Worthy Living

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
September 21st 2008

“Worthy Living”
Ps 105:1-6, 37-45; Phil 1:21-30
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller

With a title like “Worthy Living,” you could expect that this morning we will talk about how to be more worthy followers of God. Using the term worthy with Presbyterians can lead us to some misguided interpretations. It can be like saying: “You better live a worthy life if you want God to love you, you worthless worm.” It is an enterprise almost doomed from the start. However, given Paul’s words, and the words of the Psalmist, worthy living has nothing to do with somber, joyless living. When Paul writes to the church in Philippi to live their lives in a worthy manner he is after something different. Living in a worthy manner is our calling to live a life that is worth living. It is a call to live authentically as God’s people, without the masks and pretences which seem to permeate our lives.
Now, that is not particularly deep. After all, I could have come up with that simply walking down the self-improvement section at Barnes and Noble. Nor is what I am saying part of the long line of Christian ministers who, though well intentioned, teach that God will give us whatever we want in life. Contrary to much of that teaching the God we serve is not a divine ATM machine. Instead, I believe Paul’s call to live worthy lives is about living authentically as a disciple of Jesus.
Before I say more about that though let me put some things in context. Christian and other self- help gurus are not a new phenomenon. In fact, as I read Paul’s words I was reminded the ancient words of Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” It is an age old human question rooted in our innate need to make sense of our lives. Our Christians heritage is full of a great cloud of witnesses which have all sought similar answers to the question of authentic and worthy living.
Who are we? Who is God? These questions are often the driving force of such examination. Living worthy lives has something to do with our search for the knowledge of God. The quest for the knowledge of God, a hunger to know God and experience God more fully is our driving motivation. The African theologian, St. Augustine had a short prayer which summed up this well: “Lord, that I may know Thee and that I may know myself.” Later, John Calvin, echoing Augustine, said that there could be no knowledge of self without the knowledge of God. In other words, a hunger to know God more fully is a hunger to know ourselves. Living worthy, means a holistic and integrated life. In other words, we are charged to; ‘keep it real.’
One of the risks of seeking to live and integrated life is that it will become an excuse to look inward and to indulge our selfish wants and desires. To avoid this pitfall we must follow closely the witness of the bible. It begins, in the words of the psalmist, with remembering. Remember! Remember what God has done bringing the people out of slavery, providing for them in the desert places and bringing salvation for all in Jesus. In order to live with authenticity we remember what God has done and know that God can be trusted.
Unless we take time to step back and reflect upon our lives – what we do each week- we will forget that God is a God who provides in the wilderness places of our lives. Unless we take time to reflect and remember we become susceptible to those who claim faith in Jesus is a roadmap for personal gain. Paul reminds us to remember the faith we have in the crucified one. And because we also know the empty tomb, we are able live authentically as Jesus’ disciples.
While it is the way of joy, living authentically, keeping it real, is not always easy. The truth is that, like the church in Philippi there will be struggles and even suffering. As a result there is the temptation not to follow the path of our spiritual ancestors. Instead, the temptation continues, we can choose to simply exist, going through life without much thought as to the meaning and depth in our lives. But the truth is that this way of living is in fact, a living death. It is for this reason that Benjamin Franklin quipped: “Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.” I will give you a minute to catch that. In his book Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer writes of his long struggle to live a life-worth-living – an authentic life. He says speaking of his struggle to let go of living death:
As long as I clung to this living death, life became easier; little was expected of me, certainly not serving others. I had missed the deep meaning of a biblical teaching I had always regarded as a no-brainer. “I set before you life and death, blessing or curse. Therefore, choose life” I had failed to understand the perverse comfort we sometimes get from choosing death in life, exempting ourselves from the challenge of using our gifts, of living our lives in authentic relationship with others.
Living worthy lives, living authentically is about getting in touch with our God given passion. It is not about becoming perfect. When we begin living worthy lives we will find a real freedom. It is a freedom that allows us to put aside the pettiness which takes up our days, or the grabbing for that next thing, or the clinging to those things which are of no significance in the long run. When we stop trying to fool everyone else and simply choose life it is only then will we really be on the journey to live a; life-worth-living. Amen.