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Sunday August 8, 2010 "How Am I Doing?" Micah 6:8 and Luke 6:27-31 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 8/11/2010 8:12 AM | So, envision this: you are standing before God, having left this earthly life. How many of us wouldn’t want to know “How did I do?” It gets at the essence of our relationship with God: “Have I lived up to what you wanted, God? Was my worship, my praise, my life, pleasing to you?”
The first time I can remember thinking about this was about 14 years ago when, as part of my seminary education, I served as a chaplain at the Edgewood, a residence for folks who are homeless and HIV-positive. There I met a man named Johnny, about 30 years old, a gentle, quiet man who had a great talent for drawing. In fact, there is a pen and ink drawing by Johnny displayed in my office to this day. Johnny was at peace with his situation, and was what I would consider to be a fine, Christian man.
But Johnny had not always been that way. As we got to know each other, Johnny slowly shared his story with me. Born of a solid family, he veered away in his teens and early twenties, becoming involved with crime and drugs. The two fed off each other, the need for drugs and the need to steal to support his habit. He was, as he put it, a talented thief and a professional junkie.
One day, he realized that this was simply no way to live, and fell on his knees and asked for forgiveness from God. He turned his life around with the help of friends who helped him “take the cure” in a remote cabin in North Georgia. For an agonizing period, he was able to detoxify his system, and emerged, clean and ready to start again. He found some work, he was making real progress. And then came the diagnosis – he was HIV-positive. Soon, it turned into full blown AIDS.
When he talked about how that made him feel, he would laugh and say, “well, there are consequences to actions.” From the outside, it broke my heart that this man who had finally gotten it right had been handed this horrifying death sentence. But Johnny kept on going, never complaining, as his family and friends abandoned him. He kept the smile on his face and the bounce in his step and turned his attention to his art.
In Grady Hospital, on a gray day, it was clear that Johnny’s journey on earth was about to end. I sat with him as he talked about so many things. And then, he turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, “I did so many horrible things. I hurt so many people. I’ve tried to become a good person, But, did I do enough?”
And he wanted an answer, and he wanted it from me.
That was the day that I really started to think about how we live our lives and what a difference it makes. I started to think about my own yardstick for living my life.
If I asked the question, “How Am I Doing?” I need to have something to measure against.
The first thing I think of are the people who have been my role models through the years. For me, they have been my parents, a few teachers, some professional mentors. For the short time I knew him, Bill Travis was someone I knew was doing it right and someone I wanted to be like. But what is it about those people that made me think that if I lived up to their standards I would be doing things right?
What about you? Are there any people in your life who you use as yardsticks? Who are they? What do they have that you desire to have, too?
As I think about it, they are all people of faith. They are not perfect, but they seem to try their hardest to get things right. They are positive people. They are helpful people. They are people that would give you the shirt off their back, if they needed to. I want to be like them, but how did they get to be that way?
Well, let’s go back to the first thing I said about them: they were people of faith. As people of faith, they had to get guidance from somewhere? Where might that be? Well, probably our Holy Scriptures.
What about you? Are there scriptures that you can point to that help illuminate how you are to act?
What about the 10 Commandments? They’re found in Exodus…and I’ve asked Mike McLaughlin to read a paraphrase of those commandments.
1. You shall have no other Gods but me.
2. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy.
5. Respect your father and mother.
6. You must not kill.
7. You must not commit adultery.
8. You must not steal.
9. You must not give false evidence against your neighbour.
10. You must not be envious of your neighbour's goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbour.
Are these good guides? Of course they are, but do we really need to be told not to kill? To steal? To lie? As much as I think these are good guides, it strikes me that I know people who can follow these commandments but still are not people that I necessarily look up to.
Are there other texts?
Maybe when God spoke to our Hebrew ancestors there are formulas for us to follow: Go told Noah to build. God told Abraham to go where directed. God told Moses to lead. God told the many prophets to speak God’s truth.
It strikes me that these are all good things to do: build God’s kingdom, go to God’s people, lead God’s people, speak God’s truth. But here’s the problem: God spoke to them directly and lately, I haven’t heard any voices. If only God would simply whisper in our ears, this issue would be pretty well taken care of!
There is another Old Testament scripture that speaks volumes to me about how we are to follow God. It is Micah 6:6-8 and it gets directly at this question of how we are to best honor God with our lives. I have asked Ruth Dunker to read this scripture.
‘With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
I think we might be on to something here: justice, love, kindness, humility before God. These in fact, sum up the people I look up to. And it is something a little easier for me to understand because it requires an action on my part. DO justice, LOVE kindness, WALK humbly. It strikes me that this means there is more to “getting things right” than simply believing. Belief is where our faith begins, but action is required to make our faith grow.
Jesus spoke to this very directly. The 6th chapter of Luke includes what we know alternately as the “Sermon on the Plain” or the “Sermon on the Mount” to a gathering of people wishing to be healed. Beginning with the 27th verse, I have asked Terry Evans to read the words of Jesus.
‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
There it is again, that attention to action. Love, do, bless, pray, give…do to others as you would have them do to you.
But there is more. Beginning with verse 37, hear the words of Jesus:
‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’
Don’t judge…don’t condemn…give. It dawns on me that these are all good rules to follow, and included is a word that may be the most important of all: forgive.
As I go through the Bible seeking guidance as to how I should act, I am struck by how many times forgiveness is offered, by God, by Jesus. And here Jesus speaks of how to live and he says “Forgive as you have been forgiven…”
If we were perfect, we would not be wondering if we were living up to God’s requirements for us. If we were perfect, we would not need forgiveness. If we were perfect, we would be God. But we are not perfect, and God knows that. Add to that fact that God gives us free will and the ability to choose and it becomes abundantly clear that forgiveness is a necessary part of following God. Both in our forgiving, and in our being forgiven.
How then are we to live? By doing, loving, giving, praying, seeking justice, loving kindness, walking humbly, and knowing that when we do things that are not perfect, we have a chance to be forgiven, and to begin again. That is, I think God asks us to do, to love, to give, to pray, to work for justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly, to follow, to lead, to act…as best we can. And when our best is not good enough, we can go to God and confess our shortcomings and know that God will hear us. As long as we truly seek God’s way, and truly do our best.
As I sat with Johnny at Grady Hospital, trying to respond to his question, I heard my father’s voice saying what he said with every report card or grade report or every ball game I every played: “Did you do your best?”, he would ask. And if the answer was yes, then he was satisfied. If the answer was no, he wanted to know why not. And no matter what I said, there was no good answer to not doing my best.
Johnny asked me: “Did I do enough?” and I repeated my father’s words to him: “Did you do your best?” He thought about it and mouthed the word “Yes.” And the words came out of my mouth, as heartfelt as anything I have ever said: “You did good.”
He closed his eyes, sighed a big sigh, and fell asleep. Within the hour, Johnny was gone.
How are we doing? We must look to the people we emulate. We must look to the scriptures. Do as they do. Follow their instructions. Know that as long as we seek God, God will always be there. We must do our best to love, to spread kindness, to follow, to listen, to act, to lead, to walk humbly, to pray, to give, to do for others as we would have them do for us…and we must do it all in God’s name, to God’s glory and for God’s people. And when we do all that, I believe God’s answer to our question will be clear: “You did good.”
Amen and Amen.
Let us pray: Lord, we love you and want to do our best to honor you and glorify you name. Guide us, lead us, instruct us so that might be successful in serving you all our days. Amen. | | | Permalink | Trackback |
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