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If you've been following the Kevan Gosper epic over the past
couple of weeks, you'll no doubt have heard people commenting on the fact
that his decision to let his daughter carry the Olympic torch was either
stupid or incredibly naive. But what I want to know is why people are so
surprised when something like this happens. Isn't this what people are like
all the time? Don't all sorts of people make foolish mistakes with their
lives? Someone once said, "The puzzle is why people live so badly.
Not so wickedly, but so inanely. Not so cruelly, but so stupidly. There
is little to admire and less to imitate in the people who are prominent
in our culture." Think about the people who are our celebrities. How
often are they infamous rather than just famous. How often is it the stupid
things they do that bring them to our attention. |
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This cartoon was
in the Age on Thursday and I thought, that about sums it up. You're much
more likely to be a celebrity in this world, you're much more likely to
sell well, if you're notorious than if you're a good person. Our media are
after controversy, stupidity, warfare, rivalry, hostility. Look around for
someone who's a mature, whole, blessed person, and they're hard to find.
They're out there. There are plenty of those sorts of people around, but
for some reason they don't get interviewed very often. They don't appear
on the TV news unless they've done something extraordinary, like Susie O'Neill
the other day. |
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Yet I think it's
true to say that we look for role models who are whole people, who are people
of integrity, who practise goodness, whose lives are characterised by right
living. But it seems that you're much more likely to find those characteristics
in the ordinary person than in the celebrity. |
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It's interesting
that when you think about the people we find in the pages of the Bible,
most of them are ordinary people. Not many of them are celebrities, not
many are heroes, and when you come across one who's of the hero type you
discover that they have all the normal failings of each one of us. Some
even more so! Abraham lied, Jacob cheated, Moses murdered and complained,
David committed adultery and murder, Peter was a coward. There's something
very realistic about the way the Bible portrays people. If you're into hero
worship, the Bible isn't the place to go. And I think that's for a reason.
It's because the fan club mentality encourages second hand living. We try
to associate ourselves with our hero by collecting memorabilia, autographs,
videos etc., as though those things make us like them. But they don't do
they? My daughter was watching Ally McBeal on Monday, and I think the story
line was something like this. Ally had won a talent contest of which the
prize was to sing as a backing artist for Tina Turner. She thought this
was the ultimate experience, to actually sing with Tina Turner. All she
wanted was to meet her hero and to shake her hand. But of course when Miss
Turner turned up she didn't even speak to her. They had nothing in common.
So I guess Ally returned to her ordinary existence a little deflated. |
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But that's how
it is isn't it? We're mostly just ordinary people living ordinary lives.
Our fantasies of being like our heroes are just that, fantasies. |
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Yet when you read
the lives of ordinary people in the Bible you discover that each of them
experiences a unique and original adventure in their life with God. Each
is different, but each finds that God leads them in a particular way to
fulfill his will for the world. So it is with us. We're each called to follow
Christ in our own way, along our own path. Rory and Trent today have taken
the first step in what can be a unique adventure with God, if they persevere
in it, if their parents and Godparents help them to continue on the path
with God and his Son Jesus Christ. If they do that, and if each one of us
does that, they and we will discover that we can live life to the full,
abundantly just as Jesus promised. |
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Today I want to
introduce you, just briefly, to Jeremiah, as one example of a real person,
who had real fears, real doubts, who lived life to the full under God's
direction. We're going to be looking at his life with God in a bit more
detail over the next few weeks, but today's just an introduction to him.
He isn't your typical hero. He's not a sporty type, he doesn't get to where
he is by self-promotion or self improvement. He's not a popular figure by
any means. Yet there's an incredible complexity and intensity to him that
attracts our attention. He's a man of virtue and excellence who remains
steadfast against the worst of opposition from his own people. |
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Jeremiah is a
great example of how to foster a desire for excellence without feeding that
modern tendency to self-focus that elbows anyone aside who gets in our way.
It's a phenomenon of modern life isn't it, that we've been taught to think
that the way to self-fulfilment, the way to being fully human is to satisfy
our desires. Abraham Maslow wrote, back in 1968, that "the only way
we can know what is right for us is that it feels better subjectively than
any alternative." He said, 'What tastes good, is also, in the growth
sense, "better" for us.' Now Maslow would have to be one of the
most influential teachers in the field of sociology and psychology of the
past 50 years. Yet how wrong could he be. Growth doesn't always come, indeed
perhaps we could say, rarely comes from choosing what tastes good to us.
In fact that recipe spells disaster for millions in our world today, who
are the victims of the powerful who are following Maslow's philosophy for
themselves. |
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By contrast, Jeremiah
is a man who over and over and over again chooses the hard path, the path
of selflessness, of discomfort, in order to do what God wants him to and
in the process grows in stature to become one of the greats of Biblical
history. |
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Not that he does
it gladly mind you. He would have to be one of the most real characters
in the Bible. He complains, he yells at God, he gets depressed, he wishes
things could be different, but through it all he keeps going, he keeps on
proclaiming God's message to his people even if they don't want to hear
it. |
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The passage we
just read is a great example of that. Jeremiah looks around at the people
of Jerusalem and he has two problems. First he's noticed a discrepancy in
the world compared to the way he thinks it should be and second, although
God has sent him to speak as his prophet, his own people, his own family
in fact, are plotting to kill him. So he says to God, "I know you're
supposed to be just, but can we just talk for a moment about what you understand
by justice. He says I look around at the world and it doesn't seem very
just to me. The guilty prosper, those who are treacherous thrive. They say
they're worshippers of God, but their lives don't match up. The land is
suffering because of their wickedness, but you don't seem to care. Why don't
you come down and sort them out. Punish them! Get rid of them so the land
can recover and those, like me, who are righteous, can get on with serving
you without fear. That could have been written this year couldn't it? How
often do you wish that God would get rid of the evil you see in the world?
How often are you angered by people getting away with crimes against humanity?
Angered perhaps that rightly elected governments can be overthrown by rebels
wielding guns. Angered that people like Kevan Gosper are given privileges
that ordinary people aren't given, simply because of his position of power.
Upset by video of starving children in Ethiopia or Mongolia, or Mozambique.
Why do we have to put up with it? Can't God see how hard life is for those
of us who are trying to be faithful to him? |
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You feel when
you read this that Jeremiah has had enough. It's too hard being God's servant
when people don't want to hear God speak. He'd like to retire, to go back
to the quiet life he used to have before God called him. But, you know,
there are worse things than facing the possibility of opposition and even
death. Vitezslav Gardavsky, a Czech Philosopher and Christian martyr who
died in 1978 once wrote that the worst threat against life isn't death or
pain, nor any of the disasters we protect ourselves against with our social
systems and personal strategies. The worst threat is "that we might
die earlier than we really do die, before death has become a natural necessity.
The real horror lies in such a premature death, a death after which we go
on living for many years." For Jeremiah, a quiet life of retirement
might have been easier, but it would have also been a life devoid of all
that made life worthwhile. For us too, a quiet life might be easier, but
would it really be life? |
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That at least
seems to be the intent behind God's answer. God says: "If you have
raced with foot-runners and they have wearied you, how will you compete
with horses? And if in a safe land you fall down, how will you fare in the
thickets of the Jordan?" (Jer 12:5 NRSV). Sure life's tough. But what
are you going to do? Give up as soon as you meet a bit of trouble? Run home
to the warmth of the hearth as soon as you feel the cold wind of opposition
in your face? What do you expect life to bring you? |
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Someone once asked
the same question in a more modern context: "What do you want to achieve?
Greater riches? Cheaper chicken? A happier life, a longer life? Is it power
over your neighbours that you're after? Are you only running away from your
death? Or are you seeking greater wisdom, deeper piety?" |
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No, God calls
Jeremiah, just as he calls us, to live life at our best, to pursue God's
will in everything we do, to work towards excellence despite the hurdles
we find in our way. |
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It would be a
lot easier wouldn't it, if we could simply plod on doing the average thing.
It's a lot easier to blame our failure to achieve excellence on how tough
life is. To hide ourselves under our favourite neuroses. To live vicariously
through the achievements of our heroes. It's easier, but not better. Easier,
but not more significant. Easier, but not more fulfilling. No, God says
"I called you to follow me, I've prepared long ago good works for you
to do. It won't be easy. In fact as you go on it'll just get harder. But
that's no reason to give up. Rather brace yourself. Lift your drooping hands
and strengthen your weak knees." In fact God will do all the things
Jeremiah is saying. He will punish those who have rebelled against him.
He will bring an end to evil in the land, but in the meantime, Jeremiah
needs to remain strong because things will get worse before they get better. |
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He says "If
you're worn out already, if you're already prepared to quit, what's it going
to be like when times really get tough. What do you want? To shuffle along
with the crowd, or to run with the horses?" |
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It's much easier
to define ourselves minimally. I read a great definition of a human being
the other day. A human being is "a featherless biped". That's
a minimalist definition if ever I've heard one. You won't have any trouble
living up to that definition will you? But what about this definition of
human beings from Psalm 8: "You have made them a little lower than
God, and crowned them with glory and honor." That's a maximal definition
isn't it? Which would you rather live up to? The safe but boring minimalist
definition, or the adventurous reality of living as God's servant, the pinnacle
of creation, crowned with glory and honour? Paul wrote to the Christians
in Ephesus: "Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you
may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to
stand firm." It might be tough to live faithfully as a Christian. To
fight bravely under his banner, as the old Baptism service used to say.
To fight the good fight, finish the race, keep the faith. But let me encourage
you to follow the example of Jeremiah, who although he may not have instantly
changed his attitude to suffering for God, did go on to stand firm against
the opposition of his own people. In fact let me encourage you to do more
than just stand. Let me encourage you to run with the horses. |
