IS MEDIOCRITY A SIN?

Thursday, August 08, 2013 IS MEDIOCRITY A SIN? Sermon by Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Ebenezer A.M.E. Church, Rev. Carmi V. Woods, Senior Pastor Delivered Sunday, September 16, 2007 Kansas City, Missouri Is mediocrity a sin? What is wrong with just being mediocre, being average, being common? Where’s the harm in “chillin,’” as the young folks say? Just “layin’ back,” as the old folks say? Waiting for blessings to wash up on your doorsteps, while you sleep? “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep; so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.” Prov.6:9-11 Is mediocrity a sin? But first: some definitions. Mediocrity is the state or condition of being mediocre. Mediocre means “Of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate; rather poor or inferior.” Sin is “transgression of divine law; a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.” So, again, I ask, “Is mediocrity a sin?” Before I go farther, the Bible proclaims, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. That would include you and me. Everybody who ever was; everybody who now is; everybody who’ll ever be: Has come short. But does that excuse us? In other words, is it ever “OK” to willfully or recklessly to do less than our divine best in whatever we do, or endeavor to do? Or must: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus?” Phill.3:14. Or is it “OK” for me to do nothing, and to depend on His Grace? Is it “OK” to be a mediocre mother, a mediocre father, a mediocre child? What about a mediocre husband or a mediocre wife? What about a mediocre principal, a mediocre teacher, a mediocre student? Who wants a mediocre doctor or a mediocre lawyer. Who wants a mediocre patient or a mediocre client? What about a mediocre restaurant or a mediocre grocery store. Who wants a mediocre school or church? What about a football team or baseball team? Let’s just tell the truth and shame the devil. Nobody wants anything mediocre if they have a chance to have something better. Period. Now our Decalogue does not mention mediocrity. Neither do the Ten Commandments. So, it must be cool to be mediocre, right? In the book of Revelations 3:15-16 it is written: “I know thy works that thou are neither cold nor hot: I would thou wast cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth.” I want you to get sick and tired of hearing the word, mediocre. So sick and tired, in fact, that you leave here today, committed and determined to getting the mediocrity out of your own life! We ought to bury it, like they buried the N—word! I want you and me to stop sitting on the fence; to stop straddling the line; to stop shucking and jiving; to stop faking and shaking; being disobedient; waiting for someone else to do what God called us to do. Our standards are too low! We often recite the scripture, Ephesians 2: 8-9“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” And from those 2 verses, some of us are bold enough to conclude that’s it. That’s all that is required. We don’t need anything, but “faith.” I even had one good brother to tell me: “I’m going to heaven and I ain’t got to do nothing.” I didn’t argue with him, because Romans 14:12 says, “So, then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” And church, I for one, do not want to be “weighed in the balances” and “found wanting.” Daniel 5:27. So, there’s another part to that scripture, Ephesians 2:10, which states “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Did Christ work? Sure he did. Ask the woman at the well, to whom he gave “living water,” if he worked. Ask Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead, if he worked. Ask the blind man, Bartimaeus, whose sight he restored, if he worked. Ask the five thousand that he fed with two fishes and five loaves of bread, if he worked? Ask Legion, whose multitude of demons he purged, if he worked. Ask Peter, who walked on the water, if he worked. Ask Paul, whom he temporarily blinded and converted on the Damascus road, if he worked? Ask John the Baptist, whom he baptized, if he worked? Asked his own mother, Mary, who saw him turn water to good wine, if he worked? Then, lastly, ask yourself: if he’s working in you? Is he enabling you? Is he sustaining you? Is he protecting you? Is he preparing you, and is he blessing you? He’s blessing me. He keeps on blessing me. Now, if Christ came here to work, loved to work, couldn’t help but work, was crucified, for his work, rose from the grave to prove the power of his work, and yet continues to work. How in the world can we, his professed followers, not work? James says “Faith without works is dead.” James 2:20. He also says “Seest thou how faith wrought with works, and by works was faith made perfect?” James 2:22. And he also says, “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith, by my works.” James 2:18. Lastly, he says “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:26. Jesus says, “You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.” Matt.7:16-17. When I was a little boy, my momma used to say, “Son, when it comes to work, you’ve got to be twice as good as white people to get ahead.” My daddy used to say, “Boy, turn off that TV and get your school work.” And he meant it, too! I ask you again: Is mediocrity a sin! Surely, it’s alright to be a mediocre Christian? Right? All we have to say is “Lord, Lord!” and every thing’s alright? Listen closely: “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7: 21-23. Do we worship a mediocre God? Is Jesus a mediocre savior? Is the Bible a mediocre book? Is God’s infinite and infinitesimal universe a mediocre creation? Are we mediocre people? Oh, no! We “are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” 1 Pet.2:9-10. The opposite of mediocrity is excellence. (Oh Lord! How excellent! Is thy name? Oh Lord! How excellent! In all the earth!) It’s like the Lord told Cain when he rejected his mediocre offering: “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.” Gen.4:7. Likewise, if we do well, excellently, we’ll also be accepted by God and man. But, if not, otherwise, for sin, mediocrity, will lie around our door. That’s what the quartet singers from Mississippi, the Williams Brothers, were talking about when they sang “Sweep around your own front door, before you try to sweep around mine.” Put another way, Ebenezer: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1 Pet. 4: 16-17. Thus, we have answered the rhetorical question: “Is mediocrity a sin?” Of course, it’s a sin. For we are made in God’s image and likeness. Gen. 1:26. Mediocrity is necessarily a sin, saints. A sin. “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” Luke 17:10. We owe God our best. God does not owe us. God made us. Life is our reward. Thus, our obedience to God is a duty, not something to be rewarded. The duty we owe God is his reflection: perfection. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect.” Matt.5:48. “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy:…”Lev.11:44. Be perfect. Be holy. And in order to be holy and in order to be perfect, we cannot be mediocre, because mediocrity is a sin. In “Dr. Watts’” style, we used to sing, “A Charge to Keep I Have” by Charles Wesley, at St. Matthews, C.M.E. Church. It goes like this: A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify, A never-dying soul to save, And fit it for the sky. To serve the present age, My calling to fulfill: O may it all my powers engage To do my Master’s will! Arm me with jealous care, As in Thy sight to live; And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare A strict account to give! Help me to watch and pray, And on Thyself rely, Assured, if I my trust betray, I shall for ever die. Closing and Final Words— I have a confession to make. When I was a sophomore at Howard University, back in the fall of 1970, I withdrew from two classes in which I was maintaining an “A” average? One class was the Greek and Latin roots of English words, and the other was a course in Greek literature. Why? Because I did not want to do the work. I did not want to invest the time. I did not want to do my best. I wanted to kick it, to hang out with my friends, to do other things, like socialize. I was overcome by a spirit of malevolent mediocrity. Even so, I graduated from Howard cum laude. But, I missed coming out magna cum laude by .01 points. I had a 3.49 and 3.5 was magna cum laude. Needless to say, in 1973, the year I graduated, I looked back wistfully, on those two classes I dropped back in 1970. My closing words to you, church, is don’t be mediocre! Don’t drop out! “Fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Tim.4:7-8. Benediction: Ephesians 3:20-21-- “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”