Let's
take a walk down memory lane for a moment. Some of you, especially the older
members of this congregation, may remember a famous comedian named Flip Wilson.
He had a weekly TV comedy show back in the 70s, and one of his favorite
characters was a preacher named Brother Leroy.
In
one skit, Brother Leroy was leading services one Sunday morning. It wasn't
going very well. People weren't very responsive. It came time to receive the
offering and so Brother Leroy passed the collection plates. They came back
empty. So he passed them again. Same thing. Empty. Brother Leroy then went
before the people and said, "Now, I know that you all want this church to
progress. This church must progress." No response from the congregation.
Brother Leroy shouted a bit louder: "Now, before this church can progress
it has to crawl, this church has got to crawl." And the congregation
started getting excited and they yelled back, "Make it crawl, Reverend.
Make it crawl!" Brother Leroy continued, "After this church has
crawled, it's got to pick itself up and start to walk, this church has got to
walk!" And the people yelled back at him, "Make it walk, Reverend.
Make it walk!" "And after this church has walked, this church has got
to get up and run, this church has got to run." And the people were worked
up into a terrible frenzy, and they hollered back: "Make it run, Reverend.
Make it run!" And then Brother Leroy said, "Now, brothers and
sisters, in order for this church to run, it’s gonna need money, it’s gonna
take money for this church to run!" And the people yelled back, "Let
it crawl, Reverend. Let it crawl!"
The
congregation in this story has something in common with the rich young ruler in
tonight’s Gospel reading. Both of them
were asked to give up something that meant a lot to them in order to gain
something more important, and both of them were reluctant to give up that one
thing that was important to them. A similar situation exists with many people
today. Those who have abundance in this world sometimes find that their
abundance is a roadblock on the road to salvation. They are not always prepared
to suffer for Christ when and if it is necessary. The rich young man was not
prepared to do that. He was like many of us in that he wanted the benefits, but
he didn't want to pay the costs. In other words, he wanted something for
nothing.
Sometimes
giving something up is our choice, and sometimes God forces us to give
something up. The rich young man wasn't prepared to give up what he had for the
sake of Christ. How many of us are in the same situation today? How many of us
are willing to give up what we have in order to follow Christ? For example, when
we give our offerings, are we giving because we want to, or because we feel
that we HAVE to? Do we give willingly, or do we give grudgingly? Do we tithe
regularly? Failure to tithe is the same as robbing God. Spiritual life is not a
matter of bookkeeping.
Most of the time, fasting for Lent involves food, and
I will address that point in a future sermon. In modern
times, other forms of fasting have emerged. For example, many younger followers
are giving up things such as Facebook or text messaging. By doing so, they are
showing that we do not have to be slaves to things. It allows us to get back in
control of our lives.
Someone
once said that “Subtraction plus addition equals multiplication”. During this
season of Lent, Christ calls us to give up more than just things. We are also
called to give up habits or traditions that keep us from following him. He
calls us to give up traditions, habits or ways of thinking that keep us from
fulfilling His will or following Him in faith, or that interfere with our
relationship with him. For example, is it REALLY necessary to have Eucharist on
special occasions like Christmas or Thanksgiving? Does that “tradition” bring
us closer to God, or is it just a “thing’ that we don’t want to give up? When
we give up something, we must add something to our spiritual routine, whether
it is more involvement with the church, more time spent in studying the Bible,
or more time in private prayer.
By
giving up things in this life, and following Christ in faith, we will gain MUCH
more in heaven. Sure, by following Christ we will have to pay a price. We may
lose our friends, our families or our jobs. In some parts of the world,
Christians can lose their lives for their faith. These are just “things” that
we give up when we suffer short-term pain by following Christ, but this
short-term pain leads to long-term gain-namely, eternal life in heaven. We
might lose our earthly family and friends, but we will gain a NEW family of
fellow believers. This ultimate reward is much, much greater than the pain we
have to suffer in this life.
As
I mentioned earlier, sometimes God forces us to give something up. Sometimes he
has to remove anything that distracts us or deters us from serving him. This
process is necessary but painful. It forces us to be humble. It forces us to
develop the qualities of discipline and denial. The world tells us that we
should indulge ourselves, whereas giving something up develops self-mastery. It
forces us to choose what our top priority in life will be, and more
importantly, especially during Lent, it allows us to chare in Christ’s
sufferings.
In
church, we hear every week that we must give our lives over to God. Holding on
to our lives eventually leads to losing our lives. God offers us unconditional
love, REGARDLESS of what we have. What we want to shed means nothing to God.
Christ doesn’t care about our earthly possessions UNLESS we use them in faith
to do His will by spreading the Good News and bring other people to Him. He
doesn’t care if we drive luxury cars, or live in mansions, or send our children
to the most prestigious schools in the world. He doesn’t care if we’re some of
the richest people in the world like Bill Gates, Ted Turner or Warren Buffett. We
can try to hide behind our earthly possessions, but it won’t work. God has
X-ray vision. He sees all and knows all. Self-reliance does not lead to self-salvation.
We need God just as much as He needs us.
There
is an old adage that “money isn’t everything”, and that’s true. The LOVE of
getting things often drives people closer to despair. The affluence of most
people in the Western world gives them the ability to ask questions other than
those relating to basic subsistence, namely:
1. Am I happy?
2. Am I filled and
fulfilled? If not, what will it take to make me so tomorrow?
Doing
right doesn’t give hope. The ONLY way to liberation from despair is through
God. Only faith in God can give us the answers to these questions.
Sometimes
we accumulate stuff in life because we don’t know what we want. There are
several examples of people who have become very successful in life and have all
the possessions to show for it, but who also have a deep sense of loneliness
and emptiness on the inside. They wanted the happiness that they thought they
could get from material things. Instead, they ended up with emptiness-an
emptiness that some have tried to fill with drugs, alcohol or sex, but that
others have filled by coming to Christ in faith. The rich young man lacked
saving faith. He was like an ungainly camel-he was too “big-feeling” and too
self-sufficient to enter the eternal kingdom. Jesus said that unless we come to
Him like a child-naïve with next to nothing, but full of wonder-we can’t get
into heaven. Coveting material possessions is to invest them with great
importance to allow them to fill God’s place in our lives.
The
rich young man was following the letter of Jewish law of that time, but Jesus
wanted him to follow the spirit of God’s law-namely, following and trusting
Christ. Jesus calls us to follow the same law. Following this law is the single
key for entering the Kingdom of God. By following God’s law, Christians get so
much in this life that they can’t out-give what Jesus gives us. We can’t EARN
eternal life UNLESS we try to earn it by giving up that which is important to
us in this world. Giving from the heart is a significant and vital way in which
we commit our lives to Christ. It leads us to a life in which with heart and
mind we know Christ and His will. Even if we were perfect people, we still
could not earn eternal life. The only way to eternal life is through faith.
Jesus loves us in spite of our faith-or more appropriately, our lack of faith.
Even
though we follow Jesus with others in local congregations, He calls each of us
to different tasks. Some are called to ordained ministry, others to lay
ministry, and still others are called to music ministry or youth ministry, but
we can all regard what we do each and every day as being called to divine
ministry-even if we are doing something as ordinary as maintaining a home and
family. Whatever we do in His name requires us to give up everything that might
hinder us.
The
things of this earth are not meant to be held on to, but to be given away. We
might like to think of ourselves as virtuous, law-abiding Christians, keepers
of the law and observers of the rites of the liturgy, but how attached are we
to our present way of life? It is not just the amount of worldly goods we
possess that becomes the problem, but the difficulty we have of rising above
and looking beyond what we DO have enough to be free from them.
A
note of caution: There is no sense in giving up things unless it is rooted and
grounded in the heart. Giving up something demands that there be a radical,
inner change if it is to be fruitful. Lent is the perfect time for this kind of
giving up. Eternal life is NOT a reward for good deeds. It IS a reward for a
relationship with God. Life is for loving, not hoarding. The real meaning of
life is to be found in giving things away-hence the saying, “It is better to
give than to receive”. Faith is the direction of life. Jesus calls us to do
three things:
1. Give up everything that
will hinder us from serving Him.
2. “Come”
3. “Follow Me”
There
is a line in one of the hymns in our Common Praise Hymn Book that goes like
this: “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?” Will we heed that
call? If so, will we pay the price willingly in order to receive the gift God
offers? God will give us the strength and desire to let go of the things that
hinder us from serving Him. If we follow Him, He will bless us spiritually. In
order to be first with God, we have to be last in the eyes of the world. The
task of giving things up is not easy, but the gift of God’s grace makes it
possible. Jesus said that the good shepherd lays down his life-namely, all that
he is, his personal self, his wants and desires-for his sheep. When Jesus asks
us to do what is seemingly impossible, He is willing to take the impossible
part on himself, and He is asking of us only what is possible.
Works Cited
1. Batterson, Mark, “What are you fasting for
Lent?” Published Feb. 22, 2009. Retrieved Jan. 27, 2010 from Evotional.com (http://evotional.com/2009/02/what-are-you-fasting-for-lent.html)
2. Wolf, Jeffrey, “Fasting for Lent goes high
tech”. Published March 5, 2009. Retrieved on Jan. 27, 2010 from 9NEWS.com (www.9news.com/includes/tools/print.aspx?storyid=111136)
3. Stanley, Dr. Charles, “A Lesson in
Pruning”. Received by email on Jan. 30, 2010 from Crosswalkmail.com (www.crosswalkmail.com)
4. Lenninger, David E. , “An Excuse to be
Better” Retrieved on Jan. 28, 2010 from Esermons.com (www.esermons.com)
5. “Fasting: Foolish or Faithful?” Retrieved
on Jan. 28, 2010 from Esermons.com (www.esermons.com)
6. Wilwerding, Jim, “Lent: Fasting for the
Feast” Retrieved on Jan. 28, 2010 from American Catholic.org (www.americancatholic,org/Newsletters/YUlay0201.asp)
7. Waldman, Steve, “Is Giving Up Chocolate for
Lent More Biblical Than Quitting Facebook?” Published by the Wall Street Journal
on March 3, 2009. Retrieved Jan. 28, 2010 from Wall Street Journal.com (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123610358779120593.html)
8. ESV Study Bible. Part of Bible Explorer
software package. Available for purchase at WordSearch.com
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