The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for November 16, 2008

Texts: Zephaniah 1:7,12-18/1Thessalonians 5:1-11

Sermon: “True to God, True to Self”

              I would like to begin this morning by posing a question that is at one and the same time very simple, but also very profound.  The question is this, why should it matter to God how we live our lives? It is a fair question, isn’t it?  It is not as if you or I are likely to leave a great footprint on this earth after all. We may do some genuinely good things, we might do some things that are not so good, but the impact of our actions won’t be all that far reaching. But even supposing that we were capable of doing some really good things, or some really terrible things to capture the attention of great numbers of people, why should it matter? 

               Understand I’m not saying that the good we do, or the bad, are value neutral in God’s eyes.  God wants us to do good and to avoid evil, but why, in the end should what we do matter? Each of us is but the smallest, not even millionth of a billionth part, and here we are getting into some very big numbers, of the people who have occupied, or will occupy this earth.

              Fact is, God has seen people like us do some incredibly gracious and loving things, and some pretty horrific and unconscionable things as well, but in the whole scheme of things what do those deeds account for? God will do what God will do whether our wills happen to be aligned with his will or not, right?

              Why should it matter to God how we live our lives?  Ultimately we have to ask why God bothered to create us at all. You may have your own views on the question, but I base mine on an event occurring in the second chapter of Genesis where in verse 18 we read these words, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”  Three verses later we read, “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”  The scripture goes on to repeat the words so often pronounced during a marriage ceremony, “Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.”

              “It is not good that the man should be alone.” Friends, I happen to think that the statement describes God’s state of mind at creation when in the midst of creation he paused to reflect upon his own needs.  Where we read, “It is not good that man should be alone,” perhaps God realized it was not good for God himself to be alone. Where we read, “[the two] become one flesh” instead of man and woman becoming one flesh we might think of God and humanity becoming one flesh.    

              Again, why should it matter to God how we live our lives?  It matters, scripture insists, because you and I are flesh of God’s flesh.  We are united with God in an inseparable bond. I would hasten to add here that that inseparability is something God respects far more than we do. From the beginning folks like us have chosen to assert our independence in destructive ways. That, of course, was the reason our ancient forbears were banished from the garden. 

              God is tireless in demonstrating that it matters to him how we live our lives.  Recall the episode early on in the story of creation where the bond between brothers was broken, Cain murdering his brother Abel. God placed a mark on Cain so that his infamy would be seen wherever he went for the rest of his natural life. That mark of infamy lived with Cain, but it also lived with God, for so long as Cain lived God was forced to be reminded of the separation and estrangement that kept brothers divided, a  separation and estrangement that intruded into God’s relationship with creation itself.  

              Fast forward several generations. The separation God experienced between himself and creation has by this time become so unendurable that God chooses to destroy what he created, reserving Noah, the one righteous man he could find, and his family, from annihilation. God’s action in the flood demonstrating that it matters to God how we live our lives.

              But then, after the great flood that destroyed humankind and the creatures of the earth had subsided, God did an extraordinary thing. He made a covenant with Noah who had ridden out the terrible flood in the ark, vowing that he would never again destroy his creation. So why did he do it?  Because God could not bear ultimate separation from the creation he loved. 

              God has honored the covenant he made with Noah these many generations.  By our actions we may ultimately make life on earth unsustainable, but if God is good to his word, he will protect creation unto that end time he alone knows.    

              God’s covenant with Noah was, of course, just one of a series of covenants God established with us, each of those covenants demonstrating that our lives, and how we live them, is of fundamental importance. 

              I will list three additional covenants with which most of you are certainly familiar.  The book of Exodus opens to find the people of Israel in bondage under the boot of Egypt’s ruler, Pharaoh.  God, we are told, heard the cry of his people who sent his prophet Moses on a quest to deliver them.  The sequence of events would move through a series of plagues through which God attempted to demonstrate that Pharaoh’s aspirations to hold the people in bondage were futile. The people, of course, were ultimately freed, only to begin a forty year passage in the wilderness that would eventually take them to the land God allotted them to occupy.

               It was early into their journey, at the foot of Mt. Sinai to be exact, that God established a covenant with the people.  The covenant was sealed with the two tablets of the law, the Ten Commandments. These commandments offered proof positive that God cared about how the people lived their lives. 

              The fortunes of the Israelites would wax and wane for several generations under leadership that could be genuinely described as being pretty horrible. God ultimately concluded that the leadership was irredeemable, and he installed King Saul to rule over the people.  When Saul proved deficient he turned to the former shepherd boy, David, the brave champion who defeated Goliath, and made him king.  God covenanted with David to establish his throne forever. It was a very sweeping promise that God upheld even as one after another of David’s heirs proved to be deficient.

                 Two covenants that would shape the history of Israel, the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai, and the installation of David as king. The third, and most decisive covenant that would forever secure the bond between God and humankind, and that would demonstrate unconditionally that God cares how we live our lives was sealed in Jesus Christ. Flesh of God’s own flesh, God sent his son Jesus into the world to re-establish the bond that was broken when our ancient forbears in the garden turned their backs on God in disobedience.

                 God sent Jesus into the world to model the kind of life that is possible when unity with God is achieved and maintained. Our New Testament offers a record of how Jesus lived, and the ultimate price Jesus willingly paid that our human estrangement from God through sin and death might be overcome.       

              Why should it matter to God how we live our lives? The most direct answer is because we are flesh of God’s flesh, Jesus re-establishing through his death and resurrection the bond our sin was responsible for severing.

              The Apostle Paul needed no convincing that it matters to God how we live our lives.  It was Paul, after all, who so forcefully declared in his first letter to the Corinthians that we are the “body of Christ,” that oneness, of course, extending to God the father himself.

              The issue of how we live our lives comes up repeatedly in the letters of Paul.  He wanted everyone to know that the matter of how we live our lives is of great importance to God, exhorting the Christians at Rome to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”  He warned them not to fall into the bad habits of those who lived by their own rules, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God.” 

              For Paul the issue of how the Christian lived his or her life was not something that could be deferred and made tomorrow’s business.  You see, Paul believed that Jesus’ return to earth was imminent, that it could occur any day. It is noteworthy that Paul chooses to sound that theme in what many believe to be his very first letter to one of the congregations he founded.  In his first letter to the Thessalonians, written about 50AD, he charges the congregation to be alert, “For [he writes] you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” 

              Paul then hastens to remind them, “But you, beloved, are not in the darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.” In other words, it mattered for Paul how the Thessalonians lived their lives.  And why?  Because we are “all children of light and children of the day.”

              Paul believed that we were created to be a society of “children of light and children of the day.”  That Paul felt compelled to remind the Thessalonians of their identity was only made necessary by the fact that there were some folks among whom the Thessalonians lived who had forgotten that how they lived their lives mattered to God. Paul wanted to remind the Thessalonians that their true identity was sealed in God.

              Do you remember that line in Shakespeare’s Hamlet where father counsels his son, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day that thou can not be false to any man.” Shakespeare wrote the line, but he could easily have cribbed it from Paul.  Paul never tired of sounding the refrain, “You are children of light, and children of the day.  That’s who you are.  It follows that if you remain true to who you are, you cannot then be false to God.”

              If we remain true to ourselves, we cannot be false to God. There is a self lying within each of us that sin has not compromised, a self yearning to express itself, a self yearning to live in the pure light of God’s grace.

              Years ago I saw a cartoon in the New Yorker magazine that rang so true to me that I clipped it and had a friend render it in a line drawing I in turn had framed.  The cartoon shows a rumpled businessman with a look of exasperation on his face.  He is speaking into his phone, the mouthpiece of which is about a foot away from his mouth.  The caption reads “I’m really not like this.”

              How many times I would have liked to retrieve something I said or did in a fit of anger or frustration, “I’m really not like this.” 

              Do you ever find yourself in such a place?  “No, that’s not really me, I could have, I should have, done better.” It is a daily challenge to be true to that self, that identity, we have as children of God.

              “Children of light, children of the day,” Paul knew from personal experience how easy it is to slip out of the light into the shadows.  He knew that when we are not on our game, when we are struggling, we need special support, and so he called on the Thessalonians to encourage each other and build each other up. He insisted, and so the church insists, that we are not on our own for we are the body of Christ.  We have companions to help remind us who we are, and if necessary help us get back on track if we stray into the shadows.

                Friends, how we live our lives matters to God.  It mattered so much that he came to us in the flesh to reveal the true potential your life and mine might attain. If we remain true to ourselves---children of light--we cannot then be false to God. If we remain true to ourselves, there is a great deal we can do to help others who are struggling to be true to themselves. Make time each week, but not only here on Sunday morning, but each day to remind yourself that you a child of God.  Commit to doing just one act each day to confirm that fact. Live as if what you do matters to God, and you can be assured that what you do will matter to God, and will matter to each person your actions reach. AMEN            

PRAYER

               Ever vigilant God who never slumbers, you hear the speaking voice, but also the inner voice of the heart. Ever compassionate God who never turns away, you brace us lest we fall. Ever faithful God who never says “I’ve had it, I’m finished,” you bring light to the nations, you bring the light that guides each of our steps. Ever vigilant, compassionate, and faithful God, your people gather at your altar bringing praising and thanksgiving.

                Lord, who placed a sacred flame in us, may nothing in our conduct suppress the flame, but may all we do reveal your power at work in us.  You empower us to be agents of the world’s renewal and sources of light. Continue to brace us for our vocation, and when we turn away and move in another direction, there be, O God, to lead us back.

               O God, we call upon you to advance your reign into those places where your presence is not known or recognized.  Open the eyes of those who are blinded by greed, lust, or deceit that the poverty of their ways may be exposed.  Support those counselors and agencies who are committed to the rehabilitation of the fallen. Abide, O Lord, with those who are incarcerated in jails, prisons, or other correctional facilitates that in their imprisonment they may be rehabilitated for life beyond the walls.

                We ask your blessing on those who have been made most vulnerable by the nation’s current economic crisis. We lift up the elderly who have seen their assets decrease by several percent. We lift up those who have been laid off or face lay off.  We lift up families who can’t make the payment on their home load. We lift up small business owners who have seen their receipts decrease. We lift up those whose credit card debt has risen dangerously beyond anything they can reasonably repay.

                 O God, we are told that there is more to suffer before these current trials end, sustain us all and grant us courage to cope with the unknowns and uncertainties of these stressful days.  We know we ask too much when we ask our leaders to fix things and return our economy to where it needs to be over night, but we pray that the decisions being made today will secure prosperity and revitalized hope for tomorrow.

               Abide with those who suffer this day. Be at the bedside of those who live in the shadow of death.  Support those who live with the uncertainties of illnesses that remain undiagnosed.  Strengthen, O Christ, those who live in despair with no signs of hope on the horizon.

                Even as we pray for the suffering, we pray for those family members and friends who stand at the bedside and maintain their daily vigils.  We pray your blessing upon nurses, physicians, chaplains and all members of the health care network who bring their knowledge, skills, and compassion to the bedside.

                 Lord, we continue to pray your blessing upon those who live in harm’s way, and all those who have been mobilized to help those in need. We pray for the sons and daughters of our nation whose lives are threatened in the course of doing their duty.  We pray for the innocent people who under the curse of violence and upheaval.  We pray for the displaced people of the world, particularly for the people of Congo who have been subjected to the most recent outrages perpetrated by goons and criminals.

                We pray your blessing on this church and all who worship here that your word might be heard here, your people’s energies mobilized here. Grant us the gift of discernment as we plan for the future.

                  We lift special prayers for loved ones and friends.  We pray for our friends from New Jersey who have returned to once again take up work of restoration, we pray for Mary Ann, Rudy, Pam, Bob Held, Holly, Kay, Betty, Francis Pilet.