What Shall We Gain?

This was the sermon/message that I presented at Walker Valley United Methodist Church (Walker Valley, NY) for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, September 19, 1999.  The Scriptures were Exodus 16: 2 – 15, Philippians 1: 21 – 30, and Matthew 20: 1 – 16.

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Each day that I either ride the train into New York or simply go down to the station and pick up Ann, I am amazed at how people get off the train. When the Metro North trains leaves the Garrison station, which is about 20 miles south of Beacon, people begin standing up to get off the train in Beacon. Now you have to realize that there is still one stop to make before the train gets to Beacon but they still do this. When the train stops, it is almost like the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a car race in France, where the drivers run to their cars. In this case, the people run off the train, down and up the stairs in order to be the first driver out of the parking lot.

All I can wonder is why do they do this? It is not a one-time thing but is repeated every day of the week. It may be a part of life but I will be honest and say that I don’t really see what is gained by this rushing about. Having ridden on the train for over an hour or two, what is to be gained by saving ten seconds? There is a saying of taking time to smell the roses. I think that when you rush like this you miss an awful lot of life. The other day, as I was waiting for Ann to get off the train, I thought I saw someone I know but he was so pre-occupied with getting off the train and to his car before everyone else, he failed to see me standing there.

There is a prevailing sense that that the more we have, the better off we will be. And I think there is still a view that those who are poor are that way because they have somehow sinned and fallen short of the grace of God. Work harder and life will get better. If that were the case, then why are there so many unhappy people in the world today? Why is there such a rush to get away from our jobs?

When I see this rush of men and women trying to get home, I am reminded of parts of Ecclesiastes, especially chapter 1: 3, “What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?”, and chapter 2: 17 – 23

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

The writer of these verses speaks of the folly of working to get everything when the only goal is the accumulation of wealth. Our lives cannot be measured by what we gather materially because that is left behind. Along these same lines is a passage that I found in my reading during this week:

Therefore, be attentive to time and the way you spend it. Nothing is more precious. This is evident when you recall that in one tiny moment heaven may be gained or lost. God, the master of time, never gives the future. He gives only the present, moment by moment, for this is the law of the created order, and God will not contradict himself in his creation. Time is for you, not for time. God, the Lord of nature, will never anticipate your choices which follow one after another in time. You will not be able to excuse yourself at the last judgment, saying to God: “You overwhelmed me with the future when I was only capable of living in the present.”

But now I see that you are discouraged and are saying to yourself: “What am I to do? If all he says is true, how shall I justify my past? I am twenty-four years old and until this moment I have scarcely noticed time at all. What is worse, I could not repair the past even if I wanted to, for according to his teaching such a task is impossible to me by nature even with the help of ordinary grace. Besides I know very well that in the future, either through frailty or laziness, I will probably not be any more attentive to the present moment than I have been in the past. I am completely discouraged. Please help me for the love of Jesus.”

Well have you said “for the love of Jesus.” For it is in his love that you will find help. In love all things are shared and so if you loved Jesus, everything of his is yours. As God he is the creator and dispenser of time; as man he consciously mastered time; as God and man he is the rightful judge of you and your use of time. Bind yourself to Jesus, therefore, in faith and love, so that belonging to him you may share all he has and enter the fellowship of those who love him. (from From The Cloud of Unknowing)

The Gospel reading for today is not about the wages we earn but rather about God’s love for us. It is, admittedly, a difficult passage to follow especially when it is viewed in terms of material gain. From that viewpoint, it is unfair, as the grumblers in verse 11 point out, to pay those who worked all day the same as those who only worked one hour. But that is not the point.

The point is that God’s grace is the same for all and that all can come into His Kingdom. It bothers some people that God’s grace is freely given and that their work doesn’t count. That is what all the grumbling is about.

But quite simply, it is not what we do nor how much we have done that gets us into heaven; it is the grace of God. No matter how hard we try, no matter what we do, it is all folly unless we understand that Jesus Christ is our own personal Savior.

The writer of Ecclesiastes, having complained that all that he did and all that he had accomplished was for nothing, then wrote.

A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Only in God will our life find meaning and true pleasure. Without Him, nothing satisfies, but with him we find satisfaction and enjoyment. True pleasure can only come when we acknowledge and revere God.

The Israelites are in the wilderness, complaining bitterly about having nothing to eat and remembering that they had food aplenty when they lived in Egypt. But somehow in that conversation, they forgot that they were slaves there and that they were crying out to God to free them from this misery.

While the Israelites were in Egypt, they were in bondage, a life with no hope. All that they did there was for someone else, not for them. The results of that labor mattered to nothing.

But God heard their cries and led them out of bondage. It was not as easy path that they followed, but God saw to it that they would be fed and that they would not get lost. Remember the passage from last week that had the glory of God leading them as a cloud by day and a flame by night.

The reading from Philippians talks about the struggle that Paul is undergoing. Part of this struggle is that Paul is either currently in jail or is about to put in jail for presenting the Gospel message. He notes that if he had the opportunity, he would much rather have gone to live with Christ in heaven because that would have been a better life than anything he might encounter on earth. But Paul also notes that it was necessary for him to continue in the work that he was doing, bringing the Gospel message to the world.

Paul points out that the Philippians will undergo the same struggle that he has undergo but he also points out that the results are far greater than anything imaginable.

What shall we gain from our life? Paul’s joy came not from any outward success (after all, how can you be happy when you are constantly thrown in prison) but rather from his opportunity to share in the sufferings of Christ through witness and service, of his growing in Christ.

Paul closed his letter to the Philippians by encouraging them to “conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” If the life that we live is as worthy, then we need not worry about the other things. What shall we have gained? In Christ, we will have gained everything.

A Sense of Reward

This was the sermon/message that I presented at Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church (Putnam Valley, NY) for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, September 22, 2002.  The Scriptures were Exodus 16: 2 – 15, Philippians 1: 21 – 30, and Matthew 20: 1 – 16.

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It was, I believe the explorer Sir George Mallory, who was asked why someone would want to climb Mount Everest. His reply is the classic response for all great challenges, “Because it is there.” President John Kennedy, when laying down the challenge to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade said, “We choose not to go because it is easy, but because it is difficult.” He said so knowing that we had yet to even orbit a man and that the equipment for completing the operation was not even on the drawing boards.

But it is very rare to see such an attitude today. For the most part, any new effort is met with skepticism and reluctance. Any challenge put forth to an individual today is often met with the response “What’s in it for me?” Were there still a sense of adventure in the world today, like there was in the early 60’s, mankind would have a presence on the moon and we would be well on our way to traveling to the planet Mars and perhaps beyond. The International Space Station would be have been completed and done so in a major effort of cooperation and collaboration worthy of its name, rather than piece meal and when ever it is possible.

Yes, there are challenges on this earth that need to be faced and priorities must be made so that those who are without have the basic needs. But when you take away adventure and the reason for going beyond the next curve in the road, you offer no hope to anyone.

The Israelites went out into the desert, not knowing what was before them, only that they were headed for the Promised Land. But the moment they became hungry, they began complaining. “Are we to die in the desert at the hands of the Lord when we could have had our fill at the dinner table in Egypt?” they cried, conveniently forgetting the life of slavery that went with that life.

The workers who worked the full day complained that they should have gotten more because they worked the most, forgetting that payment was made at the discretion of the landowner who paid them and it was the amount they had agreed to receive. You cannot complain when what you get is what you were told you would get.

It is hard to determine the reward that we should get for the work that we do. It has always amazed me to read about John Wesley and the early troubles he encountered in the development of the Methodist movement. We wear the badge of Methodist quite proudly, knowing that it was an epithet of slander and hatred.

Wesley openly opposed those who practiced what he called a lukewarm Christianity. He labored to bring every area of his own life into submission to Jesus Christ. His zeal, along with that of the other members of the fledgling Methodist revival, provoked ridicule. The name “Methodist” was given to this group because of their methodical devotion to daily rituals and the discipline they imposed on their lives.

Yet, even with a semi-monastic existence and a devotion to good works, each of these Oxford Methodists could claim the receipt of certainty found in God’s love. Their toil and labors, their strict self-examination, rigorous spiritual discipline, sacrificial good works left them far short of peace and joy promised in the Gospel. Later, Wesley would speak of these times as being in a “spiritual wilderness.”

The meaning that Wesley so desperately sought came only after that momentous night at Aldersgate when he welcomed the presence of the Holy Spirit into his life. It was this Presence which gave both John and Charles Wesley the sense of peace and comfort so often stated in the Gospel. It was the same for Paul; as we read in his letter to the Philippians, it was the presence of Christ in his life that gave the meaning to his (Paul’s) life.

Wesley never sought to create a new church; in fact, he remained a minister in the Church of England all his life. What he sought to do was to bring a sense of purpose to the stated mission of the church, to give meaning to the words of the Gospel. How should we measure the results of Wesley’s work? It can never be said that he understood what he had accomplished, but no less a source than the Cambridge Modern History stated that the most positive influence in eighteenth-century England was “John Wesley and the religious revival to which he gave his name and life.”

But what Wesley sought could not have been accomplished had he not accepted the Holy Spirit into his life that night at Aldersgate. There is no way we can ever seek to gain any rewards if our rewards are tied to earth. Perhaps my favorite Bible passage is Ecclesiastes 3 (“To every thing there is a season”). It speaks of our time under earth; but in chapter 2, the Preacher spoke of the futility of a life spent trying to gain everything there was, as if it would provide the meaning of life. Just as Wesley saw that nothing was possible without the presence of the Holy Spirit, so too did the Preacher point out that life without God was meaningless.

There is nothing wrong with seeking rewards for what we do; it is perhaps only natural. But it always amazes me when I read about some individual who no one knew and everyone ignored who gives a college or university a tremendous amount of money simply because it was the right thing to do. At least one church received the money to build a parsonage because, on one Sunday, the congregation was nice to a stranger passing through. Nothing was said but this stranger was made to feel welcome one particular Sunday. And many years later, a check from the estate was mailed to the church. The reward for simply doing what is right can never be measured in the present time.

Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church is faced with a challenge. If this congregation is to go beyond the present time, there are those who must step up, who must face the challenge without any sense of reward or entitlement. It is not a challenge to do everything by themselves, but rather pick an area of leadership and help the entire congregation move into the future. There are some that will say that it cannot be done and if no one picks up the challenge, that will be the case.

In those days prior to that wondrous encounter with the Holy Spirit at Aldersgate, John Wesley was near death. Because he saw his method as a failure, because he saw his missionary work in Georgia as a failure, Wesley came back to England prepared to die. Yet, he did not die but rather he surrendered his soul to the Holy Spirit. In turning over his life, he gained that which he sought. He may never have understood the reward that came with his work; such rewards are only measured through the pages of time. But he did gain a sense of peace that he had long sought.

So too is it for us. We may never gain a sense of reward for the work that we do now. But that is not why we do it; we do it so that others may gain the reward of having Christ as a presence in their lives. And that may be the best reward we can ever experience.

The Words We Use

Here are my thoughts for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost – September 14, 2008.  The Scriptures for this Sunday are Exodus 14: 19 – 31, Romans 14: 1 – 12, and Matthew 18: 21 – 35.  (This has been edited since it was first posted.)

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This particular piece started because one of the major Presidential candidates said something and the other major Presidential candidates took offense at what the other guy said. The problem was that if you had heard what the first candidate had said, then you knew what he was talking about and it was nothing for which the second candidate could say meant anything except what it meant. In addition, the second candidate had used the very same analogy about another candidate and nobody said that he was being offensive when he did the very same words.

The problem, for me anyway, isn’t the words that the politicians used but rather the fact that we willingly let them say those words. We willingly let politicians and their surrogates throw mud even though they themselves have proclaimed that they would never engage in such activities. If a parent ever needed an example of “do I as say, not as I do”, snippets of our political process would be great.

We let the politicians get away with “slinging mud” because we have grown accustomed to such words. They use the words that we want them to say. And they often match the words we say and the actions we take. It seems that we get some sort of perverse thrill out of this type of rhetoric because it allows us to get into the mud with them and exhibit “faux” outrage at the opponent for his or her language.

On the other hand, we say that we act in the name of Christ but our actions can hardly be called Christ-like. We call for war when Christ calls for peace; we call for material accumulation when Christ calls for us to give everything away. We admire those who have while ignoring those who have little or nothing. People go hungry and are thrown into modern-day equivalents of debtors’ prison while executive continue to earn and keep multi-million dollar bonuses.

From its beginning some two thousand years ago, the church was outspoken in its defense of the weak and the poor, the forgotten and those cast away. For three hundred years, the church opposed war and the power of the state; but it paid the price for this opposition and its attitude by the Roman persecution. It is a price that the churches of today and the people of the church are unwilling to pay.

For the past 1700 years, the church has sought to be the status quo, the keeper of the present norms, and the defender of the rich and the powerful. Instead of speaking out against war and violence, it has pushed the idea that wars are necessary for the good of the church. Rather than speaking out against greed and material accumulation, the church has fostered and encouraged the attitude that, in the words of Gordon Gekko, “greed is good.”

Too often we act like the manager in the parable that Jesus used to illustrate the act of forgiveness. We are quick to demand repayment and compensation from others while at the same time we are expecting our debts and errors to be quickly forgiven. We expect that outcome because we hold on to a view that somehow, as God’s children, we can expect grace to be given while not giving anything in return. We have transformed the church from what it was and what it could be into a device for our own welfare and well-being.

We have taken the words of the Bible, both of the Old and New Testament, and transformed them from a story about our journey with God into a rulebook by which we can decide who is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and who shall be denied entrance.

Paul, in the selection from his letter to the Romans for today, speaks of the differences between individuals when it comes to believing in God. What strikes me about the appropriateness of this selection for today is how we have forgotten those words and how we have sought to impose our beliefs and our thoughts on others as the only true means of belief.

Now, some will take offense with this concept because it forces them to think through and about what they are doing. It forces them to see that other points of view are possible. And just as there was resistance to this concept when Paul wrote those words to the Romans, there is still resistance today. There are too many people still unwilling to see the viewpoints of others. They are quick to condemn any view that does not correspond with their own. This reluctance is causing many people to leave the church or to seek other belief systems.

When we refuse to allow others to have their own set of beliefs unless they believe as we do, we are saying that one form of ministry is higher or more sacred than other forms, be it is inside or outside a church. As Paul alludes in his letter, if you are going to do something, then do it with your heart and your mind and your soul. Don’t do it part way but wholly and completely.

The church, be it the denomination or its members, is faced with a challenge today. If we are unwilling to see that others may believe in God or interpret the Word of God in an entirely different way, then we must face the fact that the church that has been so much a part of our lives is going to die. The words that members have used, individually and collectively have done as much and perhaps more harm than good. We see too many people leaving the church for other forms of spirituality; we see too many people who view the words of the church with suspicion and doubt. The church must change what it is doing; it must repent of its past and begin anew. The paradox is that to begin anew we must return to the church’s very beginning (and we will talk about this later).

In the Gospel reading for today, Peter asks Jesus how many times one person should be forgiven and Jesus replies “seventy times seven.” The act of forgiveness as portrayed by Jesus goes beyond the simple act of forgiveness that society often demands and it is a concept that we, like Peter, have difficulty comprehending.

We are told in the Gospel reading for today that we have been given a great opportunity. We have been given the opportunity to cancel our debts and begin anew; to change the direction of our lives. Like the waters rushing over the Egyptian army as the Israelites began their journey to the Promised Land, so too does God’s grace wash over us and give us a new lease on life, a lease that is free from sin and death. But if we speak with the same words that we have in the past, the flood of God’s grace will change and like the Egyptians, we will drown in a sea of sin and death.

But if we speak the words of forgiveness and repentance; if we speak of the Glory of God in our lives; if we speak of our experience with God and Christ, our lives will change. Our future will be decided by the words we use; what shall you say?