FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Sermon by Dr. George Bryant
Wirth
February 16, 2003
Scripture: Micah 6:8; Matthew 19:16-26; Galatians 5:1,
13-26
A
child was born into our church family this past week, and as I dropped by the
hospital to see the parents and their brand new daughter, the room was flooded
with joy! The little girl’s name is
Caroline, and although she came into this world earlier than expected, that
child is healthy, thank God.
Her
father was away on business when the labor pains began, and he made it back
home in time for the birth. So those
parents were happy as I visited with them, and as they told me the story about
how it all had happened, I thought about another father who was actually in Idaho
on a fishing trip when his child was born.
Out west, he caught a large rainbow trout and telegraphed back east to
his wife, “I’ve got one – it weighs seven pounds and is a real beauty.” She wired back, “So have I – eight pounds,
four ounces, not a beauty – looks just like you. Come home.”
Well,
the little girl I saw last Wednesday is a beauty, and as she begins to grow up,
I am confident that she will be surrounded by a loving family, will be embraced
by a caring church on the day she is baptized, will live in a nice
neighborhood, will go to a fine school and will have every opportunity to enjoy
a good life.
So
it should be for every child, because that is what God wants to give to all of
His children on earth – health, happiness, loving parents, a safe and secure
home, a decent education and the support and nurture of a community of
faith. And that is one vantage point by
which we can look at “The Good Life” – from the early days of childhood as all
of the hopes and dreams of the future stretch out before us.
I.
Move with me now to the other side of the timeline as we catch a glimpse of what Robert Browning called “the last of life for which the first was made.” I’m talking now about old age, with all of its wisdom and experience, mixed together with the joys and sorrows of the roads we have traveled that now lie behind us.
On Friday of this past week, I had lunch with three men, members of this church, whose average age among them is 91. We get together once a month and talk about everything under the sun, most of which they have seen, including the Stock Market crash in the 1920’s followed by the Great Depression of the 1930’s, World War II of the 1930’s and 40’s, Korea in the 1950’s, Viet Nam and the turbulent 1960’s, the ups and downs of the 70’s and 80’s, the “go-go years” of the 1990’s right on to this present moment. They’ve seen it all.
So I asked them the question, “How would you define, describe ‘The Good Life’?” One of them said, “Having a family and being able to take care of them with the resources that come from doing something you like to do.” Another spoke up, “The good life is what we’re living in America right now, and to tell you the truth, I feel a little guilty about it, what with all of the trouble in the rest of the world.” The third man answered, “At the age of 93, I can still walk, I can still see, they haven’t taken my drivers license away from me, and my wife and I are still alive and together.” And with those words said, they all ordered cinnamon ice cream for dessert!
The Good Life – how would you describe it? Some of us might say that financial security is the key component – to have enough money and then some to cover all of our wants and needs. But it was J. Paul Getty, one of the richest men in the world a generation ago, who once said to a newspaper reporter, “I’d trade my fortune for just one happy marriage.”
The Good Life – how would you define it? There are those who think that a solid education is the most important thing. But one of our finest southern writers, the late Walker Percy (1916-1990), a highly intelligent person who graduated from Chapel Hill and received a medical degree from Columbia University, he was on record as saying that “It is possible to get all A’s and still flunk life.”
The Good Life – what does your list of essential ingredients look like? Financial security, a solid education, a happy marriage, and most of us would probably add a loving family, close friends, good health, meaningful and productive work to do and some reflective, quiet, peaceful time for ourselves.
To be sure, all of those things are good and many of those things are a matter of choice, making good decisions…which is perhaps why Mark Twain once said: “Let us choose so to live that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry.”
II.
But for each of us and all of us who are Christians, there are deeper and often more difficult decisions to make as we seek to follow Jesus Christ and to embrace the good life which He has in store for us.
I have been thinking about this subject since last summer at Chautauqua Lake where I read a book recently written by Dr. Peter Gomes entitled “The Good Life: Truths That Last in Times of Need.” As you may know, Dr. Gomes is an African-American Baptist preacher who serves as Minister of the Memorial Church and Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University. This volume “The Good Life” is something of a sequel to his first best-seller which he called “The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart,” and I treasure my own copy because Dr. Gomes inscribed it for me during a book signing here in Atlanta several years ago.
I commend both of these published works to you, and want to share these words now from the introduction of “The Good Life,” words that I find ring true:
“A book about the good life in these early years of the 21st century can easily be obsessed with the American sense of material success…
(Although) most people are still able to distinguish between the quality and the quantity of what appears to make life good…the search for the good life, which is so often defined in terms of ‘things’ and the means to get as many ‘things’ as possible, has turned into a dead end as more and more people have more and more (things)…American culture has produced the richest…society in history…but not the happiness or joy that it would have appeared to have promised…
We live in a land of fractured families, poisoned personal relationships, unfulfilling work, corporate scandals, fragile self-esteem and social distrust. In the land that invented the talk show, we seem to have less and less to say to one another. In the land whose Constitution guarantees the ‘pursuit of happiness,’ we seem to be terribly unhappy.” (From “The Good Life” by Dr. Peter J. Gomes, Harper Collins Publishers, 2002, pages 1-3).
Well, that’s the downside. But Gomes goes on to lift up people of faith from the past and present who have focused their lives on spiritual things, including a growing number of students at Harvard whom Gomes describes this way:
“What has impressed me…about these young people…is not their intellectual ability…nor their boundless energy (both of which are abundantly evident)…but rather their moral curiosity, their desire to know and to be and to do good.” (Ibid, page 4)
And so, the rest of the book is about exactly that, not just for his students and parishioners at Harvard, but for all of us who are willing to learn and to listen to what the scriptures and our Christian tradition have to tell us about “The Good Life” which has been revealed once and for all through Jesus Christ.
And among the many texts from the Bible which Dr. Gomes suggests will lead us in the right direction, there are three in particular that caught my attention and the first is about sacrificial living and giving found in Matthew 19, Mark 10 and Luke 18. (Gomes, page 332)
You remember the story about the rich young man who comes to Jesus inquiring what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asks him if he knows the commandments and he says that he does and that he keeps them. So Jesus looks him in the eye and tells him to sell all that he has, give everything to the poor and to come follow Him. And in each of the gospels, the story concludes with these words: When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Now that story does not mean that every one of us should give up everything that we have, take the vows of poverty and join a monastery. Some Christians have chosen to do that and we can admire them for their commitment and dedication. But for most of us, this story provides a clear and compelling indication that a deeper degree of sacrificial living and giving is required if we want to follow Jesus Christ and discover the good life He offers to us.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, described it this way: “Make all you can, save all you can and then give all you can away.” That is exactly what Jesus meant when He spoke those words long ago which we can still hear echoing, echoing, echoing in our hearts and minds today: To those whom much is given, of them will much more be required (Luke 12:48)… which means that sacrificial living and giving are essential to finding the good life in Jesus Christ.
The second biblical text which Peter Gomes lifts us in his book is from Micah 6, verse 8: The Lord has shown you what is good, and what does He require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God (Gomes, pages 64-67)
That verse, which encompasses the responsibilities of the good life, has been an ongoing theme in this church for the past three years, and it is all about service to others.
The late and not so great restaurateur from New York City named Billy Rose once said, “Never invest in anyone or anything that eats or needs to be repaired.” Well, Billy Rose was dead wrong. “Service to others,” says Marian Wright Edelman, “is the rent we pay for simply being alive on this earth,” and from the Christian perspective, it is another essential ingredient to living the good life.
There is a sign on the wall of one of the children’s homes in Calcutta which Mother Teresa and the Sisters of Charity helped to establish many years ago, and this is what it says:
“People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered – love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives – do good anyway.
Honesty and openness will make you vulnerable – be honest and open anyway.
People really need your help but may become dependent on you if you help them – help people anyway.
Give the world the best you’ve got and you might get kicked in the teeth – give the world the best you’ve got anyway.”
(From the book “Mother Teresa: A Simple Faith,” Ballentine
Books, New York, 1995, page 185)
Two Sundays ago, we asked all of you in this congregation to promise to put your faith into action by coming forward in the worship service and dedicating your volunteer pledge cards to the glory of God. More than 220 of you walked down the aisles and left your cards on the communion table, and we are still receiving cards in the mail – which is a sign of your commitment to the ministry and mission of Jesus Christ in this church, all across our city, throughout the nation and extending to the rest of the world.
That is what the prophet Micah challenged the people to do in the 8th century B.C. – to discover the good life through service to others – and that same prophecy of doing justice, loving kindness and living in humility is still coming true today at the corner of 16th and Peachtree, right here in the heart of this city.
CONCLUSION
How do we as Christians describe and define the good life? Peter Gomes helps us realize that the good life consists of sacrificial living and giving, service to others and then he points us toward one last dimension of the good life, which is the most important thing of all. It’s called salvation through our relationship with Jesus Christ and the text which takes us there is found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, chapter 5: For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery…For the works of the flesh will not allow us to inherit the kingdom of God…But the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – those fruits, which come from Jesus Christ, will lead us toward the good life, here on earth and forever in heaven. (Paraphrase of Galatians 5:1, 16-26)
My friends: we live in a world that is shot through with sin, where the powers of darkness threaten to do us in. All across this planet today, there are wars and rumors of wars. We pray to God there will never be any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons released but even so there is enough fear in the air to paralyze us. But through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we have been set free to take hold of the hope which has been promised to us and to claim Jesus’ promise of abundant life here and now and forevermore in heaven. That is the greatest promise of all, a promise which was envisioned by St. Francis of Assisi when he wrote the words to a familiar prayer with which I close this sermon. God knows we need to hear these words especially now. Let us bow our heads in prayer:
O Lord, our Christ, make us instruments of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is discord, union,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying, that we are born to eternal life.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
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