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Jury Duty

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Jury Duty

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Jury Duty

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Biblical reasons why we in the United Church of God do not serve on jury duty.

Transcript

[Jonnie Lambert] The sermon today is a topical sermon about jury duty. I remember court television shows…my father used to love watching Perry Mason on television, and Perry Mason never lost a case. I don't know if you knew that. He never lost a single case. Somebody asked the writer for Perry Mason one day, “Why didn't they have Perry Mason lose at least one case so there would be a little more concern on a part of the audience about whether or not he was going to win this.” He said, “No. Perry Mason is never going to lose a case.” And he never did.

It's common knowledge that we, as a church, do not participate in jury duty. We do not serve on the juries that might be impaneled to judge among people who are accused by – and this kind of relates to the sermonette – the accuser of the brethren. We don't participate in that. Can you, I propose this question, give me a scriptural reason – not that you have to give it to me – but can you, maybe if you're taking notes, write down in your notes a scriptural reason why – biblically supported reason – why you would not participate in jury duty. Now a few of you have asked me for forms that we, as a church, have. We fill out – put your name in it – it explains we don't participate in jury duty. So then I give it to them, they take it to the court, and they are, without exception, to my knowledge, exempted from having to do that. So we don't do it.

But then, I think it sort of allows us not to know, if we're just going to ask the minister for a piece of paper and send it in, and we're sort of depending on the church to know why we do what we do. Doesn't it seem that each one of us should have the reasons, in our own repertoire of our set of beliefs, why we do the things that we do? So, if you want to indulge me – not that I expect anybody to show it to me – but write down, for your own information, your reason why you would not serve on a jury. And many people would say “Well, it seems like we should, because we have values, and we are the people who have the most God-like values, so why shouldn't we be the ones who are judging other people?” I hope to present to you a very good reason – theological reason – why I will refuse to serve on a jury when called.

I was called. This is a summons for me to appear and serve on a jury in Elmira. So that motivates this sermon at this time. It gives you a whole series of things that you must do and so on. Among those are that jurors are to be paid $40 per day. I guess whenever this was passed, that was a significant sum of money. You were going to get, maybe, what you might earn if you had worked. You have an obligation to serve. Failure to respond is punishable by a fine up to $1,000 or imprisonment up to thirty days or both. So they threaten you. (It took a little bit of heat in the last sermon [holding up summons]. It's a little bit ragged there.)

Where will we go to see that we have a belief that we shouldn't do that? I thought, “Okay, I know why I believe what I believe. Let me look here in this booklet, Fundamental Beliefs of the United Church of God. So I didn't read every last sentence or indication of different possibilities in here to see if I could find a sentence fragment saying we don't serve on juries. I didn't read it that way. But I look here in the Preface and the Contents and we have in the contents of The Fundamental Beliefs of the United Church of God. Now a fundamental belief is fundamental because it is something that we must share in in order to be a part of this church. If I am counseling somebody for baptism, one of the most important things I would ask that person to do is to read the Fundamental Beliefs of the United Church of God and to understand what they say – and to realize that, when you're baptized, you are accepting these fundamental beliefs. I looked down the list here, and I go down there, go down there, and go all the way to the bottom, and count them up. There are twenty of them. Not one of them says anything about jury duty. So if we don't do that…I'm not saying that that's one of the things, maybe, that should be the most important things, and should be listed if we're going to have twenty fundamental beliefs. I'm not saying that unwillingness to serve jury duty would be one of those things. But I'm just noting and pointing out to you that it isn't listed in our fundamental beliefs – didn't make muster. It probably wasn't considered important enough. There are a certain number of things you can put in your fundamental beliefs and it wasn't in there. In the back, on page 57, it does talk about resurrections and eternal judgment, but that's a little bit different context than sitting on a jury and making judgments in a jury. So it isn't there.

Okay, so next where do I go to see if I can find some information about whether or not we should do that? I looked in Hebrews, chapter 6. In Hebrews, chapter 6, Mr. Armstrong used to say – and I think this is a very important statement – that there are seven fundamental beliefs. The United Church of God broke it down into more pieces – smaller pieces, but Mr. Armstrong used to say there were six, or maybe seven, fundamental beliefs. Those fundamental beliefs are repentance...first one is repentance from dead works. Second one is faith. Third one is baptisms – plural – at least three different kinds of baptism – water baptism. baptism of the Holy Spirit, baptism of fire. Those are different kinds of baptisms that are mentioned. That's a fundamental doctrine – baptisms. Laying on of hands. Somebody wants to be anointed, they come and ask to be anointed, the Bible instructs us, in James, chapter 5, that we are to lay hands on that person. And the laying on of hands indicates a transfer of God's Holy Spirit to the person upon whom the hands were laid. So it's a doctrine, laying on of hands. Resurrection of the dead. Eternal judgment is the sixth one. And if you want to make it into a separate fundamental belief, then going on to perfection would be the seventh one. Didn't see jury duty listed there either. We could expand on those categories, and we might ultimately get down to jury duty, but where I had to go find something from the church, which had to do with serving on juries, we find here in this jury duty sample letter. It's from the Pastor's Policy Manual. And it tells us…it would be something I would fill out – put your name in it – and it says we don't do that, and you could take it, and you would escape from having to figure it out for yourself, or to respond to somebody on your own. Here's a paragraph I'll read you, which is pretty impactful, in regard to this:

The United Church of God, an International Association, believes and teaches that as disciples of Jesus Christ, members are ambassadors for Christ here on earth – and it notes 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 20 – and sojourners awaiting the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Christ's return. We believe members should seek to limit their involvement in the governmental machinery or affairs of this world as much as possible. It quotes 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, and verse 17. If a member becomes a juror, even if just for a short time, he is part of the governmental machinery of the state for the judicial determination of a lawsuit. We teach our members to strive to avoid entangling themselves in judgments for those outside the church, as cautioned by Jesus' apostles in the New Testament. It quotes 1 Corinthians there.

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that we don't have to serve on a jury. So, if I filled out that piece of paper, and you take it to the juror person in the court, they will exempt you pretty much without question, because you have…. Even though they have threatened you in the summons that if you don't do it, you're going to go to jail for thirty days and receive at least a $1,000 fine, you bring that piece of paper to them, and they know that the Supreme Court of the United States has made it possible that you don't have to do that. But again, is that…. It’s not sufficient for me. I've got to know for my own self why I do what I do, or why I don't do what I don't do, if you want to look at it that way. And so in my personal opinion, we should be able, privately in our own mind – the privacy of our mind – to stand on our own two feet about the things in which we believe. And taking a piece of paper, that I got from a minister, to them and escaping from it, it may make it easier for me, but I think I need to understand why – correctly understand the reasoning behind jury duty.

So let's go through some of those things. First of all, here I am saying, “Should I judge?” If you put down a reason why you don't think that you should judge this, it would probably be the number one reason I would suspect that people would put down – it would be Matthew, chapter 7, and verse 1. It says:

Matthew 7:1 – Judge not, that you be not judged. I don't think that's given us a very accurate translation and as we go through I think you'll be – I hope you'll be – able to see why it doesn't really mean that we're not to be judged.

We start with Matthew 7:1, and the very next verse – because in the very next verse it says – verse 1 says, “Don't judge so that you will not be judged.” Verse 2 says, “You're going to be judged.” And you know we looked at the fundamental beliefs. One of the things in the fundamental beliefs is we will be judged. If we look in Hebrews, chapter 6, eternal judgment is one of the fundamental beliefs of the church.

V-2-3 – With what judgment you judge, you will be judged. Can I escape judgment myself by not judging another person? That's inconsistent. We will be judged. And if we're not judged, then we have no eternal life. Why do you behold motes in your brother's eye – and it goes on from there.

Hebrews 9:27 – It is appointed unto men – it's getting a little too close to home here. It is appointed unto men once to die, after this the judgment.

John 5:21-22 – For as the Father raises up the dead and quickens them – makes them alive, in other words. When you're dead you're not quickened. When you are resurrected, you receive life and you can move again – even so the Son quickens whom He will. The Father judges no man. God the Father, it says there, doesn't judge any man, but what does he say about Jesus Christ? He has committed all judgment unto the Son. And we look on to the Day of Trumpets, and we will see the Day of Trumpets is a day of judgment for all of us who are sitting here. If you've been baptized, and you are judged to have accomplished the things that God wanted you to do, and you are going to be used as a person to help run the Kingdom of God, then you will be resurrected on that day. The judgment is, if you are resurrected on that day, the judgment that has been given to you is a positive judgment, and the responsibility comes as a result of that. So am I going to escape being judged? I don't even want to escape. I want to be judged, because I want to be one of the people who are helping to bring all the rest of mankind into the Family of God. For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son.

In Revelation, chapter 20, we are told that this is a picture of us at a future time – at the return of Christ.

Revelation 20:4. I saw a thrones, and they – who is they? You is they – kind of a Pogo statement, I guess, if anybody knows anything about the cartoon Pogo. He would make kind of incorrect sentences out. But they is us. I saw thrones, and they – us – sat upon thrones. Now if you sit on a throne, what are you doing? You're ruling and judging. And all of mankind who comes up in that resurrection, they're going to need judgment, aren't they? They're going to be need to be taught the ways of God and to be corrected – the same as you and I are being corrected now. Judgment is involved in our correction. We are being corrected – hopefully, in the right way. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them – them is us. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of God – that didn't worship the beast and so on – a description of us.

So it's very prominent there, in this verse of scripture, judgment is given unto them. Now that's for a future time after the resurrection of the dead, but nevertheless it is showing us that we are ultimately called to exercise judgment on all of the other people on the face of the earth.

Matthew, chapter 23, and verse 23 – there Christ says to the Pharisees:

Matthew 23:23 – Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! And he goes into the mint, anise and cumin here...you know, the little things – the minor points of the law. He's saying that they lack judgment about the importance of the law of God. He says, “You have done all these tiny, little things – the things that aren't that important – they're the molehills, we might say – meanwhile, the mountains are ignored – the mountain and molehill syndrome. You have omitted the weightier matters of the law – judgment, mercy and faith. He's saying you should have done these, but one of the weightier matters of the law is for us to be learning judgment.

So are we to judge? I would say…and we could go on and on with this subject. There are many things that we could say – many scriptures that we could quote, which show that we are called – our destiny is – to become judges – kings and priests ruling on thrones, exercising judgment. We talk about – usually on the Eighth Day – of someone behind the person who sees him doing wrong, will correct him right on the spot. We read that scripture.

So I think it's important to recognize, for me personally, that I feel I am to learn to be a judge and to judge. Now I also think of a scripture that's in Romans that says, “We are not policemen of their souls, but rather, we are helpers of their joy.” You know, the people that we judge, we should be the helpers of their joy – not the policemen of their souls. Thought I'd just throw that in. It's not directly, maybe, correlated with the fact that we are to judge, but it gives us some kind of idea about what kind of a judge we should be. And we have all kinds of descriptions from Christ about how we judge. And we're not to judge as the Gentiles judge, or to exercise authority in the way that the Gentiles do, but we are to be servants in our judgment – in our time of judgment with others.

Some of the scriptures in the Bible, from time to time, we might find and look at and think about seem to be inherently contradictory. Well, we could look a scripture that says – I believe it's in Proverbs…I didn't look it up, but I'm thinking of the scripture – sort of trying to come up with it out of my brain right now – but many of you have heard sermonettes on this particular subject. It says, “Answer not a fool according to his folly.” Don't answer him. Because if somebody is foolish, don't waste your time answering him. And the very next verse of scripture says: Again I say, “Answer a fool according to his folly.” One verse says, “Don't…” and the next verse says, “Do….” There's a difference, though, isn't there? The circumstances for the don't are quite different from the circumstances for the do. I'm not here to give an explanation of those two verses of scripture, but that's what they say.

I bring that up because here in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, we're going to see something fairly similar. And I characterize this, instead of answer not and answer, as being within and without. There are things it says about within and other things it says about without. Here's an inset – this is a little box over to the side – it doesn't necessarily relate directly to the sermon, but it's an important piece of information. I throw it out from time to time, because I think it is so important.

The book of 1 Corinthians was written in what year? And this is one of the few that we have really precise information about. We know when this book was written – 55 AD. Why is that important? Because in 47 AD, there was a conference that's detailed in Acts 15. At that conference, the argument is made by modern Christianity that all of the things that we keep – laws of clean and unclean meat – were eliminated. The holy days were eliminated. The keeping of the Sabbath was eliminated. All those things in 47 AD were eliminated at that conference in Acts, chapter 15. And then, Paul writes 1 Corinthians to a Gentile church eight years later and tells them to keep these things. Paul knew about the conference in 47 AD, in Acts, chapter 15. So that's the end of the box – the little box. Knowing the timeline here, of this book, is important, because it postdates a lot of things that other Christians – modern Christians – are arguing.

I'd like to read 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, going from verse 9 to verse 13, with the hidden agenda. If this hidden agenda – I’ve already explained it to you – of that which is within versus that which is without. There is a disagreement in the church in Corinth. And Corinth was regarded as the most wicked of all cities in that age and time. And here a Church of God right in the middle of Corinth, and all kinds of things were going on in that church, which would be going on in the pagan temples surrounding that church in that era. There's a disagreement in the church in Corinth. There is a statement in here about sin and the church. All of this can be read and understood by reading the book of 1 Corinthians. But verse 9 of chapter 5 – Paul wrote about the wickedness and sin in the church.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 – I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators. He said, “We can't have that going on in the church.” And fornication was a big…. Real physical sexual fornication was something that was going on in that society all around them. Women in Corinth were noted for serving a certain period of time as prostitutes in the temple. It was a customary thing for pagans in those temples to shave their head and go in and serve as prostitutes. And the money that they earned that would be their holy day offering or whatever. And so that was a part of the society and apparently had crept into the church. I wrote unto you not to company with fornicators. He said, “I don't necessarily mean the fornicators of this world.” Now within and without…fornicators of this world they are without, right? – outside of the church. I'm not telling you can't go to the grocery store and buy some food from somebody who's not practicing the laws of God. …or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters – because if I told you had to do this, there wouldn't be any place left for you in the world. That required judgment too, didn't it? Verse 11: But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother. A brother is, I could say “Hey, this is my brother.” But we have sex and gender and so forth. She's a sibling in the family of God, the same as I am, so it probably would be better here if somebody is called a sibling. I said, “I have written unto you do not keep company” – that requires judgment, doesn't it? It's talking about where? Inside the church. If any man, that is called a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner – with such an one not to eat. What does it mean when he says, “…not to eat?” I had scratch my head a little bit about that. Does it mean at Sabbath services – when we convene together at Sabbath services? We always have a potluck and we eat together. If you're not going to company with them, then it probably means they're not going to come there to eat the potluck with you on Sabbath day. But I can also look at it as saying, does it mean don't eat the Passover with them? It's not very explicit. What have I to do – Paul says – to judge them that are without? This is context of verse 12 – those who are without. What do I have to do to judge them who are without? Now if I'm called to jury duty, who am I being expected to judge? Them that are without. Paul is saying, “That isn't our business. Right now, we are to take care of our business. You judge them that are within.” So I hope you are seeing the contrast between those who are without and those who are within. You don't have any responsibility for judgment on those who are without, but you do have responsibility to judge those who are within. You judge them that are within, but them that are without, God judges. Therefore, he says, referring back to other verses, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Chapter 6, verse 1 – this is another case of the church versus judgment. And here the question is: Should we enter into the courts of this world and seek judgment against another member from those courts?

1 Corinthians 6:1 – Dare any of you – apparently some did there in Corinth. Dare any of you, having a matter against somebody else, go to law before the unjust? He says, “…before the unjust.” I mean, could this represent the unjust (holds up the jury summons)? What kind of judgment are they judging? That's a good question, isn't it? What kind of judgment do we get out of the courts of this world? Do we get justice? Does anybody dare to go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? So if we had a matter – he's saying here – between members, it should be judged by the church. Verse 4, 5, 6, 7, he goes on and explains that.

1 Corinthians chapter 5 and chapter 6 – about those that are within versus those who are without. And then he goes on to say, we are not only prohibited from judging those who are without, but from taking our disagreements in front of them, and getting their unrighteous judgments about our disagreements.

In 1 Corinthians 6:1-2, this is something that is absolutely shocking the first time that you read it. It was for me the first time I read it and understood it. Brant quizzed me last night for probably two hours about what went on when I was growing up, and of course, I was a Methodist. Well, I wasn't a Methodist, I was a basketball player. And the Methodist Church had a basketball team. And the Baptist Church had a basketball team. And I went to several different churches, and they had different leagues around Atlanta that these churches were in, and I got to play basketball on all of these different teams. My loyalty was extended to the number of times I had to attend church in a month in order to stay on the basketball team. And so I didn't read anything. I didn't know anything. I had to explain to him that I didn't know anything about the Bible, about religion. I told him I went to church and sat there for sixty minutes – services lasted an hour, you know. I sat there for an hour of boredom – absolute boredom –  and then the last fifteen minutes, I'd have a little homily – some sort of a sermon the minister would give – but it wasn't much. and essentially I never could get anything of content out of it. But I had to go in order to play basketball. So I did. So I didn't know this scripture. And when I first read it, it was after I started to attend church.

1 Corinthians 6:1-3. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Verse 2:Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? In other words, anything, any matter – any physical matter – that we could have among ourselves is really small compared to the ultimate responsibility we're going to receive to judge the whole world. That's a comparative statement. Verse 3 – this is the shocking verse right here: Don't you know that we shall judge angels? We're not only going to be given the responsibility to sit on thrones, judging the people in the resurrection, but he apparently goes on beyond that – although I can't say it doesn't start at the same time as the judgment of the people in the resurrection. It could start – the judgment of angels – could start at the same time. But certainly, ultimately, it's saying, we're going to judge angels. How much more the things that pertain to this life?

These are the two most important things that the United Church of God wanted to put in front of you and in front of the world. Number one, we're preaching the gospel. The first commission, Mr. Waterhouse, used to say, “The first commission is the first commission, because it is the first commission.” And that's kind of Pogo-like as well. And then what is the second thing? Across the top is “Preaching the Gospel,” and across the bottom it says, “Preparing a People.” Preparing a people for what? We're being prepared to judge all of mankind. And not only all of mankind, but you're being prepared to judge angels, as well. So that's the importance of what you're doing here now. And, if I'm counseling somebody for baptism, I'm trying to get them to understand that – really, really swallow that, and digest it, and to know that the whole world is waiting for them. And I'll show you that in a minute here.

But let's look at what is the basis for judgment. Well, I'm saying our job is to judge. We're going to judge – we're going to judge the world. We're going to judge other people. We're going to start by judging people in the church and all of these things. But what is the basis for our judgment? John, chapter 7 – an interesting segment. We don't get all of the information, here in John, chapter 7, about what went on, but apparently, reading between the lines, Christ had healed somebody here on the Sabbath day, He was being accused by the religious leaders at that time of breaking the Sabbath. So, in John, chapter 7, and verse 21, he says what?

John 7:21-24 – I have done one work – we don't get an explanation of what that one work was – and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers) – actually circumcision didn't stem from Moses, but circumcision stemmed from Abraham – and you – you break the Sabbath, don't you? Ye circumcise a man on the Sabbath day. That's like a certain number of days – it's the eighth day after you are born, you become circumcised. And if the eighth day happens to be on a Saturday, you get circumcised, even though it is the Sabbath. Somebody is – according to what they're looking at – breaking the Sabbath in doing that. If it was on one of the holy days, same thing. Now they agreed to that. Now they couldn't explain the inconsistencies in there, because He healed somebody, and they did something also on the Sabbath day. If a man, on the Sabbath day, receives circumcision, that the laws of Moses – the law that Moses talked about, at least – it's not the laws of Moses, but it goes back to Abraham – but nevertheless it is written in the first five books of the Bible – that the laws of Moses should not be broken, are you angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day? So that's where you understand that He had healed somebody on the Sabbath day – that day. He says: Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. That's our basis for judging. It doesn't say, “Don't judge.” It says, “Judge righteous judgment.”

I go round and bring myself into this jury duty situation. Am I going to be able to judge righteous judgment? Am I going to be able to judge righteous judgment? They're going to make me put my left hand on the Bible, raise my right hand, and swear that I will judge according to the laws of men. Are the laws of men righteous? They want me to judge according to their law. I'm not going to judge according to their law. The basis for judgment – judge righteous judgment. That's what Christ said in John, chapter 7. That's the crux of the problem, as far as I'm concerned. I cannot judge according to the laws that they put up, that allow all kinds of unrighteous things.
I added this in. Well, I'll just quote this from Psalm 119, verse 172. What is righteousness?

Psalms 119:172 – All Your commandments are righteousness – not some of Your commandments, but all of Your commandments. That's a huge statement. Christ says, “Judge righteous judgment.” That means to judge your judgment according to the commandments of God.

Our destiny is to judge. That's who we are. That's why we were called now. And again, anytime I'm counseling somebody for baptism, I try to ask them if they understand why they were called now. They could have been called in the second resurrection. You don't have to be called now. Those people who are called now, don't have to accept the calling. Called now, because God wants a group of people who are going to be the leaders to bring the rest of mankind into His family.

Romans, chapter 8 – these are some of the – in my opinion – some of the most powerful scriptures in all of the Bible. We’ll go from verse 19 to verse 23.

Romans 8:19-23 – For the earnest expectation of the creature – it says creature in the KJV, but it's creation. And here, one of the things that's going on is, Paul is treating the creation like a Walt Disney cartoon, where inanimate objects come to life. He's saying. “…the earnest expectation of the creation.” Does the creation have emotions? Does it have earnest expectations? Not really, but He's saying something that reflects what God feels. The earnest expectation of the creation waits for you – us, those within – waits for the appearance of the children of God. Verse 20: The creation was made subject to vanity – that is, it's physical and it disappears – not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected the same in hope. God has made the creation physical to disappear. And there's going to be new heavens and a new earth, because the former things are passed away. That includes all of this earth – new heavens and a new Earth. I don't understand exactly what that means. That's enough to read and say there is going to be a new one. That's all the information we're really given about that. Because the creation itself - the whole creation itself it says here – is going to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know – he gives the creation again a personification, personality, a thinking and feeling, as though it is alive, when it's really an inanimate object. We know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Now some of you ladies have been through that – groaning and travailing in pain – that is when you have a child. Your body travailed. And it says, “That's not only what happens when you have childbirth, but that's what's going to happen to this entire creation.” It's very similar to what the entire creation is going to experience. There is going to be a birth in pain together until now. …not only they, but ourselves also. We groan within ourselves waiting for the son-ship – waiting for our birth – to be born as the children of God – the redemption of our body.

Those are very powerful scriptures. There are a lot of things that we can say about judgment. Many people don't understand why they do not serve on a jury, except that the church says so, or because they think that we're not to exercise judgment at all. We are to judge and to learn to judge correctly.

Comments

  • breitkingdom
    I enjoyed Mr. Lambert's sermon, except he had one thing wrong in it. Perry Mason actually did lose a case, but then proved that his client was entirely innocent. I know this because I have seen every episode of Perry Mason. The reason I know of every episode is because my mother was studying to be a court reporter and she would make sure Perry Mason was on every Sunday evening so she could use her Stenograph machine to practice what she was studying in the court room scenes.
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