2012-06-17 That's Weird: Christian Contradictions (Part 2)

2012-06-17 

That's Weird - Part 2

Save Your Life by Losing It

James McTyre

Lake Hills Presbyterian Church

Ephesians 1:17-23

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18 so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20 God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22 And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Luke 9:23-25

Then he said to them all, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. 25 What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?

I was going over the bulletin and something about this week's sermon title jumped out at me. Well, not the title, itself. The title is, "That's Weird: Christian Contradictions (Part 2)." Only a Presbyterian preacher would have a Title, a subtitle, and parentheses. Lord, have mercy on my soul. We talked last week about the first weird contradiction of faith, how, as a Christian, you have to be weak to be strong. If you're a Christian, It's OK to embrace your weakness. Because once you do, you realize that compared to God's strength and grace, your weakness is really pretty lame. 

So, I'm going over this week's bulletin and the - I guess it's the sub-subtitle - jumps out at me:  "Save Your Life By Losing It." And I realize, that could be taken a couple of ways.

It's Father's Day. And in the grand tradition of great fathers, like, Clark Griswold and Phil Dunfee, I can speak to dads (and moms, for that matter), who understand what it means to, "lose it."

Any of you who are parents. Any of you trying to take your kids on vacation, any of you trying to teach your kids some manners. Any of you ever just "lose it?" 

But apparently, it's not limited to parents.

Any of you ever try to get some information on the phone, any of you try to schedule an appointment, any of you ever call tech support and get re-routed to the same person who didn't listen to you the first time. Any of you ever just "lose it?" 

Any of you lovely, quiet, patient souls, any of you endure the frustrating thick-headedness of people you love, endure, endure, endure - sometimes for years - and then, one day they say one wrong thing at one critical fault line of a moment, and you just, absolutely "lose it?" 

It does get people's attention. You who are normally so reserved and repressed. You let loose a string of words, a stream of stuff you didn't even know you knew how to pronounce. Emotions, saliva, tears. Phone-slamming, foot-stomping, two year-old tantrum-twirling spew. 

That kind of "losing it" feels so cathartic, so cleansing. Anybody ever done that? In the past 24 hours? On your way to church?

The thing is, what we mean when we say we just "lost it," is pretty much the opposite of what Jesus meant when he said that to save your life you must lose it. When we, "lose it," it's pretty much stuffing the other person in a verbal or emotional body bag. When we "lose it," we feel like we've won. We feel like we've gained life by going a little berserk on the other person. That was not Jesus' policy. He never said, "Thou shalt just lose it every once in a while, because thou wilst feel so good." In fact, I really don't think Jesus cared all that much about how you "felt." For Jesus, it wasn't the psychological cleansing. It wasn't about holding feelings in, and it wasn't about letting feelings out. It wasn't about feelings. It was about life. Losing your life. 

"For those who want to save their life will lose it (meaning not self-control, but life itself), and those who lose their life for my sake will save it."

---

The people who originally read this gospel, back around 100AD, weren't worried about emotion control and lifestyle maintenance. They were worried about political control (that is, Roman oppression). They were worried about maintaining a life, with or without style. Being a Christian meant, literally, putting your life on the line. "Losing it" wasn't a psychological hangup. It was a physical hangup, as in, on a cross. When these second and third-generation Christians read, "those who lose their life for my sake," they didn't take it as metaphorical or spiritual. It meant, those who lose their lives, those who die. Period. Those who are put to death for being a follower of Jesus. The first Bible readers were scared. Luke meant to inspire courage in their blood. Courage in the face of real-life, physical, bodily harm.

I'm not big on a literal interpretation of the Bible. But I do believe that this is one case where Jesus said precisely what was meant. I think that, in this case, if we jump too fast to the psychological or the spiritual, we dishonor the blood of the saints and martyrs who kept the faith alive when being a Christian got you killed. We have a Bible because of their acts of resistance. We have a faith because of their acts of rebellion. Because of their courage. They gave their lives so that we might be the Body of Christ, here and now. They were our early Christian mothers and fathers. 

You probably don't think about this very much. But you're the legacy of those early disciples. You're the great-great-great-great-great-great grandsons and granddaughters in the family of faith. Some of their blood flows in your veins. When we break the bread, when we drink the cup, when we baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are the living descendants of those men and those women who literally, physically, lost their lives for Christ. Something of them is in you. Something of them lives on in you. Their faith is your inheritance.

In fact, scientists who study this sort of thing will tell you that it's more than spiritual DNA. Statistically speaking, genetically, we each carry about a billion of their molecules in our bodies. When we sing hymns like, "Faith of Our Fathers, Living Still," we're not lying. We're not just a legacy, we're their children. We can't lose that. Even if we wanted to.

---

So what do you want to do with that?

What new life are you going to give these Christian forefathers? What gain are you going to give their lives? What blessing are you going to say over their sacrifice?

And again, that's not something most of us think about. Church is so user-friendly these days. We complain if we don't have cushions. Or the rightful place of indentation that conforms to our positions. We're so lucky. We're so lucky that we have such wealth, such privilege, such power. In fact, sometimes we have so much of these that we feel entitled to just "lose it" every once in a while. Just because we can. Because it's only fair.

The life-carrying red blood cells of the saints run through your heart. You are people born of courage. You born of martyrs' bones. 

What are you going to do with that?

What new life are you going to give them?

If you have a life of faith, don't squander it. Don't squander your faith and your time, worrying about who's in and who's out, who's right and who's wrong, who's righteous enough and who's not. If you have a life of faith, don't waste it in religious squabbles that won't endure a generation.

If you have a life of faith, be what the Bible calls "a living sacrifice." 

If you have a life of faith, be an answer to the prayer we read earlier from the Apostle Paul. Paul wrote:

"I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 

"so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, 

"what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 

"and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 

"God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 

"far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, 

"and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.

"And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

---

Save your life by living to honor the saints who literally gave their lives so you could have faith.

Save their lives by living as the heirs of faith. Practice their courage. It's in you. You wouldn't be here today if it weren't. Be the body of Christ, together, for the world. And don't lose it. Don't let it be lost. For the sake of the saints. And for yours.

--

- James
@jamesmctyre3
865.268.9628