I assume you’ve all heard of Socrates, the great Greek philosopher. He was sentenced to death in 399BC because he dared to criticise the immorality of Greek Society. His only defence at his trial was that he was doing Athens a great service by questioning the way they thought. When his friends begged him to appeal against his sentence he said that he preferred to die than to live in a society that refused to consider the way it was living. His conclusion was that the unexamined life was not worth living.
Well today I want us to think about our lives, to get out the magnifying glass and the spotlight and examine what the basis of our lives might be. In particular I want us to think about our lives as part of God’s Church here at St Thomas’.
I want us to think about why we come to Church? About how we’re living our lives? Why we do the things we do? Why do we run the various events we hold year after year? Are they all worth doing? Why do we have 4 different services on a Sunday morning?
Is it just for our own comfort or pleasure? Is it just because that’s how it’s always been? I’m not going to give you answers to these questions. The point of what I’m saying this morning is that you need to find those answers for yourself. Then you need to talk about them to others in the congregation to make sure that we all have a common mind about what we’re doing as a Church.
When was the last time you sat down and examined your life? I find that I often do this while on holidays. That’s a great time for reflection on your life isn’t it? When the normal pressures of life are removed for a short time and you have a bit of space to think beyond the moment.
Over the next few weeks we’re going to be following a series on Ecclesiastes. It’s a fascinating book. It could almost have been written in the last 10 or 20 years. One of the things we’ll discover next week is that so many people think of the world as a closed system, where we expect everything to be predictable and controllable. But that just means life becomes confusing and troubling. Because the reality, we discover on closer examination, is neither predictable nor controllable. People are surprised when things go wrong. Look at the reaction to Heath Ledger’s death last week. There was utter shock that someone in their late twenties, at the peak of their career, with everything going for him, could suddenly die. The week before we saw the stock market having a hiccup and people going into panic mode.
Life can be unpredictable can’t it? I wonder what’s the worst thing that could go wrong for you? Death of a loved one, finding you’ve got a terminal illness? Bankruptcy, marriage break up? Drought, floods, tsunamis?
Last week at CMS Summer under the Son we heard from Andrew Reid about a terrible disaster that had struck the nation of Israel - in fact this was a disaster that was repeated a number of times over the years. The time he told us about was this: from 1 Sam 3:1: "Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread." Do you remember how Israel had been brought out of Egypt? God had gone with them. He’d spoken to them through Moses, then Joshua, then the judges. But now they were settled in the land and a great disaster had overtaken them. Not the invasion by the Philistines, not a famine or a plague. No, the disaster that had overtaken them was that they no longer heard God’s word directing their life.
A few centuries later the prophet Amos came to them with a dire warning from the Lord, a warning of judgement because of their lack of obedience: "The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD." (Amos 8:11) Why had this happened? Because they’d lived their lives as though nothing were wrong. They’d carried out their religious duties without ever examining whether God was pleased with what they were doing, without ever examining the rest of their lives to see if the religious and secular parts of their lives were in sync. What they’d done was to turn their worship of the living God into nothing more than superstition.
Superstitions are an attempt to organise the randomness of our world, to provide an explanation for the unexplainable. Our world is full of superstitions: Black cats, Friday the thirteenth, not touching the plate when you’re cutting your birthday cake. My favourite is the cricketers’ superstition about being more likely to get out on 87 (because it’s 100 minus 13). But do you know the stats show that many more people get out on 85 or 88 than ever get out on 87. (only 12 times in 1846 test matches!)
Well something like that had happened in Israel. They’d forgotten what really mattered about worshipping God. So God says that because the people have forgotten what they’re doing when they come to offer him sacrifices, and because they don’t want to hear what he thinks about their worship, he’s going to send them a famine: not a famine of wheat or corn but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. What happens if there’s a famine of God’s word? Well, people forget what God has said to them or worse still they never discover it. People begin to believe the lies of the secular world. Or they begin to follow the superstitions taught by the quasi-religious leaders of our world. They invent for themselves ways of expressing their desire for spiritual significance. They mix elements of different religions together to create what they’re looking for.
Of course the great thing is that we need never experience such a famine in our lives. We have God’s word - in our own language with notes to help us understand it if we want. We have people who are trained to explain it to us. We can get it on CD.
But you know, it is possible to create a self-imposed famine of God’s word. How might you do that? Well, by simply not reading it; by complaining when your ministers preach from it rather than thinking of an interesting topic to talk about; by not studying it or explaining it to one another; by only ever reading certain parts of it or deciding that some parts aren’t true or are too unpalatable to think about. Some Churches do it by following a lectionary that concentrates on the gospels at the expense of the rest of the bible, especially the Old testament.
But what about us? That’s not us, is it? We’re not like that. We rejoice in the fact that we can read God’s word don’t we? Or is this the first area where you might need to examine your life? What is your attitude to God’s word? Do you read it regularly? Are you part of a group that studies it so as to apply it to your lives? Would you be helped if you had the New Testament on CD so you could listen to God’s word as you’re going to work or going for your morning exercise?
But let me go further. Why do you come to Church week after week, if you come that regularly? Is it because you love meeting with God’s people to worship the God who sent his only Son to die on your behalf? Is it to encourage and be encouraged; to sing praises to the living God? Or is it for quasi-superstitious reasons? Just in case? A way of hedging your bets for the after life if there is one? Is it just a matter of habit, one of those old habits that die hard? On a more positive note, it might be because this is the place where you find friendship and acceptance. That’s not a bad reason is it? And I certainly hope it’s true. But still, is that a sufficient reason?
Let me remind you of what we read in the Hebrews reading earlier: "Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Heb 10:24-25 NRSV) This world is not a closed system. History doesn’t just repeat itself without end. No, God is bringing history to a conclusion. The last day draws near and we need to be ready for it. And the closer it comes the more we need to be encouraged to hold firm to our faith. And the more we need to meet together to provoke one another to love and good deeds.
So let me ask you another question. How do you decide what you should be doing with your life? Who makes the rules that you follow? Our world will tell you, you can make up your own rules. Just do what feels right. But here’s the irony of that belief: self-rule is meant to free us up but all it does is take us to hell on earth. Did you see those images of the houses in Emerald last week that had been vandalised during the floods. Kevin Rudd called it revolting. But I call it the natural result of self-rule. Those people who did what we think is a disgusting thing were just doing what they felt like, following their own idea of what constitutes fun, with a total disregard for anyone else. That’s what self rule looks like when all external controls are removed. As Christians we’re called to live a life that’s controlled by God’s Spirit, a life of discipline, living according to God’s will. So here’s the next thing to examine in your life. Are you living as much as possible according to God’s will. Is his rule of life what controls how you live, what you say, where you spend your time?
That leads me on to the question of money. How do you decide how to spend your hard earned income. God’s instruction to the Israelites was to bring 10% of the first fruits of their labour to God as a thank offering, as an acknowledgement that all we have comes from God. When was the last time you sat down and added up how much you give to God’s work over a year; and then divided that by how much you earn over a year? You might like to go home and do that later, if you haven’t done it recently. See how close you are to giving the 10% minimum that God specified to the Israelites. Then think whether your circumstances might enable you to give generously like the people of Macedonia whom Paul talks about in 2 Cor 8.
Giving is God’s gift to us. It’s a gift that allows us to express what’s in our heart. Do you remember what Jesus said about money? "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also." When we give to God’s work it places our treasure in the right place in the place we say our hearts are. When our hearts are given over to God our treasure should naturally go the same way.
But giving is also a gift from God because it allows us to share in God’s work beyond our physical limitations of time and energy. And remember that God does say that when we give generously he will bless us generously.
Finally, where do you look for security? A lot of people were feeling very insecure a couple of weeks ago when the share market went into free fall. Did you notice that? People’s security is so much tied up to their material wealth in our world today, isn’t it? Not for us of course. Our security is bound up with our identity in Jesus Christ isn’t it? Well, again, you might like to go home later and examine your life. Think about where you derive your sense of security.
Can I suggest that one of the reasons people resist change is that they somehow feel as though keeping things the same will make them secure. As long as we can keep doing things the way we’ve always done them we’ll be OK. This is one of the issues addressed by the writer to the Hebrews a couple of chapters further on from today’s reading. Listen to what he has to say to those people about security: (Heb 12:18-24 NRSV) You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, 19and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. ..." We haven’t come to something physical that we can get our hands on. "22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." Our security, our true worship, finds its home in the heavenly Jerusalem, in Jesus Christ who died and rose again. It doesn’t actually matter whether we keep doing things the way we’ve always done them. Our Anglican practices are good, but they’re not the only way to worship God. They won’t save us. They won’t stop us from going astray. What will save us is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s where our security lies.
I know there’s been a lot for us to think about in all of this today. I haven’t even touched on what we think we’re doing as a Church; whether we really think our mission is what’s expressed in our mission statement. But that’s OK because that’s something else you can spend some time thinking about this week. Are we really here to Speak the Gospel, Teach the Bible and Build community that expresses God’s love? That’s what the vestry thinks we’re doing, but is it what you think we’re doing?
The unexamined life is not worth living. That’s even more true for the Christian than it was for Socrates. Consider your life. How do you shape up to God’s standards? How much are you encouraging and provoking your brothers and sisters to love and good works? How are you using your money to serve God and to grow Christian ministry? Are you seeking to know God’s word so well that you know how to act in any given situation? Where do you find the source of your security? Is it in the person of Jesus Christ or somewhere else?
These are not easy questions to answer are they? But it’s important that we do answer them as honestly as we can so we can move forward together united under Christ.
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