The Neighborhood Podcast

"Intention & Action" (March 5, 2025 Sermon)

• Rev. Stephen M. Fearing

Share episode

Preacher:  Rev. Stephen M. Fearing

This insightful episode delves into the struggle between intentions and actions, exploring the concept of cognitive dissonance in faith. We invite listeners to examine their life of integrity as we reflect on scripture and the challenging questions that arise in discipleship.

• Examining the tension between intentions and actions 
• Understanding cognitive dissonance through scripture 
• Jesus’ call to bring intention and action into alignment 
• How to engage with faith in today's challenging climate 
• The importance of remembering our calling in faith 


Follow us on Instagram @guilfordparkpresbyterianchurch
Follow us on Facebook @guilfordparkpc
Follow us on TikTok @guilfordparkpreschurch
Website: www.guilfordpark.org

Speaker 1:

Please join me in prayer. Holy God, your invitation is simple. You lean in close, you say our name With joy in your voice. You invite us to follow, but the noise of this world is distracting and we are afraid. So we get stuck somewhere between our head and our heart. We get stuck somewhere between our intent and our heart. We get stuck somewhere between our intent and our action. So today, we pray. Speak to us again, tell us the story, invite us to follow. Speak once more of good news that will not leave us alone. Speak to us again, for we are listening, amen. Our scripture lesson for today is from Luke 9, verses 51 through 62.

Speaker 1:

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem and he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way, they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him, but they did not receive him because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples, james and John, saw it, they said Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests. And Jesus said to him Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Another said I will follow you, lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him no one who puts a hand to the cloth and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God.

Speaker 2:

Friends, won't you pray with me? Gracious God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, o Lord, our rock and our redeemer, amen. A life of integrity is simple. Well, perhaps it's better said that the concept of a life of integrity is simple. Well, perhaps it's better said that the concept of a life of integrity is simple. It's that sweet spot you see on the screen, there in that Venn diagram, where our intentions and our actions overlap and are one in the same. That is the life of integrity. Or, as Jesus puts rather bluntly elsewhere in the Gospels, moments when we let our yes be yes and our no be no.

Speaker 2:

Now it should be noted in this particular Venn diagram that the life of integrity is a morally neutral concept. Theoretically, one can intend to do harm and actually do harm and be living a life of at least some kind of integrity. But as Christians, jesus calls us to another kind of integrity, a Christian integrity, one where we intend to do justice and love, kindness and walk humbly and then actually follow through on it. And sometimes it is the unpleasant but necessary task of the life of faith to assess the places in our lives where our intentions and our actions do not align with one another.

Speaker 2:

And our actions do not align with one another Because when we separate and compartmentalize our intentions from our actions, we can create what is called the valley of cognitive dissonance. In the field of psychology, this is a very fancy term that indicates the discomfort that we feel when our behaviors do not align with our values or our beliefs. This discomfort can come in many arenas of our life, and hear me when I say this no one I mean none of us appreciates being called out or rebuked as the disciples are in today's passage. We all have our own valleys of cognitive dissonance as part of being human, whether we like it or not you and I can be walking contradictions.

Speaker 2:

The apostle Paul gives voice to this feeling that we all know all too well in Romans 7.15, when he says, in a moment of relatable frustration I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate.

Speaker 2:

Who among us knows what that feeling is like? Right? So in today's passage, Jesus calls out the valley of cognitive dissonance that his disciples find themselves in. As we begin the season of Lent, it's appropriate that today's text tells us that the time came for Jesus to set his face to go to Jerusalem is what the text tells us. Jesus to set his face to go to Jerusalem is what the text tells us. Today's story took place in Galilee. As you see, right up there, towards the top, and in between Galilee up here and Judea down here, was this little land in the middle called Samaria, the inhabitants of which were largely despised by Jews. I trust most of us know that Jesus sends messengers from here down to Samaria to try to seek a place to stay on their way to Jerusalem, and they don't have any luck.

Speaker 2:

The Samaritans give them no welcome. The messengers report back to Jesus and you can practically see the disciples. Hackles raise at the news. They rage and fume Smoke comes out of their ears. If they were in a cartoon you would see their eyes bulge and a train whistle go off. Veins would start to protrude, blood pressure goes through the roof, adrenaline courses through their bodies. Whenever we have a surge of adrenaline, it compels us to do one of three things Fight, flight or freeze. And apparently the disciples choose fight.

Speaker 2:

They say a phrase that would be almost comical if it weren't so contemporarily relevant Of the Samaritans. The disciples say to Jesus quite casually Lord, do you want us to command fire, to come down from heaven and consume them? They have what I like to call a Jonah moment, have what I like to call a Jonah moment where they are ready, eager even to revel in the violent destruction of those they don't like. After a whole chapter this is kind of towards the end of the ninth chapter, but after what becomes what's before? In the chapter of the Gospels, where they're feeding the 5,000. They're feeding thousands of people, they're doing really good stuff, they're on a streak, they're healing people, they're caring for the least of these. And now the disciples express that they want to blow the Samaritans off the face of the earth. And this is where the valley of cognitive dissonance comes in. You see, the disciples have said that they want to follow Jesus and they've been learning from Jesus what that looks like in their own lives, what discipleship means. For example, their intentions are to follow Jesus, to feed people, to be fishers of people, but their actions are suggesting that they want to drop a nuclear bomb on the people of Samaria.

Speaker 2:

And in the midst of this cognitive dissonance, jesus calls them out on it and rebukes them. That verb, rebuke, is an interesting one. Elsewhere in the context of Luke's gospel, several other times in chapters 4 and 8, if you're curious Jesus uses that same verb, rebuke, to talk about exercising demons. No, not exercising demons, not putting demons on a treadmill, exorcising demons demons on a treadmill, exorcising demons. And then, elsewhere in Luke, jesus used that same verb to calm the storm when the disciples are out on the Sea of Galilee. So it's as if Jesus is telling the disciples that their wish for violence upon their perceived enemies is a sickness that needs to be drawn out, that it's a force that needs to be silenced. His rebuke of them is really harsh. It's not merely him saying hey, that's an interesting thought, let's put a pin in that and talk about this later. It's not him saying you know, maybe that might not be the best idea. It's Jesus saying unequivocally enough, knock it off. It's Jesus saying you're living in the valley of cognitive dissonance, where you say you want to follow me, but your speech and your actions indicate otherwise. And to make his point, jesus purposefully allows the disciples to overhear some conversations that he has with other people that they run into on the road to Jerusalem, and these people express their intentions to follow him. The cotton patch version of the gospels puts that portion of today's passage this way While they were going along the way, someone said to them I'll live your life, regardless of where it takes me.

Speaker 2:

Jesus replied foxes have dens and the birds of the sky have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to hang his hat. Then he said to another share my life. Okay, the man said, but first let me take care of my family obligations. Jesus told him let the people of the world care for themselves, but you, you spend your time promoting the God movement. Still another man that said to Jesus. I will share my life, sir, but first let me go work things out with my relatives. And to him Jesus replied no man who commits himself to a course of action and then keeps looking for a way out of it is fit material for the God movement. Friends, if you and I are to be fit material for the God movement in these fraught and frightful days in which we live, we must be honest with ourselves about the places in our lives where our intentions and our actions can be better aligned with one another.

Speaker 2:

Let me be perfectly clear as we enter into the season of Lent. This isn't about beating ourselves up. Lent isn't a glorified self-flagellation exercise. It's not about shame. Jesus doesn't shame us. He invites us. And in our eagerness, in our Peter moments, we were sometimes all too quick to accept that invitation without fully pondering the consequences of what it means to follow Jesus, to live his life, to share in his life.

Speaker 2:

So Lent compels us to ask hard questions of ourselves when we're tempted to come up with every excuse in the book to delay or avoid the radical discipleship that Jesus calls us to. Lynn asks us some tough questions. What does it mean to put away our swords in a political climate of scorched earth tactics? What does it mean to feed our neighbors when we're taught to hoard resources and look out for me and mine over and above everybody else? What does it mean to share Jesus's life when Christian nationalism perverts the message of Jesus and reduces it to a false narrative to achieve political power at the expense of the powerless? Or, as fellow Greensboro clergy Reverend Mark Sandlin puts it, what does it mean to follow Jesus when he leads us not to the mansions but to the margins?

Speaker 2:

When our intentions and our actions are unaligned, it can cause a lot of harm, which is why Jesus calls his disciples to be laser focused. He tells them that no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven. Has anybody in here ever literally plowed a field? Ron, you've plowed a field, all right, huh, not a whole field, but you okay. Well, I will freely admit I have never plowed a field. All right, huh, not a whole field, but you okay. Well, I will freely admit I have never plowed a field, but I am told that when you're doing so, if you don't keep yourself absolutely focused on where you are going, if you turn your head and look around, that field is going to be pretty screwed up and nothing is going to grow.

Speaker 2:

Right Now Jesus is telling his disciples, telling us, that sometimes our cognitive dissonance can distract us from planting the seeds that he's calling us to plant. It's like Jesus is saying to the disciples we don't have time to be at each other's throats, I've headed to Jerusalem. Have time to be at each other's throats, I'm headed to Jerusalem. We don't have time to sink to the level of those who delight when we attack each other over petty disputes. Jesus says I'm headed to Jerusalem. When Jews and Samaritans hate each other, the only one who actually benefits is the empire, our actual oppressor. Jesus tells them I'm headed to Jerusalem. Jesus calls them to put aside their want for retribution, to pick up the cross and to follow him. He calls them to bring their intentions and their actions in alignment with one another. So when, as Christians, we bring our intentions and our actions together, y'all, some really beautiful things can happen, some really life-giving things can happen. Healing happens, reconciliation happens, demons are cast out, bellies are filled, children are welcomed, immigrants are given shelter.

Speaker 2:

On this Ash Wednesday, as we mark our foreheads with the stuff of the earth, we simply need to remember who God is calling us to be. Remember, I will say to each one of you that you are dust and to dust you shall return Because, you see, the spiritual act of remembering is what helps us bring our intentions and our actions together. You see, when we remember who we are and who Jesus is calling us to be, we go from this, the valley of cognitive dissonance, to this, the life of integrity. We do this by remembering my friend and colleague. The Reverend Lauren Grubot-Thomas is an Episcopal priest in Colorado and she wrote this morning on the topic of remembering in her blog. She said the following I wanted to lift up for you all in closing. Lauren said this, and so today I'm holding on to the wisdom of the spiritual practice of remembering.

Speaker 2:

To remember is to put together again, as in reassembling parts of a broken body, as in restoring all the members to wholeness. It's an invitation to reintegration, to collective consciousness, to seeing ourselves as part of a bigger story. To remember my dustiness, as she puts it, is to locate myself in a bigger story of creation, where all those ancestors who have died before me are present, alongside with the descendants yet to come, and the breath of God is the common animating energy amongst all of us creatures. Remember that small things done in love have ripple effects beyond our knowledge. Remember that you are not alone, that you are one of many, that our actions take root and grow and bear fruit for future generations, she says.

Speaker 2:

Today, I choose to remember the exquisite interconnectedness of everything, that we all come from stardust what a gorgeously incomprehensible thing and that our atoms will be recycled by this composting earth, returning us to the whole. And I remember love in every fiber of my being, holding me together as love holds you together, as love holds all of us together. If you should like this reminder from me today, know that you receive it with all the love that stitches me together and makes me whole. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. So, friends, remember. Remember that you are called to bring healing to the world. Remember that, though you are dirt, that God can do some pretty amazing stuff with dirt. Remember that the dirt of the earth provides shelter for seeds to grow into fruits that sustain and reconcile, for the space between our intentions and our actions, where those two meet, is where faith is found and seeds spring forth from the ground. In the name of God, the creator, redeemer and sustainer, may all of us, god's beloved dusty children, say amen.