One thing I value about being
here and at the seminary is that I have been able to form real relationships
with people older than me. I've learned a lot about life and what to expect as
I grow older, and hopefully wiser. One unfortunate truth I've found is that
many of the older men I know have struggled with the same problem. It's almost
expected now that when I meet an older man he deals with the same issue as all
the others that I know. You've probably heard of it. It's called 'high
cholesterol.' Now, I've also found out that the only cure for this seems to be
a good diet and exercise. Some of the older men I know have gone on either
vegan or nearly-vegan diets in order to help with the problem. Others have made
daily trips to the gym before or after work. If they do these things
consistently, they can still sneak in a treat now and again.
As Christians, I think we tend to
view our relationship with God in the same way we view diet and exercise. Being
“Christian” is like going on a spiritual health kick. These health kicks are
all a matter of substitution. For every bad food you eat, you make up for it
with either exercise or eating good food.
Every time we have spiritual junk
food, we try to offset it with some form of spiritual broccoli. You can ignore
that guy who is in need over there because you've been going to Bible study on
Wednesdays. You don't need to give your time at this outreach event because
you've been faithful in your tithes.
The thing is, our spiritual life
is not a diet. It's an entire changing of our anatomy. Our bodies reject the
things we used to eat. Our old habits now have a warning label on them; beware:
will induce vomiting. Going back to what we used to eat, in the spiritual
sense, is like trying to be satisfied by a bowl of wax fruit. It just won't
work.
The Christian life is not a
spiritual diet. It is continuously following God's call in our lives.
When God calls us, it means
making a decision. This decision has two parts.
First, it is a decision to step
forward into his call.
And second, it is a decision to
leave behind the life he is calling us from.
I want us to look at our
Scripture passage for today from 1 Kings. It reads that “Elijah passed by [Elisha] and cast his cloak upon him.”
When a
rabbi put his cloak around someone, he was calling that person to be his
disciple. Elisha would have known this. As Elijah passed him by, he had to make
the biggest decision of his life. And there wasn't a lot of time for him to
make it. Elijah was on the move, and Elisha probably had about a minute to
decide to follow him or not.
Sometimes,
when God calls us, we don't have the time to sit and think it out. We must be
ready to hear the call of God. When he calls, will you follow or will you
question? The work of the Kingdom is not for those with idle hands. It is
work. It's giving to those in need. It's showing kindness to those who might
hate you. It's encouraging those who are depressed. It's an active life to be a
member of the Kingdom of God. And God calls you to this activity.
In our
passage, Elisha was not being called to an easy life. Earlier in this very
chapter, Elijah had a death sentence called on him because of what he did in
the name of God. He was alone and hated by his own people. Elisha would surely
be called into this same life. Our decision to follow God when he calls isn't
always easy. But it's the most important decision of our lives.
God
will not call you to an easy life. If you want to be an imitator of Christ,
look at what he went through. He had no place to rest his head. He was
despised and beaten. He was constantly harassed by those around him. And he was
eventually crucified. I'm not saying everyone here will be crucified. I'm
pretty sure the Romans aren't doing that anymore. But how can we expect an easy
and comfortable life, when Christ himself had a life of hardship? If we call
ourselves Christians and imitators of Christ, how do our lives look in
comparison to his?
I am
not saying that we are all called to be prophets like Elisha. Elisha was no
less in God's favor plowing his field than as the prophet of Israel. But God
does have a calling on our lives. A calling which is to be wise with our
spending. To be kind to those around us. And to preach his Gospel to those who
do not know Jesus Christ. We will fall short of this calling. Even as the Holy
Spirit pushes us. We are still broken creatures. But God is merciful and he
continues to call us into his ministry. He has allowed us the honor to
participate in his plan for the salvation of the world. As you continue in your
faithfulness to God's call, he will continue to call you more to himself. To
the one who is trusted with little, will be trusted much.
Jesus
told a parable of three servants who were each trusted with a portion of their
master's wealth. Two of these servants traded the wealth in the market and made
a profit. The third buried his wealth in a field. He buried it because he was
afraid losing it would make the master angry. When the master asked each what
happened, the two showed their profit. But the third only gave back what was
given to him. The master entrusted more to the two and he had the third thrown
out.
Sometimes
our fear is that we will lose what has been entrusted to us. We will make
people hate Jesus because we misrepresent him. We will cause more harm than
good when we try to help a neighbor in need. But if we do not put ourselves out
there, what good are we doing? God is the one who is in control of all things.
We can trust that he will work through even our mistakes. How can we learn if
we are afraid to fail? You can't hit a home run if you're afraid of popping the
ball into the outfield and getting caught out. If God didn't want to risk
failure, he wouldn't have called us.
We must
remember whenever we go out to follow God, there is grace. We don't have three
strikes and outs. We have unlimited forgiveness and mercy. God is on your side.
He will be there to comfort you. If you're afraid of rejection, then remember that
even Jesus was rejected. If your worried about your flaws, remember that Jesus
called you to himself because of them. Because he knows you need help. He is
your strength. During one of my first times passing out flyers for a Christian
event in college, I felt God pushing me to talk to a certain student outside
the school library. I knew I should, but I was afraid of rejection. I ended up
not doing it, and beat myself up about it afterward. But, in the end, God did
not love me any less because of my failure. And that experience made me more
proactive in seeking others out for Jesus.
Look at
the Apostle Paul. The Lord spoke to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for
my power is made perfect in weakness.” So Paul boasts about his weakness
because the power of Christ comes out in our weakness. When you are weak, you
have the power of God on your side. We need this power because what we are
called to is great.
Like
Elisha, It could mean leaving behind everything you ever knew. It could mean
moving to another country. It could mean giving up the job or lifestyle you
once had, or always wanted to have. And it's not guaranteed to be better. It's
not guaranteed to be better because our hope is not only for this life. God's
call on us isn't to go on a spiritual diet. We can't just watch our carbs and
keep everything else relatively the same. We are changing the very foundation
of our lives. And you can't change a foundation without taking the whole
building down. If the life you have after God's call is the same as the life
you had before, there might be something wrong. We must examine our lives and
consider the ways our hands are still gripping on the world.
We are
afraid to let go because we know following Christ means losing our lives for
his sake. We may be forced to find our joy in suffering rather than pleasure.
We may be forced to endure poverty rather than abundance. We may find ourselves
with people unlike us who hate us rather than friends and family who love us.
Or worse, our friends and family may become enemies because of the Gospel we
preach. And in the seconds after Elijah placed his coat around him, Elisha had
these questions to answer. And like us, he probably didn't have an answer for
what may come. But, he did have faith. And he had the Lord to guide him. If the
God of all creation is behind your call, you have nothing to fear; not because
he won't let you suffer, but because your suffering will be glory, and honor,
and power. And that suffering will bring joy and eternal peace in his Kingdom.
Not
much time had passed when Elisha “left the oxen and ran after Elijah.” He knew
following God's call was greater than the life he had. He asked Elijah if he
could kiss his father and mother goodbye, and Elijah allowed him to go. What
happened next is unexpected. If you'll remember, Elisha was plowing with twelve
yoke of oxen. That means 24 individual oxen. This means Elisha had a good life
going for him. Having 24 oxen means he was doing pretty well for himself.
And
what did he do with these 24 oxen and the yokes they were tied to? The passage
tells us he “took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh
with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people.” He broke up the yokes,
made a fire, and boiled the meat of the oxen. That was his livelihood. That
field probably generated his whole income. And it was big enough to need twelve
yoke of oxen to plow it.
Jesus
says “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the
kingdom of God.” Jesus is responding to men who have heard the call of God but
still have life in this world tugging at them. Our duty to the world cannot
come before our duty to God. We cannot long for our past when God's call has
been placed on our hearts. You cannot go out to do the Lord's work with your head
turned to what you left behind. Elisha made sure that would not be an issue for
him.
This
isn't a spiritual diet. We can't stash the Oatmeal Cream Pies in the back of
the pantry as a treat. Our spiritual genetics have been changed. Those things
we used to live on are now death to us. The love of money is no longer a means
for success, but a means for damnation. Greed is no longer a way to preserve
your life, but to lose it. By keeping mementos of our old life around, we are
only presenting openings for the devil to attack. If you're a recovering
alcoholic, you don't keep a case of beer in the basement. If God has called you
to live simply and serve the poor, going to Sharper Image might be a hindrance.
We must rid ourselves of those things which might call us back into the world.
That is more than packing them away and stuffing them in a storage locker. It
means destroying them. Elisha took the pieces of his old life, sacrificed them
to God and then used them to feed his neighbors.
There
is a cost to discipleship. It means no longer living for self-indulgence but
for service of others. You are not your own. You are Christ's own. And your
life should be a reflection of that. Living for Christ means living in
sacrifice. His sacrifice redeems us. Living in his sacrifice cleanses us from
sin. And taking part in his sacrifice makes us holy people of God. Sacrifice of
ourselves on behalf of others is living in Christ-likeness. That means giving
out of what we have, even if we only have little.
Do you know what we have? At the
very least, what we all have is the message of Christ. We have him and him
crucified. And we have the Lord going with us to proclaim this message. Elisha
was called to be the prophet of Israel. We are all called into the priesthood
of believers. That means we should all be ministers of reconciliation between
others and God. Everyone in this
building has been called to this ministry. But it's not a ministry confined to
this building. We are to go out into the world. That means where you work. In
your neighborhood. Where you shop. Where you eat. And among everyone you know.
We are called to be ministers in those places. To bring Jesus Christ into every
corner of our lives.
God may not be calling you away
from your plow. But he is calling you to work the fields for Christ. How you do
your work and how you use your wealth is a testament to Christ in your life.
You can't substitute good for bad. God's judgment isn't done on a scale. Good
and evil cannot co-exist. Because sin isn't cholesterol. You don't balance your
sin out with good spiritual things. Sin is a cancer. It must be removed
completely or it will continue to spread. We can't have just a little. God is
calling us to change the way we live.
You are Christians. You are
called into Christ's sacrifice. If you are not living in that sacrifice, you
aren't fulfilling your call. And you don't have to start with something big.
God knows you. He knows where you stand. He will walk alongside you. You can
start small. Ask a neighbor to come to Bible study. Pay for the meal of a
homeless person. If you feel up to it, sit and eat with them. Limit the times
you purchase something for yourself each week. Little by little, God will work
with you. I can't go out and run a marathon tomorrow morning. But what I can do
is go for a jog around my block. I can work myself up. But it requires
consistent practice and progress. If I jog around my block and in a year I'm
doing the same thing, that isn't progress. Our goal is to make progress. And we
won't run out of ways to grow. Perfection is a pretty high calling. It's one I
think we'll all still be working on for awhile. Eventually, we may be trusted
with a big call. But if we trust in God, we will be ready when that call comes.
God is good. He is merciful. He'll help us get there.
