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Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766
Sunday,
September 21, 2003
Sermon: "Envied Attention, or Nurturing Christian?"
Scripture: James 3:13-4:3
Reverend Larry Gerber
Imagine
that you could select a super power, what would you choose? Would you use your
power to make the world a better place?
A 25-year-old brunette rock star. A cigar-chomping octogenarian comedian; and
a sixtyish black man. Alanis Morissette, George Burns and Morgan Freeman. They've
all played God in the movies. Morissette didn't have any lines, but was God
in Kevin Smith's 1999 film Dogma. George Burns appeared to John Denver in a
plaid shirt and a golf cap in Oh, God! in the '70s. And more recently, in Bruce
Almighty!, Morgan Freeman as God gives Jim Carrey a chance to have Godlike powers
since Carrey was grumbling about God's on-the-job performance. So what would
you do if you were God for a week, or even a day? Or, if you couldn't be a full-blown
God with all of God's powers, which powers would you like to have? Suppose you
could have one of two super powers, the power of invisibility or the power of
flight, which power would you choose? Would you rather fly free in the sky like
Superman, or would you rather be able to turn invisible like the comic book
superhero Susan Richards, known as The Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four?
Whichever power you pick, you will be the only person in the whole world to
have that particular super power — and you can't choose both. It's one
or the other, or none at all. Now let's be clear: Invisibility means the power
to become transparent at will, including your clothing, but anything you may
pick up is visible. Flight means the power to fly at any altitude within the
earth's atmosphere at speeds up to 1,000 mph. You don't get invulnerability.
You don't get super strength. So which do you choose: flight or invisibility?
Now that you have your super power, what do you do with it? "How will you
handle the most powerful responsibility in the universe?" On NPR's program
This American Life, John Hodgman conducted an informal, unscientific survey
asking the question: Which is better? The power of flight, or the power of invisibility?
What he found surprised him. No matter which power people chose, they used it
in self-serving ways. Their plans weren't often flashy or heroic. In fact, they
were almost never heroic, nor even simply kind. Here's something that hardly
anyone ever mentioned in his interviews — "I will use my power to
fight crime." No one seemed to care about crime or justice. Nobody wanted
to work for peace — personal, local or worldwide. No one tried to be merciful,
or even just plain helpful. Hodgman wondered why no one wanted to take down
organized crime, bring hope to the hopeless, swear vengeance on the underworld.
If only a little bit. One typical respondent, who had chosen flight, commented,
"I don't think I'd want to spend a lot of my time using my power for good.
I mean, if I don't have super strength and I'm not invulnerable it would be
very dangerous. If you had to rescue somebody from a burning building you might
catch on fire. Just having the power of flight, I don't think it's necessarily
quite enough because you don't have the super strength. I'd still be weak when
I got there. I don't fight crime now." He finished with — "I'd
go to Paris, I suppose. I could be ‘Going to Paris Man.'" "Going
to Paris Man" is not a superhero. But his answer is telling. It might just
be a representative reaction of all of us, if we're honest. Right now we might
not have the heart, or the wisdom, to do good. Right now, we might, when possible,
use our super powers to orchestrate private gain for ourselves or wreak havoc
on others just for fun or vengeance. Nobody interviewed on This American Life
took responsibility for others less fortunate than themselves by using their
super powers for the common good. Helping the underdog, saving a drowning kitten,
beating up bad guys — nobody's interested. It turns out most people secretly,
or even openly, have oodles of selfishness. This isn't a surprise. It's the
wisdom of the world. The apostle James knows this about us — that we all
have a level of selfishness and a powerful set of human cravings. We may successfully
conceal our private jealousies, desires and envies from others, but these are,
as James points out, a devilish, destructive wisdom. Having super powers —
flight or invisibility — doesn't change our character. Actually, by using
our super powers we might unwittingly reveal our true character, and it might
not be so pretty. Hodgman found that his interviewees swiftly and straightforwardly
concocted schemes that they happily shared aloud with him. All relied on their
new super powers to acquire their personal desires. Typically this is how it
goes: People who turn invisible sneak into the movies, steal cashmere sweaters
at fine department stores, spy on their coworkers, stalk their exes, hang around
showers, eavesdrop on conversations about themselves or slip onto airplanes
for free rides. Almost everyone he spoke with called invisibility the sneaky
power. People who fly stop taking the bus; they give up their cars. They check
out the bar scene by flying in and around, hoping to gain attention and groupies
who'll want to get to "know" them — the flying guy — in
the biblical sense. They fly off to Paris, or Prague, or Rio. Flight may be
considered the super power of self-aggrandizement. Such desires as these —
stealing sweaters or looking for a one-nighter — are decidedly earthly,
and essentially and deeply unspiritual. Predominantly the interviewees are all
self-serving. Having obtained their personal super power they use it only for
themselves, only for their own good.
Of course there is no real person who has the ability to fly, unaided by some
machine, and there is no one who can make themselves invisible. But, if I had
the power to fly, or be invisible, what would I do with it? What would you do
with it? The superpower we need is divine wisdom, and it is available to every
one of us. James calls it wisdom from above. The Old Testament calls it Sophia;
the New Testament commonly calls it the Holy Spirit. In Proverbs, the "fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." In the Psalms it is meditation
on the law of God. In James, it is something for which we should ask of God
— who gives generously — to all — without finding fault (1:5).
It is also something that is "from above." This is true wisdom. It
is characterized by purity, peacefulness, "gentle, willing to yield, full
of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy" (3:17).
True wisdom yields a "harvest of righteousness." In other words, James
is arguing that you can talk all you want about being wise, smart, powerful,
but unless your life bears witness to good works, you're not too wise. In fact,
you're stupid. "Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good
life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom" (3:13). False
wisdom, he says, is something altogether different. It is characterized by "bitter
envy and selfish ambition." It is "earthly, unspiritual, devilish.
For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and
wickedness of every kind" (3:14-16). Moreover, false wisdom results in
conflicts, disputes and cravings in the Christbody (4:1). What to do? James
is never one to leave us without some practical advice. You want to be Me Almighty?
You want to be truly wise and powerful? Here's what you do: • Submit yourselves
to God. • Resist the devil. • Draw near to God. • Cleanse your
hands. • Purify your hearts. • Lament and mourn and weep. • Let
your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. • Humble
yourselves before the Lord. Unless our inner focus shifts from the earthly to
the spiritual we'll wreak greater havoc on ourselves and others. Without super
powers we're able to do sufficient damage: We brag, we covet, we murder, we're
hypocrites, we quarrel, and we create conflicts. With the gift of holy wisdom
we can, even in our weaknesses, learn to live lives of mercy, purity, peacefulness
and gentleness, which is exactly what James tell us God wants for us and from
us. And it's not just for one of us. It's a gift to all of us. All of us are
expected to be channels of spiritual wisdom for our own greater good and for
the good of those around us. All we have to do is ask. The beauty of God, is
that God is patient, loving, and kind. God does not "make us" do anything.
God offers. We respond.
What is your response? Do you covet attention for personal gain, in what you
do, or are you one who reaches out to others in a loving, and nurturing way?
If you could have the powers of the almighty, what would you do with them? What
are you doing with the strength, power, and wisdom that God has given you? Do
you have peace like a river? Are you near to the heart of God? Let us pray...........
`````````````````````````````````````````` Source: Hodgman, John. This American
Life: Super Powers, National Public Radio, thislife.org.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766