“Living a Life that Matters”
by Bruce J. Johnson
March 3, 2002
When I logged onto my Internet server the other day, just prior to writing this sermon, the first thing I read was AOL’s ‘quote for the day’:
“The
world is a fine place and worth fighting for.”
There are times when I think that this type of sentiment is exactly
what Christian ministry is all about—laying our claim on the world and in some
ways, fighting for it. Maybe we don’t always think that the world is a fine
place, sometimes with just cause but it is always worth fighting for. And the
church and church folk have a significant role to play in that battle and the
issue of how we do it is an important one.
Every year, the Board of Stewardship asks me to do a stewardship
sermon. Every year I mention that
although stewardship always involves budget figures and pledge goals, I believe
that the numbers will take care of themselves. When the community of faith has
a clear vision of who they are as God’s people and are convinced about how
important they and their work are to the world, the money comes in!
Later this week, you all will receive a mailing from the board. The
projected budget is, at least for us, a big number--- just eleven dollars short
of $250,000. All the costs connected to our various ministries are there---
pastoral, music and mission, Christian education and youth groups, office,
housing and custodial and yes, even debt service on mortgage and sewer! Nothing
is particularly high, except what you pay the pastor, but when you add it all
up--- it is a challenge goal.
Our stewardship theme is “Let your light shine” and it draws its energy
from a quote I used in a sermon a few months ago: “You can’t be a
beacon if your life don’t shine.”
In this time of terror, this age of uncertainty, the world needs our
lives to shine. One way that happens is for the church to be present in the
world speaking its message of hope and responsibility and peace and present in
the world too showing off with its good works.
Interestingly, I was struck this week by the feature articles that
appeared in two of the major weekly magazines. US News and World Report had an
expose on 15 Presidents who have changed the world, but changed it by fighting
those who threatened it. The subtitle to the article was:
“How they fought America’s
enemies from the Barbary pirates to bin Laden.”
The other was Time Magazine that had a cover story about---of all
people--- Bono, the lead singer of the rock band U-2--- which sang at the
Olympics and has for 22 years maintained a relevance to world events. Bono is
featured as a man who wants to make a difference, using his fame in the service
of the causes that matter--- third world debt, poverty, the aids crisis and
world peace.
Both these articles had me thinking that there is something fundamental
about wanting to make a difference--- ‘to matter’ in this world and ‘to matter’
for this world. Most of us, of course, can only do so in small ways, how we
live each day and treat each person in our lives and I would maintain, what we
do through the inreach and outreach of the church whose ministries we support
with our commitment of time, talent and treasure.
One of the birthday presents I received last week was a copy of Rabbi
Harold Kushner’s latest book:
Living a Life That Matters
The opening paragraphs speak to a reality that most of us know so well.
He writes:
“Like many people, I live in
two worlds. Much of the time, I live in the world of work and commerce, eating,
working and paying my bills. It is a world that honors people for being
attractive and productive. It reveres winners and scorns losers, as reflected
in the treatment of devoted public officials who lose an election or in the
billboard displayed at the Atlanta Olympic Games a few years ago: “You don’t
win the silver medal, you lose the gold.”(How about that observation against
the backdrop of last week’s winter games in Salt Lake City, Utah!) As in most
contests, there are many more losers than winners, so most of the citizens of
that world spend a lot of time worrying that they don’t measure up.
But, fortunately there is
another world where, even before I entered it professionally, I have spent some
of my time. As a religiously committed person, I live in the world of faith,
the world of the spirit. Its heroes are models of compassion rather than
competition. In that world, you win through sacrifice and self- restraint. You
win by helping your neighbor and sharing with him rather than by finding his
weakness and defeating him. And in the world of the spirit, there are many more
winners than losers.” (pg. 3-4)
Kushner then goes on to make a point that others have made and will
continue to make--- something we learn about people and life from those who are
dying, namely,
“ the people who
had the most trouble with death were those who felt that they had never done
anything worthwhile in their lives, and if God would only give them another two
or three years, maybe they would finally get it right. It was not death that
frightened them; it was insignificance, the fear that they would die and leave
no mark on the world.” (pg. 6)
We all need to feel that we matter and that somehow --- through the way
we live our lives—we will make a difference and leave our mark on the world,
making it a better place, claiming it as ours!
In today’s lesson from the Gospel according to John we have one of the
longest stories in his gospel and one that can speak to us on a number of
different points. No piece of the message, though, is more important than the
message that puts through the shredder the set of rules that governed who was
important, who mattered--- in this case, a Samaritan woman. Women in general
were meant to be invisible and that Samaritan women in particular was not
worthy of acknowledgment. Jesus in fact was scandalous in his actions when he
says and shows that not only does the woman matter, but in her need, on so many
levels, she is worthy of the gift of life and life eternal. God is offering
here the fullness of life in unconventional ways to people who are facing
scarcity, suffering and exclusion from the community. And it is not just
coincidence that the first community to claim Jesus as Savior in John’s gospel
is a community of outsiders brought to Jesus by the witness of an unnamed woman. Such is the power of knowing that you
matter!
There, at Jacob’s well, she learns that she matters to Jesus and she
goes forth to make her mark on the world by bringing others to the one who
changed her life and made her feel like someone for the first time in her life. Indeed, she
wants others to know and rejoice in the one who gave her a new life, a new
sense of herself and a new confidence in her future!
That’s
what Christian worship and service are all about!
Christian ministry is all about what happens at the ‘Jacob’s Wells’ of
our lives where our two worlds face off with one another--- where two voices
speak --- one that has us worried about whether we measure up--- the other
saying clearly that we measure well!
It is all about feeling blessed and then going forth to make sure that
others get the opportunity to experience the same blessing.
It is all about being given your life and making sure that others live
too!
Ultimately, it is all about knowing that you are loved and then going
forth and being present in such a way that others know that they are loved too!
So—in and through our support for the ministries of our church may lour
life and lives shine so that the world may know that we intend make sure that
it is a fine place, worth fighting for, worth living for and indeed, worth
loving for!
AMEN