Jack McKinney

Pullen Memorial Baptist Church

October 8, 2006 – Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Psalm 26

Walking the Talk

This week saw several additions to the ever-expanding list of “Things Too Strange to Have Been Made Up.” First, the attention of the country was focused on yet another scandal in the United States Congress when Rep. Mark Foley, co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, was discovered to have sent sexually-explicit messages to teenagers who worked on Capitol Hill as Pages. If this is the behavior of the leader of a committee dealing with missing and exploited kids, it kind of makes you want to do a head count and make sure all of your children are accounted for.

Next, in case much closer to home, the skies of Apex were illuminated Thursday night when a number of explosions took place at a hazardous material plant owned by the company Environmental Quality. The resulting fire and release of chlorine gas sent dozens to the hospital and caused 17,000 residents to be evacuated. The company had been fined $32,000 earlier this year for failure to take steps to "minimize the possibility of a sudden or non-sudden release of hazardous waste ... which could threaten human health or the environment." I guess we should be grateful the company’s name isn’t Environmental Mediocrity. Just think how bad things would have been if that was the case.

And if these two instances were not enough to convince you that the world is really one great satire starring all of us, you have come to church this morning to hear these words from the writer of Psalm 26:

“Vindicate me, O God, for I have walked in my integrity…I do not sit with the worthless, nor do I consort with hypocrites; I hate the company of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked. I wash my hands in innocence, and go around your altar, O God, singing aloud a song of thanksgiving, and telling all your wondrous deeds… Do not sweep me away with sinners, nor my life with the bloodthirsty, those in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. But as for me, I walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me.”

This Psalm, attributed to King David in Hebrew lore, demonstrates that the king was a person of such incredible integrity that he needed to remind God of this fact and let it be known that the rewards for such virtuous behavior could begin any time God could get to it. The attitude of the psalmist here reminds me of one of my favorite little poems that I have shared with you before. It is David Budbill’s poem Dilemma:

I want to be famous

so I can be humble

about being famous.

What good is my humility

when I am stuck

in this obscurity?

So, everywhere we look we see examples of people and institutions saying one thing and doing the exact opposite. This should hardly surprise us. Most of us have lived long enough to know not to trust the hype that comes at us from every angle, even from the Bible. But even though King David may have undercut his own claim of integrity by boasting about it and demanding reward for it, we shouldn’t ignore the issue he is raising. After all, the importance of living with integrity is highlighted by our disdain for these examples I have raised where this virtue is obviously missing.

What do we mean when we use the word integrity? At its most elemental level the concept alludes to a consistency between our stated values and our actions. People who do what they profess are said to live with integrity. This is why it is possible for us to disagree with a person’s actions but still concede the person is living with honor. The flowering of integrity is feasible as long as the individual is not violating his or her own moral compass and is not taking advantage of other people. Consistency, humility, and decency are all at the root of this divine virtue.

But to live with integrity means something more than being consistent, doesn’t it? It infers a willingness to sacrifice in order to live authentically. It suggests we will uphold the promises we have made. And, unlike the attitude of the psalmist, true integrity is seen as its own reward. There is no compensation that can match the internal feeling of knowing we are living in accordance with the dictates of our conscience. And, there is no penalty that can match the internal dread of knowing we are violating our own conscience.

We typically think of integrity as something that individuals demonstrate or fail to demonstrate, but in recent years we have seen how the lack of public integrity by leaders and institutions has had a demoralizing effect on all of us. Back in 2003, not long after the Bush administration finally conceded there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, conservative pundit George Will took the administration to task. This was back when the war was still not the quagmire it has turned into today, so the administration was willing to confess they had been wrong about WMDs but that it didn’t matter. The argument was that removing Saddam Hussein had been good for the world, so it really was inconsequential if the stated reasons for the war came to pass or not. George Will, hardly a liberal apologist, made the most impressive point about why it did matter that the stated reasons for going into Iraq had not been true. Will said the next time a President of our country tries to convince us war is necessary, and that the intelligence we have accumulated says we must send our nation’s sons and daughters into battle, we will all be less likely to trust that President. We will have more suspicions about the so-called intelligence. In other words, the lack of honesty and integrity today will make us all more cynical tomorrow.

Which is why, despite some of my dearest friends’ protestations to the contrary, President Clinton’s lies about his immoral behavior were significant. No, having an affair is not the moral equivalent of starting an unnecessary war, but President Clinton’s willingness to lie about his behavior and downplay the seriousness of being caught in his deceit had the same demoralizing effect on the country. With every breach of integrity on the part of a political leader, or teacher, or preacher, or parent, we trust less and care less. Which means we are, in some communal sense, less than what we could be.

This morning we have witnessed once again the beauty of the Rite-13 ritual when we celebrate the transition of our young people as they move toward adulthood. Those of you who have experienced the blessing of your parents and your church this morning are living through an exciting and challenging stage of your life. You are beginning to emerge from the cocoon of parental protection when all choices were made with one thought in mind: “Will my parents allow this, or like this, or ground me for life because of this.” In other words, your choices were largely dictated by parental power. Now, even though your parents are still involved in your decisions, you are reaching a stage when you have more power and freedom. With each passing year you will be coming closer to that Promised Land when you will have complete control over what you do and when you do it. Doesn’t that sound exciting and wonderful? But as you get closer to that Wonderland of free choices, I want you to think about something. Think about the difference between doing something because you can and because it is what you think is best. The first time someone encourages you to take drugs, will you do it simply because you can or because you think it is right for you? Will your first sexual experience be because you have the freedom to do it or will it be because you believe this is the right person and the right time? In those moments, when there is no one to choose for you, all you are left with is your own integrity. And what you will begin to notice is that the choices you make based simply on the fact you have the power to make them can leave you very sad and empty. While the choices you make that are consistent with your own values, regardless of what those choices cost you, will make you stronger and happier.

And, here is the thing. Integrity is a virtue that is remarkably resilient. We can go through life making one bad choice after another—cheating on our partner, lying to our parents, taking advantage of unsuspecting people—and all the while we can downplay the significance of this dishonest behavior. We can rationalize it and try to tell ourselves that it’s not that big of a deal. We can justify ridiculous things by claiming that as long as others don’t know it really doesn’t hurt them. But then, if one day our conscience suddenly awakens and we decide we are tired of living cut off from the values we know to be right, we can find our souls on the mend quickly. We don’t lose the ability to live in concert with our stated beliefs. We might lose the courage to do so. We might lose the wisdom of living with integrity. But the very moment our conscience moves us back toward decency, humility, and consistency we will realize our integrity didn’t die. We had just put it away for some reason.

In this strange week when we saw multiple examples of people and institutions doing the very opposite of what they say they believe in, and then claiming every excuse except “the devil made me do it,” there was an interesting exception. Last weekend, in a football game between my beloved Dallas Cowboys and the Tennessee Titans, a Titan player named Albert Haynesworth horrified viewers when he stomped on the head of Andre Gurode whose helmet had come off in the middle of a play. It was a despicable and potentially criminal demonstration of unsportsmanlike behavior, and Haynesworth certainly showed no integrity in his violent act. However, after the game, Haynesworth said his actions had been disgusting and there was absolutely no excuse for what he did. And while that confession did not prevent Haynesworth from being suspended, it did demonstrate that his integrity had reappeared. Indeed, sometimes it is in our worst moments that we have our greatest opportunity to show our best stuff.

The Psalmist says, “Vindicate me, O God, because I have walked in my integrity.” It’s funny, the people I know who live with integrity never talk about how they are walking in integrity. They just walk the walk. And the fullness of their lives is all the reward they need.