Selflessness: Fundamentals
July 11, 2010 Luke 9:23-27
Intro:
One of the purposes of a sabbatical is to get some space from the day-to-day demands, to “step back” and gain some different perspectives, and to return with something new to offer. First I want to say “thank you” for the one month sabbatical I have just completed, and I want to report that I did get some space from the day-to-day demands, I did “step back”, and I hope I still have something to offer. As many of you know, I have been studying at the University of Alberta, and this month was an intensive period in that particular journey. For those interested we summarized our work in a large “poster” format which I’ll display somewhere, and you’ll get a glimpse at the research project I am going to be doing this fall.
Part of my “stepping back” included some reading and reflecting further on some of the broad themes of my life. Where is God working among us? Where should I be focussing my energies, time, gifts, to serve Him? Where is He calling us as a church; and are we as a church actually being what God needs and wants us to be as a church? And, assuming some things need to change in response to the answers to those questions, am I (and are we) willing to change?
Those are unsettling questions. At least they are to me. They drive me to prayer, which is exactly where I started the first morning I was back from sabbatical. They drive me to Scripture, which is where I went next. They drive me to reflection, to listening, and to reading, which is what I’ve continued to do. And that all brought me to a decision about where to concentrate our sermon energies over the summer months. Let me introduce that this way:
Fundamentals:
How many times do you think Wayne Gretzy shot a hockey puck? Michael Jordan a basketball? Bastian Schweinsteiger a soccer ball? Now I’m not an athlete, but I do know this: in sports, it all comes down to the fundamentals. That is what practices, drills, hours and hours and hours of work are all about: mastering the fundamentals. It is a basic principle: the things we spend the most time on are the things we are most familiar with, and are the things that we end up being able to make a deep part of us, so that these things come easily to us because they are natural to us. They flow freely out of us.
The same is also true of our spirits. The fundamentals need concentration, need attention, need rehearsal, so that we can live out of them naturally and with ease. So that, in whatever experiences we find ourselves, we can respond out of a Christlikeness that has been nurtured and developed and attended to.
Now, when I’m talking about Christian “fundamentals” I am not particularly interested in the basic academic and intellectual aspects of our faith. I don’t generally think of our congregation as one full of spiritual babies, I don’t generally try or intend to spoon-feed you mashed up applesauce on a baby spoon, and I don’t generally feel like my job is to try to tone things down and thus never challenge or push or ruffle feathers. I read Scripture like Hebrews 5, “ 11 There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. 12 You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. 13 For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. 14 Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”, and I think that together we can “eat solid food”. The “fundamentals” I have in mind are not the “basic things about God’s word” that this passage describes, things like Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth as a human, died on the cross and then rose again, and now offers to save us from having to continue to live as hopeless trapped sinners. We know these facts in our heads; there are no radically new ways of looking at these things that are going to make us all go “wow! I never saw it like that!! Steve really is smarter now after that sabbatical…”. So my point in getting back to the fundamentals of our faith is not to go over the simple theological truths. What, then, is it?
It is a return to the essence of the practices that define us, that shape us, that ignite us as the people of God. Like the athlete who pours hour after hour into mastering basic skills, the fundamentals I want to explore together are not intellectual facts to which we each nod and say, “yup, I agree with that”; instead they are the very things that we are to do and to be as the people of God. Like what, you ask?
Getting to the fundamentals:
Let’s figure this out together, through a series of questions designed to start simple and then take us deeper, into the “solid food”; fundamentals.
• What does it actually mean to be a Christian? Is it intellectual agreement with a set of religious truths; is it what we normally call “believing”? Is it praying a “sinners prayer”, asking Jesus to forgive us our sins so we can go to heaven when we die? How are we doing at living these things out?
• For what are we saved?
• What issues are of greatest concern to God? Where are those issues in our life together?
• What is the church – why did God create it, what is it supposed to do, and are we doing that?
Fundamental #1: Selflessness (Luke 9:23-27)
For today, let’s start with my first question, “what does it actually mean to be a Christian”, and let us take as a simple answer that it means to be a follower of Jesus. So, then, what does that mean? Let’s let Jesus answer that question.
Luke 9: “23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Kingdom of God.”
Let’s put it into context: earlier in Luke 9, Jesus fed the 5000. That story begins with Jesus trying to slip away, and being unsuccessful – the crowds find out where he is and go out to some remote place because they want more from Jesus. He responds by teaching and healing the sick, and this time of ministry goes on late. Stomachs are grumbling, another need is present, and Jesus takes 5 buns and 2 sardines and turns it into dinner for 5000. Incredible! Fantastic!! Truly, honestly, miraculous.
And also a little dangerous. Then, and now. Is this what it means to be a follower of Jesus? We follow Him around and He does stuff for us? Does it mean we go to where Jesus is, sit and listen to Him, expect Him to touch us or speak a word and heal all our diseases, and even get a free dinner that nobody has to pay for, cook, or clean up after? Is that what it means to be a follower of Jesus?
Not according to verses 23-27. Jesus says that being His follower is not actually about receiving from Him, it is about giving. It is about, on a daily basis, choosing not to live for ourselves – not seeking what we want, not seeking what we need, not seeking what will make us happy or secure or comfortable. “You must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
I think our Christianity has tended to become more about what we get out of it than what we are supposed to give. We have leaned towards expecting to be the crowd being fed by Jesus and healed by Jesus rather than the followers daily “giving up our lives for Jesus’ sake”. Our focus tends to be more on how God can meet our needs, what God can do in our lives, how “full” and “abundant” our lives can be as followers of Jesus. And, now listen carefully please because I need you to understand clearly what I am saying, those things are true: God can meet our needs, God can do amazing things in our lives, and God does lead us into “full and abundant” lives. BUT, if we pursue those things, if that is our focus, our emphasis, our concentration, we will miss them completely. Those things come second, as a result of us “turning from our selfish ways, taking up our cross daily, and following Jesus.”
Perhaps I should put that another way: Matt 6: “ 31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God[d] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
It is supposed to be upside down:
In both these passages, God tells us the results: “you will save your life” in Luke 9; “he will give you everything you need” in Matt 6. But both passages also tell us that doesn’t happen if that is our main pursuit. In fact, the point of both passages is the opposite: they both say “DON’T PURSUE THOSE THINGS” – “if you try to hang on to your life you will lose it” (Lk 9) and “don’t worry (or seek after) these things… seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matt 6).
I think I understand a bit about why this is hard for us. We live in the middle of a culture that is very, very good at tapping into a real, honest, legitimate need or desire and then selling us something that only pretends to meet that need. Like this:
As if opening a bottle of Coke equals happiness. Or this:
As if drinking this beer means your life will be good and full of beautiful women. We could go on, but the point is that our society taps into a legitimate need or desire and then lies to us about how to get that need met. You want happiness? – drink Coke. You want a good life? – drink Bud Light. As wrong as those are, and as big a lie as those are, there is something worse. The end result of all this advertising is that we end up with a focus on the need or desire, a pursuit of that need or desire, and us getting quickly sucked in to a whole way of living that is about us getting what we need or want or desire. This infiltrates our essential way of living – we put ourselves at the center, and relate to everything around us in terms of what it does for us. And this, my friends is actually slavery. We become slaves to our own desires and needs.
Jesus turns that all upside down. He does promise that our need will be met, but (and this is the key) the meeting of our needs is a by-product of a life lived not for ourselves but for Jesus. “Lose your life…”; “seek first the Kingdom of God”. Do you see?
And this is why I want to focus on the fundamentals this summer. All of this talk does not really come down to us having an intellectual understanding of these things. You can all sit here and nod and smile and agree, but unless we put these into action and do something about them, nothing changes. It is the equivalent of watching Wayne Gretzy, Michael Jordan, or Bastian Schweinsteiger, and thinking that if we watch enough we’ll be able to do like them. I used to think I could be a better golfer if I watched more golf on TV – and the problem is that is partially true. I learn stuff, I see how it should be – but until I do it, practice it, actually hit golf balls, nothing changes.
Conclusion:
So here is where I leave things for us this morning. First with a question that leads to a decision on our part: are we willing to be a follower of Jesus as Jesus defines it in Luke 9, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me”? Are you willing? Second, what are you going to do to begin to put that into practice? I suspect many of us know where we should start – maybe it is by determining to begin each day in focussed prayer. Or it is to do that thing you know God has called you to do but you’ve been putting it off. Maybe it is something else. But it needs to be daily, it needs to be deliberate, and it needs to be consistent. I’m going to close here with a few minutes of silence, space for you to decide how you are going to act, what you are going to change out of obedience to Jesus’ invitation to “turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow Him.” Then I’ll close us in prayer.
