John Bunyan – boasting in the Lord
1 Cor 1: 26-end
Simple
message:
Use
your talents, but boast in the Lord.
Worth
isn’t in our achievements, or in our gifts, what we can bring, but in Christ’s achievements
for us, his gifts to us, his love for us.
Message
we find it difficult as men to accept.
We define ourselves by our jobs, by our tasks. If they are going well, we feel good. If not, then bad. Such
thinking might seem wise to the world.
In the film Ridicule the way to stay in favour with the king is to
entertain him with witty epiphets. But as soon as you fall out of favour, you
have had it.
We
have been given gifts by God which he expects us to use. But the success we have or don’t have isn’t
the measure of our worth. We never fall
out of his favour.
Funeral
of man whose life was cut short – does this mean that his life was any less
significant?
So
we need to be willing to appear foolish.
An
able-bodied seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and they take turns
recounting their adventures at sea. Noting the pirate's peg-leg, hook, and eye
patch
the seaman asks, "So, how did you end up with the peg-leg?"
The pirate replies, "We was caught in a monster storm off the cape and a
giant wave swept me overboard. Just as they were pullin' me out a school of
sharks appeared and one of 'em bit me leg off".
"Blimey!" said the seaman. "What about the hook"?
"Ahhhh...", mused the pirate, "We were boardin' a trader ship,
pistols
blastin' and swords swinging' this way and that. In the fracas me hand got
chopped
off."
"Zounds!", remarked the seaman.
"And how came ye by the eye patch?"
"A seagull droppin' fell into me eye," answered the pirate.
"You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?" the sailor asked
incredulously.
“Well..." said the pirate, "..it was me first day with the
hook.."
Foolish in eyes of
world. Not foolish because we are
forgetful, but because we refuse to live by the values of macho success. Bunyan was a man of enormous talent and vitality. 66 books, 12 years in prison. But foundation of his life was that he knew his need. The chief of sinners. His
boast was in Jesus. Firstly, Bunyan wrote a book called "Grace
abounding to the chief of sinners".
He once said this, "One leak will sink a ship, and one sin will
destroy a sinner." More than
anything, Bunyan knew that he desperately needed the grace of God in his
life.
Joan Collins interviewed in The Sunday Times 'I have never done anything
bad to anyone. Never. And that is one of the things I am proud of. I have
never hurt anybody. I have never been vicious about anybody, never taken
any drugs, never tricked anyone; on the contrary I can say many many people
have done it to me - men, husbands, business associates, lawyers, the list is
endless... I basically think that when one meets one maker, if I do,
there won't be anything I've done that I need to feel ashamed of. Nothing.'
He knew the reality of his
brokenness. We might look at him and
see a wonderful person, indeed we might look at each other and see wonderful
people. But the source of his courage
and greatness was in his humility before his God. He had talents yes, but his foolish boast was in the Lord.