October 15, 2006

Pentecost 19

There is a story told of the one-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Muhammad Ali, flying to one of his engagements. Ali’s name has never been synonymous with humility, and he often deserved his nickname, the “Louisville Lip.”  During the flight, the aircraft ran into foul weather, and some pretty heavy turbulence began to toss it about. The passengers were instructed to fasten their seatbelts immediately. Everyone complied but Ali. Noticing this, the flight attendant approached him and requested that he observe the captain’s order, only to hear Ali audaciously respond, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” The flight attendant did not miss a beat and replied, “Superman don’t need no airplane either.”

 Now there’s an ego, right?And he really got put in his place!  By the way, does that ego sound familiar?  I don’t need anyone’s help.  I don’t need anything to protect me.  I can handle myself.  Sound familiar?  That’s because you and I have an ego, too.  We don’t need help from others, do we?  Well, God also does a pretty good job of putting us in our place.  Our ego gets in the way of our relationship with Him.  God wants us to Let Go of that Ego!  And here’s how…

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.  Submit yourselves, then, to God.”  Submit yourselves to God.  Voluntarily place yourself under His authority.  To get rid of the ego that gets in the way of our relationship with God, we need to place ourselves under God, in his ranks, under his leadership and direction, under his will and word.  This means giving ourselves to Him completely, without hesitation or condition.  It means letting go of our ego, denying self, and taking our wills and desires and thoughts and words and actions and gifts and abilities, and placing all of it at the disposal of the Almighty God.  We must pledge allegiance to our great God so that we can fight under his banner.  That leaves no room for ego.

“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  Resist the devil.  This is the other side of the same coin.   You submit to God by resisting the devil and you resist the devil by submitting to God.  Satan is constantly trying to lead us into ego-centric, self-centered, and world-centered attitudes and activities.  He wants to subvert our allegiance to God.  Satan would like nothing better than to see us refuse to submit to God, throw off his lordship and claim it for ourselves.  Because then we would belong to him.  Resist this!  That means arming ourselves with the weapons God provides us!  His Word.  His righteousness.  His strength.  It means submitting to God, walking in his ranks, armed with his weapons, protected with his strength.  When you let him know you are part of that army, the devil will flee from you!  Here’s how we fight him…

Letting go of our ego and submitting to God in repentance.  1. “Wash your hands, you sinners.”  True repentance includes stopping doing what is wrong.  Improper lifestyles must change.  Our hands represent our deeds.  They must be cleansed by withdrawing them from evil deeds and from grasping for the world’s contaminating pleasures.  Our conduct must be clean.  Stop doing what you shouldn’t be doing!

2. “Purify your hearts, you double-minded.”  This is talking about inward renewal.  Our hearts become impure when we love the wrong things and give our allegiance to the wrong people.  We can’t have our affections divided between God and the world.  That is being double-minded.  Our heart is the place of our affections.  Jesus must be the Lord of our heart or we are being double-minded.

3. “Grieve, mourn, and wail.  Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.”  This is a call to repentance!  Not an outward show, but a sincere sorrow over sin.  Not just admitting we’ve sinned, but being sorry that we’ve sinned against and offended a holy God.  And have NO pride about them whatsoever.  The scornful laughter of fools who refuse to take sin seriously should have no place in our lives.  Friends, let’s never become casual about sin.

We can’t play games with the devil.  The only way we can win the war with worldliness is by “drawing near to God.”  God offers us love, trust, grace, forgiveness, openness, and all the other marks of a loving relationship.  And so He wants us to draw near to Him.  Distance separates us from God.  Our flirtation with the world estranged us.  It’s time to return to an intimate relationship with Him!  He won’t force his love on us.  He gives us an open invitation.

When you have humbled yourself before God, He promises He will lift you up.  This “lifting up” is God’s pardoning grace!  The Prodigal Son is typical of the arrogant ego that our verses warn us about today.  Remember him?  When he finally got tired of the pig food, he humbled himself.  No ego anymore.  He got up and went home.  He stopped pretending he could do it on his own.  He admitted failure.  His shame was now out in the open for all to see.  He had to swallow pride.  And be ready for the worst.  Because that is what he deserved.  He prepared his confession: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”  But what did the Father do?  He came running out!  He embraced and kissed him!  He cut off his confession: “Let’s celebrate!  Here is the family ring and robe!  You have always been part of this family!  No conditions attached!”  The father lifted him up.

And friends, in the same way, when you humble yourselves, your loving Father lifts you up.  He accepted the payment Jesus made for your sin.  Your guilt is gone in his eyes.  And He has credited you with the perfection Jesus lived out in your place.  He gives you credit for the fact that Jesus never put his ego first.  He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many!  He came to humble Himself, and God has lifted you up and given you the credit for that!  He has drawn you near to Him.  Forever.

So - because God has made us part of his family, we must act like it!  Friends, we have to deal with one another in love!  James tells us how we can do that with our words.

First of all, “Brothers, do not slander one another.”  A woman named Kathy was visiting her neighbour.  While she was there, 5-year-old Andrew pulled out his kindergarten class picture and began describing each classmate: “This is Robert; he hits everyone.  This is Stephen; he never listens to the teacher.  This is Mark; he chases us and is very noisy.”  Then, pointing to his own picture, Andrew commented, “And this is me; I’m just sitting here minding my own business.”  We have such a tendency to slander others, don’t we?

We might smile when a 5-year-old boy does it.  But are we any different?  Oh, we might be more sophisticated, but we’re just as destructive and every bit as sinful.  Why do we love to talk others down so much?  Why do we like to point out the faults of others?  Even people who are supposed to be our brothers and sisters!  You don’t think you do?  Just see how much temptation there will be today, maybe after the service, or later this afternoon, to complain about the faults of someone else!  Maybe even about someone at church.  Or about something that was done or said today.  But friends, let’s not do it.  Let’s stop talking down about others.  Let’s Let Go of Ego!  We are no better!  Nothing will be gained.  We won’t be better in anyone’s sight. 

Especially God’s.  Thank goodness God doesn’t sit around talking about our faults!  Can you imagine that conversation between Father, Son, and Spirit?  Would you like them to have a go at your faults?  I don’t think so!  And even though they could, they don’t!  Instead, they talk about how they see Jesus in you!  So friends, let’s let the people around us see Jesus in us too!  By speaking in love about our brothers and sisters in Christ, our family, friends, and neighbors.

Also, by not judging others.  For some reason, it is easier to jump to negative conclusions about people than it is to assume the best about them.  When we do this, we ascribe to them bad intentions and evil purposes that may not be true.  We also reveal something about ourselves, for the faults we see in others are actually reflections of our own.

Bishop Potter was sailing for Europe on an ocean liner.  When he got on board, he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him.  After going to see the accommodations, he came up to the purser’s desk and inquired if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship’s safe.  He explained that, ordinarily, he didn’t do this, but he had been to his cabin and met the man who was to occupy the other berth.  Judging from his appearance, he was afraid that he might not be a very trustworthy person.  The purser accepted the responsibility for the valuables and remarked, “It’s all right, Bishop, I’ll be very glad to take care of them for you.  The other man has already been up here and left his for the same reason!”

Do you ever fall into the habit of judging people?  Do you judge them because of outward appearances?  Do you judge them because of assumptions you make about them?  Assumptions you could be wrong about?  Do you judge people right here in church because you don’t think they are living the kind of life they should be?  Do you judge others for sins while you are trying to hide your own?  Do you look at other people and think to yourself, “They just aren’t honouring the Lord with their life.  They are nowhere near the level I am at. They are low down sinners!”  And then do you even verbalize these thoughts to other people?

See the danger in this?  When we judge others, not only are we showing lovelessness, we are also showing a lack of godly humility.  We are portraying an attitude which says we know better than God’s law and therefore better than God, the Giver of the Law!  We imagine that we can see inside the hearts of others.  We imagine we have a better understanding of what is acceptable.  Even though we don’t keep the law, we set ourselves up as a judge of the law!  We are, in our pride, trying to usurp God’s position and authority!  (Verses 11&12)  And that, my friends, is a Superman-sized ego!  Let’s let go of it.  Let’s share what God’s Word says with our straying brothers and sisters, but let’s let go of our ego when we do.  Let’s do it with a humility that says, “I know where you are at, brother, because I struggle myself.”  Let’s love our neighbour with humble submission.  The same way that our God loved us.

An older couple was driving down the road one afternoon.  She was leaning up against the door on her side.  He was driving.  They were eager to get where they were going, but were slowed down dramatically by a young couple, who were cuddling in the car in front of them – the young woman was almost sitting in his lap, and every now and then kissing him on the cheek.  Occasionally, he would turn and kiss her.  They were in no hurry.  Finding it impossible to pass the car, the older couple behind them struck up a conversation.  The woman looked across the seat at her husband, and then looked ahead to the young couple, and asked, “Why don’t we sit together like that anymore?”  Without a pause, he responded, “I haven’t moved.”

This story makes a point about our relationship with God.  The heart of our text, the heart of “Letting Go of Ego” is found in verse 8.  “Come near to God.”  Friends, let’s let go of our ego, our pride, our reliance on ourselves, our false humility, our better-than-thou attitude, and come near to God.  You know what?  He has always been there.  He is there, with arms wide open, a smile on his face, wanting to come near to you!  Wanting you to come near to Him.  Wanting to save you.  Waiting to lift you up.  Willing to overlook all your sins and pride and ego, because of Jesus.  Friends, let’s let go of our egos and let God lift us up in his arms!  Amen.

 

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