Do any of you enjoy following politics? Man, I hate it! And now we're heading into 16 months of Presidential preparations...we get to watch a handful of folks attempt the amazing feat of slinging mud all over the person next to them while keeping their own "Mister Clean" suit completely unstained !
Politicians in the midst of campaigning seem to spend all their time trying to impress everyone...and sometimes being that impressive can be a real hindrance to their careers! Like the politician who was on a short commuter flight with a retired nun and a boy scout when the plane developed engine trouble. The pilot came out of the cockpit and declared, "We're in real trouble...we're going down...we have to bail out! But we only have three parachutes!" She reached into the back of the plane and grabbed one of the three chutes and said, "I'm sorry, but I'm a single mother with four small children. My family can't make it without me!" And with that, she bailed out.
Next the politician stood up and yelled, "I'm in the midst of a brilliant campaign that will enable me to go down in history as this century's greatest leader! Our nation needs me!" He made his way to the back of the plane, grabbed for a chute...and out he went.
The elderly nun smiled at the boy scout and said, "Son, I've lived a long life already...you just go ahead...." "Oh, don't worry about it, sister!" the boy interrupted. "There's a chute for each of us. You see, the Greatest Leader of the Century just bailed out wearing my backpack!"
There's a danger in always trying to impress others. But, the fact is, the society we all live in today breeds and encourages a "show off' mentality. Books, magazines, T.V. shows and commercials - - they all encourage us to embrace the concept of "life-style" as opposed to mere living.
As followers of - or seekers after - Jesus, those of us here this morning face a particular challenge: in a culture that promotes show-off, impression-making life-styles, how do we successfully go about the business of"mere living" in the manner that Jesus teaches? After all...Jesus tells us we would be much better off if--instead of living to impress people - we would live to bless people!
In our reading this morning from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is addressing the crowds and his disciples about that very thing. This portion of Scripture is part of a long section in which Jesus criticizes some of the Pharisees for the way they used their religion hypocritically.
The Pharisees were not the priests or temple leaders; they were lay people who chose to devote themselves to keeping every minute point of Jewish religious law. They were the folks who meticulously followed all the rules of their religion. Now some of these folks were sincere in their efforts; they really believed that living this way would bring glory to God and set an example for others. The trouble was that a lot of the Pharisees went too far. Instead of living to bless God and others with their faith, they began living to impress God and others with how pious and righteous they were. They began to really enjoy having social power, and they flaunted their judgment of others. That was the kind of"show-off' living that Jesus was warning his followers against!
Jesus said, in reference to those kind of Pharisees, "Everything they do is just to show off in front of others." "But as for you..." he said to his followers, "the greatest among you will be the one who serves the rest. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted."
That's Jesus' instruction to us, too. So how do we "humble" ourselves in a world that wants us to "show off?" How can we avoid becoming like those Pharisees? How can we be sure that we don't go from saying, "Thou art holy..." to being "holier than thou" Well...like everything else in our faith lives, it takes attention and effort.
The Good News this morning is that human nature is the same today as it was in Jesus' time; things haven't really changed in terms of human behavior, and Jesus offers solutions for us today as he offered them to his followers back then. The CHALLENGING News this morning is that Jesus' expectations haven't changed, either...and, like the earliest disciples, we have to make choices for our lives if we are to follow Christ. If we are to truly follow Christ's teachings and "humble ourselves" - that is, if we are going to live lives that bless God, others and ourselves - we must be willing to look at some issues in our lives.. .specifically, the issues of temptation, motivation and resignation.
First, temptation. Every situation we find ourselves in with others presents a choice: do we act in a way that will bless...or do we behave in an effort to impress? The temptation to impress...rather than to bless...always exists. And we have to be conscious of it, or we can easily find ourselves becoming like little arrogant Pharisees!
I am so proud of this church...of our ministry, our music, our growth, our health. But that pride often leads me down the path of temptation towards arrogance. Several of us just returned last night from our Fellowship's General Conference in Los Angeles, where representatives from M.C.C. churches around the world gathered for a week of business meetings, worship services, educational workshops and socializing. And when you put that many preachers and singers and teachers together in one place, the comparisons start to fly. "Oh, we've got a dozen singers who are better than he is!" "Why I'm a much better preacher than she is!" "Who are they to talk...our church is bigger than theirs is!" "Who is he to be telling me anything?" Now most folks don't come right out and say these things in public...but I know they were being said...'cos it was my voice in my head!
But then afterwards, it always hits me: why am I here in the first place? Is my calling to impress...or to bless? To compete...or to complete the work that Christ has started in me and in this place? Believe me, I'm not bra~ging about my attitude. T was wrong. Whenever I give in to that temptation towards arrogance, I am missing the mark - as a spiritual leader and as a disciple ofJesus Christ!
Of course, it can happen to any of us. We can stop paying attention to Christ's presence and direction...we can get caught up in the moment of temptation and, thus, diminish our relationship with God...or, at the very least, embarrass ourselves! Like the man who was trying to make a good impression when the new pastor came over for dinner, and he said to his little boy, "Son, go get that big good book we all love so dearly." Needless to say, he was horrified when the boy came back in...carrying the Sears catalog!
If we are to live lives that bless...rather than just living to impress...we must be aware of constant temptation...and we must be willing to examine our motivation.
What motivates the way we behave? Why do we do things to try and impress others? On the surface it might seem that people who constantly try to impress others with what they do or what they own or who they know or how good they are do so because they have an inflated view of themselves. And that may be true...sometimes.
But, far more often, those who constantly strive to impress others do so because they think far too little of themselves...and they're desperate to win approval or find recognition or gain acceptance and love. For some people, no matter how much they achieve, it's never enough. Their self-concept is so low that nothing is ever impressive enough to fill that empty longing inside.
Unlike some of the Pharisees that Jesus spoke about, a lot of people in our world today don't need anyone to tell them they're a hypocrite...they already believe it about themselves. Perhaps some of us can identify with these words written by Jules Feiffer:
"I felt like a fraud, so I learned to fly an airplane. At 50,000 feet I thought, 'A fraud is flying an airplane.' So I crossed the Atlantic in a rowboat. When I docked, I thought, 'A fraud has crossed the Atlantic in a rowboat. So I took a space shot to the moon. On the way home I thought, 'A fraud has circled the moon.' So I took a full page ad in the newspaper and confessed to the world that I was a fraud. I read the ad and thought, 'A fraud is pretending to be honest."' Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? But ask any mental health counselor and they'll tell you: that kind of thinking is at the root of a great deal of the personal pain in many people's lives.
Now, Scripture clearly teaches that we must have a balance between thinking too much of ourselves and our place in the scheme of things...and thinking so little of ourselves that we reject the acceptance and love that Christ offers us. If our faith is a teeter-totter, with an inflated ego that loves to impress others at one end and self-esteem so low that all we can do is struggle to impress others at the opposite end, the balancing point lies in the middle...as we stand on the foundation that is Jesus Christ.
Christ is the centering element of our lives that provides stability and balance. If we move too far to either end, things go out of whack. We are not the center of the universe...but neither are we the unimportant discards of creation! If our actions toward others are motivated from either of those extreme perspectives, we can never be the blessing to others that God desires us to be.
Thus...perhaps the most important issue we must examine in order to live lives that bless God...bless others...and bless ourselves...is spiritual resignation. You see, we can never escape temptation...and we will never have the proper motivation until we recognize and accept the fact that, without a solid relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we can never achieve the kind of spiritual wholeness that God desires for us. Contrary to popular ideas in the world today, we do not hold the power for wholeness and spiritually fulfilling living solely within ourselves...we are not the gods we sometimes fancy ourselves to be!
I'll always remember a particular poem we studied in high school in English Lit. It's by the great poet Shelley and it's called "Ozymandias. " In the poem, the narrator meets a man in the desert who tells of the broken down remains of a large statue that is lying in the sand. The statue is of one who was once a well-known and powerful world figure. The torso and face have broken off and are half buried in the sand. The legs and pedestal still remain _ weather-beaten and worn -- and there, on the base, are these haunting words:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" The narrator then describes how nothing else of the mighty king s realm remains...only the lonely sands stretch on as far as the eye can see.
Such is the fate of the worldly pursuits we undertake on our own...outside of a relationship with God through Christ. Apart from God, we can achieve some earthly success...we can impress a lot of people along the way. But the proverbial "sands of time" will eventually erode and bury our efforts. Only our faith and the spiritual blessings we experience through Christ can be oflasting value. It is that truth to which we must resign ourselves ifwe are to truly live lives that bless anyone...including ourselves! And let's be honest: who among us doesn't desire a life that is blessed? Just remember that Jesus is telling us ALL: in order to be blessed, we must BE a blessing! As Christians, it's not our goal to gain critical approval. It's not our calling to be the most powerful or the most sought-after personalities on the block. It's not our job to judge others and point out the flaws in their behavior as set against the measure of our own. As Christians, Jesus was clear: we are to serve and bless others. That will bless God...and we will also be blessed in our efforts! Amen.
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