A Sermon On:
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
Quite some years ago TV screens showed a young boy singing
to his buddy:
"My dog's better than your dog. My dog's better than
your's. My dog's better 'cause he eats Ken'l'ration. My dog's better than your's."
It's a song many of us could sing.
My dog is better.
My snowboard is cooler.
My computer goes faster.
My marks are higher.
My income is bigger.
My weight is lower.
There seems to be something within all of us that is of a
competitive nature. Everybody wants to be better than the next guy.
"King of the hill; top of the heap," as
Frank Sinatra so aptly described.
Lotus has recently run a series of ads featuring the
R.E.M. song "Superman". The key refrain - "I am, I am superman. And I
can do anything."
The screen flashes from scene to scene where people pop out
of the mob holding up big signs that boldly scream, "I AM...." And the
blanks are filled in - strong, proud, competent..... whatever.
Getting me up there - independent, strong, capable, a
standout. A cut above the average. Extraordinary.
The thing is, we tend to do a lot of that climbing at the
expense of other people. Step on them, over them, or shove them aside and go around them.
That's the nature of living in a competitive society.
That's the nature, I submit, that lurks just beneath the
surface in many of us.
Getting ahead. And perhaps leaving others behind. We learn it
early, and it is a tendency that builds up a head of steam as we roll along. In grade
school we look forward to gr.8. The big kids. And when we're there we let
the younger ones know it.
Next year, though, we turn into minor niners
and have to start all over again because there are the bigger gr.12 and OAC
students shoving our lowly status in our face.
Get into college and you discover you're a lowly frosh.
Initiated and picked on by the 3rd and 4th year students.
Graduate and you're back at the bottom in the working
world.... if you even get a job. And you have to plod your way back up the ladder......
again!
Oh - you and I aren't the only ones who find this tendency
within.
Cities have it - just look at the ongoing, almost tiresome
debate between the municipalities of Ottawa-Carleton and the region. Trying to claim turf.
Regions and nations have it. Witness the tragedy between the
Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. Or consider the deeply troubling reports this week in the Citizen
about conflict in the Sudan.
It's the season of Lent - a time for us to consider our lives, and to be willing to do some heavy duty pruning, if needed, in order to bring them into line with the Will of God. It's a season of sacrifice, of repentance, of turning away from damaging patterns of living into Christian obedience.
Question - does our instinct towards ambition fit this Lenten mould?
Ever wonder what God thinks about it all?
What kind of ambition would He sanction?
How much?
Our bible lesson this morning will help provide some answers as ambition bubbles to the surface in the community of Jesus' followers.
Here's the background.
In Matthew 17 we read of a most amazing incident in the life
of Jesus. He handpicks 3 of the disciples and heads up a mountain. There they witness him
transfigured - blazing with heavenly glory, and in conversation with Moses and Elijah. On
the way down the mountain, Jesus demands they remain quiet about this.
I believe they kept this charge and did not say anything to
the other disciples. But it is quite possible, you know, to keep a secret in such a way as
to make everybody agog to find out more. When Peter, James, and John came back, the others
probably asked, "Well, tell us, what happened up there?" And they said,
"Oh, we're not permitted to say. One of these days perhaps we might be able to
tell you, but you ordinary disciples are excluded from this for now."
A bit of fuel gets added to the fire because Jesus has
reprimanded all of them for their lack of faith. It doesn't take much imagination, then,
to see how the argument readily arose as to who was greatest.
Bickering back and forth:
"My faith is better than your faith. My faith's
better than yours....."
And you can just see these disciples:
big men.
And who's the biggest? The best?
'Cause, as always, bigger IS better............
isn't it?
Let's hear Jesus on this one. Follow along
as Harrison reads:
Can you visualize it?
A bunch of these big strong men, each wantin' to stand out of
the crowd like the people in the Lotus Notes ad - the "I am" superman people.
Jesus calls a little boy over, pushes the disciples to the
side, and puts his hand on the young lad's shoulder.
"You guys want God's idea of biggest and best? He's
right here."
Big disciples.
Scrawny little snotty kid.
And our Lord reaches immediately, instinctively..... for the
kid!
Which is how it is all through history.
Holy God is not really interested in the ornate, the flashy,
the big, the rich, the powerful and the fast.
With God, bigger is not at all necessarily
better!
Doesn't impress Him one bit.
Precisely because of what bigness does far too often.
It pushes the little ones to the side. Steps on them. Ignores
and silences them.
Which is something that makes God's holy blood boil.
something totally opposed to what He desires from His
servants. The Bible says in James 1.27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as
pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep
oneself from being polluted by the world."
"Look at this child," says Jesus. "You
see someone very simple; hasn't got it all figured out yet. You see someone who is
dependent. You see someone who isn't very strong.... and who knows it......
..... Learn a lesson!!"
A long shot to win any spitting contest.
Won't be found on the cover of MacLeans.
But IS the kind of person whose name is written
on page 1 of Christ's book of eternal life! The kind of person who gets a
special seat at the head table in the heavenly banquet hall. The one to whom the Heavenly
Father sends an extra angel or two for protection, encouragement and care.
Jesus was well known for teaching through parables and
through using hyperbole - making a point in an extraordinarily strong way in order to get
the message through; using a verbal sledge hammer to drive in the nail.
The use of the child is such a 3-D sledge hammer parable.
It's not a parable calling us to be childish and infantile in our faith. Ephesians 4.14 and Hebrews 5.12 demand that we keep growing in our faith and not stagnate. Keep deepening in your heart of worship. Continue to broaden your base of knowledge with Christian education for the mind. Don't stop stretching your soul with different spiritual experiences.
It's not some romanticizing of childhood. As Tony Campolo said, "Just remember that becoming a grandparent is God's gift to you for not killing your children!"
It IS a parable that is meant to silence our "Mine's better than your's" songs; to divert our attention from the natural "what's in it for me" stance; to expose the "bigger is always better" myth.
It's a parable for Lent - calling us to prune that
instinctive drive to get ahead and to feel proud about the progress we've made; to prune
it of any tendency to tromp on, gag, ignore or push aside others in the process.
Calling us to amputate any sense of smug self-sufficiency
from our soul.
Calling us to break out of stagnant complacency with where we
are in our spiritual progress; that awful sense of "I know enough. I've come far
enough. I've done enough."
These little ones - bottom of the heap. Which is what
Jesus means here by "humble." --
These little ones make no pretensions about self-sufficiency.
As parents you see it in their eyes when you leave them alone at home some evening for the
first time. They're not sure about it. You see it when they scrape their knee and come
crying, "Mommy, it hurts." You see it when evening comes and they need
the security of a parent, "Daddy, read to me."
These ones at the bottom of the heap need help and they know
it.
Do we??
These little ones are also teachable. They are very willing to take in new ways and ideas. They love to explore. They often use the phrase, "I wonder...." It's only as we get older that we begin to think we've got a pretty good handle on things. We lose our desire to explore more of God's ways and God's creation. We lose interest in mystery and don't wonder quite so much.
Consider that this Lenten season as you take stock of the
sort of attitudes you carry through life - especially attitudes about the relationship
between you and your Heavenly Father. Think about the content of your prayers. Or the
level of learning and exploring in your faith life.
How much child is there?
How much Lenten pruning needs to happen?
Honestly....... how much?
And one more honest question that needs an answer -
Jesus said, "whoever welcomes a little child like
this in my name welcomes me." And He goes on to illustrate our Heavenly Father's
deep passion for the little ones of life with the parable of the Lost Sheep.
What's our passion, our attitude, our concern for the little
ones?
What's our track record like?
You can identify the "little ones" of
life, can't you? The Bible refers to them time and again. They are:
- well, children for one. The Lenten question for us may well
be, "How pleased are we to see church energy and time and focus sent their way?
How willing are we to sacrifice for the sake of the young here at Calvin? How willing are
we to lend a hand for their care?"
And beyond the church, how willing are we to extend a hand
for the sake of children in society? Supporting political efforts to end child warfare,
for one. Calling for stronger internet controls against child porn. Seeking safe space for
kids free from abuse or poverty.
- Little ones.... think of those who are spiritually seeking,
who haven't come to that point where they've not yet been able to make a commitment to
Christ; or those who have just recently done so.
Lent would ask us as a community how concerned we are for
their well-being; if we're making safe nurturing space available where spiritual questions
can be freely asked, and young faith can safely grow. Or are we a spiritual house for
grown-ups only? Where only meat and potatoes in certain traditional forms is on the menu?
- Little ones: the elderly, the chronically ill. These are
the ones whose condition we can easily overlook as they struggle from day to day with
their pain and disabilities.
- The socially inept.....
We can go on, but you get the point -- the little people of
society.
When we come to the point where we realize that the Mighty
and Holy Son of God, the Creator of the Universe, was willing to lay aside all claims and
rights to power and glory
- lay that all aside in order to come to earth,
be one of us, with us, suffer for us.....
DIE for us
sinful, messed up, dead-end people that we were
When we see what He did, we're beginning to see what
Lent's all about - the season that culminates on Good Friday and Easter.
Then we see His finger pointing at little ones saying, "Now
you do the same for them!"
Remember Jesus' child parable.
Children are examples of individuals who cannot do very much
for you. When you receive children, they do not help your social status, your prestige,
your power, or your ego. They cannot confer upon you a title, nor can they give you
success. As a matter of fact, they require something from you.
Just like we couldn't do very much for Jesus. We don't help
His status or prestige, His power or ego. We cannot confer upon him a title, or give Him
success. As a matter of fact, we require something from Him -
- His very life blood as a ransom sacrifice that we may live!
The Word of God strikes uncomfortably close to home today
- harsh and blunt.
Don't you find?
It challenges us, saying "Do you find yourselves
saying -
She hasn't the education; He isn't one of us; I haven't
heard of him; he's does it so differently; He seems so awkward; It takes longer when she's
along; We have to modify our plans for him; I don't understand her lifestyle.
Or are you making room?"
Are you showing a love that reflects the love of Jesus?
Is there a warmth in you that melts their resistance, and
opens them to the love of the Saviour? Or a coldness that builds walls, erects barriers,
and fosters hostility?
Do little people in life get drawn closer to
Jesus because of you?
Or get pushed further away?
Lent is a time for pruning. Jesus' talk puts it in some
very graphic and blunt forms this morning. If there's something that's getting in the way
of you helping the little ones, cut it off. Toss it away.
Now!
When you climb into your cars to leave here this morning,
you'll have a whole series of lights and gauges on the dashboard. Those things will tell
you what's going on under the hood; how well they're functioning.
The way we respond to the little ones of our world serves as
the gauge of what's going on under our hood, in our heart - how well we're functioning.
It'll tell Jesus what we really think of Him. And it will
show our true spiritual attitude to ourselves, too.
What's your gauge telling you?