I could not help noticing this car that morning. It was a tiny little car, one of those that looks like a sardine can on wheels. The rust spots and the dents suggested that it had survived more than its share of bumps and bruises.
But that was not all that made me notice this little puddle jumper; what grabbed my attention was the way it was moving down Colesville Road toward Silver Spring. It was coming up behind me pretty fast, and in my rear-view mirror I could see it wandering from lane to lane, weaving its way in and out of morning rush hour traffic, seemingly with fitful starts and stops and all kinds of peculiar maneuvers. As it got closer to my car, it straddled the lane lines, as if the driver were trying to decide which lane, if any, to drive in.
Other drivers behind me were blowing their horns and dodging from one side to the other as best they could, and I began to think about sane sort of defensive maneuver myself. I had concluded that we had some kind of maniac in our midst, or somebody in an awful hurry, or more likely yet, someone whose night of imbibing had lasted right on through into the morning. I really did think that the safest conclusion, based on what my rear-view mirror told me, was that I was about to be rear-ended by a drunk driver.
Unfortunately, there was no place to go. All the lanes to my right were filled with commuters. To my left were the oncoming lanes of outbound traffic. I dare not slow down, because I’ll be bumped for sure, so I’ll speed up. And as I did, guess what? A red light loomed up ahead. I had no choice but to brake and keep one eye on the mirror, and hope for the best.
Did you know that the Lord’s Prayer can be said in eight seconds?
About to be hit by a drunk driver. About to be messed up by someone driving under the influence, as they say. But, fortunately, the happy wanderer saw the red light too and squealed to a stop, still straddling two lanes, but at least nothing got hit.
And I decided, as drivers do, to send a message. I decided just to stare at this person through my rear-view mirror and send a message of disapproval. How dare you get out here on the street, driving under the influence? How many have you had anyway? Of course I didn’t say these things; I just thought them and sort of did a mental telepathy message back there.
And then I saw the driver: she (and some of you just knew it was going to be a she, didn’t you?) …she could be seen mouthing something, saying something. Was she talking back to me? No, it seemed to be a rhythmic pattern. I saw her hands go up, fingers popping, and for the first time I heard something too, something like boom-boom-chitty-boom-boom-chitty-boom-boom-boom-blatt!
And what I discovered was that this driver was not driving under the influence of alcohol; she was driving under the influence of progressive jazz!
She was not disoriented by the smell of booze but by the sound of music.
She was not impaired by the fruit of the vine, but by the beat of the drum.
More to the point, she was feeling good, real good. Riding along, singing to herself, just plain happy. When I looked in that mirror and saw her face, I saw a very happy face. I did not see the bleary-eyed, distorted face of a drunkard. I did not see the bland, blank stare of someone who has been in the cups too long. I saw a happy person, enjoying that music, and absolutely unaware of anything else going on around her.
Feeling good. She was driving under the influence, not of an abused substance, but of a misdirected set of feelings. Feeling good, so good that she was oblivious to her responsibility. So good that she could not control her vehicle properly. Feeling so good that she could not handle her responsibilities.
And therein I found a parable. Therein a spiritual issue for us.
The issue is, "can you feel good and still move forward purposefully and responsibly with your life?"
The issue is, "can you get inspired and excited, spiritually revved up, feeling great, and can you use that as energy for your life, or will it distract you? Will it keep you from living responsibly?"
In recent weeks I have heard a good many of you say that when worship is over here you feel good. You have told me that we have had some high moments of inspiration in this very room. And at one level, of course I’m pleased about that. Of course I’m excited about that. We want that. We enjoy that.
But I also wonder about it. I wonder what we are doing with these moments of inspiration. I wonder how we are handling the effects of these times of affirmation and praise and emotion. Yes, we can say with the psalmist, "I was glad when they said unto me, ’Let us go into the house of the Lord." But what do we do when we leave the house of the Lord, feeling good?
You see, it’s one thing to feel good after a worship service and to see energy build. It’s another thing entirely to use that energy appropriately.
It’s one thing to get on a spiritual high; it’s another thing to direct that energy and to drive ahead with your life and not wander. When you’re driving under the influence, when you’re living with moments of inspiration and feeling good, are you wandering or are you using that energy well?
The Apostle Paul, I think, is working through that issue in this passage in the Ephesian letter. He is confronting the fact that sometimes we get filled up and excited, inspired and feeling good, and that we don’t know how to use it. In fact, he even suggests a comparison between what happens when you get filled with the Spirit and when you get filled with the spirits. "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit." I will leave off the alcohol abuse message today, though I think you know how I feel about that. But now the question is, "What happens when you get filled with the Spirit? How will you use that so that it is not debauchery, so that is it not just wandering recklessly?"
Driving under the influence, living your life in the aftermath of an experience of praise and feeling good in the Lord: what can happen?
I
First, Paul says, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise." "Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise." I hear him say that it’s all very well to be excited and on a spiritual high, but at the same time, channel that energy into straightforward living, into moral living, wise living; channel that energy into living with integrity.
May I suggest to you this morning that if your spiritual high does not lead you to a higher and better life, it is just wandering and reckless lane-changing? May I suggest to you that if we gather in this place and get inspired, if we sing and pray and smile and indulge in rhetoric and then walk out to live the same old inauthentic lives as before, well, then, we are driving under the influence, maybe, but we are not driving in a good straight line. And we will do more harm than good.
A friend of mine startled me one day by telling me that he had observed that when he went to some of these high-powered evangelistic meetings, he saw more immoral behavior than at any other time. Do you know the kind of thing I am talking about? Some of the revivalistic, energy-packed services, where the preachers try to outdo one another in rhetoric and energy; where the style of things is to get all worked up in shouting and whooping and frenzies? My friend said that he discovered that after a service like that an awesome number of the preachers headed for the bars and the pornography strip!
You may be shocked, and it’s not a pretty picture, but there is something to watch here. If all we do with our worship is generate energy, that energy is going to go somewhere, and it may not go into healthy directions! If all we do with our spiritual excitement is to build and build and build and never connect with real life issues, then we will create destructive energies, not constructive ones. That is why in our worship here we hope to instruct, we hope to think as well as well as to feel. Otherwise we would unleash negative forces, not positive ones.
Hear the word of God for our worship and for our feeling good, "Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise."
I think of that story in the New Testament about the man who had a demonic force driven out of him, only to have it replaced by seven more worse than the first. If we do not channel our praise energies into a walk with Christ, a moral and pure and clean walk with Christ, then we will have done more harm than good.
Take that energy, says Paul, and "look carefully how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise." When you’re driving under the influence, when you’re feeling good, let that make you even more careful than before that your life measures up to the beauty and the purity of the Christ you’ve been praising.
II
There’s something else, too, to do with that energy. There is another way to channel the energy we create when we gather here to praise our God and when we end of the hour just feeling good.
And that is to channel that energy into mission. To devote that good feeling to witness. To do something positive and redemptive with that good feeling. If you are driving under the influence, don’t just wander around aimlessly. Go somewhere. Feel the needs around you. Do something redemptive with that energy.
That young woman was having a grand old time for herself, but she was absolutely oblivious to everyone else around her.
Paul says it like this: "Make the most of the time, because the days are evil." "Make the most of the time, because the days are evil."
If you come to this house of worship and you feel good, isn’t there somebody else out there who ought to feel that too?
If you worship God in this place and you feel cleansed and renewed, are you sure you don’t know someone else who needs to feel that too?
The days are evil, says Paul, and so make the most of the time. Feel some urgency. Get involved in mission and in witness. It matters. The days are evil. Make the most of the time. Can anyone read the newspaper and not see that the days are evil? Can anyone hear the life stories that are all around and not see that we are in urgent times?
I read an interesting article recently about the task of evangelism. The author said that despite all the gimmicks and the programs, the structures and the organizations that churches put into place in order to do evangelism, there is still one missing ingredient. There is still one thing we do not have, and that is, he said, a sense of urgency. We do not have a passion for sharing the Good News with others. We don’t seem to feel that it matters.
I’ve been talking here and there about an obsession for evangelism, about how you and I in this church need to feel that it matters whether somebody is redeemed or not, about how what we do has eternal consequences. It ought to be important to us, important above all things, to see lives redeemed. And I am not at all sure many of us have seen lives changed, because the days are evil.
You see, there are a thousand good things we can do. There are all kinds of programs we can put on. Sometimes we will entertain, sometimes we will inspire, sometimes we will instruct. But ultimately the purpose of anything that the church does ought to be to redeem. We just don’t have time to fool around with anything else, because the days are evil. We need to make the most of the time.
When we are feeling strong and uplifted, when we are feeling good and positive, then we need to put that energy to work right away, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.
Good feelings bottled up will soon go sour. Powerful energies corked up will eventually explode. If you are driving under the influence, if you are feeling something potent and encouraging, something healing and exciting, after you have worshipped, then the next question ought to be, "Who else needs this? Who else needs this right now?"
Why? Because the days are evil, and men and women are dying and being destroyed, and there isn’t much time. "Make the most of the time, because the days are evil"
She wandered down the middle of the road, oblivious to all others around her, not caring where we were going or how unsafe she was making it. She was all wrapped up in herself, her music, her little sardine can on wheels. She was having a great old time for her self, but the chances are she was going to hurt herself and somebody else too. Driving under the influence, in all the wrong ways.
The church member said to his skeptical friend, as together they stood at the back of the sanctuary and watched the congregation do its thing: "They do this every Sunday. They’ll be all right on Monday. It’s just a little habit they’ve acquired."
Do you feel good today? Are you flying high? That ’s fine, that’s all right. Paul says, "Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart".
That’s fine. But alongside that, channel that energy:
"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise. Make the most of the time, because the days are evil. "
