The Reverend John E. McGinn, Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563
June 1, 2008 3 Pentecost
Today’s sermon is taken from
the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 21-27.
A woman walked up to a little
old man rocking in his chair on his porch.
Though he looked weathered and feeble, he had a content smile on his
face. “I could help noticing how happy
you look,” she said. “What’s your secret
for a happy life?” “Well, I smoked three
packs of cigarettes a day,” he said, waving a wrinkled hand through the air
with a smoldering cigarette between his thumb and finger. “I also drink a case of whisky a week and eat
fatty foods and never exercise.” “That’s
amazing!” said the woman, “So how old are you?”
“Twenty-six,” he answered.
Now if you were going to
build a healthy body, you would not follow this young man’s example, would
you? How about building a healthy
marriage…where would you look for models?
You may have heard about the women who inserted an ad in the classified
section of the newspaper: “Husband
wanted.” She received two hundred
letters answering her ad and all said the same thing: “You can have mine.”
Building a successful
marriage, like building a healthy body, is hard work. Nothing worth having comes too easily. How about building a successful life? Where would you look for guidance? I want to give you a couple of hints:
Jesus said everyone who hears
these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built
his house on the rock. The rain came
down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it
did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock.
The teachings of Jesus are
the foundation for a meaningful and satisfying life. Love for God, love for neighbor and love for
yourself. Forgiveness, acceptance,
humility, peace - it’s a total package.
Many people are drawn to other ways of life - that’s all right - but
Jesus’ way cannot be improved upon.
Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and put them into
practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” And it’s true. The teachings of Jesus are the foundation for
a meaningful and satisfying life. And
that’s why people have found so much meaning in Jesus’ teachings for these past
two thousand years.
But I want you to note, to
reap the benefits of Jesus’ teachings, we must act upon them. It is not enough to say…Oh, yes, I believe in
Jesus teachings…but never put these teachings into practice. Jesus’ says it quite vividly this morning in
the Gospel reading. “Not everyone who
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who
does the will of my Father who is in heaven
An many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in
your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I
will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; away from me you evildoers.’”
Now a seminary professor was
teaching one summer at Princeton University, and in the dining hall he
encountered a young woman who was a student at that fine institution. He asked her what she was studying. “Theology,” she replied. “Oh really?” he said. They talked more. She was a Roman Catholic nun, but had not
been one for very long. Formerly a buyer
for Macy’s in New York City, she said, “I had a nice apartment and everything
was going my way. In fact, I was engaged
to be married,. About two months before
the wedding, I prayed and thought and thought and prayed, and then called my
fiancé over and gave him back the ring.
Some months later she was wearing her nun’s habit on the subway, and
right in front of her was her former fiancé.
She said hello and he said hello, and they both cried and said goodbye
again. The seminary professor asked,
“Does it hurt?” “Very much,” she
replied. “Then why did you do it?” he
asked. She said that she did it because
“Not everyone lives by the principle If it feels good, do it.”
I thought that was a
wonderful statement: “Not everyone lives
by the principle If it feels good, do it.” It’s not enough simply to believe in Jesus’
teachings. If they are going to help us
lead successful lives, we must put them into practice. “Everyone who hears these words of mine,”
says Jesus, “and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house
on the rock.”
We all know it’s true. We see celebrities who live by the If it
feels good, do it creda, and their lives are an absolute mess if we think
of Britney Spears or a host of other troubled celebrities.
Meanwhile, I stare out into
this congregation and into the faces of some people who have lived by the
teachings of Jesus most of their
lives who will tell you that they have found a rock - the rock - upon which to
build their lives, and they do not have a moment of regret. Their adherence to Jesus’ teachings has
helped them have healthy bodies and great marriages and loving families and
enduring senses of well being.
It doesn’t always happen, of
course. There are forces that mess with
our bodies and mess with our marriages and mess with our children, regardless
of how devoted we are to Jesus. But all
things being equal, the Christ life is the best life in this world - the best
life possible. The teachings of Jesus
are a foundation for a meaningful and satisfying life. And to reap the benefits of those teachings,
however, we must act upon them. When we
live by Jesus’ teachings, we discover benefits untold.
There was an article in American
Health magazine addressing the health benefits of doing acts of volunteer
service. Here’s how the article
read: “New research shows that doing
good may be good for your heart, your immune system and your overall vitality.” The article told about some work that was
being done at the University of Michigan’s Research Center. It’s study there found that more than any
other activity, doing regular volunteer work dramatically increases life
expectancy. The mortality rate for men
who do no volunteer work, was two-and-a-half times as high during the study, as
men who volunteered at least once a week.
In other studies scientists found that doing good may be good for your
immune system as well as your nervous system.
In giving ourselves away, we may be saving ourselves.
Now, we don’t pass judgment
on people who follow an alternative lifestyle, who worship other gods; but most
of us have come to experience in our own lives that following Jesus is the way
that leads to life. “Everyone who hears
these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built
his house on the rock.”
So, I guess the message that
I want to give you today is: Wise
up! The way of Jesus is the way that
leads to life. Why not give your heart
and soul to following Jesus. The sad
thing is not that many of us are bad people - we aren’t. The sad thing is that we are halfhearted -
halfhearted - about our faith.
Therefore, we only reap a miniscule portion of the benefits that God has
for us.
Now some of you may be
familiar with the name Christopher Parkening.
Christopher Parkening is regarded as one, if not the world’s
greatest, classical guitarist. He has played guitar with orchestras the
world over, even for the President of the United States at the White
House. He is also a world-class fly
fishing and casting champion. Not a bad
way to live playing guitar and fly fishing.
But there’s more to his life than fish and guitars.
I want you to listen for a
moment as I read his story. I came
across this in a magazine and I thought it was a wonderful statement about
living the principles of Jesus.
“By age thirty I had achieved
all my dreams in the musical world, but I was tired of the grinding schedule of
hotel rooms and performances and recording sessions. It was time to go fishing, and with the money
I had earned I found and purchased my dream stream on a ranch in Montana. I stopped playing the guitar. I called my record company and management
group at Columbia and told them I had no desire to play anymore. I had earned enough from my music, and I
didn’t need to work anyway. So for
several years I did everything I wanted.
I learned every trout stream in the area and fished to my heart’s
content; but as time went by I became very unhappy with my life. I don’t know to describe it, but my life
became very boring to me - it was totally empty.
“When you arrive at a point
in your life where you have everything you ever wanted, everything you thought
would make you happy, and it still doesn’t; then you start questioning
things. I had the pot of gold at the end
of the rainbow and yet I thought, well…what’s left, what’s missing? And while in California visiting friends, I
attended a church where I heard a sermon entitled Examine yourself whether
you are in the faith and the preacher said you could know all about Jesus
and know all about the Bible, and even address Jesus as Lord, and Jesus might
say to you, ‘Depart from me. I never
knew you. You never did the will of
God.’ I was convinced if I had died that
night, Jesus would have spoken those very words to me. Though my parents had introduced me to the
Christian faith when I was young, and though I was baptized and read the Bible
occasionally, I had never really done God’s will in my life. I suppose I wanted to be saved from hell; but
I never wanted a God of my life that I should follow and trust and obey
unconditionally. So I went home that
day, broken over my selfish ways and I prayed that Jesus would be both Lord and
Savior of my life. I surrendered the
control of my life over to Jesus. I
developed a great hunger for the word of God, and I started reading the Bible
every day. Soon I came across a passage
that said, ’Whatever you do - do it all for the glory of God.’
“I realized there were only
two things that I knew how to do - to fly fish for trout and play the
guitar. Well, I am playing guitar today
absolutely by the grace of God. I have a
joy, a peace, a deep-down fulfillment in my life that I never had before. My life has a purpose. My desire is to glorify God and God’s son
Jesus with my life and my music.
“The great composer J. F.
Bach once said, ‘The aim and final reason of all music is none else but the
glory of God.’ In giving my life and my
music over to God, I learned first hand the true secret of genuine happiness.”
Now Christopher Parkening
discovered for himself that the words of Jesus are true: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and
puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
Now my question this morning
is: Have you discovered the truth of
Jesus’ words for your life, and isn’t it about time you did?
Amen