Going Through the Motions

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Going Through the Motions

Going Through the Motions

Matthew 25:14-30

It had been a hard winter in the Appalachian area. The snow had piled up deeper and deeper, the mercury dropped, rivers froze, people suffered. The Red Cross used helicopters to fly in supplies. One crew had been working day after day--long hours. They were on their way home late in the afternoon when they saw a little cabin submerged in the snow. There was a thin whisper of smoke coming from the chimney. The rescue team figured they were probably about out of food, fuel, perhaps medicine. Because of the trees they had to put the helicopter down a mile away. They put on heavy packs with emergency supplies, trudged through heavy snow, waist deep, reached the cabin exhausted, panting, perspiring. They pounded on the door. A thin, gaunt mountain woman opened the door and the lead man gasped, “We’re from the Red Cross.” She was silent for a moment and then she said, “It’s been a hard winter, Sonny. I just don’t think we can give anything this year.”

The Red Cross was looking for hardship, so hardship is what they saw. They know that most people simply go through the motions in their life, doing only as much as it takes. A hard winter would necessarily mean that there would be people who needed help, because they had only done enough to get by in the best of circumstances.

This mountain woman, however, didn’t see how she was living as a hardship. It was her life, and it was in the Appalachian mountains that she found her identity. She knew who she was when she got up in the morning, and who she was when it was time to say good night. She was wise enough to know that to live the life she wanted meant accepting all of it – the smoky mountains in the fall, and the heavy snows in the winter. Some parts might give her more opportunity for pleasure than others, but all of it was necessary and good, and I imagine it gave her a sense of contentment that she would be unlikely to find living any place else. It was a life that required living fully. She knew that you couldn’t survive if you were only going through the motions of living.

This parable that Jesus told points the spiritual danger of going through the motions. The master entrusts to three slaves sizable stewardships. Two accept the stewardships, accepting the risks and challenges that lead to the great reward of entering into the joy of the master. The third, however, only goes through the motion of accepting the stewardship, burying it in the ground, hiding it away; and then living as if he had never received anything at all from the master. For this servant, there is great weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Because we live in a materialistic society that obsesses about money as a way of keeping score, knowing that the talents given are money distracts most of us from what Jesus is telling us. Instead, we want to know how two of the slaves could double their money. We know that getting this kind of return on our money is hard to do – at least, it is hard to do legally. It is so hard that there are people, who have no trouble believing that Jesus could multiply the loaves and fishes to feed 5000 people, who have serious doubts that any one could double their money – even with the help and blessing of Jesus.

We struggle with this because we want to think that doubling our money will make us happy. How many times have any of us said, “Oh, if we just had more money!” If we just had more money, we could buy a bigger car, or a bigger house. Then we could be happy. If we just had more money, we could travel more, and do the things we want to do. Then we could be happy. If we just had more money, we could invest it and make even more money. Then we could be happy.”

This is a refrain that can even be heard in the church sometimes, particularly as the year draws to an end and there are commitments to meet and bills to pay. Oh, if we just had more money, then we could be happy.

Having more money might make us all happier, for a while, but it wouldn’t bring us joy. Happiness and joy are not the same thing. We have trouble making that distinction, I think, primarily because Madison Avenue can’t sell you joy. They can sell us an image to suggest we are happy. But even the happiness they sell us is only for a while, and then they have to sell us a new image. Happiness is temporary, moment to moment. Joy is foundational, life supporting, God given appreciation of our salvation and relationship with God and others – and we can’t buy that, because Jesus has already paid the price.

St. Lawrence, a martyr from the mid 3rd century, is an example of someone who knew the difference between happiness and joy. Lawrence became a Christian late in life, but soon rose in the ranks of the church to become the treasurer of the Pope. The story is told that the emperor demanded that Lawrence turn over all the riches of the church to help finance the emperor’s latest war. Lawrence asked for three days, and it was granted.

During those three days, Lawrence distributed all the money the church had, and then gathered the poor. When the emperor returned, Lawrence indicated that the poor were the treasure of the church. The emperor was not amused, which led to the arrest and martyrdom of Lawrence. The peace and joy seen in Lawrence was enough to convert his jailer to Christianity. And it was that jailer, Hippolytus, who later became a bishop in the church.

Happiness is about pleasing your self. A person can be quite happy without knowing God, as many people outside the church are quite happy to point out -- but again, happiness is not the same thing as joy. Joy is about being in a right relationship with God. Joy comes as a gift, as a stewardship from the master.

The root of the Hebrew word we translate as “joy” means “to shine.” Happiness is often a reflection that depends on something outside of us, but joy is the light of Christ shining from within our hearts. Joy is what changes, “We have to love God” into “we get to love God.” Joy is what changes, “We have to love our neighbors” into “we get to love our neighbors.” Joy is what we experience when our faith is more than just going through the motions, but is a full acceptance of this stewardship of grace that we receive from the master.

When the angels announced the birth of Jesus, they said it was good news of a great joy, because he came to enable our relationship with God. It is a relationship that is offered to shepherds and farmers, to merchants and outcasts, to those who are well-to-do and those that ne’er-do-well. It is a relationship that declares that God is entering into our history, into our lives, into all that we are, so that we can know God.

In the three parables found in Luke 15, the conclusion is the same. The One who finds the lost sheep says, “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents that over the 99 who have no need to repent.” The One who finds the lost coin says, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” And the father of the prodigal son says, “We have to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”

The joy is grounded in the new relationship with God. That’s what it means to repent – to give up a life in pursuit of our personal happiness away from God, so that we can receive the life that pursues a holy relationship with the One who will bring us joy forevermore.

Our parable for today identifies two kinds of people. The usual sorting is that there are those who multiply their gifts, and those who don’t. But that is focusing on the middle of the parable. I think we have to look at its conclusion – there are those who are invited into the joy of the master, and those who are cast out. This puts the focus back on God, and keeps us from proclaiming a faith of works righteousness. This is not a parable about what we do that earns our way into heaven.

In this parable, the good and faithful servants are invited into the joy of the master. They started out with a relationship of master and slave, but after an exercise in trust and risk, the master declares that they are now more like family. They have a new relationship with the master, and they enter into his joy.

Part of the genius of the Wesleys, and the Methodist movement, is the recognition that we already have a relationship with God, even before we know to ask. Even if it isn’t the relationship you want to have, or the relationship you know you need to have, you already have a relationship with God through the prevenient grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

People who accept and live into that relationship are like the two servants. They know that God gives us something for which we are accountable. Two of the servants want to make a good accounting, and this desire brings joy to the master. Reflect on that for a moment – what we do can bring joy to God!

God gave us the Law and the Prophets, to form us as a chosen people. When we keep the law, and work towards the compassion of the prophets, we bring joy to God. God gave us Jesus as the atonement for our sins, to form us as a redeemed people. When we work for reconciliation and redemption with those who have sinned and are lost, we bring joy to God. God gives us the Holy Spirit, to form us as a joyful people. When we live as those who know that faith works by love to create the community we call the kingdom of God, we bring joy to God.

The third servant in this parable reveals that he does not have a justified relationship with the master. He only knows about the master, and what he thinks he knows is wrong. This slave, like most of us, fears those he does not know. It is in his fear that he figures the master must be harsh, reaping where he did not sow, and gathering where he did not scatter seed. It was fear that made him do what Jewish culture taught someone to do if they were entrusted with something of great value – he buried it in the ground for safekeeping.

This parable, told shortly before the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus, tells us that life in the kingdom of God is not about doing what is safe, but about bringing God joy. This parable is a reminder that God has given us what we need, in order to do what God wants us to do. Those who invest these gifts in the kingdom enter into the joy of heaven. Those who are only concerned with doing what is safe and prudent – well, for them there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Except for Ricky Powell, in his work as a dentist, most of us rarely think about “gnashing of teeth” and what it means. The Greek word, brugmos, translated as “gnashing of teeth” means “grating the teeth in anger or rage.” Today, with our concern for taking care of our teeth, Jesus might have used a different image, something like crying out as we smash things against the wall or as we punch the wall in anger and frustration over the opportunity lost. When our faith is little more than going through the motions, we set ourselves up for frustration and missed opportunities – and we miss out on the joy of God.

The way to enter into the joy of the master, the way to bring joy to God, is to use our gifts, and to work with our gifts, and to develop our gifts. And those gifts are used and developed in relationship with God and the neighbors God gives to us. The great pianist, Arthur Rubenstein once said, “If I don’t practice one day, I know it. If I don’t practice two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice three days, everybody knows it.”

So it is with the gifts that God has given us. If we don’t love our neighbor one day, we will know it. We will know it as a kind of Good Friday, when Peter and the other disciples denied having a relationship with Jesus. If we don’t love our neighbor for two days, they will know we are experiencing a Black Saturday, and that Jesus is dead to us, though we still might be able to fool ourselves and our friends. But if we don’t love them the third day, then they will know that we are not the Easter people. And we are cast out of the kingdom by our own failure to have a saving relationship with God.

Today, a young man will be stepping forward and making his confession of faith. He will pledge, and us with him, to live a life of prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. It is a life that rejects simply going through the motions, and seeks to enter into the joy of the master.

Hymn 399 “Take My Life, and Let It Be”