Sermon: April 6, 2008
(I wrote this last week, but I needed to revise so it's a bit "late" 
)
This is one of my favorite verses (James 4:1-12) because it packs so much into 4 paragraphs: there is a deep understanding of our human heart and its vices, there are exhortations to help lift us out of our sin, and there are practical steps to follow at the end.
One of the images from Jim's sermon that has stayed with me all day is his illustration of the treadmill and how as we get older it just keeps getting faster and faster and we have to do more to stay on it. I feel like the months and years just keep accelerating and time is like sifting sand through the proverbial hourglass. We all bemoan the rat race and the toll on our lives but we still participate in it. Why? I think part of the reason is that--for those who are parents at least--we know how hard it is to "make it" in this world, how onerous the stress of money can be and we instinctively want to save our children from that. So, while we realize Christianity is all about submission and humbleness, there is an innate fear that the World will trample on that and we will be edged out in the Darwinian struggle to make a living. While it is OK for us to experience this, we want to shield our children from that and to keep them "competitive" in this culture. Thus, the endless cycle continues generation after generation.
F. Scott Fitzgerald put it best in The Great Gatsby: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Like Gatsby we cannot move beyond the past. No matter how bad it really was, we still try to recreate for our children some aspects of our own childhood. But there is a struggle there, to transform these past "dreams" into reality. For the characters in Fitzgerald's novel...while they never lose their optimism, they expend all of their energy in pursuit of a goal that moves ever farther away. This apt metaphor characterizes both Gatsby’s struggle and the American dream itself.
One of my role models lately as been Hannah (in the Bible). She rejected the idols of family and wealth when she gave her son, Samuel, to the Lord. Back in those days, sons were the equivalent of a nice paying job, 401K, and social security all wrapped up in one. To just give that away to the ministry would seem foolish in this day and age. But she realized she was part of a larger vision and that God's plan is much more worthy than any plans that we can dream up for ourselves.
Living near NY we are bound to be influenced by its materialist culture and values. How do we as Christians live in the world but not OF it? How do we not compare, keep envy from consuming us, or let money come between friends and family? Jim also said today that having a nice job, a nice car, house, etc. is OK--as long as it doesn't define who you are or provide your sense of worth. But I think that for myself, at least, it's like any other addiction. We are addicted to sin from birth. Through Christianity we are healed. By surrounding ourselves with idols it's like a recovering drug addict keeping drugs around the house. It's so much easier to fall prey to that allure, the illusion that those idols provide. Guard your hearts, fellow brothers and sisters. We are all recovering sinaholics who need help and "reality checks" once in awhile. Even if we don't realize it.
Have a blessed week and feel free to post your comments/thoughts