Use It Or Lose It

Matthew 16:24-26

August 2, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

The vision that you glorify in your Mind,

the Ideal that you enthrone in your Heart…

this you will build your Life by, this you will become.

James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

We will become those ideas and values we hold most dear to our hearts.

This is why the Apostle Paul spends the first eleven chapters of his letter to the church in Rome talking about theology. 

Over and over again, he hammers at the center of the Gospel.  “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us…” (5:8)

With majestic and intellectual language, Paul spends eleven chapters describing God’s unconditional and liberating love for each one of us and the world.  And then comes chapter 12.

Having said all these beautiful and profound words, he concludes, “Now do it!”

 

“…present your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God…

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed

by the renewal of your mind….

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us,

let us use them…”  (12:1-2,6)

It is not enough to be intellectually convinced of the power and beauty of the Good News in Jesus Christ.  It must also be lived.  And so the last five chapters of Paul’s letter describe what Gospel living looks like.

The vision that you glorify in your Mind,

the Ideal that you enthrone in Hearth...

this you will build your Life by, this you will become.   

It is a scary thought, really, when we consider the visions and ideals that predominate today.  You’ve seen these bumper stickers?

            “The More People I Meet, the More I Like My Dog”

            “The One with The Most Toys Wins”

            “Women Who Seek to be Equal to Men Lack Ambition”

Or how about these ads?

“Pepsi Makes You Come Alive”

“Be All That You Can Be; Join the Army”

“Life Just Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This”

One of the first things Paul insists about the Gospel is, “…do not be conformed to this world…”

Pressure to conform is great.  Look at our kids.  There is no written dress code for teenagers, but there are profound expectations that have adolescents wearing the same shoes, same hats, same blue jeans if they would fit into a certain social grouping.  It’s even more pronounced for adults.  We can identify one’s profession from their dress.

The danger of conforming to the values of the world is that we mix our faith in God with our secular expectations.  We equate America as God’s chosen people.  We think of God as a white middle-class male.  We assume that our material prosperity is a sure sign of our right religion.

This cultural assimilation is nothing new.  In Soest, Germany, is a 15^th century church with a stained glass window depicting the Last Supper.  On the table are pumpernickel bread, Westphalian ham and steins of beer.

Pressure to conform to the world around us is great.

The Kairos Prison ministry is a national program bringing spiritual renewal and support to prisoners.  Bonnie and I participated in Kairos throughout our seven years in Nevada, working with prisoners at the Medium Security Prison in Carson City.  The pressure to conform to the world of a prison can be a matter of life and death.

During our weekend workshops, it was necessary for the organizing team to have hundreds of dozens of fresh baked cookies in sandwich bags ready for the participating inmates to take back to the cells with them at the end of the day.  If they didn’t share some of the benefits they were experiencing during the weekend workshops with the rest of the inmates, they were often beaten up.  So the cookies were shared all around.

During one such weekend we witnessed a great faith.  Jerry was a leader in the Aryan Warriors, the white prison gang.  Jose was an officer in Nuestra Familia, one of the most feared Hispanic gangs.  They were both sent to the workshop to “check out” what was happening at the ministry as it was affecting members of their gangs.

By the end of the three days both men had sung songs, prayed, taken Holy Communion and sat in dialogue with outsiders who gently and openly shared their faith.  At the closing worship service Jose stood up and said, “My enemy has been in this same room all weekend”, pointing to Jerry.  “You outsiders have no idea that we are being watched.  Everyone in the prison knows that we are in this same room.   They are waiting to hear what we will do and say because we came here.  We can never be friends.  In the Yard we will not even speak.  But in here, in this room, this weekend, I have learned that he is my brother in Christ”.

And then both men, huge, strong and fierce embraced and hugged each other. They said “God bless you” to each other, knowing full well that by evening everyone in the prison would know that, even for a minute, these two warriors had broken the code of prison conformity in the spirit of Christ.

The issue may not be so dramatic for us comfortable, well educated, middle-class Christians.  We are surrounded by material comfort and powerful voices which seduce us not to rock the boat.  What would non-conformist Christians look like in Carmel?   It’s not easy being counter-cultural.   Paul knew this to be true for the people in Rome.  So he leaves them, and us, a list of what to do if they would follow Jesus…(Paul was great at lists…);

 

“Having gifts which differ according to grace, use them…

let love be genuine;

hold fast to what is good;

love one another with mutual affection;

outdo one another in showing honor;

rejoice in hope;

be patient in suffering; persevere in prayer;

contribute to the needs of the saints;

extend hospitality;

bless those who persecute you;

weep with those who weep;

live in harmony with one another;

do not be haughty;

live peaceably with all;

 if your enemies are hungry, feed them,

if they are thirsty, give them something to drink;

do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good…” (12:9-21)

 

 Now he doesn’t say, “Wait until you get the right thinking to do the Gospel”. He says do the right thing and your heart will follow.  Much like the behavioral psychologists of today, Paul would argue that we change our exterior behavior to influence our internal health.

If you act like you love your boss, your heart will follow.

When in times of marital stress and difficulty, when things have grown cold and distant, silent and resentful, change the pattern of your behavior.

If the romance is gone, remember what it was like when it was there.  Remember how you courted?  Flowers.  Dinner.  Dancing.  Attention?  Put the arguments aside for a while and break the pattern of your behavior.

If you act like you have a romance with your wife or husband, your heart will follow.

The same is true with God.

How many of us are missing something, spiritually.  The fire, passion and assurance of faith is just not there.  We go to church twice a year.  We don’t pray or read the scripture regularly.  We give little to our church of time, talent and money.   Then we wonder why we don’t feel anything for God?!

In every other endeavor in life we fully understand that the more we invest ourselves, the more we will receive in return.  Why is it that we don’t apply that same truth to our faith?

Consider Paul’s lists; act mercifully, love, lavish affection, outdo one another giving honor, rejoice, pray, practice hospitality.

Act like you love God and your heart will follow.

Medical doctors will tell us today that if we don’t exercise our muscles or our minds, we will gradually lose our faculties.  This is especially true as we age.  They have the phrase, “Use it or lose it!”

It may also be true for our spiritual life as well.

In our gospel lesson Jesus is trying to explain to his disciples that to be Messiah he was to suffer and die on the cross.  They are having a hard time accepting this about their beloved Master and his call for them to follow his way by carrying their own crosses.  He says to them, in effect, “If you want to save your life, lose it…if you want to be full, empty yourself…if you want to be rich in the spirit, give yourself away…”

Put it this way:  Imagine that you had a “no carry over” bank account in which was deposited every day, $86,400 that you had to spend in that day or it would be lost.

Well, we’ve got 86,400 seconds of time each day which we will never have again.   There is no time to waste investing ourselves in the empty illusions of this world.  The one with the most toys doesn’t win a thing!  Acquiring material and professional success, social power and status can be used as tools for spiritual investment, certainly.  But if they cost us our marriages, children, physical health or souls, they are empty illusions indeed.

Counter-cultural, non-conformist Christians may dress and look just the same as everybody else, but their living will be defined by the gift of love, compassion and humility from their God. 

It’s a gift we are to use or lose.

Amen.