Living the Life
This is the sermon I preached Sunday, 9/25 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The text is 1 Timothy 6:6-19.
Have you ever had a
conversation with someone that started out like this, “Jim, how are you doing?
I haven’t seen you in so long.” Jim replies, “I’m living the dream!” Sometimes
it seems to mean the respondent is doing great. Other times I’ve heard people
say this in a sarcastic way because they’re in a very hard place. I would like to make one
small change to that statement so that it says, "I'm living the
life."
At first glance, we think
it's obvious that this passage is about stewardship; and it is. But it is about
so much more. There is a little phrase at the very end of the passage that I
cannot shake. Every time I read this passage it hits me again and again: “…take
hold of the life that really is life,”(v. 19b). What does that mean? Does it
mean that those who are going their own way, not following Jesus, are missing
out on something? It seems to me that there is a false life being offered to
people, one that claims we will be happy and fulfilled if we only make enough
money to own all the really cool things. We've all heard the expression,
"He who has the most toys wins." After all, God wouldn’t want to deny
us now, would he?
I have some questions about
this "life that really is life." First of all, what is it? How do we
get this life? What good does such life do us? Once we have this life, what do
we do with it?
What is this life? It is
life in Christ. It is connected to the "treasure of a good
foundation." One stores up heavenly treasure because it will last for an
eternity. Riches stored up on earth are fleeting and can disappear at any
moment. For example, a stock market crash, a devastating fire or death.
Life in Christ is something
available, accessible and something people of faith can take hold of. It is not
beyond us or out of reach. In the midst of worldly temptations such as endless
toys, never growing old, wealth and security, we can experience our joy in
God's call to live a life in Christ which manifests signs of mutual love and
compassion, justice and kindness, from beginning to end, secure in all that God
will bring about at the right time.
First Timothy contrasts our
desire to accumulate earthly wealth that can disappear in a second with the
Christian focus of accumulating heavenly wealth that will last for eternity.
"Godliness with contentment" becomes the aim of our life pursuit. It
is connected with contentment because of the capacity to be satisfied with what
is ours instead of being driven to possess what isn't ours. Contentment is
something that is difficult to live. When I'm in the parsonage and looking out
towards Lake Chautauqua, and I see boats out there, I admit I think, wouldn't
it be nice to have a boat? And then I think, wouldn't it be interesting to have
Ray drive it? Those of you with boats probably struggle with other things that
produce envy in your life. If we were never envious, I don't think we would be
human. When we live our life in Christ, we confess our envy to God, receive his
forgiveness and move on.
We come into this life with
nothing and we leave this life with nothing. We've all heard the phrase,
"You can't take it with you." We collect riches, possessions and
decorations along the way. In reality, there's only so much you can stuff into
a coffin, and even less when you're cremated. According to Paul, all we really
need is food and clothing.
There is a verse in this
passage that is often misquoted. We hear people say, "money is the root of
all evil," but that is a misquote. The verse correctly reads, "the
love of money is a root of ... all... evil" (v. 9). It is our insatiable
desire for money and the toys it buys that is the cause of all evil. Money in
itself is not evil. It's when money becomes our god that it becomes evil.
If God has blessed us with
riches in this life, this passage instructs us to not be haughty. We must
remember that our good fortune is a direct result of God's favor on us and has
nothing to do with anything we have done. We are urged to rely on God, who is
the source of all we have (v. 17). Riches are positive if we do good works, are
"generous, and ready to share" (v. 18). If we use our possessions
wisely, we find ourselves engaged in doing good. Our motive for doing this is
to lay "a good foundation for eternity" (v. 19).
How do we obtain our life in
Christ? There is nothing we can do to obtain it. It is a gift from God,
freely offered by God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God makes us his own through our baptism. As
we read God's word, we learn more and more about God's love and how he sent Jesus
to redeem us from sin and the distractions of this world.
What good does life in
Christ do us? Life in Christ, is a different kind of riches. We are not
consumed by the riches and things of this world. The life of Christ in us turns
our entire world upside down. Paradigms of our life shift. Some are destroyed.
Paul writes that "there is great gain in godliness combined with
contentment" (v. 6). The life of Christ in us makes us godly.
It's interesting that Paul
uses the word "gain" to describe the good life in Christ. He also
writes about financial gain throughout this passage. Material gain seems
wonderful at first, but after a while, you only want more. We never have enough. But then the great gain
Paul speaks of is something that is not a fleeting emotion, but something we
have for eternity.
We don't have to worry about
our stocks sliding, the devaluation of the dollar, how many Rolls Royces we
drive or how many mansions we own. Our gain in life in Christ is eternally in
the black; giving us the ability to live life in a way that is beyond all of
our expectations. Paul says that "God ... richly provides us with
everything for our enjoyment" (v. 17)
Once we have accepted our
life in Christ, what do we do with it? We need to share this life. It's funny
how easily and quickly we tell everyone when we have gotten a great deal on
something. We can hardly keep quiet about it; posting it on Facebook and
telling everyone who will listen. We want them to know how they too can get a
good deal.
But why are we so timid
about sharing what God has done, is doing and will do in our lives and in the
lives of all believers? I know this isn't easy to do and I have to confess that
even for me, a trained pastor, I have my timid moments.
One of the reasons for the growth
of some of the larger churches is because part of the DNA of the worshippers is
sharing their faith with others. It is easy to find ways to take something said
in church and use it as a means of gently sharing the gospel. We do a great job
in this congregation of inviting others to join us at church and sharing with
others.
But a part of learning to
share is also learning how to listen to those who you are sharing with. You
need to be able to hear and understand the context of where the person you are
sharing with is coming from.
While living in Palestine, I
learned the art of listening to those of a different religion. I learned about
Islam from Muslim university students and as a result, they were curious about
Christianity. This made it easier to explain what our faith was about. If we
are open, God will provide opportunities to share the life of Christ with those
who are not yet following him.
Accepting God's gift of a
life in Christ, is what today's second reading is all about. We are God's children
because God gives us life. I challenge all of us (myself included) to look for
ways to share this wonderful and abundant life we've been given. We live in a
world full of hurt that sorely needs to hear about the abundance and generosity
of our God. Let's not keep God's good news of his heavenly riches to ourselves.
Amen.
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