I was watching a football game. Actually it was what you call a soccer game. Manchester United was 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 and seven
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 was 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 were not necessarily items of material value, but things that had some personal worth attached to them like 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? Are they 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 was 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 believing in 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, and 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 action 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 sometimes that meant 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 left 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 us 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 and 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, in 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 which can help us value and use the time we do have a whole lot more wisely.
There is a 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, and
the 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!
