bibliography: Harry The Dirty Dog, Galations 5:19-, Romans 7:14-25, ADHD, John Wesley
I want to tell you a story from my childhood. It’s not about me or my family. Its a story from a book I got as a child when my mother enrolled me in a book of the month club. Its amazing how those stories stick with you as you grow up, but I remember it very clearly.
As I tell you this story, I want us to pay attention to how the story parallels our own story of justification and salvation in Christ. As we listen to the story, I want us to focus on the similarities to the human condition and the role of God’s grace in our life.
Because salvation begins for us like that of the story of Harry.
Harry is a dog. Harry was a white dog with black spots and he lived with a family who loved him very much. There was only one thing about Harry’s life he didn’t like.
Harry hated baths.
He would do anything he could to get out of a bath. He’d hide the scrub brush. He’d hide himself. The family got very good at tricking Harry into taking a bath and Harry got very good at picking up on the smallest of clues that a bath was in his future.
Now, of course, a bath was in Harry’s best interest, but Harry didn’t care. Even though Harry had everything he could possibly want or need, Harry didn’t appreciate it. And so it was that one day when Harry heard the bath water running which he knew was for him, Harry took control of his own life, ran away from home, and escaped through a whole he dug under the fence in the backyard.
Harry left home to pursue his own self serving desires.
Suddenly Harry found himself with a great deal of freedom. He decided he was going to go and do all the things he had always longed to go and do but hadn’t bee allowed to.
He met up with children he had never met before. He visited restaurants and construction sites. He wandered into streets and alleys and explored places he’s never been before.
But Harry discovered something. Pursuing his own desires brought him no satisfaction. He found the world was an unfriendly place. People who were not his family didn’t greet him the same way they did. Places he thought would be so much fun, didn’t provide him with the pleasure he thought it would. In fact, Harry found himself, lonely, scared, hungry, cold, friendless, and shelterless.
In his despair, Harry sought to return to his home and family, so he crawled back through the hole he had dug under the fence in the backyard.
Harry just had one problem.
His worldly travels had made Harry unrecognizable to his family. Harry was no longer a white dog with black spots. Now he was a black dog with white spots, and when the family found him in the backyard while searching for Harry, they didn’t know who this strange dog was.
Fortunately this family had an unconditional acceptance about them, because when this strange dog they didn’t know indicated he wanted a bath, they were happy to comply.
And of course, through Harry’s bath, something amazing happened. Being made clean, Harry’s family and Harry recognized Harry, and they entered into a new relationship together. And so happily ends the story of Harry the Dirty Dog.
Salvation begins for us like Harry’s story.
Earlier in the letter to Romans from which we have read, Paul speaks of the redemption we don’t deserve but receive in Christ Jesus.
Our initial response to life is to take control of our own lives, to follow the pursuits of our human nature. But just like Harry those won’t provide us with the satisfaction we desire. The thing is, without the unconditional love given to us through Jesus Christ, there is nothing we can do to rectify our condition, make our life right, fix our situation. It’s all about Grace.
Paul has emphasized this point, wanting to make it perfectly clear, wanting us to get our priorities straight, wanting us to focus our attention on what God does, not on what we can do.
Its all about Grace.
And the words of Paul we read this evening tell us what God’s grace does for us:
“...the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed us through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death.. The law of Moses could not save us...But God put into effect a different plan to save us.”
And that plan is Christ - grace given to us freely through faith in Christ.
In the school district and also as a parent, I learned about attention and focus. Noises and movement are distracting. Having the television on makes it difficult to get homework completed. Sitting by the pencil sharpener or by the door makes it difficult to pay attention to the teacher. If you truly want to learn, you move away from sources of distractions, closer to the teacher. You find a quite place to do your homework. You do things that help you focus your attention better.
Paul is telling us that where we focus our attention - whether on the distractions or on the sources of learning - indicates the kind of person we become:
In verse 5 Paul writes:
“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things...”
And in the 5th chapter of Galations, we see what sort of things those dominated by sinful nature engage in. They include sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activity, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin.
And Paul tells us that he especially starts out with good intentions, meaning not to engage in the characteristics of sinful nature we just listed. But when his attention was focused incorrectly, Paul responded incorrectly:
“I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can’t help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things.
“I know that I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can’t make myself do right. I want to, but I can’t. When I want to do good, I don’t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway...
“It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
“Oh what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?
Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things
BUT
those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the spirit.”
And Galations 5 has a list of Holy Spirit characteristics as well. They are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
It is a matter of focusing attention on grace, of giving up control. One of our hymns reflects this sentiment:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of this world will grow strangely dim,
in the light of his glory and grace.
I don’t mean to imply that any of this is at all is a simplistic notion or ideal. I don’t mean to imply that it is easy or fixes all of life’s problems. In fact, in many ways, it is a more difficult life to lead. Redirecting attention is not easy. Giving up control is nearly impossible. Striving for control is one thing we humans are particularly good at.
To refocus our attention on grace means recognition of the unconditional love extended to us. It means unconditional acceptance and surrender in return. It means turning over another part of our life to God, tbeing open to that ‘ugly’ word - change.
It means our time may be reorganized and spent differently. It means change in the way we do things and in the very core of who we are.
Its a very scary and frightening thing for us to give up control and invite God in to aspects of our lives we’ve never relinquished control of before.
Its a very scary and frightening thing to let go and let God be in control.
Its a difficult prayer to pray, to truly invite God to make us into the kind of person God wants us to be, to open our hearts and ourselves up for that kind of transformation.
I think its because we know it also mean great work and struggle on our part to meet Jesus and go where he wants to lead us.
Yet in Paul’s own words, he described for us that no matter how much he wanted to, he had no control in making himself be that person he wanted to be in Christ.
Focusing our attention on grace, and inviting the Holy Spirit to empower us to be that Christ like person, takes all of the burden off our own shoulders.
All that’s required of us is to open our hearts and minds, and let the Spirit of God’s grace revealed to us in Christ work within us and through us.
“There is no obligation, Paul writes, whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do...
“Through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from the sinful nature and it evil deeds, and live.” (paraphrased)
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
Paul’s words remind me of something John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement once wrote in one of his sermons.
He said, that if strangers to the world (its hard to imagine John Wesley talking about his own version of extraterestrials), but if strangers were to observe us, they would believe that the one main purpose of life is gratify all our desires. But of course, the oposite is true. In fact, time is so short here on earth, that we really don’t have time to focus our attention on anything that takes us away from pursuing our relationship with God.
Wesley calls it the one thing needful, and its not a successful career, not a large bank account, not being a perfect parent, not the greatest looking yard in the neighborhood or the ideal home.
The one thing needful, Wesley says, is for us to open ourselves up to be that person God created us to be. For this we were created, for this we were redeemed through Jesus Christ.
“There is no obligation, Paul writes, whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do...
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
The question this evening is, where will we focus our attention?
In Jesus name, Amen.
