Serve God And Enjoy Life?
Sermon
She was a good Christian woman. She'd had a conversion experience rather like St Paul's on the road to Damascus, some sixteen or seventeen years previously, and after that she'd never looked back. She was filled with God's spirit and she went out of her way to tell other people about Jesus and all that Jesus had done for her.
Then she developed cancer. It was one of those debilitating cancers which are all over the body and she had to have the usual chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well as frequent blood transfusions. She prayed for healing and many people all over the country joined in prayer for her healing.
The cancer continued for seven years and all the time she grew thinner and frailer. But she never lost her faith. She went on praying and reading her Bible and attending church whenever she could. And she went on working for God not only within the church, but also in hospital waiting rooms where she found other cancer sufferers who needed support.
At one time she developed meningitis and was rushed to hospital, but she miraculously recovered. She had spells in and out of hospital for all those seven years. But then, in her early sixties, she died. The longed-for miracle didn't happen. The prayers of her friends and family and supporters world-wide were apparently ignored. They didn't work, for she died anyway.
In today's reading from Deuteronomy, God makes certain promises to his people about life and prosperity if the people obey God's commands, but does God keep those promises or are they just blandishments to keep his people in order, to keep them obeying the rules?
"See," says God, "I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, then you shall live and the Lord your God will bless you. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray, I declare to you today that you shall perish. I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days."
How can we take those words seriously when good Christian people who love and serve God die prematurely, whilst others who live their lives in complete opposition to God's will by lying, cheating, stealing or worse, live in wealthy comfort to a ripe old age? How can we believe God's promises when children become seriously ill or perish in accidents, but evil people go on living very pleasurable lives until they eventually die of old age?
Is it really life and prosperity if we obey God or death and adversity if we don't obey God? Because the evidence which is all around us would seem to indicate that in the 21st century western world, this is not necessarily true.
Perhaps the answer is something to do with the definition of life. God has set before us life and prosperity or its opposite, death and adversity. But God who sees the whole picture may be looking at it differently to human beings who inevitably see only part of the picture.
We know from school physics lessons that matter can be neither created nor destroyed but simply converted into another form of matter. We should also know from our religious instruction that life can be neither created nor destroyed, but simply converted into a different form of life. Christians describe this different form of life as "life after death" or "heaven" or "eternal life", but other religions might describe it as "reincarnation".
This knowledge puts a very different slant on God's words. If life on this earth is only a part of our total life, then it becomes very important indeed to do all we can now to ensure that our total life is healthy, wealthy and wise. If our whole life is represented by a period of say, ten years, then our life on this earth might be represented by about the first six months. Put in that sort of context, material wealth and physical health in the present life begin to seem less important.
Jesus was right when he told us to store up treasure in heaven, not treasure on earth. Seen from the angle of eternal life, virtually all our life is spent in heaven after our physical death on this earth, when our lives move on to a different phase.
Looked at in this way, it's obvious that we'll find life and prosperity if we obey God but death and adversity if we fail to obey God, because if we don't get to know God in this life how are we going to recognise him after our physical death? But the strange thing is, that as we realise the importance of God and increasingly tune into God and increasingly follow God's way in order to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, so we begin to appreciate real gains in our life here on earth. We gain a deep contentment, we're filled with overflowing love, and those painful stabs to our self esteem which happen all too often in life, gradually recede from our consciousness and lose their power to hurt.
Conversely, those who veer away from God's commands are unlikely ever to experience deep contentment. They will never really know what it means to love because they are incapable of any selfless act, and they will discover that those stabs to self esteem don't recede with maturity but become increasingly painful. Those who ignore God gradually die inside themselves and that's a much worse death than the physical death which for Christians is merely a gateway to Life.
St Paul told us quite clearly that the wages of sin is death. He wasn't necessarily referring to physical well-being on this earth but was referring to our immortal spirit - the real 'us' which goes on after death, after we leave the shell of our body behind. Sin causes the real 'us' to shrivel and die, God causes the real 'us' to blossom and thrive, no matter what the physical aspects of our life might be.
The message is clear from the Old Testament right through to the New Testament and beyond. If you want life which is full of joy and delight right now and in which you'll meet with God after physical death, then follow God's commandments. Because we ignore those commandments at our peril.
That good Christian woman who had cancer died. But her death was more full of life than many people's lives and her life was full of joy and happiness despite her condition. This is what God offers to all of us, if we obey his commands.
Then she developed cancer. It was one of those debilitating cancers which are all over the body and she had to have the usual chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well as frequent blood transfusions. She prayed for healing and many people all over the country joined in prayer for her healing.
The cancer continued for seven years and all the time she grew thinner and frailer. But she never lost her faith. She went on praying and reading her Bible and attending church whenever she could. And she went on working for God not only within the church, but also in hospital waiting rooms where she found other cancer sufferers who needed support.
At one time she developed meningitis and was rushed to hospital, but she miraculously recovered. She had spells in and out of hospital for all those seven years. But then, in her early sixties, she died. The longed-for miracle didn't happen. The prayers of her friends and family and supporters world-wide were apparently ignored. They didn't work, for she died anyway.
In today's reading from Deuteronomy, God makes certain promises to his people about life and prosperity if the people obey God's commands, but does God keep those promises or are they just blandishments to keep his people in order, to keep them obeying the rules?
"See," says God, "I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, then you shall live and the Lord your God will bless you. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray, I declare to you today that you shall perish. I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days."
How can we take those words seriously when good Christian people who love and serve God die prematurely, whilst others who live their lives in complete opposition to God's will by lying, cheating, stealing or worse, live in wealthy comfort to a ripe old age? How can we believe God's promises when children become seriously ill or perish in accidents, but evil people go on living very pleasurable lives until they eventually die of old age?
Is it really life and prosperity if we obey God or death and adversity if we don't obey God? Because the evidence which is all around us would seem to indicate that in the 21st century western world, this is not necessarily true.
Perhaps the answer is something to do with the definition of life. God has set before us life and prosperity or its opposite, death and adversity. But God who sees the whole picture may be looking at it differently to human beings who inevitably see only part of the picture.
We know from school physics lessons that matter can be neither created nor destroyed but simply converted into another form of matter. We should also know from our religious instruction that life can be neither created nor destroyed, but simply converted into a different form of life. Christians describe this different form of life as "life after death" or "heaven" or "eternal life", but other religions might describe it as "reincarnation".
This knowledge puts a very different slant on God's words. If life on this earth is only a part of our total life, then it becomes very important indeed to do all we can now to ensure that our total life is healthy, wealthy and wise. If our whole life is represented by a period of say, ten years, then our life on this earth might be represented by about the first six months. Put in that sort of context, material wealth and physical health in the present life begin to seem less important.
Jesus was right when he told us to store up treasure in heaven, not treasure on earth. Seen from the angle of eternal life, virtually all our life is spent in heaven after our physical death on this earth, when our lives move on to a different phase.
Looked at in this way, it's obvious that we'll find life and prosperity if we obey God but death and adversity if we fail to obey God, because if we don't get to know God in this life how are we going to recognise him after our physical death? But the strange thing is, that as we realise the importance of God and increasingly tune into God and increasingly follow God's way in order to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, so we begin to appreciate real gains in our life here on earth. We gain a deep contentment, we're filled with overflowing love, and those painful stabs to our self esteem which happen all too often in life, gradually recede from our consciousness and lose their power to hurt.
Conversely, those who veer away from God's commands are unlikely ever to experience deep contentment. They will never really know what it means to love because they are incapable of any selfless act, and they will discover that those stabs to self esteem don't recede with maturity but become increasingly painful. Those who ignore God gradually die inside themselves and that's a much worse death than the physical death which for Christians is merely a gateway to Life.
St Paul told us quite clearly that the wages of sin is death. He wasn't necessarily referring to physical well-being on this earth but was referring to our immortal spirit - the real 'us' which goes on after death, after we leave the shell of our body behind. Sin causes the real 'us' to shrivel and die, God causes the real 'us' to blossom and thrive, no matter what the physical aspects of our life might be.
The message is clear from the Old Testament right through to the New Testament and beyond. If you want life which is full of joy and delight right now and in which you'll meet with God after physical death, then follow God's commandments. Because we ignore those commandments at our peril.
That good Christian woman who had cancer died. But her death was more full of life than many people's lives and her life was full of joy and happiness despite her condition. This is what God offers to all of us, if we obey his commands.
