“You’re Not the Boss of Me!“
Preached by John DeBevoise
At Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church
On September 24, 2006
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ – this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
Mark 12:28-34
One of the joys of celebrating in the Kirking of the Tartans together is the way it speaks to us of the fact that God blesses us by calling us together into families. And on this day, in many ways we all feel a connection with the family, particular in the St. Andrew’s Society, that it leads it in the service. As my mentor, Chuck Greenwood, used to say, “On this day, DeBevoise becomes McDeBevoise, and Greenwood becomes McGreenwood.”
We acknowledge in this service not only the gifts of those in the Scots clan, but also the way in which God uses families from all the ends of the earth to bless us. Next Sunday, in the service of World Communion, we particularly will emphasize that unity around the globe.
But today, we look at how God uses a particular heritage, sometimes this one, sometimes another, but a particular story as a way of blessing the people of God.
So we give thanks for the Presbyterian heritage, a branch of the Christian family, that comes to us in the United States particularly from Scots ancestors, who when they emigrated here to America, brought with them the faith that was so dear to them, and that they had worked so hard to develop and to nurture. That work, that loving and cherishing of the faith, even at the point of giving their lives, sometimes gave expression to an independent spirit in Scots that is somewhat celebrated. A spirit that will not suffer oppression.
The story is told of an American who enjoyed golf a great deal. He decided that, as a culmination of his own golfing avocation, he was going to go to Scotland and golf St. Andrews, that legend of golf courses. So he took the trip. When he arrived at St. Andrews, feeling empowered by his own golfing ability, he decided he’d get a caddy. He picked up an older Scotsman, there in the pool of caddies willing to walk with Americans making their tour on the links.
As he set himself up for the first hole, to his dismay, his first shot went awry. And then the next. He played the first hole terribly, and he was discouraged about the way he was starting off.
The second hole was no better. He hit a mulligan, and then he knocked up a big piece of turf with his club. By the third and the fourth holes, his game was deteriorating so that he was downright depressed, and the depression gave way to frustration. By the time he got to the fifth hole, in his frustration, as humans are so want to do, knowing that he, the wonderful American golfer, couldn’t be responsible for this fault. He started looking around for someone else to blame it on. And turning to his Scots caddy, he said, finally, “You must be the worst caddy in all the world!”
The caddy looked at him and said, “I do not know how that could be true, Sir. It would just be too powerful a coincidence for the two of us to be coming together at this moment!”
In clever repartee, he demonstrates the independence of the Scots spirit. We see it, too in the Confession of Faith, the Scots Confession of 1560, a portion of which, the opening portion, we shared together as Geoff led us in the Declaration. In that opening section, the first few verses, we hear a deep theological truth that all Christians have come to prize. But the Scots lead with it in their Confession:
We confess and acknowledge on God alone,
to whom alone we must cleave,
and whom alone we must serve,
and whom alone we must worship,
and in whom alone we put our trust.
We believe there is only one God.
That spirit, that there is only one God, is close to the heart, the root, the trunk, of the Christian faith. It’s a part of the legacy of faith that comes to us even out of the people of Israel in the Old Testament scriptures, where they began to understand and to celebrate and to acknowledge that there is one God. One God alone.
It became such an integral part of our faith, our heritage of faith, that it begins to be foundational for all of the other doctrines.
So in the 1560s, when the Scottish Parliament decided that a new Confession of Faith should be written, they commissioned six pastors (all of whom had the first name John, and they are known historically as The Six Johns, but chief amongst them was John Knox, who some believe was the real author of the document). In four days, they are purported to have written this entire Confession of Faith, a portion of which we read here today.
At the heart of it we see this independent spirit. A spirit that reminds me of a song. This is a song that was popular a while back, with a sitcom called “Malcolm in the Middle.” It actually was performed by a rock group called They May be Giants. Maybe you remember the song. It was the theme song for that sitcom. The title of it was “You’re not the Boss of Me.” They picked up that child’s phrase over and over again. The lyrics are not very complicated: “Yes. No. Maybe. I don’t know. Can you repeat the question? You’re not the boss of me. You’re not the boss of me. You’re not the boss of me.”
I remember that spirit. I remember that line, how growing up with my two brothers, we would resort to it quickly as the ultimate statement of how one brother could not boss another brother around. Finally it gave rise to my mother buying a t-shirt which said, “I am your mother, and I am the boss of you!”
Where does that come from, that independent spirit, that we will not be bossed around by others? I want to suggest to you this morning that in part, it comes from a theological truth, the truth that is lifted up early in this Confession, and it goes all the way back into the Old Testament. The truth that there is one God alone. One God alone. One God alone to whom we cleave. One God alone whom we must serve. One God alone whom we must worship.
When you begin with the understanding that there is one God, that has many implications that then pour out into the faith, and into our lives, for us. When you begin with the understanding that there is one God, and one God alone, then quickly it leads you practically to the conclusion that you are not God, and that you are not God, and that you are not God, and that I am not God, despite this black robe and this clergy tartan. I am not God. No.
The Scots Presbyterians reminded us in a powerful way that there was one God alone. And that meant that no one ought to have a divine right to ward it over another. We take that for granted now, in the spirit of American Democracy. But think about the centuries, and how people had to fight and to stake their lives on claiming that theological truth, that freedom that spilled quickly over into their political government.
Think about the times in which people had a futile lord, or a baron, who indeed acted as if he was god, who had the power to make enormous decision over one’s property, one’s living and dying, one’s family. Over time, this principle which comes out of our faith, I think, has been deeply shaping for our society and for the way in which Christians live.
We believe there is one God alone. And we worship one God alone. We worship none other. So you see, in our sanctuary, we have beautiful stained glass windows. But the early reformers believed this principle so strongly that they took out the stained glass for fear that it might distract people from the worship of the one God. They thought it was so important that nothing ought to take our focus away from the worship of one God alone. And that there was no one worthy enough to have their own countenance captured in stained glass in a sanctuary somewhere.
We’ve traveled from that over time, and these windows do speak to me about the beauty of God’s creation. And I think they are a blessing to our spiritual lives. I love stained glass windows. But I think it is a particularly strong hallmark of this sanctuary that there is only one countenance, one human defined form in a window, and that is the form of Jesus Christ.
We worship one God alone, and it helps us to know that no one is Lord over another in the life of the Lordship of God.
When you begin with the theological truth that there is one God alone, and the realization of that means none of us are gods, it does tend to create an ethos of parity and respect amongst individuals. Out of that foundational truth rose up the garden of knowing that if we are equals, if we stand before God as equals, then we ought to treat each other as the kind of valuable children of God we are, respecting who we are in God’s eyes, respecting the fact that God values our neighbor. As Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” is second only to “The Lord your God is one.”
And starting with the truth that there is one God, I believe also leads to a kind of valuing of personal independence. Back where we started. It leads to a valuing that no one has the right to take your liberty away from you because it is a right that comes from God alone. It is a part of God’s call to be in relationship with God alone.
In the Christian tradition, particularly in the Protestant family, we emphasize this by focusing on what is called the priesthood of all believers. The notion that no one need stand between you and God as a part of your relationship. In your prayers, you pray directly to God. And in your reading of the Bible, the Spirit works in each of your own hearts to lead you to what the Spirit is trying to guide you to.
Faith brings us a valuing of personal independence that the Scots Presbyterians especially prized and captured in this great Confession.
That independent spirit reminds me of a joke about seminarians. The seminarians received an exchange student from Scotland one year. There at the seminary in America, they had a student who came from the University of Glasgow, a religious studies student. He lived in their dorm and spent the year with them, and he studied well enough. But when he went back to his own country, his fellow kinsmen asked him, “How did you find the Americans? What was it like there in the seminary with them?” He said, “They were bright enough, but I didn’t find them very friendly.” They were surprised. “What do you mean? they said.
He said, “Well they were always making noise at every hour of the night. Pounding on my door. Pounding on the ceiling and the floor. Sometimes, even at four in the morning, they were pounding so loud that I could hardly hear them over the playing of my bagpipes!”
Maybe there is a higher way of saying it than in the lyrics of the song, “You’re not the boss of me.” I think it’s captured more eloquently in the phrase of the creed: We confess and acknowledge one God alone. I wish I had known that to say it to my brothers back when I was ten years old. But I know it now, and it’s a part of our heritage of faith. And it is good that at least once a year we use this Confession rather than the Apostles’ Creed.
We gather today in gratitude for the way in which God has blessed us with a heritage. Especially a heritage of families. And on this day, whether our name is Humphries, or McLain, or Campbell. If our name if DeBevoise, or Wallof, or Koehler, or Partin. We also are able to say Thank God for the way in which we are blessed. Not only with the heritage of families, but the heritage of faith that is transmitted to us through particular individuals in family. People who seek to place the faith within us.
And finally, we give thanks on this day that there is one God alone. And that the head of the family of faith is Jesus.
©John T. DeBevoise 2006
