Scripture | 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NIV)
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Do Good, Feel Good Christmas – Dig Down
Pr. Thanael Certa-Werner
Today we’re continuing our sermon series looking at switching the way we look at Christmas. Last week we began talking about how Christmas is more than a single day, a week, or even a season. Christmas is an awakening in which the entire world gets to participate. As we explore this awakening, we’re looking past the normal Advent scriptures and exploring the world of Cornelius in the tenth chapter of Acts. We explored who Cornelius was as a person, and looked at the essential shift he made from feel good, to do good. We talked about how Cornelius looked around at the Roman culture which surrounded him – and was constantly chasing after whatever felt good – and decided that it wasn’t enough for him.
This week, we look at how the shift from feel good to do good means more than just changing a single part of our life. But before we get to far, let’s practice our memory verse for today!
Memory verse: Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. -Psalm 34:14.
In college, I was a part of a bunch of classes which focused on what it meant to be a leader in today’s world. More than that, they focused on what it means to be an effective leader in today’s world. In one of those classes, we were reading a book which had a study. Now I won’t give you the name of the book quite yet, because it would give away the answer, but can any of you guess what the number one thing was that leaders needed to have from the people they work with in order to be effective leaders? What if I told you the book’s name was “The Little Book of Trust?” You guessed it! The most important thing that a leader can receive from those they lead is trust. In fact, trust is so important that this entire class was almost solely on it! Throughout the class, we discovered how trust is built and how it is maintained. One of the most important things when it comes to trust is living out, at all times, what you speak about. In other words, if you talk the talk, you better walk the walk! No matter if you are alone or in a room of a thousand people. That idea is actually what we’re talking about today. Not so much trust, but living into what you talk about or say you believe.
Let’s turn back to Cornelius. Just as a reminder, Cornelius is a centurion, meaning the commander of 100 troops. He’s a man who is living in and is a part of the Roman culture. Roman culture is one which values feel good, and they chase after it at all costs. Last week, we talked about how Cornelius looks around and isn’t satisfied with this constant chasing after feel good, so he makes the shift to do good, seeking after God, the One Who is Good. Now it is all well and good that he has decided to follow Jesus and seek after God, but remember the culture in which he is living. He’s not living in the United States or any western country in which no one would even care that he has decided to change religions. Roman legions and the Roman army were incredibly superstitious. Each officer had a patron god which would grant protection for the troops and to turn away from them could mean that the gods allow for your troops to be overtaken. Worse yet, the Roman Empire was only a few years away from the reign of Nero, and emperor who would persecute the Christians with a zealotry never seen after his reign.
In view of all this, it only makes sense that Cornelius would hide his new found faith. But listen to what happens in Acts 10:30: “Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”
For such a small section of scripture, it says a lot about Cornelius’ approach to faith. Firstly, we know that he takes time out of his day to pray regularly which is an outward sign of his faith. But he could do this in private. Something he could not do in private, however, was his follow up on God’s call on his life. God calls for Cornelius to send for Peter. This is crazy because that would mean using Cornelius’ own men AND publicly inviting Peter – a well known follower of Christ – to his house. In other words, God is asking Cornelius to publicly proclaim his faith and we see earlier in the chapter that he does.
This is a challenge that many of us face when it comes to our faith. See we have levels in our lives. We have our public lives, our personal lives, and our secret or intimate lives. Each person has a level which is easiest to have our faith on. For some, it is easiest to put their faith for all the world to see in their public level. Others are more comfortable with their faith on a personal level. And still others will only be comfortable with their faith on the most personal, intimate, secret level. It is perfectly normal to have a level which you are more comfortable with, but the problem comes if we allow for our comfort to determine where our faith resides.
For example, if you’re comfortable with living out your faith only on the public level, your faith will never affect you and become shallow. It’s from this kind of faith practice that people go to church because they want others to think they are good people or because it is just the thing you do. On the personal level, you may have a connection to your faith and share it with your family or friends, but if there is no proof in your public life, it can be just as damaging as only having faith in your public life. And on the intimate level, if one keeps their faith solely to themselves it is missing something entirely core to its being. Faith without works is dead. In all instances, faith on only one level is a lot of talk and very little walk.
For Cornelius, it was surely more comfortable to keep his faith on the intimate level. That way, his life would never be at stake and his family could be safe. But he chose to dig to other levels. He chose to have his faith be not just on a level that was comfortable for him, but on his personal and public levels too. Many of us know how hard it is to move beyond our comfort zones. For some of us, it is so hard that it feels morally wrong. Many people argue that faith should only reside in certain levels because it is not appropriate for it to be in public, or it is too zealous and unseemly to have an intense intimate faith. This is what our scripture text for today is addressing.
In his first letter to Timothy, Paul uses money as a great example of what we’re talking about. He commends us to not just follow what the world defines as correct or moral, but to instead seek after God. Paul calls upon us to make the switch from chasing after feel good, and dig deep to do good. In other words, the call on our lives is to no longer accept that our faith must confined to one level of our lives. To seek do good drives us to deepen our faith to other levels.
This week, our challenge is to dig deep, to move beyond the level that we are most comfortable with and let our faith, and our seeking after do good, move to other levels of our life. It can be hard to allow this to happen sometimes because it feels counter cultural or uncomfortable. So, Paul gives us the reason why we need to do this. He says, “In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” In other words, when we allow our faith to be a part of every aspect of our lives, when we chase after do good – when we chase after God, we take hold of the life which is truly life.
Amen? Amen.