#winning #engine
Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
[engine] What is your engine?
What drives you? What makes you get up in the morning? What drives you to do what you are called to
do?
[bus] Do you know who this
woman is? Sister Simone Campbell. She might be most famous for her work with
the Nuns on the Bus, and she wrote a memoir by the same name. She is a woman religious of the Roman
Catholic Church, a lawyer and the Executive Director of NETWORK. Her call is to Advocate on behalf of the poor
in public policy and society in general.
I heard a story recently, told by Sister Simone. She was in a room with a group of top
executives. They were talking about how
they were going from a 10 million dollar per year salary to 11. And Sister Simone asked them, as probably
only a nun can do, “Help me understand, are you having trouble getting by on 10
million dollars per year?”
She wasn’t being sarcastic.
She wasn’t trying to trouble them, though I doubt she would have minded
troubling them either. She sincerely
wanted to understand what the reason was for making such large amounts in
salary on an annual basis, especially knowing that there are many people in the
country who can’t make ends meet.
And this is what they said: “Oh, No, Sister Simone, it isn’t
about the money. I just want to
win!”
I just want to win.
Well, that’s understandable.
Very few of us go play a game with the intention or desire to
lose. I think it’s fair to say that we
can all understand the objective of winning.
We like it when our team wins a game.
We like it when our hard work is recognized with a prize. We enjoy knowing we got top marks. And we can’t all win. Winning it about being better than someone
else. It just is, that’s the definition
of winning.
In fact, it has come into use now that when someone is doing
well at something we just say “winning!”
(Maybe with a hashtag on the front). [#Winning] To denote anytime
someone is feeling successful from the choice to eat ice cream for dinner, to
the celebration of life circumstances – we are Winners. We are Winning!
But the question that Simone Campbell asked next was this…
What if we found a measure for winning that wasn’t so toxic as to have such a
small percentage of people in our society with such an enormous amount of
wealth? Could we still find a way to Win
that isn’t about creating a huge disparity of wealth in this country (not to
mention the world)?
That is a great question, and one I would love to help answer
as a Christ-follower. But this story isn’t
about the money. Even for the CEO’s.
The way Sister Simone Campbell tells it, it is about finding
what drives a person. What pushes us,
what motivates us to productive work – what is our engine?
In today’s Sacred Story, Jesus says there is goodness in work
– in work that glorifies God, “My
Father is still working, and I also am working.” I believe
these CEO’s are doing good work. At least I want to believe the best of
them. That even if their work can’t
possibly be worth their salaries, it is necessary, helpful, inspired effort for
good in the world. Possibly even
God-given work! Using their gifts of
leadership, creativity and excellence.
And what the story tells us is that for the CEO’s, what
drives them is not the money,
it is #winning. [engine winning slide]
What about you and me? What drives us?
For those in the middle class we
may be motivated more by just #keepingup.
[slide]
Or by #security #safety
#gettingagrip #barelyhangingon… [slides]
But according to God there is
another option. According to Jesus, we
can be driven by something else. [engine
– question]
As we ask ourselves what our engine
is… maybe it would be helpful to ask… what’s God’s? What is Jesus’ engine? What drives God to act? To involve Godself with us, mere humanity? To continue engaging over and over
again? To continue giving more and more
of Godself?
You read this a couple of weeks
ago, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever
believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him!”
[engine - #Love] God’s engine,
God’s drive, God’s motivation to keep going is LOVE, a particular kind of love,
God’s engine is GRACE [engine - #GRACE].
God is fundamentally about a willingness to sacrifice for the good of
all God’s people. For all of
creation! God is driven by an attachment
to the community. We see the existence
of community even within the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God cares so deeply for you and for me and
for US, the he died that we might have life, and came “Not to condemn the
world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
God is driven by grace to give us
the gift of LIFE. That is what Jesus is
doing here in this story. He tells the
man, you don’t have to race down into the pool to be healed. I’ll heal you right now. Jesus says, I have come to give you LIFE that
you might have it abundantly. Jesus
says… “I’m here to tell you this, I only do what God does. I am only driven by God’s drive, God’s engine
of Grace. God the Father raises people
from the dead and that’s what I came to do. I came to give you LIFE. I give life to whomever I wish! It’s a free gift! And it’s true! Anyone who hears my word and believes God who
has sent me… anyone who does that already HAS the eternal life I am giving.
This is the life of that living water the woman received last week. The Life of living in trusting relationship
with the God who is always faithful. And
with people who are living that Life together – this is the beloved
community! This is the Life I came to
bring!”
This life.
The life that matters so much more
than the death you are living. The death
the CEO’s live when they “need” another million dollars to proven they have won
the game. The death of trying to be the
first – for that’s what the man that Jesus healed was doing by the pool, trying
to be the first in to get the miracle healing.
The death of #Winning at the expense of someone else #Losing. Because that’s not God’s definition of
#Winning. God’s definition of a #Win is
when We All might have abundant life. In
fact, he says so a few chapters later, chapter 10. And there is a clue to it here. When Jesus says to the man, “Do not sin” he’s
talking about the man’s denial of Jesus, denial of the source of the Life he
has been given. This is how the gospel
of John defines sin – as denial of God’s good gifts.
And so Jesus says to the man, and
to Us…the death you are living now… you have to give that up. Whether it is the death of taking more than
your fair share, or the death of self-preservation and security and keeping up
with the neighbors, instead of loving them.
All of these are the death of sin, the death of denying that God is
here, now, handing out new Life!
This is what Jesus came to do. To get us to die to that stuff. To redefine our understanding of
#Winning. To give us Real, True
Life. Abundant Life.
Tell me this. What would you die for? [wait for answers] What is more
important than dying?
· Quality of life
(hospice)
· Children’s well
being
· Peace on earth
· Respect and
honor… (Hamilton)
THAT
might be the Life Jesus is giving away…That IS the Life! The Life that is for you and me and US
together! The life that is lived only in
the beloved community, where we are woven together as the body of Christ. The life where we pick up our mats and leave
behind the death we have been living. The life where we are driven by Love for
our neighbor, Driven by Grace.
…Let’s
redefine #Winning. [engine - #winning]
Amen.
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