Sermons In Time

How Wide Is Your World?

Hebrews 12:1-12

One of the most difficult problems in the time in which we live is expressed in the play, "Andersonville Trial", from the book Andersonville. It is the story of Andersonville prison in the south during the Civil War. In that awful place, with too many soldiers and totally inadequate facilities, there were many people who grouped together to save each other's lives. They survived by helping each other.

But in the midst of the prison was one person who lived only unto himself. He was always out front to make sure that he got anything that could possibly come to him. He cared about nobody else. The prison inmates called him "Number 1." He was always looking out for himself, and had a sadness with which he pursued that "number one attitude" and finally lost his life. It is an interesting commentary on the inappropriateness of a problem which is ours today: Of those who are thinking only what they can get out of life, and never really interested in what happens to others.

Some years ago I was doing some personal Bible study, and I came across a passage which clicked in a new way. I took out a piece of paper and wrote: the Original sin: "What's in it for me?" To be concerned only about ones own interest is to enter into sin in the most basic and ultimate way.

Little did I realize how true that little piece of paper was going to prove to be throughout the years of ministry. I have been reminded of it many times. In Peer Gynt, the Ibsen play, there is a scene in an insane asylum, where a visitor asks, "People must truly be outside themselves here aren't they?" To which the caretaker replies, "Outside themselves, Ah, no, it is here that men are most themselves. Themselves and nothing but themselves. So, if they want to be somebody else,they just be that person within, whether it is a Napoleon, or what have you. They are themselves and nothing but themselves, filled in a cask of self, and sealed with a bung of self. They have no interests outside their own little world.

They may have great wealth, they may be totally miserly. On the other hand, they may be protective from the world, sealing themselves into their own world to protect themselves from the onslaughts of the world all of us have to face. To be completely self-absorbed, to think only of what we can get out of life is to be ill spiritually, mentally and emotionally.

One only has to be reminded of the deadly sins of the ancient world. Envy, gluttony, pride, lust, greed, sloth, avarice, to realize that these are deadly not because they deal with wrong emotions or actions alone, but rather that they deal with the normal needs of the human life, gone insatiable. One cannot get enough of any of them, and it is then they become deadly. We have to learn to be temperate in all things. In each of these deadly sins the thing which destroys the person is the absorption of wanting more - getting everything out of life for themselves, without any concern for anyone else.

Some time ago I was visiting with a young man about his new car. He was telling about how much it meant to him, and how he loved it more than anything else, and how he liked to drive it around. I asked him whether he was taking other kids to school in it, or running errands with it, or letting others ride in it to meet their needs. In each case he said no. Well, he wasn't that bad off yet, but I did ask him later how it felt just to have it unto himself and he said, "Pretty lonely." When he uses it only for himself it becomes pretty lonely. When he shares it with others, that really makes it worth a lot more to himself and others too.

It is really a delightful experience to share who you are and what you have with others.

This kind of attitude may seem strange and distant to us today. We may not see ourselves so completely wrapped up in ourselves that we couldn't have time or energy for anyone else.

It was Edna St., Vincent Milay who wrote:

" The world stands out on either side No wider than the heart is wide.

Above the world is stretched the sky No higher than the soul is high

The heart can push the sea and Land Farther away on either hand

The Soul can split the sky in two

And let the face of God shine through

But east and west will pinch the heart

That cannot keep them pushed apart

And he whose soul is flat the sky

Will cave in on him bye and bye

So the question becomes, "How wide is your world?" How inclusive is your world? Who all do you include in it?

There are two very good ways to check that for each one of us. One is just to simply sit down with the week we've just lived and ask ourselves how we've spent our time. What have we done? How much of the energy we have spent this week was spent just to earn money just for ourselves? How much time was spent in doing things that were strictly for us? How much of our time was spent with and for other people? It becomes important for us to have conversations and visits and meals with a lot of different people to keep from becoming a too narrow kind of person.

Just the other day I had one person who has struggled with their life a lot recently say, "I just don't want to give up. I want to stay involved with others. If I quit, it will destroy who I am." And this person is struggling with a severe physical condition.

Another question important to answer this question is, "How did you spend your money?" What did you use it for this week? Where did it go? Some of it was spent on lunches and gasoline, some spent on buying for the house, some for presents, some for bills. But the question is, "How much for someone else?" Or rather, How much have you seriously thought about including someone else in your life, and in your values? It's the kind of question I've been looking at in terms of the congregation, and I'm thoroughly convinced that it is the kind of question that's very painful for me to look at as far as our own local budget is concerned.

I had a lady once reflect with me about the church budget. She asked, "What would happen if we gave to others before we gave to ourselves?" I think it is a good question. As we complete this year, I must admit we came within 5000.00 of meeting our conference goal. But, we still aren't there. I really hope that we can keep the focus beyond ourselves in the year ahead, and show to ourselves that we are able to include others in our financial world in a totally significant way.

In Hebrews 12, the writer gives an invitation to put our lives into perspective. He is saying, you and I are part of a great cloud of witnesses, a lone and faithful line of people who have lived creatively, wholesome, useful lived, and have contributed much to who and what we are today.

We are invited in that context to live our lives equally well. Not unto ourselves alone, but faithfully unto God and to the community of life around us in this whole world. There is a sense of relationship to that which has gone before which is humbling, and a sense of responsibility to the future which is challenging.

Two weeks ago I read an African adage which has haunted me. We are not those who have inherited the world from the past. We are those who have it on loan from our children and the future.

Sometimes we forget that we are those who express our gratitude both ways: For those who have lived well before us, and for those who will follow after us. There are many things we want to share for the world forever: wisdom, values, a sense of belonging, a sense of worth, truth, beauty, goodness. These are things which do not exist except as they are shared from person to person and from generation to generation.

It would be my prayer at the close of this year that we would look at the world around us, and become more fully aware of our relationship to it, and faithfully engage ourselves in the living of life on a wider plane. It would also be my prayer that we would experience life in a new depth as well, and know the riches of a closer walk with God, a slower and more thorough experiencing of our neighbor, and a sense of the intimacy of our life together in order to push the sky back, and let the face of God shine through. amen.

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