Sermon for Septuagesima, January 31, 2010
“ I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. ”
ARE YOU satisfied with the kind of deal you are getting from God? In any exchange of goods or services we hope to come out ahead, to strike a good bargain and have in the end more than we gave up. Some would look at us Christians with pity, thinking our pie in the sky religion has caused us to lose more than we could ever gain: limiting ourselves by an arbitrary moral code and religious strictures with the promise of a future utopia that everybody knows is a fantasy. Richard Dawkins scoffs at you and me, a scientist writing his book entitled, The God Delusion. Are we deluded? Have we sunk all this money and time and energy believing in a lie, only just to die and rot and get nothing in the end but darkness and oblivion? Have you been duped by religious charlatans like me?
There is a wide variety of religions to choose from and Chico has representative outlets of them all. Beside the many Christian denominations we might choose from— Roman Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, evangelical, charismatic, and Pentecostal —there are Christian Scientist, Mormon, JWs, Religious Science, Buddhist, Moslem, Jewish , and a host of other churches, ashrams, synagogues, and mosques. The last few weeks we've seen the ER run articles on a Hindu sect having set up in a former church building and the Unitarian Universalists . Have you done a thorough study of all these to see if you could be missing your best bet by coming here each Sunday? Rather than fear the other religious circles, we ought to be sure of our own. What makes us so secure in what we follow that we're standing pat with our hand?
What is offered with any religion? Most of them make a promise of life unending after death, don't they? The eastern philosophies may get you in the spin cycle of reincarnation, and end your existence in a blissful merging with oblivion, but the rest pretty well tell you you're getting into heaven . What is heaven? And what's the key that lets you in there, if just being human and dead are insufficient for your admission? Usually, heaven is regarded as God's home, where all things are by His perfect order, unlike this earth where God is not completely and obediently followed. Heaven must be lovely then. If God is good, and all He does and commands leads to joy, then His home must be worth going to for all eternity. Let's go there. Now, how ?
Not so fast. Might there be another place to consider? Could there be an alternative? For instance, would you prefer a place where you can do anything you like, have eternal pleasure your way, get anything your mind imagines, call the shots yourself , be god and command your own heaven? I think there is such an option offered, or at least I hear folks talking that way at funerals—your own eternal golf course, for instance. The way I play golf, that would be hell . Islam promises a paradise with a lot of wives and girlfriends to its holy men. I'm not sure what holy women are promised. The Latter Day Saints are going to be the gods of their own planets. Could we be settling for less by following Jesus to His Father's House?
Don't get nervous when I talk like this. We're not going to change our faith, but we ought to be sure we have the real deal here. In fact, we ought to be certain that there is no other deal —that nirvana or the Witnesses' new earth or a Wiccan's spirit world is really just the Hades or hell feared by Jews and Christians alike. It's up or down, like elevator buttons. Decide which way you're going and press. When the door opens and the bell sounds, determine which way the car is going and get in.
One of the quaint things about religions is that they were all founded a long time ago and by people on the other side of the world. If that makes you suspicious, try a religion thought up in Phoenix 60 years ago by a science fiction writer. Or make up your own. But the antiquity of faith is often its calling card because it either lends authenticity to the weight of its claims, or clouds its sources with obscurity. Anyway, Christianity is 2000 years old. Its founder is alive, so we claim, after dying a terrible death, then rising again. Let's say we're right. Billions have staked their lives on it. Now, how does it work and what do you get from your pains to become a Christian?
Our founder told a story about a man who owned a vineyard and hired day laborers to harvest the grapes. Several times on that day he went to the marketplace to find more hands, hiring the earliest at minimum wage per day, let's call it $100 for 12 hours' work. By 5 p.m. the work was nearing completion and he found a few more workers to add to his crew. At dusk, he began to pay his farmhands and gave the latecomers $100. When he got to the ones who had been working since dawn he paid them $100 as well. Everybody got the same. The all-day men began to gripe. They now resented the newcomers for getting a day's wage for only an hour's work, and wanted more. We might feel the same. We might form a union or complain to the labor board. The owner's words are wonderful: “Didn't you agree to work for that wage? I haven't cheated you. Take your payment home. I'm giving the same wage to these new fellows. Is it against the law for me to do so? Are you envious because I'm generous?” Jesus concludes by saying “So the last shall be first, and the first last: many be called, but few chosen.” What is this parable teaching us?
Heaven, eternal life, redemption from sin, and reborn spirits are not something you go out and buy like a new suit or a car. You can't strike a bargain for these things. You can't earn them, not by working all day or all your life. Your best efforts are flawed, your whole life wasted if you think you can get to heaven by standing on your own shoulders. That's only a pathetic and very short Tower of Babel. First of all: we're not capable of earning eternal bliss. We can't even conceive of it rightly, and our best ideas of God cooked up by ourselves are rubbish. The first thing to know is that we don't make deals, and we don't make the rules . This is His world, His heaven, His creation, His deal .
The time spent in the parable laboring didn't seem to govern the reward, so what was the key to getting the $100? Coming at His call. Showing faith in the master. Beginning the task. But be careful now. Some early Christians thought that being baptized on your death bed was clever because all your life's sins were washed away and you began over just as you died. Getting in right before dark was better than slogging along through an entire life. This ploy seldom works, because the people who hold out until they're on their last legs are set in their ways, unable to humble themselves, unwilling to give up their selfish lives. When you first hear the call is when you answer it. Then the life of a Christian begins, at 8 days or 80 years, and from the first day things are better . One secret we've seemed to keep is that being a Christian is a far better life. It is its own reward. Then heaven is thrown in for free.
But not for free. You can't pay for it, but this ticket is already punched. Who did it? It has my name on it, but how was it purchased? There is a dark stain on this 2000 year old ticket. It might be blood. St. Paul wrote, “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.” 1 Cor 6:19-20 If I was bought, then I am not the master of my life anymore. I was once sold to sin and death, which is the old wage I had earned. I see that was a bad deal I had struck. But I had no way out of it. Like some old guitar hanging in a pawn shop window, I couldn't buy myself. Then a man redeemed me. “I know that my Redeemer lives!” cried Job. 19:23-27 St. Paul wrote, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Eph 1:7 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Col 1:13-14 “Christ Jesus… gave Himself a ransom for all.” 1 Tim 2:6
But if we're powerless, is this all something done to us, without our consent, by a God who is choosing this one and not that one, like some daisy petal game? What is our part in this, if any, and can we say we are rewarded for something we've accomplished , or just take the free gift and be thankful. This is the debate of ages. You can't earn it, for you haven't such a price you can pay, but nothing is simply dropped on you, either. There are a great many commandments which make no sense if your obedience to them or your disobedience changes nothing. Our eternal state must be more seriously determined than a roll of the dice and a series of chutes and ladders. Read the same St. Paul who wrote of the redeemer. He speaks of a foot race or a boxing match. You train, you eat right, you get into the ring or on the track, and you go at it. In a race, only one runner breaks the tape. In a fight, one boxer is down, the other still standing. Unlike these sporting competitions, we're not vying against one another. That isn't his point. God, he writes, “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Tim 2:4 But like a sport, we have to be disciplined, we have to get in there and rise to the occasion, we have to go at it the same as an Olympian, with all we have. What is loving God with all your strength, if not a test of your devotion ?
St. Paul certainly wrote that Christ's love and His sacrifice were sufficient, and that the free gift of faith was our key to open that relationship that we so badly need in order to make the journey. However, this part of it is not a train , but rather training. It's not a plane , but plain old hard work. We run with certainty, throw punches that connect, work hard to keep ourselves in shape. And why? So when we have gone the distance, we're not left behind, found faithless. Faith and work—they come from the same saved people, and are both the gifts of God.
All you'll ever do is not enough to earn it, and the price was paid a long time ago anyway. Your way to heaven is a man on a cross, God's Son Jesus Christ, who has left those dark stains on your ticket, indelible because these marks are in His Blood. Your name is there, and the words inscribed in deep red letters read, “Paid in Full.”
PFH+