Sermon - October 18, 2009

Self Denial
Philippians 2:1-11, Luke 14:26-27

     Last Sunday we remembered how to breathe. Breathing is the most common and universal activity of all humankind. It is common because we breathe all the time, most of the time without thinking about it. It is universal because all people, no matter what their age, position, or condition in life have to breathe in order to live. Breathing has a rhythm: inhale, exhale. Just as breathing is an essential rhythm to our physical life, there is an essential rhythm to our spiritual life: like inhaling and exhaling. We inhale God’s grace, love, and power through surrender. Surrender is like the vertical beam of the cross signifying our relationship with God, our source of life. Today we will look at the horizontal beam of the cross, our relationship with others, through self-denial.
    Our relationship with others has no meaning apart from our relationship with God. And our response to God is made manifest through our relationship with others. The Apostle John stated it very clearly in his first letter Chapter 4:20.  He writes, If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. The love of God we gift one another is demonstrated through our self-denial.
   Two friends went together to a church potluck. There was plenty of food and a wonderful variety. Both friends loved pecan pie. But by the time they came through the line, there was just one piece left. Sonja grabbed it. Terry looked a little disgruntled, but said nothing. When they sat at table, Sonja noticed Terry looking down with a grimace. “What’s the matter?”  Terry couldn’t keep it to herself. “You took the last piece of pecan pie, and you know how much I like Emmy Sues pecan pie.” Well, said Sonja, “If you were in my shoes, what would you have done?” Terry looked Sonja with soulful eyes “Well I would have let my best friend have that last piece of pecan pie.” Sonja answered, “Well, there you are, you should be happy then, you got what you wanted!”
  Self denial, it’s one of the hardest things we do as people. It is the most natural thing to take the want, work for, and take the best for ourselves: the biggest slice, the greatest advantage, the first place, and the last chance. And depending on how well practiced we are, how hardened we’ve become, we don’t mind someone doing without so that we can get ours. It is difficult to surrender to God, and it is just as hard, perhaps even more so, to deny ourselves for the sake of another.
   Motherhood teaches self-denial. The infant cries in the middle of the night, an exhausted mom gets up from a dead sleep to feed the baby. The child’s hunger takes precedent over her need for sleep.  Fatherhood teaches self-denial. On a picture perfect Saturday morning Dad would really like to be out on the links polishing his golf game. But his son’s pitching for his little league team. Self-denial is not just doing without, like foregoing the calorie laden desert, or that extra helping of mashed potatoes. Self-denial is choosing to forfeit your rights, for the needs or good of another.
    Jesus teaches us self-denial by example: Philippians 2: 6-8 Who , being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!
   Jesus at birth was as much God as He was human. By right, Jesus could have done anything He liked, been anyone He liked, and do anything thing He liked to anyone. But, for the sake of God’s love and will, He forfeited those rights, laid His glory aside, and submitted Himself to total surrender, total obedience to God, total conformity to God’s will, under the limitations of human flesh, and the humble heart of a servant. This is the ultimate self-denial, that Jesus, who was by nature God, suffered agonies of flesh on the cross, and a cursed death, for our highest good: salvation. He chose us over Himself.
   Little acts of kindness manifest a heart surrendered and self-denial. St. Mary’s, my husband, John’s, church and Emmanuel United Methodist, the church where I served my internship were back-to-back and shared an alley. We had good friends in both churches. It was a rainy thawing March night. I was looking for the Lenten services being held at John’s church. My friend Susan, parish director of that church greeted me, and told me everyone was at the parish school. “I’ll walk over with you.” She grabbed her coat, and the two of us walked across a very wet, cold melting parking lot puddle from end to end. We got to the door, and it wasn’t until she turned to go back that I realized, Susan had gone out of her way to walk with me, and, she had walked through all that wet muddy, with open toed shoes.  Self-denial.
    Watchman Nee tells of a Chinese Christian who owned a rice paddy next to one owned by a communist man. The Christian irrigated his paddy by pumping water out of a canal using a leg operated pump. Everyday after he pumped enough to fill his field, the communist would remove some boards that kept the water in the Christian’s field and let it flow down into his own field, so that he didn’t have to pump. 
   This continued day after day. Finally the Christian prayed, “Lord, I’m going to lose all my rice, maybe even my field. I’ve got family to care for. What can I do?”  The Lord put a thought into his mind. The next morning he arose much earlier, in the predawn hours, and started pumping water into the field of his communist neighbor. Then he replaced the boards and pumped water into his own rice paddy. In a few weeks, both fields of rice were doing well – and the communist became a Christian.
    Self denial frees us to think not outside the box, but outside of our selves, to address and meet the needs, hungers, and longings of others. Self- denial frees us to value other people, their dreams, and plans, as important as our own.  When we forfeit our rights for the good of another, we are free to love people unconditionally, because we no longer need to demand that they love us in return.  Self-denial frees us from always having our own way, and being angry or bitter when we don’t get our way.
    As a determined, persevering, (that’s a euphemism for stubborn) person myself, I often need to be reminded of 1 Corinthians 13: 4-5 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
  Spouses think about that. How often do we purport to our loved one, that our way is the way it needs to be. Yet loved does not insist on its own way. Self-denial is critical in marriage as it is in every relationship if we are bound to Christ.
   In fact, Jesus uses tough language to emphasize our prime relationship is first and foremost with Him. By comparison, no earthly relationship should compete against our relationship with God through Christ.  The Jewish community centered on their worship of God and their devotion to family. The words of Jesus fell harsh on their ears, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes even his own life – he cannot become My disciple.  Jesus is not saying “despise those you love,” but rather, love me first, be my disciple, and I will show you how to love them as I love you, with a far greater, sacrificial love. Self-denial frees us to love with the love of Jesus which embraces many more persons than we would love on our own.
  An applicant was seeking an appointment to be a missionary.  At 3:00 one cold dark morning he walked into an office for a scheduled interview with the examiner of a mission board. He waited until 8:00 am for the examiner to arrive.  The examiner said, “Let us begin.  First, please spell baker.”
    “B-a-k-e-r,” the young man spelled.
     “Very good. Now, let’s see what you know about figures. How much is twice two?”
    “Four,” replied the applicant.
    “Very good,” the examiner said. “I’ll recommend to the board tomorrow that you be appointed. You have passed the test.”
     At the board meeting the examiner spoke highly of the applicant and said, “He has all the qualifications of a missionary.  First, I tested him on self-denial. I told him to be at my house at three in the morning. He left a warm bed and come out in the cold without a word of complaint. Second, I tried him out on punctuality. He appeared on time. Third, I examined him on patience, I made him wait five hours to see me, after telling him to come at 3:00. Fourth, I tested him on temper. He failed to show any sign of it - he didn’t even question my delay. Fifth, I tried his humility. I asked him questions that a small child could answer, and he showed no offense. He meets the requirements and will make the missionary we need.”
  The test Jesus administers to be His disciple, is simple: Carry your cross.  He tells us how in Luke 9: 23, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  It’s a three step process. The first is “deny yourself,” make room for Christ and the whole world He came to save. The second step is take up your cross, God’s will for you as opposed to your will for yourself. That will put you in the proper position to take the third step, follow Christ. Follow Jesus’ lead. Follow Jesus’ life.  Follow Jesus’ heart. 
   Friday while I was at the Christian Bookstore looking for a way to spend my 33 percent off coupon, I saw a book with an intriguing title: The Year of Living Like Jesus by Edward Dobson. That same night there was a special on TBN about this man and his book, and another man who likewise set out to live like Jesus. Dobson is a minister. The other man was an agnostic. Dobson suffers from Lou Gehrigs disease. The other man is healthy. Both men said it was impossible. Dobson said because Jesus was God, he had the advantage. Yet for both men, the experience was quite extraordinary, but for Dobson particularly so, because in the midst of his debilitating illness he found unshakeable peace.
   There is only one Jesus, only one Messiah, Christ, Son of the living God. We are not asked to live as He lived on this earth, walking about wearing long robes, eating figs and abstaining from pork. But God does call each of us in Christ to live for who we are, redeemed, in relationship with our living Lord, through surrender to God and self-denial with one another.

 

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