Matthew 10:39 (Briarwood, March 2013).
Good morning.
An open letter appeared in the New York Times
that send shock waves through the financial community.
A senior director
at the most prestigious
investment bank
in the world,
who advised
fund managers managing
almost $1 Trillion dollars,
was resigning.
In his open letter,
published for the world to see,
he explained why.
He said he had worked hard
to pursue his dream
of working at this bank.
Had grown up in South Africa,
become a Rhodes Scholar finalist,
went into business
and finally was
recruited from there
by this bank.
He moved to the U.S.
full of promise
and began work.
Was promoted several times,
and ended up,
as of March 14th of this year,
in charge of a major division
that covered Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
His letter is entitled, Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs.
Published in the New York Times;
It begins like this.
Today is my last day at Goldman Sachs.
After almost 12 years at the firm – first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London –
I believe I have worked here long enough to understand
the trajectory of its culture,
its people and its identity.
And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic
and destructive as I have ever seen it.
He goes on to say
how when he first started
at the firm,
the people who trained him
were most concerned
with integrity
and with the needs of their clients.
He says that now,
the most common question
he gets asked by his underlings
and by those he answers to,
is
not what would be best for my client
but how can I best make money from them.
He laments this culture at the firm.
So much so
that he can no longer be part of it.
When you read the letter,
it is almost as if
this man realizes
something deep
about life and living;
it is almost as if
this man realizes
that the company he works for is losing its soul;
and if he stays
he’ll be in danger of losing his.
—
Jesus asks Peter,
What shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?
Jesus asks Peter
because Peter puts Jesus
in danger
of losing his own.
Jesus lays it out for his disciples.
I must go through great suffering
and be rejected
and be killed
and after three days
rise again.
This is the path Jesus knows
he must take.
We usually know, don’t we,
the path we must take.
That’s not the hardest part.
The hardest part is following through.
Because on the way,
we always meet people
like Peter;
sometimes even inside of us.
Peter takes Jesus aside,
sets him straight.
—
But Jesus,
thank God for the example of Jesus,
Jesus will have none of it.
Calls Peter Satan.
And to get behind him.
Peter isn’t thinking of divine things
but human things.
And that is who Satan is.
The one who tries to get us to the look another way.
Not towards the path we know deep down is right.
The one who in doing so,
quite literally
endangers our souls;
because friends,
we know,
we know all to well,
that our souls are something we can
in a sense, “lose’.
—
Jesus teaches us how not to.
Our souls, Jesus says,
that which is the center of our life,
that which guides our will and desires,
that part of us which is God’s image within us,
the soul,
is only kept
when we give away our lives.
The soul,
the true human soul:
we only keep it
when give our lives away,
in following Jesus.
That is the aim.
That is the rocking chair test.
When we’re sitting in our rocking chairs,
with our grandchildren (or equivalents)
at our feet,
and we’re looking back on our lives,
to evaluate them,
isn’t the one thing we want
to be able to say for sure,
isn’t the one thing,
that the path we’ve followed
has strengthened our souls,
and not weakened them
to the point of being taken away.
The path we follow
when we follow Jesus
is the path of giving away;
this is true religion.
Because Jesus
is the Jesus
who gives away his own life.
Why do we have to tell ourselves
so many times:
it’s not in keeping things
that we gain a good life?
it’s not in accumulating
that we are faithful followers of Jesus,
but it’s in giving away.
—
And those are two different lives:
the life of gaining the whole world,
and the life of the soul.
The man who wrote
the letter to the New York Times:
that difference was opening
before him
like a chasm.
—
Jesus praises
the widow who
goes to the Temple
and gives not nearly as much money as the Pharisees,
why?
not because the Pharisees give more,
but because she gives everything she has.
—
Annie Dillard,
who won the Pulitzer prize for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,
writes,
“One of the few things
I know about writing is this:
spend it all,
shoot it,
play it,
lose it,
all,
right away,
every time.
Do not hoard what seems good for a later place…
give it all,
give it now.
The impulse to save something good for another place
for a better place later
is a signal to spend it now.
…
…Anything you do not give freely
and abundantly becomes lost to you.
You open the safe
and find ashes.”
—
There is a theme
in ancient stories
called wanderlust.
The young hero,
sets off from home,
to explore new horizons
and new places,
with the belief
that life’s truth
lies elsewhere;
he is looking for his soul.
In the classic story,
the hero wanders aimlessly
with no destination;
he is consumed with his
own desire to find himself.
It is only after fruitless searching,
that he returns home,
only to find
that is soul is there;
and not far away
and not found by looking for it.
Jesus said,
If any want to become my followers
let them deny themselves
take up their cross
and follow me.
For those who want to
save their life will lose it;
and those who lose their life
for my sake
and the sake of the gospel
will save it.
—
After the genius Michelangelo died,
someone found
in his studio
as piece of paper
on which he had written
a note to his apprentice Antonio,
in the handwriting of his old age;
the final advice from this wizened-old artist was this:
Draw, Antonio,
draw, Antonio,
draw
and do not waste time.
Those who save their life will lose it.
Those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Being a disciple of Jesus friends,
is about giving away to God,
everything
about God being our only aim.
And the only God we know
is the God made known in Jesus.
We don’t know another one.
God wasn’t hiding behind Jesus,
waiting to tell us more.
What we have of God
we have in Jesus.
If we want to know about God
and what it means to live,
we have to look at this Jesus.
This Jesus,
didn’t have seven mansions.
Didn’t have a fleet of camels.
Never wrote a book.
Didn’t really even have a home.
Except among friends.
This Jesus,
was persecuted by the state,
the focus of hate by established religion,
was tested,
mocked,
then crucified by occupying forces in his own country.
Died.
If we want to know about God,
this is who have.
The one who died.
Who gave everything.
—
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
in his book
The Cost of Discipleship says this:
When Jesus calls a man,
he bids him come and die.
Whoever loses their life, will find it.
Jesus doesn’t just call
part of us to follow.
But all of us.
Jesus doesn’t just want the excellent parts of our lives,
but the broken parts too.
To follow this Jesus,
is to give away all ourselves to God.
This is the God who suffered and died.
This is the God whose heart is broken
for suffering and death in our world,
and in us.
This is the God
who longs for the healing of the nations,
and for healing in us.
In our bodies.
In our souls.
—
A family once heard about healing
happening at Lourdes,
in France.
The place made famous
for its stories of people going there
and being healed.
It caught their attention
because their daughter had a
terminal illness affecting her heart.
So the family set off
from the United States.
A mother, a father and their daughter.
They made their way to Lourdes.
There was a man there
who had set up,
near the shrine,
said he was a faith-healer.
The parents were happy to find him,
and they lined up with the rest to speak with him,
with hope for their daughter.
When their turn came,
the three of them walked up,
and the man bent down
to speak to the daughter:
what healing are looking for today? he asked.
The daughter
sick herself,
answered the man,
well, I’m worried about my Dad,
he is shy;
and I’m afraid that sometimes
that makes him very lonely.
The man turned to the mother,
and said,
Well, what miracle do you want today?
The mother,
who had come all the way across the ocean
for her daughter to get well,
said,
Sir, I do want any.
I have one right here.
She is my daughter,
who is able to look so compassionately
and insightfully on her father;
whose heart more concerned with her Dad’s
than with hers.
—
We know
that we all want physical healing.
But it wasn’t the physical healing
that got Jesus impassioned in the Gospels,
as much as the spiritual.
Healing the paralytic man
was a breeze compared to
convincing him, and others,
his sins were forgiven.
Healing the man with the withered hand
was no problem
compared to convincing those who watched
that being legalistic harms life.
After today’s sermon,
there will be an opportunity
to come forward
to receive anointing with oil for healing.
For you.
Or for someone you love.
The Jesus we follow is concerned for us.
He wants us well, in body, mind and in spirit.
This oil of anointing for healing
is a moment
during Lent,
where we can turn to Christ once more
and offer him our lives,
and look to him for true wellness
for our bodies
and for our souls.
So followers of Jesus,
beloved by God,
in a moment,
come;
bring everything,
and give it away to God.
—
John Calvin,
a leader in the Reformations in Europe,
says this
in his handbook for Christian living:
“We are not our own;
therefore neither our reason nor our will
should predominate in our deliberations
or actions.
We are not our own;
therefore let us not propose it as our end,
to seek what may be expedient for us
according to the flesh.
We are not our own;
therefore let us, as far as possible,
forget ourselves
and all things that are ours.
On the contrary,
we are God’s;
to him, therefore
let us live and die.
We are God’s;
therefore let his wisdom and will
preside in all our actions.
We are God’s;
towards him, therefore,
as our only legitimate end,
let every part of our lives be directed.
And now may the peace of God
guard your hearts and minds,
in Christ Jesus.
Amen.