offer. At coffee hour, those early Christians would make it known how they had it all
together, how they could take care of themselves quite nicely, no matter what was said and
believed about the man, Jesus Christ. For such people, they were more interested in telling
you about themselves than being told about Jesus Christ.
To such people who were so pleased with themselves, St. Paul used the Greek word
for “boasting,” and he used it to refer to God, to what God had done in the life and death and
resurrection of Jesus. In Paul’s day, the word for “boast” was usually used, was often used,
was always used to refer to a person’s personal achievements and connections and status.
Paul took that word and applied it to God. Paul took that word and gave it a brand new
meaning so it no longer applied to human achievement or human accomplishment, but to
what God had done and is doing for mere mortals like you and me.
And what God has done for us is to share with us God’s glory by giving us, by
making known to us personally Jesus Christ. Paul writes that “we boast in our hope of
sharing the glory, the limelight of God.” God is willing to include us in all that makes God
glorious and great and generous and gracious, and all that happens when we share Jesus with
another. God is willing to pull us in on all of that, and God does all of that for the sake of
love. We who are hard, we who are so very hard to love most of the time, God loves us
through Jesus, and everything that once would have disqualified us from being included God
has removed, God has canceled out, God has assigned to Jesus Christ. Now, our boast is
this: every time God looks at you and me, God sees Jesus. And every time God looks at
Jesus, God sees whom? You and me. That’s our boast. That’s why we share Jesus with
others. If you want something to boast about, there you have it. That’s all you need to boast
about. Really, that’s all we have to boast about. Everything else is worthless. Everything
else is a waste of time to bring up or even to talk about. The only thing you and I have to
boast about is that we are looking pretty good thanks to Jesus’ willingness to take our place,
and especially our place on that cross. That is why we share Jesus, why we pass around His
Name.
As everyone in this room knows by now, we live in the era of “fake news.” Who
would have thought that politicians would one day make it common practice to stretch,
exaggerate, customize the truth so blatantly? Who would have thought that one day there
would be no hesitation to deceive the public on what is true and what is sort-of-true. “Fake
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news” makes me grateful for the news I have come to know as “God’s news.”
“God’s
news” gives me the hope that with God’s love in me, in my life, in my heart, I can sleep at
night because God is in charge. And somehow, in some way, in a way I can only imagine,
God’s love is at work doing what no government, no court of law, no proclamation, no
prediction can ever accomplish. And that is to reconcile all people to God’s way of life as
that life is made known to us in Jesus Christ.
The Bible doesn’t say this, but I have found it to be true that wherever two or three
are gathered, the truth does come out. Back to my high school classmate. As my boasting
classmate went rambling on about his personal greatness, the classmate on his other side
reminded him of the time both of them took physics in summer school. Talk about tapdancing your way through an awkward moment. My boasting classmate was not happy that
that factoid surfaced years after the fact. But leave it to him to boast that he made an “A” in
summer school. Well, of course, he made an “A” the second time around. Paul points out
that while we were still weak, not physically, but weak as in sorry and pathetic and
undeserving, Christ saved our sorry selves. Folks, when it comes to salvation, there is no
summer school to attend. Paul points out that at one time all of humanity had flunked
because all had sinned and fallen short of God’s acceptable standard. No one had made the
grade. But, there was One Who had passed, and not just passed but Who had gotten an “A,”
and that One was willing to exchange His grade for our grade so we could pass with flying
colors.
When you flunk there’s not much to boast about. When you flunk, you begin
looking around for a Plan B, like summer school. When you flunk, you throw yourself upon
the mercy of others, especially the teacher who has flunked you, and you do so in the hope
that someone somewhere will cut you some slack. During this season of Lent, that is
precisely what you and I need to be pondering. Someone has cut us some slack. Someone
has provided a Plan B. And, Someone has done for us what we can not do for ourselves,
and now, now we have something to boast about because that Someone has saved our sorry
selves. That Someone is worth boasting about and sharing with others.
Paul points out no one needs to die for a righteous person. Well, you and I did not
arrive righteous. Paul concedes that someone might die for the sake of a good person, but,
friends, your goodness and my goodness isn’t all that good, and we know it. Paul’s point is
this: to be righteous and to be seen as virtuous takes a lot of doing and work and effort, and
it goes far beyond what you and I are capable of doing. What we need is what we don’t
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have, which is why God gave us, supplied, provided to us Jesus. Jesus has what we need,
and that is why Jesus becomes our boast. Our boast has nothing to do with us; nothing. Our
boast has everything to do with what has been done for us, and we didn’t even have to go to
spiritual summer school to get it. Jesus took our sorry selves and our failing grade, and
Jesus said to God, “Father, give them my grade, give them my life. Father, for my sake, let
them live,” and God heard Jesus, and that is why we are here, today. During Lent, that’s
what we want to remember, that’s why Lent may be a time to increase one’s gratitude.
During Lent there is no fake news. There is only “God’s news,” and had it not been for
“God’s news” none of us, not one of us would here, today.
Let’s be honest about what we can and what we cannot boast about. There are days
when you and I think we are pretty smart and special and super. There are days when we
think we have room enough to toot our own horns. There are days when we are willing to
believe the fake news down to the last period and comma. But in the Kingdom of God there
is only God’s news, and God’s news tells us, reminds us of how much we owe to Jesus. Of
all the ones who could boast, Christ could boast for eternity. Instead, Jesus chooses to boast
of you and me, that you and I are worth His life and His love, a life and a love that is being
poured into our lives and into our hearts, and that is why, that is why we are here, and one
day we will be there in Paradise with Him. And when we are there in Paradise, I have no
doubt we will spend most of our time making it so very clear how grateful we are for what
Jesus Christ has done for us. How does that last verse go: When we’ve been there ten
thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise then when
we’d first begun.
Let us pray: Holy and ever faithful God, we boast for what You have accomplished
for us in and through Jesus. Our boast is found that while we were sinners You provided
Jesus for our salvation. Apart from what Jesus has done, we have nothing to boast about,
nothing. Jesus is our boast, and to Him do we say, Thank you! Amen!
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