Dying
to Live
I Timothy 6:6-19 (Luke 9:18-27)
September 30, 2001 (Year C, Pentecost 17)
I
have begun to realize that we are dominated by a false understanding of the
nature of the Christian faith. Perhaps
this is partly the result of living in a post-Christian culture.
We can no longer assume that people know what you’re talking about when
you make references to what would have been well known Bible narratives in days
gone by. But beyond this even in
the Church we have been almost completely co-opted by a non-Christian worldview.
Let me explain…
I
realized how deeply I was deeply infected with this non-Christian worldview this
past week when I was speaking to someone who had worshiped with us recently.
Just as a means of making polite conversation I remarked: “I hope you
enjoyed the service.” As soon as
the words were out of my mouth the Holy Spirit let me know that I had misspoken.
You see, I had asked the person if they had enjoyed worship as if the
purpose of our service was their personal enjoyment.
The purpose of our worship is to bless and honor God – not us!
When
I said “I hope you enjoyed the service” I was playing right into the
narcissism of our culture. This is the worldview, the cultural attitude, that has stolen
our hearts and minds away from the truth of the Gospel. Narcissism literally refers to an inordinate love of self.
We see it in the way we gauge every activity by how it pleases our
selves. Yes, it means being self-centered.
But more than that, it is a life shaped around self-fulfillment.
Most
of us here today equate spirituality with self-fulfillment.
Be the best YOU that YOU can be.
That’s certainly the kind of spirituality that’s peddled in the media
by well-meaning, narcissistic, self-help gurus.
So Faith and Church and Jesus become a means of PERSONAL GROWTH for us.
But Personal growth is not what is proclaimed in the Gospel, the Good
News about Jesus. And it is NOT THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP.
In the Gospel text we read Jesus offers his followers Crucifixion, not
self-fulfillment
Listen
to Jesus explode our false gospel of self-fulfillment: “If anyone would
come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow
me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for me will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24
We
have to have these words pounded home again and again: DENY YOURSELF, TAKE UP
YOUR CROSS, FOLLOW JESUS. Why?
Because our narcissistic culture has totally brainwashed us.
This self-centered, self-obsessed, worldview infects every single one of
us here today, from the first-time guest to the charter member.
This
morning I don’t want this sermon to help us GROW – I want it to kill us.
I won’t ask anyone if the worship service was enjoyable. Rather, did it
help you die to self a little today? In
order to help us die we need to realize where we have bought into this
self-centered worldview.
I.
The first false idea we have accepted is the belief that getting what we
want will make us happy. There is no greater lie that the good life is made up of
getting what we want. Listen again
to Jesus: For whoever wants to
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What
good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very
self? Luke 9:24,25
Brothers
and sisters, getting what we want is not making us happy – it is DESTROYING US
as a society and as the Church!
A.
Our consumer society is based on the idea that if we acquire the right
material possessions, or purchase the right services we will be fulfilled, happy
people.
Contemporary
culture is plagued by the passion to possess.
The unreasoned boast abounds that the good life is found in accumulation,
that “more is better.” Indeed, we often accept this notion without question, with
the result that the lust for affluence in contemporary society has become
psychotic: it has completely lost touch with reality. [Richard Foster, The
Freedom of Simplicity, 1981, p. 3]
Advertising
is designed to whip us into a frenzy of covetousness.
Madison Avenue sells the idea that the stuff you have right now, that is
working perfectly well, is OLD, WARN OUT, and UNSATISFYING.
The only way that you can be fulfilled is by getting something new.
For some it is an SUV, or a motorcycle, or clothes, or vacation home, or
DVD, or golf clubs, or a boat, or a computer, or even a fountain pen.
Our
present culture…, specializes in inflaming endless lust for possessions with
advertisements that constantly convince us that we need more…. The marketers
don't tell us much about their products, but they spend a great deal of
energy…appealing to our fears and dreams. Thus, the idolatry of possessions
plays to the deeper idolatry of our selves –
and in an endlessly consuming society, persons are always remaking
themselves with new belongings. [Marva J. Dawn, A Royal "Waste"
of Time, 1999]
We
are so busy gaining the whole world that WE HAVE LOST OUR SOULS.
We willingly warehouse our children in daycare centers because our lust
for material possessions means that both parents have to work.
We have a particular standard of living in mind that involves new cars
and sumptuous vacations. (It’s
amazing what you can do with that $400 per month that you want to put towards
payment on a new SUV!) And when our
consciences scream that we are sacrificing our children to the false god of
materialism we try to buy inner peace through purchasing even more material
things for our kids. “Mommy and
daddy both have to work to pay for the cruise we’re taking (or car we’re
buying, etc.) – here’s a toy to make you feel better.“
In the process placating our guilt by giving material things to our kids
we pass on the lie that happiness comes through our possessions and selfish
activities.
B.
But it doesn’t end with material things.
Christians think this way about spiritual things too.
We believe that getting what we want will make us better Christians and
that we will “grow.” If we get
the right music, the right preacher, the right worship style, the right Bible
study, the right program, the right building, the right congregation – then we
will be happy. But all of this
isn’t focused on God at all. ALL
OF THIS IS FOCUSED ON WHAT THE SELF DESIRES.
SOME OF US HERE TODAY ARE MISERABLE AS CHRISTIANS BECAUSE WE HAVE
BASED OUR SPIRITUALITY ON GETTING WHAT WE DESIRE INSTEAD OF ON DELIGHTING IN THE
LORD. Notice the sequence in
Psalm 37:4 -- Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires
of your heart.
C.
This obsession with the self, with the individual, strikes at the very
root of the Gospel. You see, our
culture is hostile to genuine community. Recently
I was made aware of just how far community had disintegrated in our culture.
A teacher in the public schools was sharing with me a discussion she had
with students in her class. She
asked these elementary kids where they ate supper.
MOST OF THEM ATE BY THEMSELVES IN THEIR ROOMS.
Many families spend no time together at all.
Each one has a TV, a computer, a video game, a personal interest separate
from the fundamental human community, the family.
But
Jesus declares that a genuine confession of faith in him will necessarily lead
to COMMUNITY with other believers. Jesus says that on the rock of this confession is built his
CHURCH, not free-floating individual disciples.
Simon
Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not
revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are
Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not
overcome it.” Matt. 16:16-18
The
Good News declares that God saves us from our sinful selfishness through
Jesus’ atoning death on the cross and his victorious resurrection.
And that He gives us new life in the midst of a community.
This community is God’s family, the Church.
Yet, many of us truly believe that we can be authentic Christians living
for Jesus independently of any Church body.
This is a false doctrine. It
is alien to the Gospel. No where
does Jesus teach this. Extra
ecclesiam nulla salus! “Outside
the Church there is no salvation.” (St Cyprian Ep. 73.21) There is no such
thing as a Christian who does not participate in the community of faith, the
church. Believers who are not in a covenant relationship with the
local church are living SUB-CHRISTIAN lives.
Yet
our consumer mindset has us endlessly shopping for a church until we find the
one that meets all our consumer criteria – the one that SUITS US just right.
This is the idolatry of the self. Our
place of worship is to be determined by what suits GOD, not us.
DENY THE SELF, TAKE UP THE CROSS, FOLLOW JESUS.
II.
Jesus tells us that we cannot receive the life God longs us to have until
we have died to ourselves. We must
die in order to live. That’s why
he says we must take up the cross DAILY. The
cross is an instrument of death, of painful execution.
Every day we must yield our lives to God in the process of dying to self.
At the beginning dying to self is very painful.
But as we obey Christ, and through the grace he gives us, we direct our
lives more and more God-ward. Then
life becomes truly rich, meaningful and joyful.
A.
We see how dying to self is God’s means of giving us real life through
the act of worship. Remember that I
told you that I wanted this worship service to kill us.
Marva J. Dawn planted that idea in my mind when she wrote:
In
a society doing all it can to make people cozy, somehow we must convey the truth
that God’s Word, rightly read and heard, will shake us up.
It will kill us, for God cannot bear our sin and wants to put to death
our self-centeredness…Once worship kills us, we are born anew to worship God
rightly. [Marva J. Dawn, Reaching
Out Without Dumbing Down, pp. 205-206]
B.
You see, our aim in worship is NOT that we should ENJOY the
service, but that God is rightly blessed and adored.
When we worship we lay our lives, our desires, our aspirations down in
sacrifice to God in Jesus Christ. But
most of us think of worship in the exact opposite way.
Visitors and congregants alike are looking for something that will
entertain US – something that will fulfill US.
Think about it: Do you attend worship to ‘receive a blessing’, or to
offer yourself to God, with the community, in praise?
Let
me drive this point home. Right
now, almost all of us are gauging the value of this worship experience by WHAT WE
GET OUT OF IT. Don’t you see how
perverted and disordered this is? The
real criterion should be, “Is God being rightly praised?”
C.
Nevertheless, if we worship God rightly then we often DO experience JOY
in worship. But that happens
precisely because it is NOT directed to meeting our needs or satisfying some
appetite for religious entertainment, or creating some emotional response. The joy, indeed the ecstasy, that erupts in Christian worship
is a byproduct of the right worship of God.
In the film Chariots
of Fire based on the true story of Eric Liddel, the young Scotsman is
preparing to represent Great Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympics. His sister,
Jennie, fears that his participation will derail his calling to missionary work
in China. Liddel replies,
"Jennie, Jennie. You've got to understand. I believe God made me for a
purpose--for China. But He also made me fast!--and when I run, I feel His
pleasure!"
God created us to
offer ourselves in sacrificial worship and when we do that we feel his
pleasure. That is the source of
our joy. God created us to have our
lives revolve around him completely. And when we die to self and life for God we feel God’s
pleasure.
CONCLUSION:
The false god of the self promises that wealth, entertainment, pleasure,
security, all promise us life and fulfillment.
These are all lies. The sad
thing is that when these false promises do not satisfy, many people just devote
more effort to trying the same thing that hasn’t worked yet.
I can’t remember where I read it, but folks in the USA today are
working something like 8 hours more a week on average than they did in 1991. To me that is a sign that we are still frantically trying to
find meaning and fulfillment by hoarding up the things we associate with the
good life.
Life
is found in following Jesus Christ. Jesus’
declaration of what it means to be a disciple concludes with the imperative: Follow
me. No other savior, no other
god, no other product or therapy can give us life in this world and the next.
We cannot go down the buffet line of religious figures and ideologies to
pick and choose what suits our taste. Instead,
we take up the cross of self-denial, and follow ONE LORD: Jesus Christ.
His claim over us is exclusive. Jesus
tells us he is the only way to the Father (John 14).
In Acts the apostles boldly proclaim concerning Jesus: Salvation is
found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by
which we must be saved. (Acts
4:12)
This
morning we receive this Eucharist meal, not because it is MEANINGFUL, or
FULFILLING to us, but because Jesus Christ commanded us, DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE
OF ME. It is a dominical command
– not a therapeutic suggestion.
At
this table we encounter the sacrificed Lamb of God who laid down his life that
we could have real life. And so, come and offer yourself to Christ as you feast upon
him. Pray that God, through this
sacrament, would give you the power to die to self.
Come
and dine. Come and die.
Come and be raised again to real life.
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