An ad once appeared in the personals column of a newsletter. It read like this: "Married, professional man, 47, with problems in home, seeks dalliance with a married/unmarried, intelligent woman." The ad had been written by some researchers. They were curious about who would respond to such an ad. Much to their astonishment, they were deluged by responses.
For example, here's one: "I am a 34-year-old female, pretty, rubenesque, brown hair, dark blue eyes. I work as a nurse in large urban hospital. My friends consider me bright, honest, interesting, conservatively bohemian and sensual. I have the usual vices."
Here is another: "I am interested in the same things you are. I am 36, married. Discretion is very important to me. Please call only between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m."
Or this one: "Welcome to the club. I am 36, married, a professional in the advertising business. Home is not exactly a nest I look forward to at night. We might share a few things. Write me."
And this one, "I'm intelligent and married. I live in a deeply wooded area along the river where deer are an everyday occurrence. I could see you during the week, but never on weekends. I am tall, slim and decent looking. You could be seen with me without shame." (1) That's an interesting way to put it. "You could be seen with me without shame." Let's talk about that for a minute.
What is it that makes you blush? That's the question for the morning. The answer for many of us is, "Not very much anymore." We've seen it all. Nothing shocks us. Nothing seems to be hidden or forbidden or even looked down upon anymore.
When Elvis first appeared on television on the Ed Sullivan show, the cameras would only show him from the shoulders up. Compare that with MTV, where little is left to the imagination. When Clark Gable uttered a mild oath in Gone With the Wind, it was a nationwide sensation. Today obscenities spew forth from our televisions. Little children use words that would make sailors blush. When film star Ingrid Bergman abandoned her husband to live with Roberto Rossalini, her film career in this country plummeted. Today, such behavior would not cause a ripple. What is it that makes you blush?
Part of the problem is that we no longer have models of morality to inspire us. The philosopher Frederick Nietzsche once summed up morals and ethics in the question "Who are your heros?" There aren't very many heros of morality around anymore. As Mark Twain said, "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare."
"That's the media's fault," you say. "They take our heros apart. They show them, warts and all. We no longer have fantasies about the existence of nearly perfect people. If our fathers and mothers had known everything there was to know about their heroes, they would have been disillusioned, too. Well, yes and no.
Once there was a man by the name of Will Rogers. Rogers, at one time, was the most popular and the highest paid entertainer in this country, perhaps in all the world. He was Bob Hope and Garrison Keeler and Steve Martin all rolled into one. He was so popular that when George
M. Cohen produced a Broadway version of Ah Wilderness, a part was written just for Rogers -- to take advantage of his popularity. The play was a smashing success. Mysteriously, though, in about the 5th week, the play suddenly closed down. Some faint excuse was given that Rogers was too busy with his burgeoning film career and other responsibilities. Friends knew better. Rogers still had time for many other things that he wanted to do. Sometime later the truth came out about why Ah Wilderness closed that 5th week.
Will's longtime friend Eddie Canter explained what happened. He writes, "Will received a letter from a clergyman. Here is what the clergyman said: (Now remember this is a different generation.) The letter said, `Relying on you to give the public nothing that could bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of a Christian. I attended your performance with my 14-year-old daughter, but was deeply embarrassed when you did the scene in which the father lectures the son on the subject of his relations with an immoral woman. I took my daughter by the hand and we left the theater. I have not been able to look her in the eye since.'" (2)
Let me hasten to say that Rogers saw nothing wrong with the part he was playing in Ah Wilderness. He never would have done the play if he'd seen something objectionable about it. But it bothered him deeply that a family could not sit through a performance of that play without embarrassment. And so Will Rogers closed down his very successful play rather than cause offense.
Whether you agree with Rogers or not is not the point. The point is that he was a genuine American hero who kept his principles. And such things are possible today. I was glad to see that Amy Grant had the number one song on the Rock charts not too long ago, and I'm gratified to read about the strong faith that Whitney Houston is. I hope they're able to hold on to their principles. We need models of moral courage. Without such models, society will continue its journey downward into a moral quagmire.
Some tourists were visiting a West Virginia Coal Mine and were preparing to go down into the mine. One of the ladies was wearing a very dainty, pure white dress. The other people in the party said, "You're surely not going to wear that white dress down into the mine." So she asked the coal miner who was leading the excursion if it was alright for her to wear her white dress down there. His answer was, "There's nothing to keep you from wearing your white dress down into this mine. There is a considerable amount to keep it from being white when you come back up." In a society without moral heroes, it's very, very difficult to maintain your moral bearings.
Certainly we live in a time in great moral confusion. You've probably read about that new book, THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH -WHAT PEOPLE BELIEVE ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT REALLY MATTERS. The authors did a survey in which they asked people about their real views on life. They discovered that in this time of moral uncertainty, people are fashioning their own moral codes. For example, according to this survey only 13 percent of people today believe in all Ten Commandments. Nine out of ten people in this country lie regularly. One-third of all married Americans have been unfaithful to their spouses. One-fifth of American children have lost their virginity by the age of thirteen. Seven percent of Americans would kill a stranger, if enough money were offered -- seven percent! What are we to say about such a land?
Steven Brown says a friend of his saw a bumper sticker on a car that said, "If it feels good, do it." He said he started to ram the car with his car. If the driver dared ask why he did it, he'd answer, "It felt good. I did it." What are we to say about such a society?
There was an article in the newspaper recently about a stock broker, a very affluent stockbroker may I add, who was arrested in New York City for putting slugs in parking meters rather than coins. Perhaps this was his pitiful little rebellion against the straight life. Maybe it was a statement of arrogance. Maybe it was the conviction that he was above the law, that he had gotten so used to making his own rules that even when it didn't matter, he cheated. What are we to say or do about such a society?
A group of mothers in Kenosha, Wisconsin wrote an alternative health curriculum for their school stressing biblical morals. The plan calls marriage a real commitment. It urges youngsters to prepare to forgive daily and always to speak proudly and lovingly of their mate in public when they are married. The school board voted the curriculum down. What are we to say about such a society in which there are no longer any fixed and accepted rules? One thing we can say is that such a society will experience great heartache.
John Killinger once used the example of Sarah Orne Jewett's novel, THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. In that novel, a woman notices a number of painted wooden stakes around the property of a retired sea captain, Elijah Tilley. She asks the captain why those wooden stakes are driven in the ground. Tilley tells her that when he first bought the farm and plowed the ground, every once in a while his plow would snag on a large rock underneath the surface of the ground. These snags not only slowed his progress, but dulled his plow. So he put up stakes to show where the underground rocks were located, so he could avoid them. Killinger says that's what the Ten Commandments are all about. God has said these are the trouble spots in life. Avoid these and you won't snag your plow. Young people, if you wonder why your parents put so many restrictions on you sometimes, remember that they are trying to help you avoid some snags, some trouble spots, some heartachebringers. In some cases they don't want to see you make the same tragic mistakes they have made or someone they love has made.
What is it that makes you blush? Let's return to that original question. Let me ask you a very pointed question. Would it make you blush if people found out you were a Christian? The people you work with, the people you party with, the people you go to school with. Would it embarrass you if people found out you were a follower of Jesus? For you see, our text for the day is the last verse of our scripture lesson. "For whoever is ashamed of me and my works in this adulterous generation, of him will the Son also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." Are you ashamed to be associated with Jesus?
There are some people with their names on church rolls who would find it easier to utter a string of obscenities than to share with a coworker their faith in Jesus Christ. Does that sound unbelievable? No, some of you know I'm telling the truth. Some of us, when it comes to sharing our faith are like the St. Lawrence waterway in the wintertime, we're frozen at the mouth. What is it that makes you blush? Some of us in this perverted time find it impossible to blush at anything anymore except our faith. How about you?
Walter Harrelson once put it like this, referring to the commandment that Israel was not to make any graven images. He said, "Israel is to make no image of Yahweh, but Israel is to be an image of Yahweh in the world. When the people of Israel are faithful to the God of the Covenant, then God has the right kind of representative in the world of humankind." (3) You and I are not to make images of God, we're to be images of God! We are to have in us the same mind which was in Christ Jesus. And we are to live out the mind of Christ in all that we do. In such a time as this, that influence will be felt.
There is an old Finnish proverb that even a small star shines in the darkness. Well, morally and spiritually we are living in a dark time. We need to let our little lights shine. What is it that makes you blush? I hope it's sin that makes you blush. I hope it's transgressing God's law that makes you blush. I hope that when you come to your faith in Jesus Christ it doesn't make you blush. I hope it makes you glow.
1. Joel A. Freeman, LIVING WITH YOUR CONSCIENCE, (San Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publishing, 1989).
2. Bryan B. Sterling & Frances N. Sterling, WILL ROGERS' WORLD, (New York, M. Evans and Co., 1989).
3. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980).