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Living Beyond ‘Immortality Symbols’ Spencer C. Lawrence, Church of the Cross, Hoffman Estates, IL, February 18, 2007 It is a normal human desire to go through this life and want to be remembered for something. We want our lives to last beyond us. Many people hope that they will make such a lasting contribution through their work that they will achieve a kind of immortality. Film maker Woody Allen, however, does not. He said: “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying.” While Allen has caught a glimpse of what we Christians believe immortality to be about, others try to find it in different ways. Ernest Becker wrote in Escape from Evil: Money gives power now – and, through accumulated property, land and interest, power in the future . . . The symbols of immortal power that money buys exist on the level of the invisible, and so crowd out their invisible competitor . . . No wonder economic equality is beyond the imagination of modern democratic man: the house, the car, the bank balance are his immortality symbols. David Goetz, author of Death by Suburb, wrote this about his son’s participation in the park district baseball league: An immortality symbol is not really about the thing. It’s not about baseball. It’s not really about my child. It’s about the glory that the thing bestows on me. I will be famous, finally . . . Successful children are the ultimate glory in today’s Park District and Travel Team culture. Children level the playing field. Whether from blue money or new money or no money, each child represents real potential for glory in the here and now. They are the ultimate extension of our selves . . . Parenting is hard work these days; perhaps it truly is, as the saying goes, today’s most competitive adult sport. Our children’s sports aren’t the only path to “glory.” So is their success in school or in the church. That’s not to say we can’t be glad our children are doing well. That’s normal. It’s when that pride becomes something we can’t live without. That if they don’t succeed or have a major set back in life, then we are somehow robbed of glory. As Becker notes, other things can become immortality symbols, too: money, the house, the position in the community, the position in the church, the car. And it can be any sort of car. When I was paddling around in my Nissan Sentra getting 36 to 38 miles to the gallon I felt morally and spiritually superior to those who drove gas guzzlers. Now that I drive a Nissan Altima – getting between 28 and 30 miles to the gallon, I feel superior to those who drive Sentras – the poor, miserable souls. I hope my next car will be a “hybrid.” Then I will feel superior to nearly everybody because I will be saving the environment and you won’t! The point is that almost anything can become an immortality symbol. Whatever we do that somehow sets us apart from the pack can become a way to make us think we are better than others, that we are making a lasting difference in life and they aren’t! Mark tells about a time a rich young man came to see Jesus. He actually ran up to him and knelt before him. The rich didn’t usually run anywhere; people waited for them to arrive. And they certainly didn’t kneel before people. But this young man, rich as he was, ran to Jesus and knelt before him. Why? Because he believed Jesus had something of utmost importance to say about eternal life, about immortality. He asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” This is an odd question in a way. It is self-contradictory. What do we do to inherit anything? Not much. Just be born into a family that has something to pass on. The young man was a little confused about the means, but he wasn’t confused about the goal. He wanted assurance that he would live forever in God’s presence. Jesus responded in good rabbinic fashion by asking him a question: “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God.” Then he went on to tell the young man to remember the commandments. It’s interesting here that Jesus didn’t mention the first four commandments – the ones that have to do with honoring God. He went straight to the final six – the ones that have to do with our relationships with other people: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor our father and mother.” (In Jesus’ day it was commonly understood that if you obeyed the last six then you were already obeying the first four.) After hearing Jesus rattle off the commandments, the young man said, “Teacher, I have kept all these things since my youth.” Jesus, looked at him and loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” The man was shocked when he heard this. And he walked away very sad. Now we don’t know what happened to this man. We do know that at this point in his life he wasn’t ready to part with his money or with his stuff. He longed for assurance that he would inherit eternal life, but he was unwilling to give up the symbols that gave him the aura of immortality in this life. Are you saying that we gain eternal life because of something we do? Is it the result of our good works? No, I am not saying that. The young man believed that he would inherit eternal life because of his deeds. Actually we inherit something because of a relationship we have with the person leaving the property. An inheritance is something we receive as a gift from the giver. So it is with eternal life. It comes as a gift from God when we entrust ourselves to God through Jesus Christ. An important way that we show that we have welcomed God’s gift in Christ is to begin to let go of the immortality symbols that we cling to. If God’s mercy comes as a gift then we demonstrate we understand that by living more generously ourselves. O.K. What difference then does this make in the way we live right now? With our children it could mean we can let go of some of the pressure to succeed. Of course, it’s important to do well in school. Nowadays that translates into scholarship money for college. But some things are just as important as very good grades – like making good friends. I know of one girl who was accepted into the gifted program of District 54. She was able to do the work, but found it a lonely experience. She eventually asked her parents if she could transfer back to the neighborhood school where her friends went. They agreed and she did fine. As far as I know she continues to do well. So it is with kids in sports. I never was a good baseball player. I painfully remember an inning in little league in which I made two errors, so I wanted Ben to do well in that sport. I practiced with him when he was young. I went to his games as he was growing up. When we came here I strongly encouraged him to get involved in high school. But he saw through it. He recognized that I was more concerned with myself – with being known as the dad of a good athlete – than I was concerned about him. There are times when we need to let our children simply be who they are and not worry about the glory or lack of it they are bringing to our lives. What about money? Is Jesus telling us to give up everything we have and give it to the poor? Francis of Assisi thought so. That’s what he did. So have many others down throughout history. But Jesus also met with Zacchaeus who had gained his wealth in a dishonorable way – he was a tax collector. Jesus didn’t demand anything of him, but gratefully accepted one-half of his wealth when he offered it to the poor. The point is that Jesus didn’t require all rich people to give up what they had – perhaps only those who attached great meaning to it, for whom their wealth had become a path to immortality. David Goetz suggests that one practical thing we can do is to make friends with people who don’t have obvious immortality symbols. One of the sad realities of church life in his community is that small group Bible studies are structured along income levels. People with a lot of money and large homes tend not to participate in Bible studies with those who have less money and smaller homes – and vice versa. I don’t know that that’s so much the case here, but the potential always exists. It’s something we can work against by reaching out to people who are different from us, by taking time to talk to folks who are not like us, by making friends with those who don’t seem to have much to give back to us. It’s likely that we’ll be surprised just how much they have to offer – maybe not in things but in the quality of their friendship. Goetz tells a story about an American couple who lived in Eastern Europe for several months while the husband finished his research for a Ph.D. in economics. The winters were long and hard. Springtime was even more difficult for the people because the supplies they had set aside in the fall were running low. One particularly unpleasant day a young woman and her father appeared at the front door of the America couple’s house. They held in their hands jars of canned tomatoes. They gave what little they had to these foreigners. When the Americans left to come home, they casually said to the girl and her dad that if they were ever in the States they should come by for a visit. Several years later the phone rang. Guess who it was? The young woman and a friend had come to visit. Not just to visit but to stay. They needed help to find a place to stay and begin working. The wife asked herself how she could help with all she had to do. But she remembered their many kindnesses when she and her husband were in their land. So through her church she helped them find an apartment. She also persuaded many of her friends to hire the women to clean their homes. Soon the two young women had a successful cleaning service. Eventually the husband and wife and their children moved to another state, but over the years they have kept in touch with the two women. They made friends with people who had few if any immortality symbols, and their lives were enriched in ways they hadn’t imagined. We have those opportunities, too. This past Friday some folks made food and took it to the PADS site at Prince of Peace. It was a chance to connect with people who have few immortality symbols. Nearly every day people walk into this church asking for help of one kind or another. Few of us have contact with them, but Ann does. They have come to know and trust her. She makes friends on our behalf. Many weeks of the past fifteen years we have welcomed neighborhood children into our church. We call it SonQuest. It’s an opportunity for our church to make friends with children and young people and some young adults who have little in the way of immortality symbols. One time Jesus was at a dinner party. He looked around and noticed that not only were the guests hurrying to get the best seats, they all were the host’s social equals. He had invited only his friends – people who had invited him over or whom he hoped would invite him over in the future. In response, Jesus said, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner party, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Talk about irony. We often think that having “successful” children, making a lot of money, owning great cars and wonderful homes or having really cool friends somehow give us a leg up on the immortality scale. Through them we think we can enjoy a little glory right now. Jesus says, to the contrary, that making friends with those who have no immortality symbols is what God rewards at the final resurrection. | |||||
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