| June 29, 2008
You are welcome to reflect on this message
I couldn’t wait to get to church today, because I get to tell ya’ll how to be happy! That’s the good news. The bad news is you’re not gonna like it! Like that young man who ran up to Jesus, “Lord, what must I do to be happy?” “Sell all you have and give to the poor.” He went to the right person, with the right question, and got the right answer. But he didn’t like what he heard, so “he went away sad.”
The pursuit of happiness is an elusive one because poverty and wealth have both failed. Still some continue to tie happiness to success. Or the day they win the lottery; or winning anything. Everybody loves a winner. Especially the winner! But the “Best of the Breed” didn’t always win. Yet he had something on the inside that the world couldn’t give or take away. But a whole lot of folks think happiness is being pretty, lucky and wealthy. So how come we see all these miserable millionaires trying to fill the empty void in their lives with things? I guess we can never get enough of what we don’t need to make us happy. Experts say only 20% of Americans are happy. That’s because making it the object of pursuit is a wild goose chase! Counselor’s offices bulge with happiness-seekers, longing for guidance from having been “sinned-against.” Scapegoating our parents or the past to explain an unhappy present. Going through life justifying “that’s why I am the way I am.” Is it an excuse or a reason?
Then there are others who would be happy to change those around them. And make themselves and everybody else unhappy because of those who don’t live like they live, do what they do or don’t do, value things they value. They allow those who are different to block their happiness. So they get even by trying to manipulate others into self-clones. Spouses try to makeover their mates, kids trade in their inept parents on more improved models. Churches even expect everybody who attends to be like those who’re already there. Our world is obsessed with happiness. But it’s full of depression, mental illness and suicides. Modern American ideology says to be happy is to be rich, (financial). Or change our circumstances (geographical). Or change everybody else around us (control).
Jesus is standing on a hillside overlooking the Galilee, addressing a crowd with simple but contradictory ideas: relating happiness to poverty not riches, mourning not winning, meekness not power, mercy not exclusion, purity not corruption and peace not vengeance. “The way to be happy,” said he, “is to depend on God, show some compassion for others, have some integrity in relating. Happy are those who know they don’t know it all; who stand for what’s right and accept the consequences, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That’s it? I told ya’ll you wouldn’t like it! As soon as he blessed the poor, Jesus set himself against the most universal religion on earth: faith in mammon. And he goes against the grain from there on, with his revolutionary Rx for happiness. I understand why folks don’t like it. Jesus’ happiness has nothing about money or geography or getting your way. It’s not in military glory, because Alexander the Great conquered the world at the age of 33, but wept over having “no more world’s left to conquer.”
Jesus believed happiness is a choice about what we pursue in life. And that means anybody can be happy, depending on their aspirations and attitude. Jesus channeled our desires God-ward: “Go and sin no more!” “Love God with all your heart and you neighbor as yourself.” Make your life count. The happiest people I know are striving for those things:“...who hunger and thirst for the right way to live, not how much I can accumulate or produce. This is strong medicine for a shallow culture that idolizes appearances, and notoriety. Ask Elvis, who had it all, but died of an overdose at a young age.
To a “me-first-society” that preaches “look out for #1,” Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.” Not “Blessed are the wusses!” It takes a strong man to die for what you believe. Jesus' understanding of meekness was not mousiness. The way we say to be happy is not the way he said to be happy. Our happiness is tied to what we possess. His happiness was linked with what we pursue. It doesn’t mean we always get what we want. But I’ve seen happy people whether they got what they want. It may come as a surprise but God isn’t the least bit interested in us getting what we want. Only what we need. Listen to our prayers. We seek comfort. He offers risk. We expect protection. He gives support. We kill for power. He preferss servants. We seek happiness first. He seeks the kingdom of God first. Prioritize that, and “all these things will be added unto you.”
Another aspect of Jesus’ take on happiness is where we center our lives. He had a way of getting at the heart of things. “It’s not what goes into a person that defiles us, but what comes out of the heart.” “Man looks on the outward appearances. God looks on the heart.” “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The world centers happiness on impossibilities, like a problem free life, prestige, status, looks. You can see it all on “American Idol.” Or “American Idolatry” if you can stand to watch it. It’s all about the things we idolize, sensationalize, publicize, prioritize. Mostly it’s about what’s in it for me?
And here comes Jesus, “Go into all the world and teach all nations!” The exact opposite. I told you you wouldn’t like it! How could Jesus equate poverty of spirit and mourning with heaven? Our image is pearly gates and golden streets! Angels all around. No more tears. And us at the right hand of God in power! Just like the Zebedee boys, ol’ James and John, sons of thunder, wanting to call “fire down on Samaritan heads!” Jesus said the happiest people are those who care for somebody; not wipe ‘em out; who have empathy for other people’s pain, frustrations and failures. And society goes, “Who needs that? I’ve got more than enough on my own plate.”
Jesus also talked about happiness in relation to character. He said you’ll be happy if you have integrity; if your word is good. Anybody can say the right words, but can you be depended upon to back up your words? Unhappy people are those no one can trust. “Blessed are you if your heart is pure.” For Jesus, quality life has its roots in honesty. Open about ourselves, genuine with others, truthful with God. Because he stood for what’s right regardless of the outcome. We don’t see much of that anymore. Today its how are my polls looking? But when the personal stakes are high, where do you stand? When you stand to lose for standing where you stand? That takes character. Ours is a happiness...the pursuit of which makes us unhappy! Coming to church ought to improve our character. The low attendance might say something about a dearth of character in American society. That has become so embedded in our way of life, I’m not sure what it’s going to take for us to get it right. But I know this much. You can’t happy by trying to be. Happiness is a by-product of being right with God. My guess is, if we’d quit trying to be happy, we’d have a pretty good time!
The world says do “whatever it takes” to be a happy person. Jesus says do whatever it takes to be a good person. You can be happy Jesus’ way even if you’re hurting; or stinging from injustice. One of my buddy’s said recently: “I don’t trust happiness. Have you ever noticed when your cup of happiness is full, somebody bumps your elbow?” Waiting for the axe to fall makes it hard to trust happiness. So a lot of Christians today prefer Moses’ way to Jesus’. Moses’ had those 10 handy commandments for happiness. It’s much easier than Jesus, because it’s about keeping the rules. The rich man who came running up to Jesus “kept all the rules from his youth up.” But he wouldn’t follow Jesus. Moses gave us rules to keep. And Jesus got crucified for breaking the rules! Standing for something better. He had integrity and joy in the midst of suffering and a quality of life that death couldn’t touch.
Yeah “Beatitudes” sounds like “platitudes.” But don’t let the rhyme fool you, so that we treat them like platitudes that becomes our popular form of happiness; which is to be young enough, well enough, and have money enough—and not care a whit about other people. But the minute you lose any one of those three, then it’s impossible to have our popular kind of happiness, that I’m afraid a lot of Christians present as “Christianity.” Sermon on the Mount happiness doesn’t come with a change in circumstances, but in spite of circumstances, because Jesus offers us a changed life. It’s the difference in giving someone a fish and teaching him to fish. A change is circumstances might make us happier, but a changed life will make us better, because it makes us like Christ.
Two final thoughts. Plan like you’ll live forever. And live like you’ll die tomorrow. Plan on living forever, because you will, somewhere. And live like you’ll die tomorrow...because you will, sometime. Hopefully later rather than sooner, but life’s too shore to go through it unhappy. So my advice is you better have some fun and have it now...for we may not even be here tomorrow.
Pastoral Prayer (6-29-08)
Wordly success only confirms our superstitions and makes us easy prey for the easy-believism and simplistic solutions that never solve. Duped into believing our illusions that we can be blessed by trying ways other than your vision of life for us, we keep fooling ourselves theologically, by imagining wealth, power, and possessions are signs of Thy approval. We try to keep the rules as a way to earn our happiness on earth and our place in heaven. That’s the way that makes sense.
The way that doesn’t make sense is Jesus “blessing the impoverished, the meek, the persecuted.” Those are “blessings” we’d just as soon do without. Still, Thy bounties overflow around us daily. For the health we enjoy, our families and friends, our church, a true Rhode Island lighthouse spreading Thy word to all who “hunger for righteousness.”
We remember the “poor in spirit,” who realize their dependence upon Thee, who long to be among Thy people but are physically prohibited from quality life. We pray for “those who mourn” among us with fresh holes in their hearts over recent losses of their loved ones, and those who grieve the harmful conditions of this world. Grant us the character to absorb the blows of life without blame or bitterness.
In Christ, you have shown us the wisdom that is true, the goodness that is pure, the power that is absolute and the treasure that “neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.” Accept our gratitude for all these blessings in the name of Jesus, whose promises we trust and whose teachings we strive to follow. Amen. Back |
