Legacy Left Behind

1 Samuel 3:1-10

John 1:43-51

Feel free to reference the links above. The message has little to do with the Scripture passages, they simply exemplify God's calling.

All of us seek purpose, meaning, significance for our lives. We all would like to leave something behind after we’re gone. Something unavoidable that we hope everybody in the world will recognize we accomplished in our short time on this earth. For some the building of that legacy may occur through writing a book, for others achieving the status of Dr., for others many years of faithful service to a prestigious organization, for others discovering something grand that will help the people of the world, and for still others perhaps by having children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. Whatever it happens to be, all of us in some way would enjoy it if future generations would look at our accomplishments and be impressed.

One problem many of us have is getting started. I mean, what field could I really leave my mark in? Well, I can’t make it as a professional athlete and I’m not good enough at science things to cure any diseases, hmmph. Where to even begin? Many of us start on one path and end up on multiple others before we find one that we can excel at and feel comfortable in and good about.

As I looked at the readings posted above, I saw people being called away from their lives to a new life, dedicated to serving the Lord and following Jesus. Perhaps a similar change has happened in your life?

While I’m not old enough to worry about not leaving a legacy behind quite yet, I think it is similar to the teenage angst of thinking I am never going to amount to anything.

I am well versed enough in television to see both of these as major concerns to many people. Can’t you just hear a high-schooler almost yelling I’m never going to amount to anything? Perhaps you’ve heard it from your kids, or perhaps you’ve yelled it yourself. This is a recurring theme on my newest craze of a TV show Lost. Indeed I could probably find a moment where every single character truly wondered if they would ever amount to anything great.

Perhaps some of you are sitting there saying, well, I achieved something great, I’ve left a decent legacy, so then another question becomes what do I do after I’ve achieved that great thing, after I’ve left my legacy. Do I promote the great thing? Do I try to do something even greater? Do I sit back, relax and revel in my accomplishment?

Well, for an example of this, we’ll have to look to another TV show of a different genre than Lost, my all-time favorite show, Seinfeld. This episode is called: the Frogger. In it, George (the stocky balding man with a temper) rediscovers his one truly great accomplishment, a high score on the arcade game Frogger from his old high-school hang out spot. Upon realizing that this record has stood for better than 20 years, and knowing that the place where it sits will soon be shut down, George decides his legacy must live on. He decides to buy the Frogger machine and keep it for himself. He soon realizes (thanks to Jerry) that he won’t be able to simply take it home, once he unplugs the machine, the scores will all be lost and his legacy deleted. So George comes up with this crazy ingenious plan to move the Frogger machine without losing power. And that’s where we begin the clip.

Seinfeld Season 9 - The Frogger 18:45-20:32

Despite all of George’s plans things go wrong, the battery is dying. But he sees the road and the machine and realizes that his entire life has been leading to this one moment. He was born to do this. He had been called to do it. And he fails. His Frogger machine, his pride, and his legacy are all destroyed by that truck and George is left with nothing.

Have you ever felt that way about something you felt called to do? Like it had been destroyed? Perhaps its destruction was a good thing.

It reminds me how the disciples must have felt after Jesus death, before his resurrection. They go back to fishing, what they knew before. Their legacy with Christ, they’re great thing gone. Their leader crucified. They’re left with nothing. But Jesus, unlike George’s Frogger machine isn’t destroyed. Death could not hold our Savior. He rose to life again. And His legacy lives on unto eternity. Amen.

Performance Review

Mark 1:4-11

From the reading in the link above, we will be focusing particularly on these words. “And a voice came from heaven “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

These words from God the Father to God the Son, Jesus Christ show the Father’s approval of and delight in His Son’s life.

Whether we admit it or not, we all seek the approval of somebody in our lives. Whether we’re seeking the approval of our parents, kids, professors, peers, siblings, spouses, friends, enemies, bosses, co-workers, employees, and yes we also tend to seek approval from God.

I think ultimately, all of us would rather have approval and compliments than disapproval and insults.

So what would people say about you? If you had to have a performance review of your life, what would they say? Joe has led a pretty ok life? Sally has been atrocious? Matt is perfect? Maybe you don’t know what to expect.

Have you ever had a performance review? I’ve had a couple, they can be nerve-wracking, but for those of you who’ve never had one, I have a clip to show you from the best place to find a performance review, The Office,

Performance Review – 1:45-4:51

Now obviously this wouldn’t probably happen in an actual performance review. I hope and pray that people as ridiculous as Michael Scott aren’t managing any companies, but we see in Pam that she doesn’t know what to expect. The reviews from Michael can be erratic, unfocused, unpredictable simply because that’s who Michael is. It has very little to do with who Pam is.

I think that if I were being reviewed by one of my friends, peers or whoever that if they were truly honest, my performance review would be the same way, random, up and down, not very steady. And that would be because of who I am, not because of who they are.

How would yours be?

Raising the stakes a bit. If a voice were to come out of heaven and speak to the whole world about you, what would it say?

On one hand, it would probably say something very similar for all people, perhaps it would begin with, to paraphrase Romans 3:23 “For You have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Indeed that’s what it should say for me.

That’s the reality of life, we are all sinners and don’t deserve praise from our friends, bosses or God, but that Romans passage doesn’t stop there. It keeps going.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, AND all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Because of Jesus death and resurrection, we no longer need to fear the punishment for our sin. We no longer need to fear being unaccepted by God. God has accepted us because of what Jesus Christ did for us in dying and rising for the forgiveness of our sins.

So that voice that comes from heaven wouldn’t be a voice of disappointment. It would be a voice of approval. This is my beloved Son or Daughter, whom I love, who has been washed clean by the blood of the lamb.

And all this not because of who you are, but because of who God is. Not because of what you have done, but because of what God has done for you. Amen.

Traitors Welcomed as Crew

Have you ever been tricked or deceived by somebody? To me it’s typically only happened as a joke, there was the time Billy put my favorite coffee mug in Jello this summer, it was only on Monday that my older brother called me. His wife is pregnant and they had their first ultrasound appointment Monday morning. He called to tell me there were two heart beats…I fell for it like an idiot, getting excited for the prospect of twins and he simply laughed and said, just kidding, only one. He then proceeded to call my mom to try the same line on her.

Being deceived is no fun, even when it’s a joke. Yes it can be funny, but for the most part, it leaves us as the deceived feeling gullible, silly and just plain stupid. What happens when the stakes are higher?

The story of Judas betraying Jesus is well known to many of us. Judas, for 30 pieces of silver, hands Jesus over to be arrested, put on trial, beaten and eventually die via crucifixion. Judas however, did not see such things. He hanged himself when he realized what he’d done.

Hopefully in our lives, we won’t be faced with life or death situations of betrayal.

A brief explanation of the clip you're about to see. Firefly is a show that follows around the crew of Serenity, a spaceship of the Firefly class. They are a group of smugglers, thieves and other interesting professions. Two of the more interesting characters are Simon and River Tamm, a brother and sister. Simon is, well was a doctor, and a very good one. River was held captive by the government because of her amazing brain powers. Simon’s job throughout the entirety of the series is to try and cure River and keep her safe. They are fugitives with quite a hefty reward for their capture. Tempted by the reward money, Jayne Cobb, the ship’s muscle man, attempts to betray Simon and River for the payoff.

Jayne’s attempt doesn’t quite work. All three of them are captured Jayne has to help Simon and River escape and the ship’s captain, Malcolm Reynolds helps to save them as well. Through all of this, nobody knows Jayne’s act of betrayal. He thinks he’s gotten away with it scot-free, but well, you’ll see what happens.

Clip...(It would help to watch the entire Firefly episode of Ariel.)

Jayne betrays Simon and River and isn’t honest about it, but we as the viewer (if we’d seen the whole episode) know what he did, even if none of the other crew members do. Simon in fact thinks Jayne was the hero of the day, and tells everyone so.

Mal, however realizes what happened and turns the screws on Jayne. This scene is one of the most defining for Mal. We know from previous episodes that he takes care of his crew no matter what, but we see perhaps a glimpse of why in this scene. As the conversation goes:

Jayne: “What are you taking this so personal for? It ain't like I ratted you out to the feds.”
Mal: “But you did. You turn on any of my crew, you turn on me. But since that’s a concept you can’t seem to wrap your head around, you got no place here. You did it to me Jayne and that’s a fact.”

It’s very similar to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-46, especially verses 44 and 45.

Jesus takes all of us in as his crew, even the least of us. We are valuable to him, valuable enough to die for. We don’t know why he loves us so, but we know that he does. This love is reflected in Mal for his crew. No it is not a perfect love. It is not Godly love. But we see how he takes ownership of his crew and when they feel pain, he feels pain. When they rejoice, he rejoices. When they are betrayed, he is betrayed.

Thanks be to God that Christ has taken ownership of us.

We don’t choose our own crew. We may not even like our crew, but they are our crew and so we watch their back and we love them. Our crew is the Body of Christ.

It is unclear to me if Mal was planning on actually letting Jayne die.

Or if Jayne’s repentance may have moved Mal to let him live.

Or I suppose it is possible that Mal knew the repentance was coming and was just waiting for it…

In this scene, Mal once again lives out his own words from an earlier episode Shindig “Mercy is the mark of a great man.” Jayne deserved to be treated like a traitor, but Mal treats him like crew.

It is the same with us and Jesus. We deserve to be treated like traitors, like sinners. We have done nothing to deserve God’s love. We’ve only done things to deserve his wrath, hatred and punishment. But God treats us like his crew, like his children, like his friends because of Jesus death and resurrection.

Jesus takes that punishment we deserve and is treated like a sinner, like a betrayer, so that we God’s creation might be treated like Sons and Daughters of the Heavenly Father.

That is indeed how we are treated, being gifted with eternal life in death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This clip reveals a certain beautiful balance of Law and Gospel. Mal lets Jayne know the truth: that Jayne’s actions are unacceptable and are worthy of death. That is the Law at its best. But it doesn’t end with Law. It ends with Life, with a second chance, with forgiveness, with precious Gospel.