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The following sermon is delivered by Reverend Dr. Bruce Wheeler Thielman. Today's sermon is entitled "The Peril of Second Thoughts." The scripture reading of the morning is from the Gospel of Luke. I have chosen to use the King James Version because it is a better translation of the particular part of this passage on which

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I wish to focus. This will read differently then from what you find in your pew Bibles. Luke chapter 10 beginning at verse 25. "And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, 'Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said unto him, 'What is written in the law? How readest thou?' And he answering said, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,

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and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.' And he said unto him, 'Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live.' But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' And Jesus answering said, 'A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment,

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and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion on him,

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and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, 'Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.' Which now of these three thinkest thou

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was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?' And he said, 'He that showed mercy on him.' Then said Jesus unto him, 'Go, and do thou likewise.' And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we meet four individuals and

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one group. The first individual that we meet is the traveler, the one who was robbed and beaten, and left half dead. To be perfectly frank with you, I don't have much sympathy for this man. He deliberately chose to use the Jerusalem to Jericho Road. It was known to be a very dangerous piece of highway. On both sides there were thick forests and rock formations in which bandits could

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easily hide. In fact, in the time in which this story was told, this part of this road was known as the Bloody Pass. Still this man chose to go in this way, and he chose to go alone. In the very real sense then, he was asking for trouble, and I find it hard to be sympathetic to such one. Now after this individual is noticed, next we come to the group in the scene, and I refer,

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of course, now to the thieves. No excuse can be offered to justify their conduct. They are not only highwaymen, they are also sadists, because it says that they take what he has and then beat him until he is half dead. Someone has said that this parable of a good Samaritan contains the three basic philosophies of life. Beat him up, pass him up, and help him up. The thieves, of course,

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were the ones who beat him up. They are selfish brutes and nothing more than that. They are like those who would stab an elderly lady in order to get her rings, or those who would murder a young medical student in order to steal his car and his television set, or would shoot an employee in a supermarket in order to get what was in the cash drawer. I'm not going to say any more about these

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thieves because we hear too much about these kind of people as it is. Now the third person that appears upon the scene is the priest who passes by on the other side. Notice what Jesus says of him. "And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side." Now this man has given religion a bad name for 2,000 years, but having

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acknowledged that, we must go on to say that what he demonstrates is tragically true of many in the company of believing ones. The fact is there are phonies amongst the faithful. But it is also true that in our society at least, when people are in trouble, they most frequently go to their church for help. When families or individuals find themselves in deepest difficulty, the clergyman

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is still the one they most frequently call upon for assistance. So even though there are turncoats among the Christian numbers and that they have given a bad name to the church, the church is still the most influential institution in all of our society and in all of history with regard to the assisting of those who are in need. Now this brings me to the fourth individual who appears

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upon the scene, and this is the one with whom I am particularly concerned this morning. And I refer, of course, to the Levite. Notice what Jesus says about him. "And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side." Now this is different from what Jesus has to say about the priest. According to what Jesus suggests here, this Levite hears

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this man moaning on the side of the road, and there is an impulse within him which rises to help, to do something to be of assistance. So he crosses the road, which is something the priest did not do. But in the middle of the road or almost at the edge of the road, I don't know exactly where, he paused a moment. And that pause ruined everything for him. Because in that brief

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pause, the generous thoughts that were in his heart died. I don't know whether he thought to himself, "Maybe there are other robbers hiding amongst the stones waiting for someone like me, using him for bait." Maybe he thought to himself, "He's too far gone, there's very little I could do to help." Maybe he suddenly recollected that he had a very important appointment in Jericho. I

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don't know what he thought, but whatever he thought when he got across the road, that second thought killed the goodness that was welling up within him. That's the peril of second thoughts. We've all seen it happen so many times. We hear a plea and we decide to go and render assistance. We think of some act of sacrifice which we will make for the benefit of others. We hear about a

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need and reach for our wallets. We learn of someone who is lonely and say, "I will go and visit her." We hear someone who is bereaved and say, "I will go and comfort him." We learn of someone who is ignorant and we say, "I will go and teach and give this person the benefit of my experience." The church puts on some particular effort or campaign and we resolve to do our part.

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The lightning flash of conscience occurs within us and leads us to commit ourselves to doing good things, but you see, at the moment that the lightning flash of conscience occurs, at that same instant, the thunder is born. And after the lightning is gone, the thunder keeps on rolling and rumbling along and that thunder is the second thought. And so we never do what we

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intended to do. The good dies within us, replaced almost always by thoughts about ourselves. How will this impact upon our comfort, upon our time, upon our talent, upon our entertainment, upon our safety, upon our wallets? And considering this second thought, we never do what we'd intended to do. We know the shame of a lowered aim. A few weeks ago, I was watching on television those

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terrible scenes of the flooding in the southwest part of our country. And there was a young man, I would guess he was in his early 20s, who at one point jumped into the waters and rescued two people. And he was being interviewed by a television reporter. And the reporter said, "What led you to do such a brave thing? Where did you find the courage to do that?" And the young man

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replied quite ingenuously, "Well, I saw them in the water, so I just jumped in to help. Anyone would have done the same thing." But the fact of the matter is, most people would not have done the same thing. Most people would have stayed on the shore. Most people would not have followed their hearts, stopped by their second thoughts. How is it we put it? The road to hell is paved with good

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intentions. And what is a good intention? A good intention is a good deed that is stopped, never done, because it is strangled to death by a second thought. Now, I am not so naive as to say that there's no value at all in second thoughts. Second thought can add intellect to a feeling which is purely emotion. Second thoughts can check us from doing hasty or precipitous things. There's no doubt

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good that can come from second thoughts. They can keep us from foolishness or from anger or from passion run amuck in our lives. But it's been my observation that second thoughts are generally too cautious, too conservative, too self-protective. You see, the passion that they often keep us from is the passion to do what is right. And the anger they stifle is very often righteous indignation.

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And the foolishness they prevent is the discipleship of those who want to be fools for Christ's sake. First thoughts are too frequently killed by second thoughts. Would I do away then with all second thoughts? Well, that's a very hard question. When I think of how often my own nobler aims and goals have been stopped by my second thoughts, when I think about that in myself, I am resigned to the

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destruction of second thoughts. Because I am sure of this, second thoughts kill more good in us than they save us from error. They make us poor disciples, less noble, less brave. They stifle spiritual success and other kinds of success as well. One day Walter picked up his friend Arthur in his car and drove him a distance of 25 miles out to an area which was uninhabited, few horses

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grazing and a few old shacks. And Walter said to Arthur, "I'm going to build something here and it's going to be wonderful and when I build it, the value of this property is going to go up. And so I would like to suggest to you, Arthur, that you buy some of this land right now." Well, Arthur knew that Walter was a good businessman and he thought to himself, "This is a great

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opportunity." But then he thought, "Who's going to drive 25 miles out here? And what about the logistics of the project? And how much is it going to cost? And it's so new." And so he said, guided by his second thoughts, "No, I don't think I'm interested." But Walter was persistent. "All right," he said, "if you don't want to invest the money and buy some of the land on which I'm going to

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build this, then buy some of the land around it. That will not cost you as much, but it will still be a wonderful investment." And for a moment, Arthur thought, "Now that's a good idea." But then he also thought, "Nothing's built yet. It's just a dream. It's going to be awfully hard to bring it into reality and risky too because no one has experience at such a thing." And so he said,

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"No," guided by his second thoughts. So Walter drove his friend, Arthur, home. And Arthur, Art Linkletter, never bought any of that ground where his friend Walter built Disneyland. Killed by second thoughts. The Levite came partway across the road. He looked, the urge was there, the first thought was good. But then came the second thought, "Safety first." And so the Levite

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has become an object of scorn for 2,000 years. Now the last person to appear upon the scene in the story is the Good Samaritan. And I'm convinced that the nobility of the Good Samaritan rests on more than his generosity and his helpfulness. I think that his nobility and the grandeur of his spirit rests mostly on the fact that he was able to defeat his second thoughts. I mean,

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this Good Samaritan was not stupid. He must have had the same thoughts as he crossed the road that the Levite had. Maybe the robbers are hiding behind the rocks. This man is just bait to lead me astray. I have an important appointment to make in Jericho. He's too far gone to be of any help. Those thoughts must have come to him as well. But he defeated those second thoughts and

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went on to do his heroic deed. I've recently completed reading the stories of all of those people in American history who have been given the Congressional Medal of Honor. As you know, the Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest medal for valor which our government can give. In the military, junior officers always salute senior officers first. A captain salutes a major

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before a major salutes a captain. But in our military, everyone, no matter of what rank, including five-star generals, salute holders of the Congressional Medal of Honor first. And as I read the stories of these people, there was a common thread that ran through all of them. They did what they did on the impulse of the moment. They laid aside their caution. They laid

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aside their thoughts about themselves. They laid aside their safety in order to do something heroic for somebody else. I wish we had a medal like that for Christians. And if we did, surely, on the front of that medal would be emblazoned the symbol of the Good Samaritan, who was not like Thomas in that he had to see before he would believe, but who instead believed and acted. And

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then, because he believed and acted, saw Christ in a way that others never begin to see. Arthur Turi was born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, one of ten children of an immigrant Finnish family. His mother suffered terribly throughout her life from rheumatoid arthritis, and this led the young man to think that he would like to go into the medical profession. But he was

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told he could never make it, didn't have the money, didn't have the contacts, the opportunity wouldn't be his. But he worked very hard, and he put himself through school. And in working hard, he worked on his grades as well and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. And on the basis of the excellence of his graduation, he gained admittance to medical school. He decided while he was in medical school

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to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology in honor of his own mother. Now, in the first year of his practice, one night as he was closing his office, a woman suddenly appeared at the door, and she was in labor. He brought her in, she was alone. He asked her who she was, she would not tell him. And there in that place on his office table, he delivered the child. And

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in the process of the delivery, the mother died. He had no idea who the child was, who was related to him. So he decided to take the child to his own home. And of course, people said, "Now look, that's both soft-headed and soft-hearted. I mean, we can understand how you're touched by this little infant who has no one, but after all, you've got a whole course of life ahead of you,

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and you don't want to saddle yourself with things like this too early." It was his association with this little child that led Dr. Turee to develop what he called follow-through care. He established the Flint Area Health Foundation, which is one of the largest public foundations in Michigan today. When he started it, people told him, "Look, this is much more than a one-man job. What you're

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concerned about here, taking care of orphaned and disadvantaged and poverty-stricken children, what you're concerned about and doing medical care for that, that's very good, but let the government do that. It's too big a job for one person to undertake. You'll never be able to support such a program." But the program grew and flourished. And he went on to become the

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director of the Mott's Children's Health Center, which gave medical and dental aid to disadvantaged and handicapped children from their birth until they became adults. And when he set up that program, they said, "It's too late in your life for you to take up things like that. I mean, you're getting close to retirement. When are you going to start to think about building the bank

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account on which you're going to rely when that retirement comes?" Well, when Dr. Turee did retire in 1986, just four years ago, thousands of people came to the celebration. There had been more rooms and wings in hospitals in the state of Michigan named after Dr. Turee than any other person. In fact, it has been said that in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, there is no person who

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would be welcomed into as many homes as Dr. Arthur Turee. And why? Because he never let himself be stopped by his second thoughts. And in the address he gave at his retirement, he said, "Why have I devoted my life to poor and disadvantaged children rather than building my own practice and my own bank account? There are two reasons. First, the history of my own growing up. And second,

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the example of my Lord Jesus Christ." He didn't listen to those who said he couldn't. He decided. And once he decided, he went on. Confronting the problems that came up, he went on. I would certainly give to him the medal of the Good Samaritan. Well, I suppose that some of you are thinking that I've been too severe on second thoughts. And maybe you're right. But if that's

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true, it's because I'm a minister. You see, ministers are more robbed by second thoughts than anyone else in our society. Each week I go to my desk and I pray and I study and I struggle and I weep and I hurt as I try to come up with some new way in which to tell the story of Christ's love and of how he wants that love to be in us. The greatest love story which the world has ever

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known. A story which would lead a statue to weep if only it could hear. And after I have produced what I can, I climb these steps and I stand here and offer you what I have given and what has been given to me. And I watch you as I do that. And I see the expressions on your faces, even as I do at this very moment. I see your moods change. I see some of you nod in assent. I see the light

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of conscience flicker in some eyes. And I see that some hearts are moved down deep. But it all comes to nothing. Because halfway across the road, you pause like the Levite. You have a second thought. Second thoughts jam the aisles of this church as they jam the aisles of every church on the face of the earth, insinuating themselves into the minds of those who are sitting there. Those who almost,

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almost, almost are one. But who are not one, are not newborn, their birth aborted by a second thought. And the doors open and you go away. This is why I say in the utmost seriousness, only those who defeat their second thoughts are sure, really sure, of the kingdom of heaven. Let us pray.

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O God, by the power of thy Holy Spirit, let the lightning flash of truth illumine our hearts and minds. And when the rolling, rumbling thunder of second thoughts descends upon us, give us the courage of our convictions, bravery enough to do what we know we ought to do, faith enough to be or to become what we ought to be, what we ought to become. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Amen. [END PLAYBACK]