Saving and Losing

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on June 24, 2007 during our outdoor worship service, Barboursville City Park, Barboursville, WV, based on Luke 9:18-24

In 2006, the movie, End of the Spear, told the story of a group of missionaries who attempted to reach out to the Auca indians in Ecuador. Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Peter Fleming, and their pilot, Nate Saint made contact with the violent tribe and were initially encouraged by a friendly response. But on January 8, 1956, during an attempt to reach the tribe, a group of 10 Aucas killed the four men.

Elliot and his friends became instantly known worldwide as martyrs, and Life Magazine published a ten-page article on their mission and death. While I was attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, we went to church with one of my professors, Walter Liefeld. His wife, Olive was the widow of Peter Fleming. On several occasions, we heard her tell about the events of that tragic day.

These families are credited with sparking an interest in Christian missions among the youth of their time and are still considered an encouragement to Christian missionaries working throughout the world. After her husband's death, Elisabeth Elliot and other missionaries began working among the Auca (Huaorani) Indians, where they had a profound impact and won many converts. She later published two books, Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot and Through Gates of Splendor, which describe the life and death of her husband. In 2005, a documentary based on the story was released entitled Beyond the Gates of Splendor
Jim Elliot was a very single-minded individual. He was the kind of person who went to Wheaton College to prepare for the mission field, but didn’t do well in his studies because he thought that studying philosophy and other subjects took away from studying the Bible. His commitment to sharing the Gospel with the world was absolute – even more important than his own life. In his journal for October 28, 1949, he wrote the following sentence,

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Jim Elliot was someone who lived out Jesus’ words that “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” Luke 9: 24.

Today, I’d like us to ask ourselves the question, “What am I saving and what am I losing?”

Paul writes in his second letter to Timothy, “…”in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

He is describing people who are trying to ‘save’ their lives – trying to ‘go for all the gusto’ trying to die with the most toys. What they are actually doing, according to Jesus and Paul is simply dying. They are dead to God because they are practicing the presence of their own selves. They have no spiritual life because their only interest is themselves. As a result, they aren’t just content to eventually go to hell; they are actively creating it here on earth.

You probably know people like this. They’re no fun to be around. Their selfishness is like a black hole, sucking up everything that comes near it. The most graphic current example I can think of is – brace yourselves – Paris Hilton. Her life, as portrayed in the media is the icon of the self-seeking person, who becomes a pathetic embarrassment and a reproach to all associated with her.

Contrast her life of wanton pleasure-seeking with that of Jesus, who came into this world, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28). Although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant…humbling himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:6-8).

Paul uses the word ‘kenosis’ to describe how Jesus ‘emptied’ himself of his divine prerogatives in order to serve The Father in redeeming humanity. The result of this losing of his life was that “God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11).

Jesus lost his earthly life for us that He might inherit eternal glory.

…“for the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

This is the epitome of losing in order to save. This is what we should be emulating in our lives. If then, we wish to follow Christ, how can we do likewise?

Martyrdom:
Here’s a quote from an Orthodox website:

“The idea of martyrdom had a central place in the spiritual outlook of the early Christians. They saw their Church as founded upon blood - not only the blood of Christ but the blood of those 'other Christs', the martyrs. In later centuries when the Church became 'established' and no longer suffered persecution, the idea of martyrdom did not disappear, but it took other forms: the monastic life, for example, is often regarded by Greek writers as an equivalent to martyrdom. The same approach is found also in the west: take, for instance, a Celtic text - an Irish homily of the seventh century - which likens the ascetic life to the way of the martyr”:”Now there are three kinds of martyrdom which are accounted as a Cross to a man, white martyrdom, green martyrdom, and red martyrdom. White martyrdom consists in a man's abandoning everything he loves for God's sake ... (Green martyrdom consists in this, that by means of fasting and labour he frees himself from his evil desires, or suffers toil in penance and repentance. Red martyrdom consists in the endurance of a Cross or death for Christ's sake.'”
(Orthodox Christian Information website: http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/history1.aspx#The%20First%20Persecutions%20and%20Martyrs )

The Celts, whom we remember in our liturgy today were very keen to exercise this kind of martyrdom. Many “left behind the comforts and pleasures of ordinary human society to live hermits' lives on mountaintops or lonely islands. … There they studied Scripture and communed with God after the example of the anchorites in the Egyptian desert. Ireland could not duplicate the barren terrain of the Egyptian desert; thus, this green martyrdom gave way to the more social life of monasticism.

St. Columba became an example of a “White Martyr”. “Born in 521, a prince with a title to kingship, he chose to become a monk. By age 41 he had founded 41 monasteries. Because Columba was held responsible for the Battle of Cuil Dremmed in which 3,000 men died, he became an exile. As penance he set out to save the same number of people as died in the battle. Columba, with 12 relatives, founded a monastery on Iona off the coast of Scotland that became famous throughout Europe. Monks from Iona in turn set out for what they called a white martyrdom: "[H]enceforth all who followed Columcille's lead were called to the white martyrdom, they who sailed into the white sky of morning, into the unknown, never to return." (Wikipedia: “Martyrdom”).

All of which is fine and inspiring, but what about us today? How do we take up our cross and follow Jesus daily?

For many of us, the most compelling example is family life. As parents, we are constantly called upon to give up our own desires and put the needs of our children ahead of ours. I clearly remember the contrast between being able to go somewhere with Cindy and spend four or five carefree hours – and having to think of the needs of a newborn when we went somewhere. A simple trip to the mall to shop for clothes became an all-day bivouac requiring the mind of a military quarter-master to manage all the stuff we had to take with us! And then when more children came along …well, you know what I mean. Successful parenting demands that we deny ourselves and put others ahead of ourselves.

Then too, marriage requires the giving of oneself to the other person in order to be successful. I sometimes say, only half-jokingly – that “Marriage is God’s divinely ordained institution for Cross-bearing!” And let me quickly add that your spouse is not your cross! No! Rather, we encounter our own selfishness as we interact with our spouses, and we must constantly fight back the demand to have things the way that we want it when we want it. Again, it’s the contrast between being Christ-like - giving ourselves for the sake of the other - and grasping for self-fulfillment. One leads to life and the other death.

Very few of us are called to actually give up our lives in Red Martyrdom like Jim Elliot and his companions, but we are all called to live a life of self-denial, of white and green martyrdom – of giving up our own fondest desires – even when they are good, in order to serve our Lord more perfectly.

This is a basic pattern of the Christian life, and indeed in nature itself. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it cannot bear much fruit. (Jn. 12:24; I Cor 15:36). Unless you learn to die to your own selfish desires, you cannot please God. And pleasing Him is what it’s all about. It’s like a client of mine says, “If I miss Heaven, I miss everything”.

Friends, the way to follow Christ is to lay down your life for his sake. It’s a huge challenge to all who have dedicated our lives to Him. He demands everything of us but desires to give everything to us. If he demands death to ourselves, it’s only to replace it with His life, so that we may have that abundance that Jesus promises – good measure, tamped down and overflowing. (Jn. 10:10).

And if you’re out their trying to find a way to live a full life without Christ, I can only tell you that your efforts are in vain. Just as the Preacher says in Ecclesiates, “Vanity of Vanity, all is vanity.” (Eccl. 1:2). You can get all the toys you ever wanted and travel the world to your heart’s desire, but if you die without Christ, you’re just a dead person who left behind a passport and bunch of toys.

I invite you today to ‘cease striving”, to follow Jesus, to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and to make Christ the Lord of your life. If you do this you will live eternally and experience the joy of being reconciled with God.

Pray with me: “Jesus, I believe that you are the Messiah of God. I have tried to save my life and I’m losing it every day. Father, please forgive me my sins and save me from myself. Help me to give myself to you and to take up my cross and follow you daily. Make my life pleasing to you and give me the abundant life Jesus promised, for his sake, Amen.