"ONLY HUMAN"
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 28)
November 19, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
[Man's] days are determined, and the number of his months is with You and You have appointed His limits that he cannot pass.
Job 14:5 (ESV)
Many years ago my brother had a friend in high school who was so good at playing football that he was actually scouted and recruited by a professional football team. (As a matter of fact, I could be wrong because it was so many years ago and I was quite young, but I believe that the team in question was the Pittsburgh Steelers.) In any event the young man went to a training camp, but the story had a frustrating rather than a happy ending. You see, the people who had recruited him thought that he had a lot of potential as a defensive lineman, but he insisted that he wanted to be a quarterback. (Now my brother's friend was never really noted for his superior intelligence or his strategic thinking.) The end result is that a possible career of fame and fortune went by the wayside. Nobody today knows or cares who Jimmy Moore is or could have been, and it's probably all because of his own stubbornness.
A lot of times we're like my brother's friend: We insist on doing things that we are not able to do while at the same time we refuse to do the things that we can do. This happens in spiritual matters as well as in the other aspects of life. And if you're skeptical about what I'm saying, just try keeping track of how often you or the people dear to you use the expression "If only . . ." "If only I had a little more time, I'd get more involved in my church and community." "If only I wasn't so tired, I'd finish raking those leaves." "If only I was a little younger, I'd seriously think about going back to school and getting that degree." "If only I could sing, I'd start a choir." All of these "if onlys" are our subtle way of refusing to acknowledge the realities that I don't have a little more time, I am tired, I'm not a little younger, and I can't sing. The saddest thing about all of this is that we concentrate so much effort and energy on bewailing what we cannot do that we ignore what we can do. In an attempt to remedy this situation, let's listen to what God's Word has to say to us today about our limitations and our potential--especially in spiritual matters.
No doubt the biggest spiritual limitation that people have a hard time coming to grips with is the reality that they cannot save themselves. Everything that we are exposed to in this world of ours (except for the Gospel of Jesus Christ itself) tells us that we have to do something to earn our keep--that we have to pull our own weight--that we have to prove ourselves. All of this may indeed be true in our day-to-day living in the world (and all of this may indeed need to be said clearly and often in our present carefree and complacent society), but it has no place in the matter of our relationship with God. We cannot save ourselves, earn our keep, pull our weight, or prove ourselves before God--and anyone who tries to do so is only wasting his time and effort. If we think that our worship and prayers, our efforts at serving the Lord, or our monetary contributions are going to influence God in terms of how He looks at us, we may as well say and do nothing, because all we're doing is spurning His grace and telling Him that we'd rather do it on our own terms.
Unfortunately, even after the Holy Spirit convinces us that we can't save ourselves and that Christ has already done that for us freely, we still often think and act as if it's up to us to convert people and conquer the world for Jesus. One of my seminary professors used to find it quite amusing each fall to see the new class of seminarians arrive on campus all motivated to change the world. "I know it's hard for you to believe," he would tell them in perhaps a not-so-gentle manner, "but the Holy Spirit has been converting people with Word and Sacrament long before any of us arrived on the scene, and I suspect that He will continue to do so long after we're gone." His point was that we all have to stop taking ourselves too seriously. It's not you or I who bring people to faith in Christ; it's the Holy Spirit. Our task is to make use of the means of grace through which He works. He alone brings about the results--we can't. This reality is both humbling and comforting to us. While it is humbling to realize that it is not in our power to convert anyone, it is also comforting to know that, when we share the Gospel with someone and they reject it, that doesn't mean that we have failed. We have failed only if we neglected to share it at all.
But instead of dwelling constantly on our limitations, it would serve us well to take a better look at our potential. No matter how limited we may be, the power of God to forgive us and transform us is strong enough to overcome our limitations. In His Son Jesus Christ God has subjected Himself to our limitations and has overcome them all. I may feel that I am worthless, but God said that I'm worth the perfect life and the innocent suffering and death of His incarnate Son. I may feel that have no potential, but God said that I have great potential by sending His Holy Spirit into my life when I was only three weeks old through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. To find and realize our potential as children of God we need to stop dwelling on ourselves and on what we do; we should think instead of what God has done for us and still can do for us and for others through us.
Our potential is to live before God as His new creation--redeemed by the blood of His Son and sanctified by His Spirit. Our potential is to be the kind of "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1) that Saint Paul wrote about in Romans, refusing to be intimidated by our limitations, but instead looking at everything that we are and have, acknowledging it all as God's gift and using it to the glory and in the service of the One who gave it. This is by far the best way for us to give thanks to Him for all of the undeserved blessings that we have received from His gracious hand. And it can be done because it is not we who do it but God Himself who does it in and through us.
As we're so fond of saying when we are criticized, we're only human. As such, we are limited in our lifespan on this earth, in our abilities, and especially in our spiritual powers. In the face of all this, I find it useful to remind myself of certain things every day. For one thing, I remind myself that since I have no control over how long my life on earth will be, I'd better not worry about it, but concern myself instead with how I make use of whatever span of life the Lord gives me. I also try to remember that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached long before I preached it and will continue to be preached long after I'm gone, because the Holy Spirit has and will use all of God's people to do His work. Above all I remind myself each day that Jesus lived and died and rose again for me, giving me the privilege and the responsibility to let the whole world know what a difference that has made in my life. I am confident that that difference can be seen in all of Christ's limited but sanctified people, so that in them and through them God may proclaim His glory and His redeeming love in Christ.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.