You Can Live Your Life to the Max - It's A Matter of Focusing On Others

A full life, an abundant life, "is measured not by longevity or wealth or honors or power."
No, a full life is measured by service, "by the degree to which we've helped others." 

When you purposely seek out ways of being of service for another,
not only does the other feel the benefit of your service,
but you reap great reward –  experiencing inner peace and joy and healing power and eternal life.

Leviticus 18:1-5,19:17-18
Luke 10:25-37

A lot of people are spending a lot of money and a lot of energy to try and sell us on various ideas of what the good life is, aren't they?

I remember when they promised the good life just by using the correct lard-substitute in your cooking –  don't you?
In fact, it seems that everyone bought in to that particular promise,
and we all used the phrase in our everyday lives: "Now you're cooking with Crisco."

And, the good life was tied to being paged in the lobby of a grand hotel in Havana, and smoking the right cigarette. Remember?
"Call for Philip Morris."

And then, there were the penguins.
Remember the penguins?
I think I was an adult before I knew that penguins didn't coo.
They did on the radio and in the magazine ads. Remember, the male voice said: "Smoke" and the penguins said, "Cools." "Smoke Cools."

Then the good life got tied up with driving the right kind of car,
wearing the right kind of clothes,
hiding B.O.
and smelling certain kind of ways,
even using the right kind of shampoo.

I suppose it has always been this way.
There have always been snake oil salesmen of some kind –
able to make a living because some people are always looking for a way to alleviate their perceived predicament –
seeking the good life,
seeking relief from misery and pain and suffering.

Unfortunately for all of us consumers of snake oil, the alluring promises always turn out to be false. And so it has always been.
Remember Hadacol?
Hadacol promised relief from just about whatever ailed you.
And, of course you all remember why it was called Hadacol (Edith?): they had this stuff and were getting ready to bottle it to sell,
and they had t' call it something.

But, alas, the promises of Hadacol were false, weren't they?
As are all the promises of magic elixir that claim to fix things and make life better for you.

We've learned to be wary, haven't we?
And yet –  we continue to hope –
for a pill or something for a quick fix –
for prince charming,
or for an angel of mercy,
or for John Bersford Tipton,
or to win the lottery,
or for Ed McMahan to show up on your doorstep,
or for a miracle that could bring back the way things used to be,
or for a messiah to lead us into the land of the future.
And it is this hope that makes it easy for us to be suckered.
On the one hand we are wary and cynical about any promise,
and on the other hand we are gullible and an easy mark.

And so it was some two thousand years ago when a student of the scriptures came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life?"
We remember John said that Jesus came that we might live life more fully, abundantly, to the max.

So the question for each of us is, "What do you mean?"
"How?"
"What are we do to have an abundant life? –
to have a full life? –
to have eternal life?"

And Jesus was right to the point, "Well, what do the scriptures say?"
"What do the scriptures say you are to do in order to live life to the fullest,
and truly know abundant living, to have eternal life?

What does it say in the Holy book?
And how do you understand what it says?"

Well, the Bible scholar didn't have to think very hard, he knew,
"Right here in Deuteronomy, it says 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.'
And right here in Leviticus, it says, 'Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.'"

Jesus said, "That's right! That's it!
That's the secret to eternal life.
That's the secret to knowing how to really live an abundant life – a full life – a max life.
That's what you have to do."

And he went on to tell the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate that "loving your neighbors" means doing as the Samaritan did to whoever is hurting,
whoever is wounded,
whoever is in need of something we can give.

When coming upon the wounded, hurting, needy man alongside the road,
the Samaritan knew that there was absolutely nothing more important for him to do that day,
but to stop and care for the stranger.
And, Jesus said, the Samaritan –  not the Priest or the Levite – 
the Samaritan knew the meaning of living life to the fullest, abundantly, eternally.

Now listen closely, like the Bible Student, we've heard these words before, haven't we?
Many of you memorized these words long ago in Sunday School.
But, like the Bible Student, we are skeptical of the promise, aren't we?
Like the Bible Student, many of us would like to ask "How can we have eternal life?
How can we know more abundant living?
How can we live life to the fullest?" –
as if we didn't want to believe the words we know so well.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and all your mind. And love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.
Do unto others as you would them do unto you.

Some in this room may remember that I have talked about Greg Anderson before.
Greg Anderson is a cancer survivor.
Greg Anderson was given just 30 days to live after the discovery of metastatic lung cancer.
Some 16 years after this diagnosis, Greg Anderson published a book entitled:
The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness: Feel, Think, and Live Better Than You Ever Thought Possible.

One of the chapters of his book deals with today’s subject matter.
He writes that there are actual healing and therapeutic powers that can be tapped by living your life for others – by focusing on being of service to others.
It worked for him.
And he has seen it work for others.
There are practical – as well as philosophical or theological – benefits for focusing, as Jesus described, on the need of another.

He writes that we only really begin to come alive when we start caring for others –
when we start focusing our attention on another.
“There is magic in this law," he says.
"When we serve with depth and sincerity,
we get a glimpse of the essential quality of who we really can become." (169) [A glimpse of Eternal life. A glimpse of Abundant life.]

Everyone in this room knows how this works.
You are sitting alone, lost in self-doubt or mired in self-pity.
Your troubles seem to overwhelm you.
And the phone rings.
It's a friend who's really in need.
Without a conscious thought, you break out of your self-imposed shell of isolation.
You listen.
Perhaps you give words of assurance.
You serve.
When you put the phone down, who feels better?
The friend does, we hope.
But we do, too! don't we?
And when we reflect on what just happened,
we understand more clearly who we really are,
and what we have to offer others.

"The best way we can fulfill –  in fact, the only way of fulfilling –  our highest potential," Greg Anderson writes, "is through service to others."
[Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.]
He reminds us, that a full life, an abundant life, "is measured not by longevity or wealth or honors or power."
No, a full life is measured by service, "by the degree to which we've helped others."

Toward the end of his life, Benjamin Franklin wrote that he owed his happiness and success in life to the philosophy he formulated as a young man and with which he tried to guide his life: "The most acceptable service to God is doing good to man."

And, of course, we all know people who throughout their life showed great skill in accumulating riches and power, and who at the end of their life span, counted themselves as failures.

One author, writing about her search through many spiritual and philosophical writings searching for meaning and truth –  eternal life –  wrote: "It felt as though they led me up a huge flight of stairs to a giant cathedral inside my mind.
But once I reached the top of the stairs, the door to the church was locked."
Then, finally, she found the key that opened the door to the church –  to eternal life.
She writes, "The key, very simply, is other people." [A lot of people pay a lot of money to hear Marianne Williamson say these things in front of huge crowds in auditoriums all over the country.]
But that's it!
She speaks the truth!
It's what Greg Anderson calls the Law of Purpose Through Service.
It’s what Jesus calls the full life, the abundant life.
We find our purpose with others.
[Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.]

Our life takes on fuller dimensions, Greg Anderson writes, when “we make a habit of helping others,
so that the helping becomes for us a natural way of expressing compassion.
The law challenges us to live out life's greatest equation: in Emerson's words, 'You cannot sincerely help another without helping yourself.'"

He wants us to understand that it is a two way street: "We fulfill our purpose through serving the next person."
And the  reward?
He continues, "We enhance our own life through that service.
Note the order: first we serve, then we are enriched. It's a wonderful covenant."

"The law's promise compels us to choose to let our compassion for others come forth in a spontaneous manner because it is our deepest and best nature to do so."

There is a movement afoot, maybe you have read the bumper sticker, to "Practice Random Acts of Kindness".
Through the practice of spontaneous random acts of kindness every day we overcome meanness and cynicism and impersonalization and other demons we experience too much of in modern day living.

When you put a coin in the parking meter of someone you don't know.
When you pay the bridge toll of the person behind you.
When you place a neighbor's newspaper on the front porch so it won't get wet.
When you mow another's lawn, or shovel the snow from her walk.
When you give a coupon to a total stranger in the grocery store.
Or tickets to total strangers at the ballgame.
When you take soup [or pasta] to a shut-in.
Waking up in the morning asking "what can I do today for someone in need?
Making answer in the evening to the question, "what have I done today that's kind?"

Acts of kindness randomly expressed and practiced on a daily basis, are good for your soul.
And lead to what Greg Anderson calls "Wellness", what Jesus calls eternal life,
what John calls abundant life,
what I call a max life.

When you purposely seek out ways of being of service for another,
not only does the other feel the benefit of your service,
but you reap great reward –  experiencing inner peace and joy and healing power and eternal life.

We are reminded, what many of you here today already know, there are countless ways to serve.
I know some of our church spent countless hours over many years involved in Meals on Wheels (which actually was started in this church!).
There's the Needlework Guild –  one of the very first benevolence societies in this country!
There's Dorcas –  whose sole purpose is service for others –  and many of you know the joys that you receive when you come together to work to fulfill a need of someone you will never meet.
There's the Contact Telephone Line providing anonymous help for real hurting people.
You can visit a shut-in.
You can take a meal to a friend who is sick.
You can give someone flowers from your garden.
You can telephone someone and give them a lift.
You can send a card with a note of encouragement.
You can acknowledge a birthday –  anonymously?
The list goes on and on and on.
The possibilities are endless.

Deliberate service to others,
and random acts of kindness:
two ways to exercise a life for others, the Law of Purpose Through Service.

It is a powerful law.
It is a powerful principal.
It is a powerful promise.
You help another.
You help yourself.
You find meaning in life.
Your satisfaction soars.
You are happier.
You are healthier.
Your life is more fulfilling.
Your life is more abundant.
Your life is enriched.
You know eternal life.

Amen and amen!

The congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, heard this sermon during the regular worship service, Sunday, October 9, 2011. 

Getting Through Times of Trouble When There's No Money

Do you remember that song the Kingston Trio sang?
It began with the words: “These are the times that try men’s souls” –
they went on to sing about a guy who got stuck on the subway because he had no subway token to get use to get off.

Some may have thought that those were the times that try men’s souls,
but I believe that time has no comparison to today.
Truly, for so many folks, in so many walks of life, in so many ways, these are the times that try men’s souls.

It is during troubled times – such as these –
that some folks turn to their faith for strength to get them through.
And it is during troubled times – such as these –
that us preachers have a particular responsibility to search the sacred writings of our faith,
research specific issues,
and address the issues we face with messages of hope and help and comfort.

And it during troubled times – such as these –
that we have an opportunity to speak to folks outside our fold with messages that make sense and offer hope and help and comfort.

So, this is the background to this series of sermons
I am preparing on Getting Through Times of Trouble.

Today, I am trying to address Getting Through Times of Trouble When There’s No Money.

Next week, I will address Getting Through Times of Trouble When There’s No Work.

And, the following week I will address Getting Through Times of Trouble When There’s No One Who Cares.

We have to go back some 80 years to find a time when so many people face daily life with the reality of not enough – or no – money.

I dare say that this situation is not unique –
and that every single person in this room knows first hand –
or has family that knows –
the experience of getting through times when there is no money.

When you are living through times when there is no money it does little good to hear pundits expound why there is no money.
You know it when you lose your job – and it does little good to know that it is a condition
of our economy and that there are more people unemployed now than at any time in the past 50 years.

You know it when your house suddenly loses its value and you owe much more than you paid for it.

You know it when you receive foreclosure notice on the residence that you thought so secure just a few years ago.

You know it when costs of healthcare exceed your ability to pay.

You know it when decisions have to made between spending for medicine or spending for food.

You know it when credit is no longer available to you.

You know it when no matter how hard you work, not enough is brought home to pay the bills.

You know it when there is too much month left at the end of the money.

You know it when the truth former pro golfer, Doug Sanders, wrote about is not funny,
"I am working as hard as I can to get my life and my cash to run out at the same time.”
Then after some calculation, he concludes:
“If I can die right after lunch on Tuesday, everything [should] be fine."

Now, it may hard to believe, but our faith actually has a lot to say about this situation many of us find ourselves in.
In fact, our Bible has about 500 verses on prayer,
[about 500 verses on prayer]
but over 2,350 verses on how to handle money and possessions!
There are some 126 biblical principles on finances and material possessions in the New Testament alone.

One of the most poignant stories attributed to Jesus is the one we read a while ago from Luke.
We are told that as the crowds gathered by the thousands to hear and see Jesus, he gathered his disciples and told them a story about a certain farmer who had a particularly good year.
It was a boom time for the farmer.
He harvested record crops.
There was so much harvest he had no where to store it.
His barns weren’t large enough.
What to do? What to do?
For him the obvious thing was to tear his barns and replace them with bigger barns – barns large enough to hold all of his stuff.
With that done, the farmer thought he could rest on his laurels –
live off his investment the rest of his life –
enjoying the good life –
thanks to this record year for crop yields.

Sounds good, right?
We understand his thinking, don’t we?
That’s exactly what we do, isn’t it?

But, Jesus said that God called the farmer a fool.
Jesus said that God uses a different set of figures –
God uses a different calculus, a different math.
God said the farmer lacked faith.
Instead of working to fill his barn with stuff,
it would have better if he worked to grow his faith.
For in the end, it is one’s faith that enables and guarantees an abundant life.

Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot."

Life is much more important than food, and the body much more important than clothes.

The message for the farmer, the message for Jesus’ disciples, and the message for us today is: Cultivate your faith.
And the promise is: your life will be enhanced, fulfilled, abundant, even, when you fill your barn with faith.

You may recall a short story D.H. Lawrence wrote that he called “The Rocking-Horse Winner.”

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a haunting tale about a family living above its means.
The mother is considered by friends and neighbors to be the perfect mother,
in spite of the fact that deep down she knows she has difficulty loving her three children.
It’s important to the husband to keep up the pretense of success – the large house, staffed with servants – but they are living on the edge, just like many families today.
Listen as D. H. Lawrence describes this family’s life situation:

“And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: ‘There must be more money! There must be more money!’
The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it aloud.
They heard it at Christmas, when the expensive and splendid toys filled the nursery.
Behind the shining modern rocking-horse,
behind the smart doll’s house,
a voice would start whispering: ‘There must be more money! There must be more money!’
And the children would stop playing, to listen for a moment.
They would look into each other’s eyes, to see if they had all heard.
And each one saw in the eyes of the other two that they too had heard.
‘There must be more money! There must be more money!’

“It came whispering from the springs of the still-swaying rocking-horse,
and even the horse, bending his wooden, champing head, heard it.
The big doll, sitting so pink and smirking in her new pram, could hear it quite plainly, and seemed to be smirking all the more self-consciously because of it.
The foolish puppy, too, that took the place of the teddy-bear, he was looking so extraordinarily foolish for no other reason but that he heard the secret whisper all over the house: ‘There must be more money!’”


That’s the family backdrop to the story of “The Rocking-Horse Winner.”
Quite an extraordinary picture: “There must be more money! There must be more money!”

I am sure for many people in these troubled times, the same phrase haunts their lives:
“There must be more money!”
The situation is real.
The situation is overwhelming.
And we come to church and hear the words of Jesus:
Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.

Life is much more important than food, and the body much more important than clothes.

The message for the farmer, the message for Jesus’ disciples, and the message for us today is: Cultivate your faith.
And the promise is: your life will be enhanced, fulfilled, abundant, even, when you fill your barn with faith.

A church member came to his pastor’s study one day.
The man looked deeply troubled.
He said, “Pastor, I need to talk. I feel so empty, so dried up inside, I’m scared.”
His voice began to quiver just a bit.
He said “Pastor, I have just come from the doctor’s office, and he told me that I have only six months at best to live.
After I left the office, I realized that I have no spiritual resources, no inner strength to cope with this.
There is nothing to fall back on, to lean against. Many people would be surprised to hear me say that, for I have made lots of money, and people think I am a success not only at making money, but at being a strong, powerful person.”

He then fell quiet, and there was silence before he could go on.
Finally the man said,
“You know I’m poor in the things that count the most. I see it now.
I’ve put my faith in the wrong things,
and the truth is I am destitute, spiritually destitute.
I could pick up the phone and call any bank in the city and borrow any amount of money to do whatever I wanted to.
Just on my name, Reverend, just on my name!
Do you understand?
I could borrow it on my name only.”

The man then leaned forward and put his head in his hands, and said softly through tears, “I guess there are some things you can’t buy or borrow.”

This man’s material bank was full to overflowing, but his spiritual bank was empty.

Jesus said you can count on these things to happen.
We all will have times of trouble.
Every single one of us lives numbered days.
Not one of us can add a single day to our life by worrying about tomorrow.
But, each and every one us can cultivate a faith –
a faith that provides meaning and purpose to life –
a faith that makes living – even in troubled times –
an abundant experience.

Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.

Life is much more important than food, and the body much more important than clothes.

The stuff you have stored is not a reliable investment.
Stocks and bonds and cds and savings accounts are not reliable investments.
Seeking to work for the accumulation of stuff is a risky investment.

The message for the farmer,
the message for Jesus’ disciples,
and the message for us today is: Cultivate your faith.
And the promise is: your life will be enhanced, fulfilled, abundant, even, when you fill your barn with faith.

That’s what we do here at Christ Church.
You may not always articulate it this way, but that’s why you come here.
That’s what we are about.

Here in our worship and our activities we offer ways of cultivating your faith –
the cultivation of a faith that produces a harvest of abundance that always exceeds whatever space you try to put it in –
a faith that enables us to get through times of trouble – even when there’s no money.

Amen.

This a sermon the congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, heard on October 10, 2010.