The title of
today’s sermon, you may have noticed, is “Life’s Greatest Task.” That’s actually the shortened version of the
title. The full, original title for
today’s sermon is, “Life’s Most Persistent and Urgent Question.”
However, I was
told by those in charge that this was too long.
I mentioned that it met the requirements of my seminary preaching
professor, that sermon titles be seven words or less.
Count them, I
said: “Life’s. Most. Persistent. And.
Urgent. Question.” That’s only six
words.
I was told it
would take up too much room in the bulletin, and that it would never fit on the
sign out front…
I know a preacher
who once preached a sermon titled, “How to Deal with the Guilt of Sexual
Failure for the Glory of Christ and His Global Cause.” Some of you are trying to count the number of
words on your fingers and are having difficulty, so I’ll tell you: it’s eighteen words. I don’t know how he ever got away with that.
Someone who
didn’t know better thought it was the title of an emo song.
Anyway, the real
title of today’s sermon is “Life’s Most Persistent and Urgent Question.” Some of you will recognize that I did not
come up with this phrase all on my own.
You’ve heard the phrase, “life’s most persistent and urgent question”
before. You recognize it as being part
of a quotation by Martin Luther King, Jr.; and possibly you even remember what is, according to the quote, life’s most
persistent and urgent question.
But just in case
you have forgotten, let me share with you the quote in its entirety: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question
is: What are you doing for others?”
We were not
created to live isolated, independent, or even self-sufficient lives. You’ve heard the phrase, “God helps those who
help themselves, and probably thought
it was from scripture.
It’s not. That’s Ben Franklin, not scripture.
The scriptural
version (if there was one) would be more like: “God helps those who help one
another.”
It is not good to
live or work only for yourself. Two are
better than one. If one falls, the other
can help lift that one up. (And don’t we
all fall down from time to time!)
A group is even
better; a community; a village. A
threefold cord is not quickly broken.
You’ve heard the
story of the rich man who lived only for himself. His land produced so many crops, he didn’t
know what to do with them all. Never
mind that, just beyond his field, there were rows of dwellings, and in each
dwelling was a family. Many in those
families worked hard in the fields owned by the rich man. They worked hard to make the rich man rich.
Each evening, in
each of those dwellings, a single piece of bread was broken – a single piece of bread – divided into
two; and then it was divided again; and a third time it was divided, until each
piece was not very big.
But even so, the
one doing the dividing, the breaking of the bread, gave thanks.
Meanwhile, the
rich man was trying to figure out what to do with all his grain. “I know!” he said. “I will tear down my barns and build bigger
barns! Then I can store all my grain,
and it will last for years and years; and I can eat, drink, and be merry for
the rest of my life.”
But life’s
greatest task isn’t to store up riches for yourself. Life’s most persistent and urgent question
isn’t, “What have you done for yourself?”
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for
others?”
An old Chinese
proverb shows the truth of this: If you
want happiness for an hour, take a nap; if you want happiness for a day, go
fishing; if you want happiness for a year,
inherit a fortune. If you want happiness
for a lifetime, help someone else.
There is a deep,
deep, very deep need in the human heart to live for someone else, to give of
oneself to another. This is what makes
life meaningful. This is what makes life
worthwhile: living for someone else.
And we know this,
deep down inside of us.
Why else would
anyone ever choose to become a mother?
A mother’s heart
belongs not to herself, but to her children.
Everything she does, she does for them.
When they cry, she is there for them.
When they rebel, her heart breaks for them. When they do well, her heart dances for
joy. She lives her life for someone
besides herself.
Now, we do hear,
all the time, admonitions to do just the opposite. Day in and day out, the message we hear from
society, from the media, from the world around us, is this: live
for yourself. Indulge. Build your mansion. Live your dream. It’s okay to be selfish, at least once in
awhile. Just take off, do your own
thing, leave everything else behind.
This is America, after all, where you are free to live your own life.
The rich man in
the parable would have done so well in 21st century America. Probably, he’d even be rewarded for the
choices he made in life with a big tax subsidy, making him even richer.
Do you know that
in Japan, the average CEO makes 11 times as much money as the average
worker? In Canada, the average CEO makes
20 times as much as the average worker.
In Mexico and Venezuela, the average CEO makes about 50 times as much as
the average worker.
In the United
States, the average CEO makes 475 times as much as the average worker.
The result is a huge
difference between the rich man’s mansion, and all those dwellings out beyond
his field.
Social scientists
know that getting everything you want does not lead to a “happily ever
after.” That is a myth. There have been studies which show,
consistently, that lottery winners are no happier over the long term than
anyone else; and no happier than they themselves were before winning the
lottery.
What social
scientists have discovered, though, is that the secrets to happiness are
gratitude, generosity, and genuine, caring relationships. Being thankful, and living with and for
others – that’s the key to a life of happiness.
Benedictine
sister Joan Chittister, in a new book on happiness, writes that “happiness
comes from discovering what the world needs that we can give it, from finding
our purpose in life and living up to it.”
Mothers know
this. Mothers give thanks for every little
blessing in their child’s life. Mothers
give themselves completely to their children, sacrificing their own desires for
their children’s sake.
It’s amazing,
really, that women still choose to become mothers in our modern society, seeing
as it requires so much sacrifice, so much giving of oneself to another. But they do.
And the only
reason I can think of is that deep down, they sense that their life will only
have meaning if they can live for someone else, love someone else, give to
someone else, devote one’s life to the nurture of someone else, and be there
for someone else; someone who needs them, some other person besides themselves.
They may not all
be able to verbalize this deep down feeling, this intuition. They may not even be consciously aware of
it. But it is there, and they know,
instinctively, that life is not worth living unless we’re living for someone
else.
It seems
appropriate to lift up mothers in this way on Mother’s Day, but you don’t have
to be a mother to live for someone else, to love, care for, or nurture someone
else, to do for others. I don’t want anyone to feel excluded because
they’ve never experienced parenthood.
There is a great need in our society for people who are willing to live
for others, to serve others, to do for others acts of kindness and love and
nurture. There is a great opportunity
for each and every one of us to answer life’s most persistent and urgent
question, and to find meaning and purpose in life.
In the church,
each and every one of us have a remarkable opportunity to care for one another,
and especially, to care for the children in our midst. One of the most remarkable things in the
church is that all of our children belong to all of us. They are all
our children.
This is good for
the children, to have a whole community of people who they know love and care
for them. And, this is good for all of
us, because it allows us to find deep and genuine happiness by giving of
ourselves to someone else, and living up to our life’s purpose.
Since it is Mother’s Day, I do not want to keep
you too long, but there is one more thing I’d like to
share with you…
It happens every
once in awhile: I get tired, and down,
and disillusioned with ministry. The
challenges are never-ending: it’s always
struggle to find enough money. Folks
would rather leave early to get a good spot at the beach than come to
church. Other churches, where things are
fancier and more high-tech, churches where things are more entertaining and
more exciting, draw some of our young people away, which wouldn’t be such a
problem except that too often the gospel they preach is based more on fear than
it is on love…
It happens every
once in awhile, when I think of these things, that I get really down. And I think to myself, wouldn’t it be nice to
do something else.
I spent one
summer in Indiana – the summer Ethan was born – painting apartments. The Chateau de Ville was a large, sprawling,
upscale apartment complex on the northeast side of Indianapolis. (As far as I know, it is still a large,
sprawling, upscale apartment complex on the northeast side of
Indianapolis.) And one work day was just
about enough time for me and a partner to put one coat of paint on the walls of
one unit.
When the day was
done, the job was done, and we could look at what we’d done and be satisfied in
a job well done, a job completed and finished.
Ministry is not
like that. Ministry is like swimming
upstream. Sometimes you’re able to push
hard and swim up a little ways, and sometimes the current pushes you back
downstream; the net result is that, most of the time, you’re working hard just
to stay in place.
It gets
tiring. Which is why it happens every
once in awhile that I get down and disillusioned with ministry.
But as I look
back at those times, I realize that they usually occur when I’m pondering what
I can get out of ministry, or what I can get out of the church. These episodes usually occur when I’m looking
to see what ministry can do for me, or what the church can do for me.
When I stop
focusing on what ministry or the church can do for me, and turn my focus on
what ministry – my ministry, our ministry – can do for others, and what
ministry is doing for others, and
what ministry has done for others…
then I am filled with a deep and abiding joy.
Then I recognize that there is, in fact, meaning in my life; purpose in
the work God has enabled me to do. And it
all becomes worthwhile, because I’m doing it for someone besides myself.
When I consider
what this church (of which I am a part) does for others, and how – by being
part of this church – God can use me to do things for others…; when I consider that…, instead of what this church can
do for me…, then my soul is lifted up. My strength is renewed. I am lifted up on eagles’ wings, and I can
keep swimming, keep running, without becoming weary.
And that’s how I
know that the question, “What are you doing for others?” really is life’s most
persistent and urgent question.
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