Responsibility
Luke 13:1-9
August 22, 1971
John M, Buchanan

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Ernest Campbell, minister of Riverside Church in New York City, tolls the
story of a\juvenile criminial who was brought to trial in Toronto a few years
ago. He brought to the bar of justice an unbelievably bad record including 4! )
murder, rape and armed robbery. His defense was based on the fact that he had
come from a broken home, that he was a high school drop-out, that he had been
influenced badly by the wrong group of friends and that his personality was
deeply introverted.

During the trial a cartoon appeared in one of the Toronto daily papers.
It portrayed a boy standing before the bench, looking up at the judge and
saying, "Here I stand, I can do no other."

Those were the words of Martin Luther, you will remember, as he testified
on his own behalf before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, at the Dict of
Worms. They became the rallying slogan of the Protestant Reformation, and
symbolized a new awareness of man's dignity and integrity and responsibility.
They were used in this cartoon, however, to indicate how far we have come from
that heroic gesture 450 years ago. |

The topic I would have you consider this morning, is a difficult and con=
troversial one, I+ presents itself to us in many forms in our common life.
Who bears responsibility for the juvenile delinquent? Who bears responsibil~
ity for the behavior of an .angry, black militant? Who is responsible for the
18 year old A.D.C. mother who has just born her third illegitimate child?

Who is responsible for Leutenant Calloy's behavior, or Sirhan Sirhan or Lee '
Harvey Oswald? iho is responsible for Angela Davis? She - us - or everyone
together?

It's treacherous going, and we are not helped at all by simplo-minded
solutions which attempt cither to make an individual solely responsible for

hig behavior, or totally unaccountable for what he does. The truth, as usual, :

falls somewhere in the middle.

is we have become more and more sophisticated in the Social Sciences - the
disciplines of psychology, sociology, anthropology and politcal science, the
locus of responsibility has slowly shifted from the individual to society,
family or the genoral sociological environment. We know the heredity has a
great deal to do with tho eventual outcome of personality development. le
know that all sorts of environmental factors come into play as well: we can
document the effect the filial relationship from birth on, has on the world
view and behavior of people. We know the economics plays a part: that social
conditions do leave their mark. We know that history is important: that thore
is a substantial differonce between coming of age in 1971 and, say, the quict
days of centuries past. It docs matter that we live in a world over which
hangs the Damocles Sword of nuclear war.

No sensitive person can dismiss all of this as he contemplates the locus
of responsibility. In a very real way we do bear common responsibility for
the life behavior of every man. And to ignore the fact that an Angela Davis
is black and from Alabama and witnessed the bombing death of four young friends
< the Sunday School of the First Baptist Church of Birmingham is the heigth
of insensitivity.

dnd yot — and it is an important "and yet" - the sociological conditions
surrounding an individual's personality development are not the whole story.
For, if we are simply the products of other, external forces, we are not only
irresponsible — but also not free — and not human. The abdication of personal
responsibility is - in essence — the abdication of manhood. "Here I stand. I
can do no other" + means — I am a product of fate - I am not accountable —
Iam not aman. Rollo May, distinguished psychiatrist end author, has
identified one of the major problems of our culture as "the crisis of will."

We have, says May, all too often excused ourselves and blamed someone or

something clsc for what we do, think and are.

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So the going is treacherous and we must proceed with great care and even
greater integrity. For it is, admittedly, very comforting, to know that, when
I choose, I may blame others for what I am.

Jesus told a little story once that is right to the point. There are two
major ideas that keep emerging in the teachings of our Lord - Grace and Demand.
on the one hand the love of God for all men; on the othor hand the imperative
laid on the heart of every man by God. On the one hand the good news that
God accepts us as we arc; on the other hand command that we become some thing
more than we arc. Tho two are in tension in the Gospel; and it is interesting
that whenever Jesus addressed himself to his own people — the Jews - it was
the latter -— tho! demand — that he emphasized. Thus, the little story of the
Fig trec.

The fig tree had a lot of factors going for it. Located in a favored
spot in the vinoyard it had the sun and sky to itself. Object of care and
pruning — its branches became lush and groen. There was one thing wrong,
however: it wasn't producing any figs. So the owner of the vineyard, after
three years of waiting ordered it cut down. The gardener interceded — one
more chance; a little more pruning and fertilizing; one more season to prove
itself. And the period of grace was granted. The tree got a second chance.
Jesus left the story hanging there for dramatic effect. , For he was not really
talking about a fig tree at all; he was addressing himself to men and women:
to the whole nation 6f Isracl. And the ending of the parable would be written
by them - as they responded to him.

The function’ of a fig tree is to produce figs. If it does not perform
its function it has no reason to take up space in a vineyard. The function .
of Isracl was to bear witness to God. They wore partners in covenant with
God. They had been blessed with a galaxic of leaders unequalled in the history
of the world: Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Jmos, Isaiah, John the Baptist,

Jesus of Nazarcth. Their function was to prosecute the case for Almighty God

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before the court of world history: to be his special people. Their privilege.
as chosen people meant responsible people. Jind now, in their history, God
had acted in an ultimate way. The messiah had come - and in coming had laid
the imperative of rosponsibility directly upon them.

The meaning in that for us is very simply stated. Privilege always means
responsibility. We are accountable for who we are and what we do. “Here I
stand. I can do no other" is not really the truth about us at all. Sani:
in Biblical terms it is always, "Here I stand. But I could be other than what
I ame"

Careful insight teaches us to go casy on the Jews at this point. For
centuries Christianity has provided the ideological rational for anti-semitism —
by blaming the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. nd only recently,
after * onty long centuries, have we mustered the integrity to confess that
they are no more guilty than anyone else: that we should have acted the same
way were we in their position. After all, there are good, sound, political,
sociological and psychological reasons for their rejection of Jesus Christ.
Their behavior can be explaincd - just as we are quite able to explain our
own timidity and unfaithfulness as our faith comes in conflict with major
forces in our own culture.

But the Biblical witness keeps returning, time and time again, to the cut-
ting edge of personal responsibility. We are men as we bear responsibility.
We exercise our God ~given humanity as we hold no one accountable for ourselves
but ourselves -

Now, lev's think about ourselves. It is my observation that all of us have

an incredible ability to rationalize our own behavior — while at the same time

holding others accountable for their behavior. Geraldine syys, "The Devil

made me do it's; which is one of our historic excuses. On the other hand
Dagwood is at least honest, when he says "there are some urges I can't resist"

as he lets his sleeping friend Herb have it with the hose.

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"In understanding other people, look to the factors that conditioned them; in

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We are very adept at wriggling out from under responsibility, but domend~

ing from others what we are unwilling to produce in ourselves. A noted Welsh ‘

churchmen, D. Rs Davies, in his book "In Search of Myself", puts it this way? es

"Having a grudge fostered my native pride and egotism. In later life, the

fact of this childhood's poverty onabled me to justify myself in holding on to

self-will and pride. I+ formed me in the habit of shifting responsibility for - '

the failures and disasters of life onto other shoulders. My poverty violated

the first principle of a really sound education, which according to Kierkogaard,

is, to allow the soul to be molded by responsibility. It was my father's fault,

or somebody's fault, that I had only a halfpenny a week. By the time I had

reached manhood, I had come to assume that the blame had come to lay somewhere —

else — never with myself. I had to pass through an insanity of suffering

bofore I realized the fundamental moral law of personal responsibility." _ [p 20-21]
The truth is that you and I are the products of both our conditioning,

heredity, onvironment - and - personal will — or sense of responsibility. The

truth is that if wo fail as parents to teach that individuals are accountable

for their behavior, we have seriously failed our children. The truth is that

if we can find a hundred and one reasons why our marriage is not harmonious,

or our sex life not satisfactory, or our personal relationships frustrating,

without ever bearing personal responsibility, we are in serious and permanent

trouble. | “4
The truth about us is that each one of us is a mixed bag of heredity,

environment and responsibility. There are "givens" about each of us. We are

not, in fact, equal in experience, training, talents, intelligence. There is

a lot about us thet can be explained by where we've been in life, and what has

happened to us along the way. But to lean on this alone - is the greatest
cop-out of all. 4nd I would address that with equal conviction to the young,
the middle-aged, and the elderly.

One writer suggests a rule of thumb which I believe has a lot of merit. Be: é

understanding yourself, take full responsibility". [&. Campbell, Plain Words
for Troubled Timos. United Presbyterian Series. p. 20]

It all comes to a head, I believe, as each of us confronts the radical
claim of the Gospel, and the maker of the claim, Jesus Christ. I spend a
significant amount of time talking with people about the church; mombers who are
not attending it; non-members who are contemplating joining it. find while I
am aware that most people don't connect their feclings about Jesus Christ with
their behavior vis a vis Bethany Presbyterian Church, I do encounter an array
of cxcuses for not attending or not joining that fairly boggles the mind, The
two most popular cxcuses which aro told with straight face, time and time again,
pretty clearly define the responsibility crisis in Christian Faith. At one
home I will be told that a man doesn't come to church because, as a boy, his
parents forced him to go every Sunday, and the bad taste of that coerced picty
has never left him. So — thanks, but no thanks — and it's really my parents
fault, you see. At the next home I will be told, with equal sincerity, that
a man doesn't go to church because his parents never went, and he never got in
the habit of going. So - thanks, but no thanks - and it’s really my parents
fault, you sce.

Poor mom and dad. It's a closed case. No matter what they did, or didn't
do, the individual can shovel the respnnsibility to their shoulders, and remain
in bed on Sunday morning; with conscience clear. Well, that's a cop-out: IT
know it is; and I think those who try to use it sense it is too. But itis
precisely where a lot of people are in life generally, and in relationship to
Jesus Christ, specifically. It is a denial of integrity and manhood and an
abdication of responsibility. |

The disturbing thing about Jesus Christ is that he always makes men respon-
gible and accountable. He did in Galilea — and he continues to do it today.
God's coming in a man, into the common life of men, makes all of us responsible <

we mst come to some conclusion about him, and about our lives in relationship

Ls i ay ‘

“That's diosumbing, ana spsotting: “bat vi r a

vee ‘9 bo honoat with ourselves. shat an ateanih hy eclie Semen as

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: “who we aro} through him to whom we are ultimately accountable, ever Jesus:

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| Christ our Lord. *

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