1 Timothy 6 : Luke 16 : Sermon

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1 1 Timothy 6 : 6-19 Luke 16 : Sermon 27 years is a long time. I know that because this week we celebrated our 24 th wedding anniversary, and that has been a long time! A good time of course but a long time. I ve done and seen and experienced so many things over that time, that the thought of having missed out on it all is really incomprehensible. But during the summer I have read the autobiography of Nelson Mandela (A Long Walk to Freedom), and was left to wonder how a human could cope with being locked away for 27 years as he was. Especially as he spent most of that time in a cell so small that when he lay on his mat to sleep at night he could feel the concrete walls against both his head and his feet. How does a human cope with that loss of freedom for so long? And particularly, how does a human cope in such a way that they can emerge so full of life, ready to be a world leader and to head a movement of reconciliation? It is difficult to imagine how that can be possible. Then one quote in particular stood out for me in the book. He wrote this: Some mornings I walked out into the courtyard and every living thing there, the sea gulls and the wag-tails, the small trees and even the stray blades of grass seemed to smile and shine in the sun. It was at such times when I perceived the beauty of even this small, closed-in corner of the world that I knew some day my people and I would be free. I think that reveals a lot about how one particular human managed to cope with that experience. Although his life was limited in so many ways, he always remembered the world was so much bigger and better than what he could see. Certainly he had to adapt himself to prison life and live accordingly. No doubt there were times when he had to shut out all thoughts of the outside world in order to survive. Yet through all of that time he was able to see signs which reminded him that the prison walls were not the limits of his world, and that they would not be the limits of his

2 2 life. So his attitude to surviving in prison was always touched by the hope he carried that one day he would discover freedom, that there would indeed be more to his life that the grim battle to get through each day. Those reminders of the bigger world made all the difference to how he behaved and how he thought and how he was able to treat people, even within his small world. One of the drawbacks of being a minister is that it becomes impossible even to do some summer reading without reflecting on the wider significance of things. Here again my thoughts wandered wider than they might have. Certainly there are questions about how I could cope with 27 years in prison, and what that might do to me. But also questions about my experience of this world, and whether I am in danger of losing sight of the bigger reality that lies beyond. It is not that I think this life is like a prison, something to be endured and survived each day. I think it is marvelously glorious and to be enjoyed and celebrated each day. Nonetheless some of us live in this world with the assumption that this is all there is. We see the physical things around us, we observe the process of ageing and dying, and we don t believe that we are destined for anything greater than that. While others see things in this world that give them a lively conviction that all of this is merely a foretaste of something even greater. So I wonder how much our awareness, or our lack of awareness, of what we might call eternity, affects how we live, and think, and treat people, as we make our way through this small world of ours. It seems to me that whether we believe in eternal life, or believe that these few years are all we have, will not make any difference to what actually happens after we die. The strange story that we read this morning from Luke at least suggests that after we die there will not be much that we can do to change anything. But whether or not we believe in eternal life might make an enormous difference to how well we can live before we die. So Nelson Mandela was able to live a certain way in prison because he was sure that there was more to the world than what surrounded him each day,

3 3 and because his focus was on preparing for his participation in that greater world. And I think that we are able to live in this world in a certain way, when we are sure that there is more to life that what surrounds us each day, and when we have a focus on preparing ourselves for our participation in that greater reality. It is an awareness, and hope, that keeps us from getting bogged down by every little problem that comes along, and which guides us into peace and assurance. When have no such vision and no such hope, well that will affect our lives in different ways. If there is no eternity, if this is all that we have and all that we can expect and all that we hope for, then of course we are always going to be tempted to grab what we can in life and to enjoy it while we can. That is when we fall in love with money, which is able to get us everything that we think we want, all of the luxuries, and of the pleasures, all of the possibilities that we want to cram into our experience while we can. And why would we not, if that is all we have to live for. Why would we not work and strive and struggle to gain more money, or if necessary cheat and steal and lie to gain more money, if it helps us to enjoy ourselves and get what we desire? For we have not been put on earth for any greater purpose, and indeed there is no greater purpose. We know, of course, that the promises of money and wealth are entirely false. I can assure you from my time spent among people with very different financial situations that those who have the most money are certainly not more happy or more content or more at peace. I m not saying their lives are more miserable, simply that they are not automatically any better. And when people fall in love with money, when they believe it can provide them with everything they can want, they can be led into all sorts of traps. As Paul noticed all those years ago: those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

4 4 That was written in a very different culture than ours, but it hardly sounds out of date, does it? When we lose sight of what is eternal, when we focus only on what is immediate, we live our lives in ways that are not good for our souls. Instead Paul offers a very simple approach to life. He insists that there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment. Godliness combined with contentment. Those are not goals that are going to help us get on in the world. Those are not goals that are going to help us climb the career ladder, or increase our income. But they are goals which make perfect sense if we have a perspective on life that includes more than just our time in this world, if we have a sense of eternity, if we have an awareness that part of what we are doing in this world is preparing ourselves for a greater life of freedom. That is the perspective which Paul has, and so he urges his readers to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. He urges them to fight the good fight of the faith, and to take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called. And in particular he urges those who are rich in this world not to be dominated by financial concerns, for the rich are always likely to be more anxious about money that the poor. Instead their goal should be to become rich in good works and in generosity, and to take hold of the life that really is life. You see we could read a text like that and think that it is simply about money, about the dangers of wealth, and such warnings are repeated frequently in the New Testament. But I think it is really about something even more fundamental. It is about whether our focus will be on taking hold of as much as can during our short lifespan, assuming that is all we are ever going to know. Or taking hold of eternal life, life that really is life, sure that one day we will move on and experience something greater anything that money can buy. These are fundamental choices for us about how we will view the life we have been given and what we will prioritise as we live it. Nelson Mandela found hope to keep him going in the simplest of things, little reminders that there was life beyond the grey walls that limited his vision. Similarly for us, the awareness of eternity may come from the

5 smallest things and the simplest moments. In the hymn that we will sing in a moment, the Scottish writer George Matheson speaks of such things that can break through into our small world even in the bleakest of times, bringing signs and reminders of a whole new beginning that lies ahead. O joy that seekest me though pain, I cannot close my heart to thee, I trace the rainbow through the rain and feel the promise is not vain, that morn shall tearless be. Into our small world and our small lives come all sorts reminders of eternity and they can be enough to open our eyes to that which we cannot yet see. For as we have already sung this morning, in the bulb there is a flower waiting to bloom, and in the seed there is a tree waiting to flourish, in the winter there is a spring waiting for its time and in our lives there is an eternity waiting to unfold. In the prison yard there are signs which point to the unseen world outside, and in all our lives there are signs which remind us of the unseen reality of the eternal. And the choice is ours. To limit the boundaries of our world to the boundaries of our vision, or to trust in that greater reality, and live in the light of it, and celebrate it. Our experience of life will be very different depending on which one we choose, and what we trust. 5