Two Companions on the Journey of Life
Bill Barney
First United
September 21, 2008=
Matthew 20: 16 “The last will be first and =
the
first will be last”.
Over the =
years,
when I have come back from vacation I have been met with quite a variety of
expressions of welcome.
“It’s about time you got back”. “Don’t ever be gone th=
at
long again”. (That’s usually from someone who likes me.) And, of
course, there’s the rather unremarkable greeting “how are
you?” as though I had never been gone. Well, this year, the first per=
son
I met when I returned to the church said, “well, the country certainly
went to hell in a hand basket while you were gone.”
Even thou=
gh the
country was in pretty rough shape before I went on vacation, I must admit t=
hat
the events of those three weeks were somewhat hellish. First we had the
political conventions, where our country seems to do its best to demonstrat=
e to
the world how self absorbed we are.
The political campaigns have quickly deteriorated into endless choru=
ses
of what’s wrong with the other person. Then we greeted hurricanes Gus=
tav,
Hanna and Ike, where we watched thousands of people put their very lives in
peril as they stayed home to protect their material goods. And where does one begin to address=
the
incredible display of greed as we watched the empires of Wall Street take t=
he
plunge into calamities of their own making. Those were just in the headlines.
Underneath it all are millions of personal hellish stories affected by these
headline making events.
All in al=
l I
think we can safely say that many “Genies are out of their bottles=
221;
as the old expression goes. We’d love to put this and that Genie back,
but we are definitely faced with dealing with the Genie now. The conservative Pentecostal type
churches are eating this stuff up. They think this is all the prefect prelu=
de
to Jesus triumphant return to carrying the saved into paradise. While they =
are
holding their breath for this imminent happening, the rest of us are called=
to
come up for air, to do some deep breathing and face the future unafraid with
the wisdom filled guidance of reason supported by our experience, our tradi=
tion
and scripture, of course.
Is all of=
this
calamity stuff something new to the age in which we live? Of course not. Lo=
ok
at today’s readings from scripture.&=
nbsp;
The reading about the people of the “exodus” demonstrates
the fall of the stock market has been with us seemly forever. The wandering Israelites surely th=
ought
their stock had fallen when they left behind the bountiful harvest of
Linda,
a college freshman, was decidedly discontented with the young men who kept
trying to date her. After listening to her complaints about each one of the=
m,
her roommate offered to arrange a blind date. "Would you prefer a Sout=
hern
boy or a Northern boy?" she asked. "What's the difference?"
Linda inquired. Her roommate explained, "Southern boys are more romant=
ic.
They will take you walking in the moonlight and whisper sweet nothings in y=
our
ear. Northern boys are more active. They like to go places and do exciting
things." Linda pondered the contrast, then asked, "Could you plea=
se
find me a Southern boy from as far North as possible?"
We
often try to negotiate with life in like manner. We register discontent wit=
h even
a glimpse of the way divinely inspired Love works. It has been revealed to us in what
little we know about the person called Jesus. As far as possible, we want to put=
our
own "spin" on it, so to speak. And sooner or later we discover th=
at
we're going down a blind alley -- a way of life which magnifies our discont=
ent
in our search for wholeness of life.
For
some of us, the search for wholeness of life is an endless cycle of having =
to
go one better than our peers. For others of us, it becomes simply the busin=
ess
of being seen: our good looks, perhaps; or our clothes. We hatch all kinds =
of
self-promoting scenarios to try to find fulfillment but, sooner or later, we
are confronted with the truth: the promotion of self-interest only,
doesn’t work.
For
many of us, our lives have become mired in a loss of our true identity. The=
re
are two companions that are constantly struggling with us on the journey of
life. They are: our self and =
our
self-interest. While our self=
and
our self-interest are certainly meant to be one in the same, we seem to liv=
e in
a society where the two are taking different roads. Getting them back toget=
her
can be mind bending and heart wrenching task. When that Genie is out of the
bottle, we tend to abandon our sense of self in favor of our selfish
self-interest. We move further and further from fully living, generously lo=
ving
and becoming all that we were created to be.
This
is true for people in every walk of life, for politicians and political
parties, for people facing life’s hurricanes, for Wall Street executi=
ves
and yes, even for countries. Me first and country first don’t work in=
a
family or a world seeking peace, shalom, salaam. Me first and country first donR=
17;t
work in the economy of the Kin’dom of Love, which we have learned from
the teachings of Jesus.
The
loss of our sense of self in the promotion of self-interest is an epidemic =
that
is tearing at the very fabric of family, church, community, state and natio=
n.
The world is suffering from our insistence on the development of our nation=
al
self interest. We seem to have lost the sense of our national self. We are simply no longer a cohesive=
force
for good in the world. Every time we sneeze with self interest, our beloved=
Self
and self-interest. Two companions on the journey of life. Two diverging ways of living, much=
to
our loss. The very peace of our future depends on the reunion of these
companions. Much of what we d=
o here
at First UMC commits us to that end.
Whether in
We
all live in the continuum of those wandering Israelites. In that continuum =
we
have been taught that “the last will be first and the first will be l=
ast”
by the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. One the most important decisions we e=
ach
make in life as his followers is how we will choose to let that teaching re=
veal
itself in our personal life, our church life and our country’s life. =
It a
tall order but we have access to a tall Spirit of Love.
Shalom.
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