Luke 1: 1-4; 4:14-21 1/ 23/ 2022 (As built, Amite #481)
A. Right thing… right way… to be prudent…
B. My brothers and sisters in Christ his name is Harland… and Harland is a poster child for imprudent… it ain’t never the right thing and rarely the right way… if it is the right thing he surely didn’t do it the right way… he is out of the box… he is uncontrollable… he is irritable… as a matter of fact if you were to take a picture of him and look it up in the dictionary… it would have has cursing like a sailor… I don’t think the sailors had the vocabulary of Harland… as a matter of fact they talk to him one day and he said you know I was a born loser… quote end quote… his words not mine… he said man my life was just tumultuous… he said man my dad dies when I’m five… he says I get kicked out of school because I got in too many fights… he said next thing you know he said man I decided to get married… I come home one day… ain’t seen her since… he said my life is out of the box… and the problem is he just… he’s just a walking accident looking for a place to happen… my brothers in Christ he decides man I’m going to go to the army… so he goes to the army… he stays there… he makes it barely… he comes back out… he’s decided man I’m going to go be a blacksmith… he goes and becomes a blacksmith… he decides he wants to work for the fire department… he works in a fire department… then gets in a fight… gets kicked out of the fire department… decided he wants to go sell insurance… gets into a fight with the insurance people… next thing you know he’s kicked out of there… he decides he wants to go to law school… don’t explain how he gets there… he gets there… gets into a fight at law school and gets kicked out of that… everywhere he goes it just seems like trouble follows him… right thing right way… not in his vocabulary… next thing you know he’s decided he’s going to sell tires… he works on ferry boats… he finally is fifty eight years old… he sits down with the one person that he finally could trust… and he said Harland you know your problem… he said when that thought hits that head that jaw opens up… and man you… you just can’t get out the way… he said if you could learn to do things the right thing the right way could you be prudent… he said man your life would be way better… he said man your fifty eight years old… he decided you know what all I know how to do is be a short order cook… he said I’m going to go cook… here’s the deal… at the age of sixty according to the united states you’ve got to retire… he works a year and a half… he gets one social security check… he’s decided that I’m just going to do my own little business… so he gets it in a hotel… the hotel burns down and burns his business… he is beside himself… he gets into a fight with one of the guys he’s renting that’s renting the building next thing you know their thinking about sending him to jail… finally Harland said you know what… I’m just going to sell my recipe… that’s all I’ve got… he finally decided I’m going to do the right thing the right way… he actually had somebody else help him sell it just so he doesn’t fly off the handle… you know what’s amazing is that you and I still visit it today… he’s done that well wit hit…he said that his original recipe was the original… oh please Lord not another day… I went through last night it was a shipwreck… it was finger licking good… yes my brothers and sisters in Christ Harland Sanders right the colonel… you know what’s funny is every time they put him up there in that little white suit… and he’s all looks so happy… now you know the rest of the story… my brothers and sisters in Christ it’s the right thing the right way…
C. That is the whole point of that gospel… this is why Luke is writing it… accurately… and only with first-hand witnesses… now stop… stop and listen you’re a first century Jew… Luke is… not an apostle… he is not a firsthand witness… he is writing it to a guy named Theophilus… yes his name means friend of God but most people had names that would translate something along the lines of something religious… or holy…. or endearing to God… but when you say… most excellency… then I’ve got to tell you… you’re probably replying to one or two people in the kingdom… he’s writing it because already Mark has written the gospel… Matthews in the way of writing his… so a lot of it he wants to make sure and verify… so he’s telling him I’m going to write the story for you… so that you will know that it’s accurate and in order… very prudential… right thing… right way… now… he says I’m going to use witnesses but only firsthand witnesses… it can’t be Paul who he’s a follower of… because Paul’s not necessarily a firsthand witness… so here’s the problem… he says I’m going to use witnesses… which we believe are Mark and Matthew… my brothers in Christ their Greek word for their first hand witnesses is autopsia…you know where you and I get it from… oh you know it all too well… if there’s an accident… a homicide… a murder… somebody passes… they call the coroner in… the coroner will go in… and he brings it back to somebody to examine… and they do a what… firsthand witness… that’s where we get the word from… my brothers in Christ that’s how far Luke is going… he is going to interview everybody to make sure they are a firsthand witness… before he even writes their story… that’s the extent that he’s willing to go to… now remember he’s telling you a story of Christ going back home… his first homily in his own hometown… the synagogue is now bigger then this church… and as a result of it he’s going to speak… now there’s two ways to do it… he can either be the first reader… which is the law… the first five books… or he could be the second reader the prophets… because he’s reading for Isaiah you and I know he’s reading from the second reading he reads it… they give him the scroll of Isaiah… right sixty six chapters the most dominant player in the day… he reads from it…and basically telling them…that what you just heard that I’m the Messiah… that the Holy spirit has come upon me that this has been fulfilled… he gives the homily… ten words… what you just heard has just been fulfilled… and then he sits down…now… my brothers in Christ I digress… maybe the homily sold for him I don’t know… but at the end of the day it’s all about just being exactly what it is… right thing right way…
D. Look go back in all of scripture… all of our best players… are those that are prudential… that think before they speak… they do it the right thing the right way… but for every one of those there’s always a guy like Pilate… Pilate is in the armpit of the world… he doesn’t want to stay there y’all… his wife Claudia… is begging him… not to judge Christ… because if he does then… their life is going to get even worse… this is a story according to tradition… this is how imprudent… talk about doing the wrong thing the wrong way… that’s Pilate… Pilate tells his wife that he’s heard about this guy named the Christos… Claudia says look I know more than you think… I’m telling you that you need to leave and let him go… what she doesn’t tell Pilate is that one day she gets a caravan… soldiers in the front… soldiers in the back… about ten Caravans and slaves walking along the side… this is how they travel… she travels almost a three days journey to go find out where Christ is… it’s a little know nothing town… she gets into town…look everyone knows who’s Claudia… Claudia gets out… and goes looking for Christ… he’s down by the river… she goes down by the river to see him… she brings with her… her slave… and two of her ladies with her… when they get down there she keeps the three behind her… she walks up to Christ and says… I’ve come to tell you… and when Christ sees her he stands… he knows exactly who she is… yes… he’s God but relative to the human essence… and she says I’ve come to tell you… you need to stay away… from Jerusalem… he’s getting close now right his time to go home is coming close to the crucifixion… and she says… you need to stay away… people think the reason you’re hiding is because you don’t have the power anymore… the good Lord puts his hands up and he says well what do you say Claudia… Claudia says…I think you’re a Holy man… I think you’re more than a prophet… and I think you might be God… he said I see… have you come here to figure this out… and she was honest… she said I think so…right thing… right way… he says bring your slave over… the slave comes over… he has no tongue… it’s been already cut out… that way he can’t Gossip about what happens in the kingdom… that’s why they do it… she didn’t do it… she didn’t want it done… but it was done prior to her existence I digress… he brings it over there… now here’s what the slave has got to decide… right thing right way… do I genuflect and bow towards Claudia or do I do it towards him… if I do it towards him… and I don’t do it to her… they’re going to bury me right where I kneel… because I disrespected her… the slave’s got about two seconds to make his mind up… and you know what he does… he turns towards Christ… he actually puts his face into the ground… takes the good Lords foot and puts it on the back of his head… right thing… right way… he didn’t even believe that he could look up… even to the bottom of the soles of his feet… as a result of it the good Lord picks him up… he opens his mouth and he takes his two fingers and he places them in his mouth… and then he says I want it…and then the tongue begins to expand… Claudia calls the ladies over… she’s not in shock… she believes what what she just saw… she is so enamored that he is now the Christos that she says Lord… here’s thirty pieces of silver… the price of a slave and here’s the slave… and he said oh no… you keep the money…better yet give it to him but you let him go free… and then he asked him to go back and proclaim… in his home country that he indeed is the Messiah… so when Claudia goes back and now she knows that he’s the Messiah… this is why she goes to Pilate and says you do not need to be judging him… in the movie she looks at him when he’s about to give judgment she walks away from the window… why… because he looks to Christ and asks what is truth… he’s standing right in front of him… right thing right way… man you just… how imprudent… how rude… how wrong… my brothers and sisters in Christ… for every one of those like Pilate… there’s a Claudia… somebody that thinks before they speak… say what you want about Peter… man Lord tell me if it is you tell me to come… come Peter… man you say he was imprudent walking on the water… then what happened to the other eleven guys on that boat… and let’s be honest… he did walk on the water out there and he did walk all the way back… the good Lord didn’t carry him… say what you want about Peter that often times he misspoke… but I guarantee you that thirty three years later when he’s crucified upside down… and for three hours upside down proclaims the gospel… that is right thing right way… we have twelve statues out there in that garden of all guys that gave their life to Christ… guys that were speared… guys that had their heads taken off… one guys was skinned alive… one guy was sawed in half… another one was just beat to death with a club… all because they knew that at the end of the day it was the right thing the right way…
E. Well now here you and I sit two thousand years later… my brothers and sisters in Christ how quick are you and I to run off the reservation… how quick are you and I to lose our prudence… man it’s a beautiful day… we’re driving down the road somebody cuts us off… and man we just lose it… if we don’t give them whatever… we don’t flash them with our lights… we don’t pull up beside them… we don’t have comments that are a running documentary everywhere we go… what happens when you get home and somebody asks you the wrong question… how quick are you to fly off the handle… brothers in Christ when you get to work and all that waits for you when you get to work… are you imprudent when somebody asks you a question… my brothers in Christ when you go home… and all of a sudden man one of your parents calls you and asks you yet again… how to work the remote… I speak of that one honestly… and she’s not here to defend herself so what courage I must have… my brothers in Christ you and I have a tendency sometimes to be imprudent when we speak… because our actions get the best of us … I’m telling you… you’ve got to stop… you got to pause a minute you got to do the right thing the right way… just because you did the right thing you still got to do it the right way… if you’ve got to correct somebody maybe you ought to pull them off to the side…and speak to them and get that volume back down… my brothers and sisters in Christ it’s both and… you can’t do the right thing the wrong way… or the wrong thing the right way… it’s got to be done the right thing the right way… it must be prudential… I’ll tell you this story… one day there is a king… he can’t decide who should take my place… he said I’ve got three great colonels but all of them sometimes I don’t know if they’re going to do the right thing or not…so he sets up a test… he says I’m going to send each one of them to go visit this other king… I have a friend of mine who’s blind… and I’m going to stick him out front… and I’m going to tell the three colonels to make sure when they go there and they see a guy out front he is blind… ask him where to find the king… and I want to see how they handle the situation… first colonel gets there… he said excuse me sir have you seen anybody come by here resembling the king… he said… I’m blind… I know that… have you seen anybody hear anything… no I haven’t… next guy comes… he said… sir I’m over here… he’s waving… he said sir as he turns because he hears the noise… I would imagine you’re waving to me like I can’t see you… I can’t…I’m blind… how can I help you… I’m here…I’m supposed to be talking to the king… where is he I need to talk to him… he said sir I can’t help you with that… finally the third guy comes up… he said excuse me sir… I understand you are blind… by chance were you aware of anything going on… relative to the king… I think I’m supposed to be here to meet someone… he said… and you will be the one… and you will be the new king… because you speak prudently… the right thing the right way…
F. My brothers and sisters in Christ I leave you with the words of Abraham Lincoln…you know he said it’s better to be thought a fool… then open your mouth and remove all doubt… but I’ll also tell you this and I don’t remember who said it… be careful of the words you choose… because tomorrow you may have to eat them…
G. Amen…
