This sermon is by James Choung of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. You are also invited to visit James’ blog at http://www.jameschoung.net/.
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About eight years ago, I was in Manhattan celebrating my 25th birthday. A friend and I were in the middle of Times Square, waiting in a long line at TKS booth for discount tickets to a hot new show: "Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk." We couldn’t wait for Savion Glover to tap his way onto the stage and into our hearts. This was no ordinary tap dance, mind you, this is hip, uncut modern tap -- if you’re talking about jazz, it’s the difference between Lawrence Welk and John Coltrane. This would be terrific stuff.
A gentleman with ragged, balding hair, a tan smock and blue jeans spotted with paint came up to us to offer tickets.
"Which show are you looking for?"
"Bring in Da Noise, Bring in da Funk"
"I have some. Great seats, center, near the front. $50 a piece."
I looked at my friend, and she looked at me. We had a quick conversation with our eyes: Would we be able to get tickets at the booth for today? And this close? Can we trust this guy? $50 doesn’t sound like a bad deal, does it? We shrugged, and grabbed our cash from the nearest ATM. The deal was done, and we hoped these tickets would be as good as he said they would be.
When we walked into the theater, we were ushered upstairs. Not a good sign „o front and center, right? We found ourselves in the back right corner of the theater, in the second to the last row. As the curtain rose, we noticed that the theater wasn’t as packed as we may have thought; it was sparsely attended. To add insult to injury, we found out those tickets would’ve cost us only $25 at the booth. We were ripped off.
Ever been ripped off? We give up something valuable for something worthless. It’s frustrating. But what if I said that there’s a greater rip off occurring? What if, every single day, something out there is trying to rip us off, to take away something very valuable, something central to our purposes and meaning for life? Do you ever get the feeling that life isn’t exactly what it’s supposed to be? What if we were being ripped off every day of something core to who we are, and we didn’t know it?
Our birthrights: God’s presence in our lives
First, let me set up the scene. It’s the story of twin brothers. Esau is the older brother of the two, but by seconds. They definitely weren’t identical twins, because they were as different as licorice and soy sauce. If Esau is the Discovery channel with his love of the outdoors, Jacob is Home and Garden Television with his love for the indoors and cooking. Esau is a strong, burly Crocodile Hunter, while Jacob is a scheming yet quiet Iron Chef. These guys are polar opposites.
One day, Esau returns from a day of hunting. Read Genesis 25:29-34
What does Jacob want? He wants Esau’s birthright. Esau, according to the account earlier in this chapter, was born first of the twins. He came out hairy like a rug (I can’t imagine a hairy baby, but anyways), which is a possible meaning of the name, Esau. Jacob came out second grasping his heel, the meaning of his name. In Hebrew, this became a saying for someone who was played jokes, deceived or was rebellious. If you were one who grasped the heel, you were deceptive, rebellious or a jokester (which is a form of protest or rebellion.) Since Esau was born first, he had the advantage of the inheritance. The father would normally divide his inheritance (land, possessions, etc.) into equal parts plus one, and then give the older son a double portion. (It’s great to the be first born, eh?) This was Esau’s inheritance, his birthright. It was his privilege as the eldest of the family. The birthright is an extremely valuable thing.
For us today, we might not have a double portion of land coming to us. But the Bible often speaks about us receiving our inheritance „o mainly, the Revolution of God, or the eternal kind of life. It’s living in God with his resources. It’s the fullness of the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. It’s the knowledge of knowing that God is with us. It’s next level living, the kind of stuff that gets us out of bed in the morning, knowing that each day will be spent with God. We live in heaven, not just when we die, but it begins here with us! A conversational relationship with God is one of the greatest, most valuable things in our lives. So is Esau’s birthright...
Our "needs" trick us
But, what made it so easy for Esau to trade away his precious birthright? Why would he give it away? Seriously, we must think him an idiot. He gives up his birthright for a bowl of soup. It doesn’t seem nearly rational for someone to give up his double portion share of the inheritance for a bowl of Campbell’s. Let’s read verse 30 again.
When Esau came in from the country, he wanted some of that food. His stomach was calling out to him, and though he himself could fell game and cook (as he later does for his father in a couple of chapters), Esau wanted the food so badly, that he was willing to trade away his birthright. His appetite spoke so loudly and compellingly, that he could hear nothing else, and wanted to give in. "I’m famished," changed to "I’m about to die." Clearly an exaggeration. And this is how a "want" became a "need."
I need ice cream. Really? I need to watch Lost, or I need an Xbox 360, or I need a new SUV, or I need a beachfront home. The list of our "needs" has truly grown long.
About four years ago, I had a need, and it came in the form a video game called "No One Lives Forever." I love these first-person shooters, where you get to play a spy and you’re trying to use your wits to accomplish your missions. Jinhee bought it for me as an incentive to stay in the house while she was working on her finals; the thinking: she studies better when I’m at home, and yet I get bored easily. So, buy him a video game and he’ll stick around. So, I started playing.
Now, once you start playing a game like this, I had to go back. In between meetings, I’d play another stage. If I died during that stage, then I would keep on playing until I finished that one stage. It would probably take a couple of minutes, which of course turn into hours. I’d come into meetings bleary-eyed because I’d been playing until the wee hours of the morning. Ah, just a few more minutes, turn into a few more hours. It’s a scary thing.
At one point, we were at my in-laws, and Jinhee fell sick. Her temperature was rising and her energy was spent. So she laid dormant on the bed. What did I do? Did I stroke her hair until she was completely asleep? Did I pray for her speedy recovery? Did I hold her hand, letting her know how much I loved her? Instead, I waited until she was fast asleep, and then snuck over to my laptop to play yet another round. It turned into hours „o 2AM. In every waking moment, I couldn’t wait to play. I traded away many things to play this game.
If you don’t play video games, I sound like a complete lunatic, and an unloving husband to boot! Somehow, the thing we crave goes up in value in our lives, way more than it’s supposed to. That night, the video game went way up in value, so much so that I didn’t tend to the person most important to me. We stop wanting things, and start needing them.
There’s an old-school word for this: gluttony. Pope Gregory the Great came up with this list sometime in the fourth century, now called the Seven Deadly Sins. It’s not a word we talk about much. This is gluttony in action. Gluttony is the inordinate desire to consume more than is required. It distorts the object of desire, so much so that it gains a value in our lives that is disproportionate to its true worth. Gluttony elevates what is consumed to an idol, and the consumed becomes the consumer. Yet though it is highly sought after, it is destroyed by us. If Greed is about having, Gluttony is about consuming. And like Lust and Greed, Gluttony actually ruins the object of desire; it doesn’t increase its value. For Esau, gluttony kicked in and made it seem worth more. In the end, he had neither: the bowl of soup was devoured, and he lost his birthright.
They never really satisfy
If being duped and deceived is bad enough, it gets worse. Let’s read Genesis 25:34. "So Esau despised his birthright." This is huge. The very thing that was supposed to give him delight and pleasure became a source of hate and derision. He despised his birthright. After giving it away so that he could sate his appetites, he started to hate this thing, this birthright.
Ain’t that crazy? For example: here’s a confessional. My wife and I wanted to own a home. In San Diego. Prime real estate. Money. At times during the process, I started wondering why I became a campus pastor. If I just went with the normal flow as an MIT graduate, I could make the worries of money disappear. If I just had enough money... so that I can do what? Spend it? Burn it? It meant the freedom to do what I want. And I started to despise being in ministry „o my birthright. And I was more stressed and anxious „o it was taking a toll on me.
When we start to think that God is the killer of all joys, and start to grow bitter against God. You started to follow Him, and all He has are these rules and regulations about what you can and cannot do, and you start to grow bitter and angry. This is what gluttony does to a person, and completely twists our perspective on faith around. You get what you thought you wanted, and then you go and turn around and blame God for not getting what you really wanted. It’s a crazy cycle. We hate our birthright.
In the Screwtape Letters written by C.S. Lewis, Screwtape instructs Wormwood to fix his patient’s mind on the "stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it ’real life’ and don’t let him ask what he means by ’real.’" We’ve made the unreal, real, and vice versa. We let the unreal trick us, and we trade in what’s real for it. The thing that we’re trying to consume will eventually consume us.
Application: fasting for fullness
First, we realize that our birthright is good, and that God desires the best for us. He’s not this eternal kill-joy, he’s actually the creator of joy. But, when we take his joys to excess, we are ruining what could be wonderful, lasting joys for us. To remind us of that fact, that the Father loves us and wants to bring us joy, we need to tear ourselves away from the objects of our gluttony.
Second, let me introduce another old school word: fasting. These are words used in early Christian tradition that seems to have lost its meaning today. Priorities alone aren’t good enough. You have to make room for your priorities, meaning your current priorities need to be given up. For your system is perfectly designed to get the results you are currently getting.
Fasting: three applications:
1. Fast from eating, so we can put our food in perspective.
For example, last weekend I was in Seattle. Right when we got off the plane, we were ushered into a Chinese Buffet for my mom’s 60th birthday. The next meal was a large bowl of Pho. Then, I had a huge feast of salmon on rice. The next meal was a giant bowl of jajangmyung, and then Thanksgiving dinner stuffed with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, beans, and cranberry sauce. The next meal was at Todai, and all-you-can-eat sushi place. Then, a tasty Thai dinner. Next, an Indian Buffet. Then, a soul food place with Seattle-style „o giant portions. Then, Korean BBQ. Somewhere between Todai and the Indian Buffet, the food stopped being delicious. I was just putting it down. I’m eating, but I feel disgusted.
It’s hard to be thankful for food in a place like that, beside all of the other spiritual benefits you get by depending on God in your hunger.
2. Fast from spending. Seriously question our purchases before we make them. Ask yourself if you really need that thing, or can someone else use the money that you were about to spend on yourself. This is just a discipline to learn how to grow in giving. Don’t spend money one day a week -- on your Sabbath. See what it does for your sense of consumption.
Spending cannot satisfy. When I worked at the Banana Republic, something came over me. I never was a big clothes shopper, and I’m still not. But, while I was working there, I bought some clothes there at 60% off. I would get one thing. Then, I would see something else and get something else. I bought more clothes in that amount of time than I had in the previous three or four years combined -- and I wasn’t satisfied. It was as if the more I actually had, the more I needed.
It’s right to talk about these things between Thanksgiving and Christmas, between the gluttonies of food and possessions. I wonder if we are trading away more than we know with the rampant materialism in our culture, and particular in our churches. According to a Gallup Poll that came out years ago, there is no discernable difference in the spending patterns of Christians and non-Christians in American today. When we go to the mall, we spend the same amount. For all of our hoopla about homosexuality, I wonder if the greater sin in America is materialism and our constant need for more. My question: are we trading away our birthright for this bowl of soup?
3. Fast from media (not recreation). I’m not saying not to have fun, but take a fast from TV, recorded music, internet, movies and video games for a week. See what happens. I think we’ll realize that we need less of it than we think. Once it starts to get out of our system, then we really will need it less. When it’s value becomes less and true, it ceases to be an idol in our lives, and we have room to worship things that are worthy of worship.
More hours in front of the TV isn’t refreshing, but we keep coming back for more. Our eyes are cross-eyed from the blur of video games, and we have a headache, and we keep on coming back for more. It never really satisfied, but we keep on coming back.
It’s counter-intuitive. The way we fill our appetites don’t really help us find joy; they make us more hungry. It’s like food that never fills, like water than never quenches. And we find ourselves hungry for more.
Yet, be careful of legalism. You can’t have an outward fast, without coupling it with an inward fast. You will become judgmental. As you give up something, you must be careful not to think that the other person playing Xbox is the biggest sinner since Adolf Hitler.
Stop getting ripped off by what you see and can consume. Restraint isn’t a popular word, but some of it could be a huge blessing to others. All of this is so that we can begin to "Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things (food, drink, clothing in the passage) will be added to you as well." All of these fasts allow us to depend on God, instead of making our own choices and being captains of our own ships. Let’s make Jesus our highest priority, and let the other things slide for a bit. Enjoy your birthright, and skip the soup.
