This is the last in our sermon
series “The Paradoxical Commandments”, a series of ten statements written by
Dr. Kent M. Keith and endorsed by Mother Teresa.
And if you
look at these commandments, each one of them recognizes a harsh reality. People can be illogical and
unreasonable. The good we do will be
forgotten. Honesty and frankness make
you vulnerable. And on and on, through
all of the commandments we’ve talked about and that are posted in the back of
the church and were in the newsletter.
And the point is that, despite that harsh reality, we’re still called,
as Christians, to love people and do all we can to help people. By doing that, we’ll be showing God’s love to
them. And by doing that we may, over
time, do whatever we can, whether it’s a little or a lot, to change the world.
If there was
ever someone who understood all this, it was Jesus. Jesus spent his entire time in ministry
trying to help people. He fed them, he
healed them, and he loved them. He gave
them the chance for salvation and eternal life.
And what did he get for it? Well,
our Paradoxical Commandment for today says it pretty well. “Give the world the best you have and you'll
get kicked in the teeth. Give the world
the best you have anyway.”
Jesus, of
course, had a lot more happen to him than getting kicked in the teeth. He got hung on a cross to die. And before that happened he got whipped, and
beaten, and spat on, and humiliated. He
had given the world the best he had. And
of course, it was the best the world would ever have. And this was his reward.
And of course,
Jesus knew this was going to happen. He
predicted his death several times to his disciples. And yet, he did not let it stop him. He could have—we’ve talked about that
before. Jesus could’ve soft-pedaled
things. He could’ve stopped speaking out
so forcefully. He could’ve compromised
with the Pharisees. Or, Jesus could’ve
used his power to wipe them all out—we are talking about the divine Son of God,
after all. But if Jesus had done any of
those things, he would’ve been giving the world less than his best. And his best was what the world needed. Giving the world his best, and God’s best,
was why he had come to earth in the first place.
It’s why we’re
on earth, too. After all, we claim to be
Christians. We claim to be followers of
Jesus. If we’re really mean that, then
we have to take it seriously. Following
Jesus means doing what Jesus did. It
means going where Jesus went. And where
Jesus went was to the cross to die.
That does not
seem right, does it? And maybe you think
it makes me a hypocrite, because I talk all the time about how our faith should
make us happier and how we should feel the joy of being God’s children. And yet, now I’m saying our faith means we
need to be willing to go to the cross to die.
How does that make sense?
The thing is
that the joy we feel as Christians needs to not come from outside of us. It does not come from other people. It needs to not come from other people liking
us or praising us or making us feel good.
Now, don’t get me wrong. We all
like to feel appreciated. There’s
nothing wrong about that. But we can’t
depend on that for our joy or our happiness.
If we do, we’re going to spend a lot of time being miserable. Because there are going to be a lot of times
when we do the right thing and people don’t appreciate it. In fact, sometimes people are going to try to
punish us for it.
Our happiness,
our joy at being Christians, needs to come from inside of us. Most of all, it needs to come from having
God’s Spirit inside of us. When we can
feel God’s presence with us, when we can feel God leading us and guiding us,
when we can feel that we are where God wants us to be and we are doing what God
wants us to do, there’s a joy and a peace that comes from that. It’s a joy and a peace that the world cannot
take away. It will stay with us no matter
what other people may do to us.
That’s how
Jesus did it. That’s how Jesus was able
to keep giving the world his best, despite all the things that happened to
him. Jesus had God’s Spirit inside of
him. He felt the presence of God the
Father with him, leading him and guiding him and sustaining him. He knew that he was where he was supposed to
be and was doing what he was supposed to do.
And he felt the joy and the peace that comes from that.
Maybe you
think, how could he feel peace and joy while he was suffering on a cross? Well, don’t get me wrong here. I don’t think Jesus was ready to start
laughing and singing for joy at that point.
He was in terrible pain. He was
dying. The pain and suffering Jesus felt
was real, just as real as it is for any human being.
But I think
there’s a sense in which Jesus still felt peace and yes, even joy. Because he knew that he was obeying God. He knew he was doing God’s will. And when we know we are doing God’s will,
then even hard things, even suffering, and yes, even death, can give us a sense
of peace and even joy.
Look at the
Christians in the Middle East who are being killed because of their faith. How do you think they do it? Why don’t they just renounce their faith and
save their lives? They do it because
they feel God’s Spirit inside them. They
do it because they feel the presence of God leading them and guiding them and
sustaining them.
Is it
easy? Of course not. It was not easy for Jesus. That’s why he prayed so hard in the Garden of
Gethsemane. That’s why he prayed that,
if there was another way to do this, God would use that other way and Jesus
would not have to go through it. But
when there was no other way, Jesus was able to go through with it, because of
that presence of God, the presence of God’s Spirit inside him.
That’s what we
need to have. Because what our paradoxical
commandment says is right. There are
going to be times when we give the world our best and we get kicked in the
teeth for it. It will happen. In fact, I suspect a lot of us have already
had it happen.
And when that
happens, it’s tempting to give up and quit.
But we need to keep giving the world our best anyway, because that’s
what God wants us to do. And we can, if
we feel God’s presence and God’s Spirit inside us.
Now,
understand that giving the world our best does not mean we’ll be perfect. We won’t be.
We cannot be. God does not expect
perfection. God just asks for our best,
just like our paradoxical commandment says.
How do we do
that? How do we feel God’s presence and
God’s Spirit inside of us? We do it the
way Jesus did it. By praying. Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer. It was not just the Garden of
Gethsemane. We read all the time in the
gospels about how Jesus would go off by himself and pray. Jesus knew he needed to feel God’s
presence. He knew he needed God’s Spirit
inside of him. Because he knew that, he
spent lots of time praying. He spent
lots of time making sure he stayed close to God. He knew that was the only way he could do
what he was supposed to do, and was the only way he could feel the peace and
joy that comes from doing God’s will.
And there’s
one other thing we need to do, or rather not do. We need to not try to do it alone. Even Jesus did not try to do this alone. That’s one of the reasons Jesus called the
disciples. Jesus needed close friends to
help him through the tough times. There
were a lot of times those close friends did not get it. There were a lot of times those close friends
had no clue who Jesus was or what he was going to do. There were even times they argued with
him. But even so, Jesus knew they loved
him. He knew they would do what they
could to help him. And Jesus needed
that.
And that’s one
of the reasons the church is here.
Because no matter how strong our faith is, we’re not supposed to try to
live our lives as Christians alone. We
need close friends to help us through the tough times. There may be times when those close friends
don’t get it. There may be times when
those close friends don’t have a clue.
There may even be times those close friends argue with us. But even so, we know they love us and will do
what they can to help us. We need that.
That’s what
the church is for—to be those close friends to help us through the tough
times. And we should not just do that
for others who are in the church. That’s
part of it, but we also need to be there for people who are not part of a
church. Because those people need us in
their lives, just like we need each other in our lives. Jesus did not just tell us to love people
inside the church. Jesus told us to love
everybody. No exceptions.
If we give the
world the best we have, we may get kicked in the teeth. But we need to give the world the best we
have anyway. That’s what God wants us to
do. And if we pray and stay close to
God, and if we support each other and help each other and love each other, we
can do it. And then, we’ll be the people
and the church that God wants us to be.
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