September 30, 2007

Proper 21 C

Taking Hold of the Life That Really is Life

Get a life.

Life is either a daring adventure - or nothing. Helen Keller

Life is short...eat dessert first

That's life.

Live a good life. And in the end, it's not the years in a life, it's the life in the years. Abraham Lincoln

Life is good.
May you live all the days of your life. Jonathan Swift

How do you define life? How do you define YOUR life? Today's lessons, both the Gospel lesson and Paul's letter to Timothy, address these questions and ask us to ponder what our own lives mean. Are we living the life that really is life? First, let's take a look at what Scripture shows us about what the life that really is life IS NOT:

The rich man's idea about life in today's Gospel lesson could instead be titled "How NOT to live your life 101" His is a lesson in how greed destroys life. The life that really is life isn't about what we accumulate, as the rich man seemed to believe...the stuff we accumulate isn't really ours anyway, is it? The rich man in today's Gospel lesson learned that too late. He learned, and we can learn from him, the dangers of greed and the dangers of chasing the elusive things that the world would like us to think will make us happy.

There is an ancient folktale, popularized by the Brothers Grimm., that echoes the warnings of today's gospel lesson. It's titled, The Fisherman and His Wife and I need your help in telling it. When I cue you, please join me in this simple chorus:

Fish O Fish out in the sea
Come and hear my humble plea
Isabel, my wedded wife.
Doesn't like our way of life.

Try it with me.

Once there was a fisherman who lived with his wife, Isabel in a tiny cottage by the sea. Each day he would go down to the water and fish.

One day as he sat fishing in the clear water, he reeled in a great fish. The fish said, "Sir, please let me swim away, for I am not really a fish, but an enchanted prince."

And the fisherman gladly let him go.

"I caught a great fish today," said the fisherman to his wife Isabel when he returned home, "but it told me it was an enchanted prince, so I let it go." "You let it go without wishing for anything?" said Isabel. "You should have wished for a nice 2-story house instead of this cottage."

And so the fisherman returned to the sea, which had turned green, and called out,

Fish O Fish out in the sea
Come and hear my humble plea
Isabel, my wedded wife,
Doesn't like our way of life.
"Well what does she want?" said the fish.v The fisherman replied, "She wants a 2-story house."

The fish said, "Go home and you will find her in it."

"Isn't this much better?" asked Isabel. Inside there were large rooms and a fireplace. "We can live here and be content." Said the fisherman.

Everything went well for a while, until Isabel said, "This house is just too small. I want to live in a big castle. Go and ask the fish to give us a stone castle!"

The fisherman didn't really want to, but he did as Isabel asked and he called out:

Fish O Fish out in the sea
Come and hear my humble plea
Isabel, my wedded wife
Doesn't like our way of life.
"What does she want," asked the fish.

"She wants a stone castle to live in."

"Go home and you will find here there." Said the fish.

"Isn't it beautiful?" cried Isabel. Inside was a main hall with benches and tables of gold. Behind the castle was a garden and park that stretched for half a mile. In the courtyard they had a stable of horses and a barn with cows. Before they went to sleep, the fisherman said, "We will remain here and be happy."

But when Isabel awoke, she was still not satisfied. "Wake up, " she said, "I've decided you should be king of all the land."

"I don't want to be king," said the fisherman.

"Fine," said Isabel. "Then I shall be king. Go to the fish and tell him to make me king."

The fisherman was unhappy, but again her went to the sea, which was now turning ugly and dark. He called out to the fish,

Fish O Fish out in the sea
Come and hear my humble plea
Isabel, my wedded wife
Doesn't like our way of life.
"What does she want now?" asked the fish

"She wants to be king."

"Go home," said the fish. "She already is."

"Now that you are king, we do not need to wish for more," said the fisherman.

"Being king is good, but it is not good enough," said Isabel, "go and tell the fish that I want to have power over the sun and moon."

"But Isabel," said the fisherman, "the fish can not give you that."

Isabel looked at the fisherman with such a look that he was frightened. "I want the power of God!." She said. "I cannot bear to see the sun rise without my saying so. Go at once."

The fisherman trembled in fear at the raging storm that faced him as he went to the sea.

Even though he couldn't hear his own voice, he called,

Fish O Fish out in the sea
Come and hear my humble plea
Isabel my wedded wife
Doesn't like our way of life.

"What does she want now," demanded the fish.

"She wants true happiness; she wants the power of God." said the fisherman "Go home," said the fish, "she is waiting in your cottage."

And there they live to this day.

The point that I take from this folktale is Isabel's continuous pursuit of happiness, and how I don't want to live like that. Nothing was ever enough for her...there was always something else that would truly make her life complete. She (and her husband by default) spent all of their time chasing the elusive dream of happiness and, when it was all said and done, ended up back where they started from.....where they should have found happiness and contentment in the first place.

There's a modern-day story that has a character much like Isabel. As my daughter Ellie was acting as my sermon editor (while at the same time multi-tasking and listening to music on her headphones), she reminded me of the similarities between Isabel and Sharpay, a character in Disney's High School Musical and High School Musical Two.

Sharpay lives for herself and always wants more. In HS Musical 2, as she arrives for a summer at her parents' lavish resort, Lava Springs, her demands for more and more play themselves out in the song "Fabulous." I wish I could sing it for you, but you'll have to settle for some spoken lyrics:

Its out with the old and in with the new,
Goodbye clouds of Gray, hello skies of blue
A dip in the pool, a trip to the spa
Endless days in my chaise
The whole world according to moi
Iced tea imported from England,
Lifeguards imported from Spain,
Towels imported from Turkey,
Turkey imported from Maine,

I want fabulous,
That is my simple request,
All things fabulous,
Bigger and better and best,

Fetch me my jimmy choo flip flops,
Where is my pink prada tote?
I need my tiffany hair band,
And then I can go for a float.

I need something inspiring to help me get along,
I need a little fabulous is that so wrong?

The rich man in today's Gospel lived life the same way....on a wild goose chase for a happy life that ended up bringing him only heartache and despair in the end.

If only he (and Isabel & Sharpay) could have learned that life isn't about what we accumulate.

But then what is the life that really is life? And how can each one of us live it?

Paul's letter to Timothy warns against setting our hopes on uncertain riches, encouraging us rather to serve with a generous spirit. It addresses issues of priorities and reminds us that happiness isn't brought about by what happens to us, but by what happens within us.

According to Paul, we are to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. And why do we need to do that? Our lesson from Timothy ends today with the answer to that question: so that you may take hold of the life that really is life.

So there's our answer

It is true that God's people will discover the true meaning of life as they follow God's way. And it is true that a life lived following God's way leads us on the path to true contentment and true happiness. We don't have to chase it (like the puppy in today's children's story, or like the rich man in the gospel, or like Isabel or Sharpay...no, we don't need to chase it....we need to follow it!

We have heard God's call to follow and to live faithful lives. How can we take hold of the life that really is life? As the author of 1st Timothy, Paul passes on the wisdom of his own experience. He was a mentor to Timothy and to his young Christian church. They learned much about how to live from him.

Who have been or the mentors in your life?

Here are two stores of people living the life that really is life....and in the process, impacting others to do the same.

A great theologian was once asked by a reporter, "Which is the best translation of Scripture?" Immediately the theologian answered the reporter and said, "The best translation I've ever known is my mother's" The reporter was very surprised and he said, "Oh, I didn't know your mother translated Scripture!" The theologian said, "Oh yes. She translated the Bible into her daily life in our home, and I am today who I am because of my mother's faith, her Godly life."

Who has lived a life like that for you? Has your life spoken that to others?

A Sunday school teacher was telling her class of young children what Jesus was like. She said, "Oh, Jesus is so wonderful. He's loving, he's warm, he's tender, he's patient."

And then at the end of her lesson, she asked the class, "Do you know this Jesus?"

She was surprised when a little boy raised his hand and said, "Oh yes, I know this Jesus. He's just like you say, "He's loving and he's warm and he cares about me. And you know what? He lives next door to me and I call him Mr. Kelly!"

As you live your life, would someone mistake you for Jesus? We all, I'm sure, can think of people who have influenced our lives like that through their faithful living.

May others say the same about us.

As we seek out the contentment and happiness that seemed to elude the rich man in today's gospel, that seemed to elude Isabel and Sharpay, let us be reminded that it's right here before us today.....in the life that God has already given us today. It's in a life lived passionately...today, filled with those things mentioned in Paul's letter to Timothy: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness - those things that are within us.

The Christian who moves from greed and the desire to accumulate wealth to a life of generosity and sharing is shaping their life in the image of Christ; and in so doing, can find the ultimate in contentment and happiness.

Instead of chasing the happiness that the world tells us we deserve, how blessed we would be if we would simply fall in love with the life that we're already living and take hold of that life that really is life...that life in Christ.



Leann Thompson
Chanhassen, Minnesota