DIRTY HANDS Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World (2)

Readings: Psalm 62:5-12, Jonah 3:1-5, Mark 1:14-20, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on January 22nd 2011

A printable PDF copy can be found here

I was watching a football game. Actually it was what you call a soccer game. Manchester United playing Chelsea in the English Premier League. Whilst not a crucial game it was nevertheless an important one that could gain either side important points. A soccer game lasts 90 minutes, with time added called stoppage time at the end.

It was 91 minutes into the game, (that is already one minute into the two minutes of stoppage time). The score was one goal to each side. The Manchester goal keeper had the ball. Instead of staying in the goal-mouth, the usual procedure for a goal-keeper, he started kicking it up the field, gesturing at the rest of the team to move up, to get in shot of the goal.

With just a few seconds to go, he passed it to another player, who crossed the ball across the goal mouth, “Wham” one of the other players headed it into the back of the net. Victory to Man. United! A classic goal in the closing seconds of a tightly fought match.

Have you noticed though, that when a championship game of any sport draws near to a close, teams will take on some unusual tactics? Goal-Keepers come out of their areas. There will be crazy passes or plays that wouldn’t normally be tried. When time is short, the game plan can dramatically alter.

I want to continue on my theme of “Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World”, looking at Paul’s teaching in chapters six to nine of 1 Corinthians. In our passage this morning we have Paul recommending to the Corinthian Church that, as time was of the essence, they should examine the game plan of their spiritual lives. It was important for them to concentrate on what was really important, maybe even take unusual steps to see that they remained spiritually on the winning side.

As history was headed towards the final whistle, the coming of Jesus Christ had set in motion waves of change that could not be ignored. Things were not going to remain the same, particularly for those who embraced His message. In particular their relationship with Jesus Christ was going to affect the way they related to everything else in their lives. Enthroning Jesus Christ as Lord meant other things had to move over.

Our passage this morning is very much an exercise in perspective keeping. It calls us to look at our lives, with the knowledge that life can be very uncertain, and take stock as to what really matters.

I am reminded of conversations I’ve had with folk who have been victims of flood or fire. The things that were seen as being the greatest loss, where not necessarily items of material value, but things that had some personal worth attached to them. Photographs, letters, memories of people and places, things that could not be replaced.

In a similar way Paul sees the possibility of Christ’s return as energizing us towards thinking through where our commitments should lie. What are we investing our lives in? Things that outlast them, or things that won’t even last as long as them? What’s the bottom line? Is it relationships? Is it feeling good? Is it buying and selling and owning? What are the defining factors in our relationship to the world in which we live?

Paul seems to say, “Look, if tomorrow where the last day of history, how would you live your life today?” I’m sure I’m not the only guy here who can remember late night conversations as an adolescent along the lines of, “What would you do if you knew there was a nuclear bomb on its way from some foreign power and you only had a few hours left to live?”

I’ve heard some guys suggest that they would like to find the prettiest girl around, head for the nearest nuclear shelter and set about the business of seeing the world became repopulated as soon as possible. But of course I’m not allowed to say that sort of thing in church.

But you know what, I said it, and it fits right in with what Paul is saying. I’m not talking about the fact of adolescent desire clouding genuine understanding, but Paul is shouting at us “Get Real”. If your religion is just an escape, forget it. If you come along to church and want it to be totally unrelated to the real world in which you live your daily life; if your looking for something to sort out your spiritual life by providing neat, inoffensive solutions, then find another religion.

Get Real. Christianity is the religion of the Cross. Pain and punishment. Flesh and blood. Desire and Frustration. Crucifixion, Sweat and tears. Rolling Stones and empty tombs. Don’t confuse faith with fairy tales. Don’t settle for Disneyland faith and Hallmark spirituality. Don’t commit yourself to anything that is not reaching deeply into your daily world. Don’t put up with anything that does not deal with the actual life you live, the desires that shape your existence, and the thoughts that fill your mind.

There were those in Corinth who took it that Paul was preaching that 'Jesus was coming soon' and therefore they didn’t need to do much except hang around, say their prayers, read their bibles and “Woosh” any moment Jesus would whisk them away to happy clappy heaven. The last thing they wanted to do was get their hands dirty through involvement with the real world. ‘Just wait for the Lord to sort it all out. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have a care in the world. God will look after everything”

‘Get Real’ says Paul, because Christ has come, because time is of the essence, then you have to get your hands dirty. You have to throw yourself, body, soul and spirit, into sorting out what’s right and wrong for you, where your real commitments lie and how you will live in the light of those decisions.

He identifies for us a dilemma, a crisis that genuine Christian commitment will eventually lead us to. Namely, the pervasive human problem of competing goals and loyalties. We are called to relate to every indifferent matter in such a way as to neither overvalue it or to confuse it with what is most important.

Putting it simply, Paul gives instructions for being active disciples. Being a disciple, he tells us, is more important than anything else in life. It is more important than what we wear, what we own, how we feel, who we marry, what we get to do and don’t get to do, be it at home, at work, at school, wherever. To be a disciple is to take active steps to see that Jesus is enthroned as Lord over and above every other thing in your existence.

He speaks of particular things. “Those that have wives should act as though they had none” (verse 29). Now there’s a phrase that could be open to misinterpretation! In this same chapter Paul says a whole lot about honoring your relationships and how a husband needed to have his mind set on his wife. About how that sometimes meant that a married person couldn’t commit to everything a single person would be able to commit to. If you had a family, you had responsibilities.

Looking at it through that lens, Paul seems to be saying, “Treat your partners in marriage as though you only had a short time together”. If your partner wasn’t your partner, what sort of things would you be doing to convince them that you should be the special one in their lives? If today was the last day of your lives, what would you say to each other, how would you behave towards to each other?

Verse 30 “Those who mourn should act as though they were not mourning, those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing”. Plainly, it would be psychological suicide to repress every emotion of mourning or rejoicing. Again, I don’t think that’s what Paul is getting at. To me Paul is saying that we should not allow either mourning or rejoicing to be the framework through which we interpret everything else in our lives.

Our lives are full of experiences of loss and experiences of blessing. If, in the long term, we allow those experiences to become our focus, then they will shift our eyes away from Christ and cause to interpret our lives only on the basis of our emotional experiences. Mourning and expressing joy are important dimensions of life, but they are not the totality of human life. We must make room for them, but not build our lives upon such experiences.

Verse 30 continues “and those who buy, as though they did not possess”. Elsewhere the gospel plainly teaches that materialism is not a sound base upon which to build a spiritual life. Jesus told a parable about a ‘Rich Fool’, a man who works hard, stores up everything for a rainy day, only to find that, as Paul is warning the Corinthians, sometimes life is cut short. On his entry to heaven the man is told, “You fool, Now what are you going to do with all that wealth you accumulated for yourself?” How many times have you heard people say “You can’t take it with you”? Yet so much time is spent in acquisition. As Paul says, “What if there is no tomorrow? How is all that stuff going to help us?”

Finally, verse 31, he instructs “those who deal with the world (should act) as though they had no dealings with it”. So what Paul? We’re supposed to live our lives as though this world had no influence on us what ever? Isn’t it time you got real? Chances are Jesus isn’t coming tomorrow, you got that wrong! 2000 years and He hasn’t shown yet!

I can’t answer for Paul, but maybe he would direct us towards these words in Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 18 and verse 18 “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" It wasn’t Paul who said that, but Jesus. Nevertheless…if today were the closing seconds of the Game, how then would we live? We really don’t have all the time in the world. Knowing that is a fact that can help us value the time, and use the time that we do have, a whole lot more wisely.

There is time for sowing and a time for harvesting. In both cases we get our hands dirty. Christian discipleship involves actively seeking for our life to be under Christ’s Lordship in all areas. Our relationships. Our time. Our emotions. Our stuff. That world we walk though on a daily basis. Evaluating all of that isn’t easy. But, as Paul seems to suggest, what if tomorrow was our last? How would we invest our lives today? May God help us to answer such questions in a way that draws us deeper into God’s love.

AMEN!
Rev Adrian Pratt