How Do You Measure Your Life?

A Sermon by Rev. Mark R. Thomson

Harundale Presbyterian Church

September 21, 2003

25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Scripture: Mark 9:30-37, James 3:13-4:3, 4:7-8a

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.^{^[1]} Amen.

ow do you measure your life?

What ruler do you use?

There are different scales by which we can measure things. For instance, there are centimeters, or there are inches. Which ruler we use will measure the same thing, but come up with very different values.

It seems the community Mark was writing to was struggling with the question of what it meant to call a man who was arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified, “Lord” and “King.” The world's ruler measured the crucified as "loser", not "King". It is as the apostle Paul called it, “The scandal of the cross” which seems foolishness to the wise of the world.

In last weeks reading, Jesus had taken his disciples far away to the north, to Caesarea Philippi, away from anyone who would know them or be even aware of Jesus, and posed the question, "Who do people say that I am?" "You are the Christ!" Peter exclaimed with enthusiasm. Jesus then explains for the first time that the Christ must suffer and will be crucified and on the third day rise. Peter rebukes Jesus – the Messiah can't suffer, the Messiah came to save us, not die for us! Peter is then soundly rebuked for his misunderstanding, "Get me behind thee Satan!" That hurt.

It is in the midst of the passion predictions, the predictions of his death, that Jesus’ disciples display their thickest skulls . It just doesn’t make sense: we follow a crucified God.

It is now after the Transfiguration, where Jesus took Peter, James, and John onto the mountaintop and they saw him dazzling white talking with Moses and Elijah. They are on the way back to their home base in Capernaum, a beautiful town on the shores of the Galilee.

n the road the disciples are not sure how to deal with this man whom they follow, the one they call the Christ, and the one who has predicted his own death. I can imagine the conversation:

“I don’t know what he means talking about death”

“Yeah, I know, it doesn’t make sense. He’s going to be king.”

“Yeah, . . .king. Who do you think will sit at his right hand?”

“It’s gotta be Peter.”

“Do ya think. I don’t know, he didn’t seem too happy with him - that whole get thee behind me Satan thing was kind-a rough.”

“I wonder if we all won’t rule with him. He did select twelve of us. We must have a special place in his kingdom.”

“Why don’t you ask him?”

“I’m not going to ask him. You ask him?”

“No way.”

The disciples wanted to be great. They were measuring themselves by the world's ruler. The write of James saw this kind of selfish-ambition as the root of many evils in the world. Jesus has a different kind of ruler to measure greatness.

“What were you discussing among yourselves on the way?” he asks them. They look around like embarrassed school children caught in the act. Jesus doesn’t wait for a response. Jesus preaches a simple sermon in both word and act. He tells the disciples, "If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."

And then, he takes a child into his arms.

Children had no status in middle-eastern cultures. They ate last. They were the bottom rung of the ladder. They had no prestige, no value really, until they were old enough to work. An orphaned child, had no means of support and was seen as a street-rat (to use a term from the movie Aladdin).

He takes one of these in his arms, a dusty, barefoot child of little means and simply says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

ow do you measure “Greatness” in the Kingdom of God?

The question is what ruler do we use to measure true greatness. By what standard to we consider people great.

God knows that life has many rulers by which we are measured, and by which we measure our selves. Some of those rulers are good - like doing well in school. Some rulers are less helpful, with a scale set so wide that none of us can live up to its standard. Usually those are the rulers we put on ourselves.

Society has rulers by which it measures success:

There’s the power ruler. How many people do we control, or have power over. Whether it be at work, or at home, or in church, people who have a lot of power are often thought to be great. Kings, princes, Presidents, CEO’s, managers, elders. . . But this means little in the Kingdom of God when we stand before the all-powerful God of creation. True greatness doesn’t depend on how much power we have.

There’s the money ruler, where most of us sit pretty low compared to the richest man in American, Bill Gates - 46 years old and he is worth billions of dollars. In many ways, our culture values this ruler the most as a measure of greatness. Companies strive for higher and higher profit margins at the expense of employees. Our sports figures battle with on-another over who is the highest paid teaching our children that its your salary that matters, not what kind of person you are.

But money does not make one great in the kingdom of God. There are very wealthy Christians, and there are very poor Christians. But the size of your bank-account doesn’t make you great in the eyes of Christ.

There’s the popularity ruler. There is nothing wrong with being popular if you are true to yourself. Jesus was popular with some, and not with others. The danger of the popularity ruler is that sometimes we can be so desperate for attention, so desperate for someone else to think we are “cool”, that we are willing to compromise who we are to measure up to someone else’s definition of “cool”. Too often those compromises we make mean doing something we know is wrong so someone else will think we are “cool”: sex, drugs, alcohol, stupid stunts…. all in the name of being “cool”. Not cool.

Too often in life I see teenagers, and even adults who are willing to basically be controlled by others because they want their approval so badly. The hardest thing is to develop your own internal approval so it doesn’t matter what others think. You define cool by knowing who you are, and whose you are, and not letting some else do it for you.

True greatness isn’t based on how popular we are. Christ loves us for who we are, just as we are. The popularity ruler means nothing in the Kingdom of God, because we are all loved by God the same.

Charles Reed once said, “Not a day passes over this earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words, and suffer noble sorrows.”

hrist lays before us a new ruler to measure greatness. It is a ruler that turns every other ruler upside down. The last is first. Do you want to be Great? Then you must be the servant of all.

Think about it.

Is the truly Greatest Father the one who makes the most money for his family? No, the greatest father is the one who takes time with his kids, loves them, and sacrifices for them. The greatest father is a servant to his children.

Is the truly Greatest person at work the one who has power and bosses people around? No its the person who helps others, is willing to listen. Who here has a boss they remember fondly. I had a wonderful boss when I worked for the government. What a great guy. Too many bosses lord their power over their people. But not him. He really made all of us feel a part of the team, and the way he did that was to try and bring the best out of each of us. It wasn’t about him, it was about us. That’s being a servant.

When we think of people in the community who are truly great, what kind of people come to mind: People who give of their time to help, people who are there when we are in trouble, people who give readily of their resources, like tools and equipment, people who care enough to stop by and visit. This is being a servant of all.

Power, Money, Popularity – these measures of greatness mean nothing in the Kingdom of God. In fact, if we let ourselves become distracted by them, we may put stumbling blocks in front of our faith.

If we measure greatness by money, we may not give of it when the poor are in need.

If we measure greatness by our power, we may miss what Christ is calling us to do, all to protect our power and prestige. It’s my way or the highway, instead of Christ’s way.

If we measure greatness by popularity, we may do things that we know are wrong just to be popular.

The true measure of greatness is how much we are a servant to others. Those other measures are about how much we have: how much popularity, how much money, how much power. Christ measures greatness by how much we give of ourselves to others.

eorge Barna who leads a religious research group was quoted in Presbyterian Headline News saying:

Americans continue to struggle with the teachings of their faith and the desire to lead a comfortable, low-stress life, and with the question of whether these ideals are mutually compatible.^{^[2]}

James posed the same dilemma for his readers when he said that friendship with the world is enmity with God. James uses the expression "world" to refer to those values of human society that are hostile to God.^{^[3]}

We are so tempted by the world's "rulers", especially for those of us who by the world's standards come out looking pretty good. We like that feeling of "measuring up". Those who are lacking by the world's standards find themselves jealous. James sees this as the root of a lot of conflict.

God knows that the world's rulers that measure our success cause problems and strife among humanity. For those who measure up well by the world's standards, Christ's message of self-sacrifice and service is hard to hear. It may be easier to measure ourselves by the world's standards. That's why Barna says its such a struggle for Christians who hear the challenges of the faith, but also don't want to disrupt their comfort, or cause more stress.

s I conclude this sermon, what I don’t like is that it sounds a lot like work’s righteousness. God provides a ruler with which to measure our selves and when we measure ourselves we find ourselves wanting, so we have to try harder. Sound’s like work’s righteousness to me, and if we stop here, that’s all it is. What can I “do” to measure up? Yet the ultimate issue isn’t “what can I do if I don’t measure up?” You can do nothing?

But Christ is asking a much deeper question. James phrased it by saying, “friendship with the world is enmity with God.” The word “friendship” could also be translated as “love” (philos). The deeper question is, “Who do you love?” Because who you love determines a lot about how you act.

"What is the chief end of [humanity]? ...to glorify God and to enjoy [God] forever"^{^[4]}, so says the Shorter Catechism in our Book of Confessions.

If God loved us so much to send his only son, then how can we not respond in gratitude with a life pleasing to God. We love because God first loved us.^{^[5]} Christ lays down the ruler, the measure, that tells us how God understands success, but it is our love for God and others in response to God’s love for us leads us to greatness by Christ’s standard. Its not about “doing”, its about loving, that leads to “doing”.

How do you measure your life?

Be the greatest disciple! -- the most loving, the most sacrificing, the most forgiving. Be a servant of all. Love, because you are loved by God.

Measure yourself, not by the world's standards, but by Christ's. The last shall be first.

To him who loves us

and has freed us from our sins by his blood

and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father,

to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.

Amen.^{^[6]}

^{^[2]} Barna, George. Quoted from "Presbyterian Headline News". 2003, No. 15. Poll: active churchgoers more likely to express life satisfaction by Adelle M. Banks. Pg 4.

^{^[3]} Perkins, Pheme. 1995. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. First and Second Peter, James, and Jude. John Knox Press. Louisville, KY. Pg. 125.

^{^[4]} The Shorter Catechism. Book of Confessions. 7.001