Selfless Holy Light In A Dark Age Of Self-Worship

We live in a world that is largely dominated by self interest. All around town, up and down, we see self interest at work. What can I get? What can I gain? We gotta make money. We gotta meet the right people, and get what we need from them. Often times it feels like our lives revolve around what we want and how quickly we can get it.

We live in a time of great abundance and technological brilliance in the United States, yet we also live in a time of depravity and immorality that shocks us and amazes us with it’s level of evil, and toxic culture. The “me” culture is quite dominant. Selfie stick, Facebook profile, twitter account, hundreds of pictures of me, me, me, videos, conversations, my perfect scores, my high grades, and we’ll only show the best to others. We never show people what’s really going on inside of us.

We’ve gotta get the right job. And make sure we get married and have the family. Then we gotta keep buying bigger stuff, nicer stuff, more stuff, and show our neighbors, that we don’t really like how, just how important we are. And that’s life I suppose. That’s the American dream, the white picket fence, the sports car, the fancy house.

There is much more to life than that. And it seems like we’ve gotten so bogged down in the material in our lives, that we lose touch with the spiritual. Life is about so much more than our daily routines, it’s about so much more than work, and habits and eating meals and collecting paychecks. We have to find ways to recapture the wonder for life.

Because if we spend everyday circulating between the cubicle to the computer to the television screen to the bedroom and back again, we will go crazy. We will fade away. And that’s no good. There are ways to reclaim the wonder of life.

Something I like to do, is I wait until night time, usually about 8pm, or 9pm, sometimes even 10pm, and I’ll go out for a walk around my neighborhood. And I live in a safe neighborhood so I’m able to do that. And I stare at the sky, and listen to music, and watch the trees, and the shadows they form, and wander down roads, not really trying to go anywhere in particular, just looking for spots of beauty. Then I’ll look at the moon and the stars, and think

On the weekends I will go out and bike ride at the nature preserve on the outskirts of town. And I delight in the sunlight, the beautiful trees, and everything that is so beautiful about the natural world. I watch the birds fly about, I listen to the sounds of the woods, and then later I’ll walk along the Shiawassee river downtown and maybe sit down, and read my Bible, or pray. There is great wonder in life. There is beauty in the world God created.

Our world is full of interesting paradoxes. Darkness, and light, goodness, and evil. Beautiful sunny days, cold placid lifeless winter nights. Beautiful creatures, birds, rabbits, dogs, cats, and ferocious creatures like lions, wolves, rhinoceros. Glorious sunsets, stunning mountain ranges, and terrible diseases that end peoples lives, and violent earthquakes and hurricanes. Life is a mysterious, wondrous, and terrifying adventure And deep down we know that there is very much at stake. In fact, everything is at stake. Somehow when I’m walking alone at night, or staring out the window in the evening, something inside tells me the clock is ticking, and time is running out.

As the scripture said today, “The end of all things is near.” That was written about one thousand nine hundred and forty years ago. How much more true must they be now, than then?

Our scripture today is essentially calling us to live completely differently from the world we live in right now. This world seems to make us think we’re going to live forever. The scriptures say “the end of all things is near.” This world says “you deserve everything you want” and word says “ be self controlled and alert.” This world says “get yours” and the word says “love one another deeply.”

And it continues, in our scripture today, 1st Peter 4: 9-11 “Open your homes to each other without complaining. 10 Each one, as a good manager of God's different gifts, must use for the good of others the special gift he has received from God. 11 Those who preach must preach God's messages; those who serve must serve with the strength that God gives them, so that in all things praise may be given to God through Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory and power forever and ever. Amen.”

When is the last time you invited someone over for dinner to your home? The word says open your homes to each other, and don’t complain about doing that. That’s a spiritual gifting, certainly, but it’s also something we’re all called to do. It’s the same with evangelism, sharing the gospel, some may be especially equipped to do it, but in truth all Christians must be doing it.