I may not be cut out for classical Lenten preaching
because I just can't shake my fist at society
and condemn it.
I can’t judge our contemporary culture
because it’s
made up of vulnerable struggling people
just
like you and me.
We are all doing the best we can.
But I do feel sad about it.
I feel sad because people are just not as happy
as God wants us to be.
The world is in a bad mood.
People are so irritable, honking their horns at each other,
complaining
to the homeowners association about their neighbors,
demanding to
speak to a sales clerk’s supervisor.
Even in church, we hear carping and griping
about things
not being the way we want them.
Happy people don’t do that sort of thing.
Unhappy people do, and that’s how they spread their
unhappiness around.
Our pervasive irritability seems odd,
since modern
technology has invented so many things
to
keep us happy and entertained.
We are first and foremost consumers.
And consuming is supposed to make us
happy.
At least that’s what marketers tell
us.
Americans ought to be just giddy.
The average American consumes as much
as 32 Kenyans,
but
the thing that puzzles me is this.
I’ve been to Kenya.
They are poor, dirt poor.
But we aren’t any happier than they
are.
In fact, I suspect we may be less
happy.
I worry about this in the church
because
our culture is shaping our religion
far
more than our religion is shaping our culture.
So naturally, for most Americans in
our consumer culture,
religion
is a service industry and we expect to be served.
We want the church to meet our needs
and make us happy.
So churches take surveys and change
the prayers, the menu,
the
service schedule, and the theme of the sermon
all
to make people happy.
But the harder we try to satisfy
ourselves,
the more frustrated we are when we discover
that
we still aren’t happy.
So, irritably, we try to figure our what’s wrong,
what
needs fixing, and -- most importantly -- who to blame
for
our discontent.
If we aren’t happy, it must be
someone’s fault.
Sometimes another religion has a
different way of saying
something
we also believe – but hearing how they put it
helps
us understand our own religion better.
Buddhism teaches that there are 6
realms of being.
A realm of being is a basic attitude,
like
a constant mood, a personality type,
a way of being in the world.
One of them is called The Hungry
Ghost.
Think of a ghost shaped like Caspar.
Only he’s got an enormous belly that
wants to be filled.
But he’s got a tiny little mouth that
can’t take in enough.
So he can never have enough -- never
enough.
He always feels hungry.
In Psalm 78, the Israelites in the desert
complained
that they were hungry
so
God miraculously produced food for them.
But verse 30 says,
“They
did not stop their craving
though
the food was still in their mouths.”
50 years ago the richest man in the
world
was
an American oil tycoon, J. Paul Getty.
He once gave an interview,
and the last question the journalist asked him was this,
“Mr.
Getty, you have more money than anyone.
But
here you are, still wheeling and dealing.
How
much money do you need? How much is enough?”
J. Paul Getty leaned forward and answered, “A little
more. A little more.”
I am not judging us.
I am saying this is a sad life.
We can’t even savor what we have.
We can’t enjoy it.
We guard it.
We are afraid someone might take it
away from us.
God wants something better for us
that to live and die
as
hungry ghosts,
still craving though the food is
still in our mouths.
God wants us enjoy our lives and have
a sense of purpose,
a
feeling that we matter, that we’re not just
bottomless
pit consumer addicts
manipulated by the dealers of the market.
Lent is an exercise is getting free
from bondage to our own craving
whether
the craving is for food, money, love, or spiritual joy.
Lent is an exercise in not trying to
get more for ourselves,
but
instead discovering the joy giving ourselves away.
We all come to God, and we all come
to the Church,
to
get our needs me.
That’s natural.
Starting there is fine,
but
staying there is a huge problem.
The problem is this paradox.
We can never get our needs met
as long as we are trying to get our needs met.
We are stuck in a double bind like
Groucho Marx
who
said, “I would never join a club
that
would have somebody like me for a member.”
When we abandon that project
and
give ourselves over to God’s mission,
our
needs suddenly become
far more manageable.
They almost go away.
Our human understanding is trapped in
the wrong-headed assumption
that
we can find peace when we have enough,
but
enough is always just out of reach.
When we forget our needs and give
ourselves to God’s mission,
we
discover the peace of God
that
surpasses human understanding.
When Jesus went to the desert to
figure out his life,
Satan
tempted him with all different forms of consumerism.
“Have some material goods, have
power, have some fame and glory,
have
some power.
Surely those are the things that will
make you happy.”
But Jesus passed on all those things
we strive so hard to get.
He chose the cross instead.
He chose to give his life for us
instead of playing the consumer game
of
“get it while you can.”
Remember when JFK said
“Ask
not what your country can do for you.
Ask
what you can do for your country.”
Before that Winston Churchill said,
“We
make a living by what we get.
We make a life by what we give.”
As long as we live our lives trying
to get enough to make us happy,
even
if it’s enough religion, we only get more miserable,
irritable,
and morose.
It’s when we live our lives
surrendered to God’s mission,
that
we discover to our surprise, we have enough.
We already have all we need.
Lent is an opportunity to rethink our
lives, to rethink all our relationships,
especially
our relationship with the Church.
It is an opportunity to take up our
cross, not by suffering but by serving,
and
discover a happy, meaningful life
has
always been right there for the asking.
