Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : October 17, 2004
Who Do You Want To Be?
Pentecost 20
Andy Warhol said several decades ago that everyone should experience 15 minutes of fame. Unfortunately, statistics would tell us that of the more than 6 billion people on the face of the earth right now, not many of them will enjoy 15 minutes or even 1 minute of fame. During our lifetime, I would tend to bet that we might hear 1000 names of famous people, so your chance of being famous would be about the same chance of you winning the lottery.
But if you did have a chance at being famous, who would you want to be? The best football player every to have played the game, like a Jim Thorpe? The best sprinter, like a Jesse Owens? A famous composer like Bach or Beethoven, or Bono? The most beautiful woman in the world, like Miss America? The most renowned scientist, like an Einstein or the one who discovers the cure to cancer? Maybe you'd like to be president of the U.S., the most powerful man in the free world. Or the richest man in the world like Bill Gates. It sure would be nice to be known for something, so that people could just mention your name and suddenly a vision of who you are or who you were would pop into their minds. But that probably won't happen. And maybe that's just as well. Many of those who become famous let that popularity go to their heads. And, after all, being famous isn't what this world is all about anyway.
It's certainly a good thing that God tells us in the Bible what we should be known for—being a follower of Jesus, a believer, and heir of eternal life. That's what really matters. That's what we should want to be -- a believer, righteous by faith and living by faith.
The Apostle Paul had a lot of things he could point to that showed he was famous -- from a prestigious Jewish family, studied under the most famous Jewish teacher at the time, Gamaliel. He became a teacher himself, and excelled beyond everyone his age. He was already great in the eyes of the world and was destined for even greater fame -- until Jesus changed everything. After he came to know Jesus, he considered all of that fame and prestige rubbish, garbage. What mattered to him exclusively was Jesus and following his will.
Paul understood finally what he wanted to be -- in Christ. All the great things he had done didn't get him anywhere with God except on an expressway away from God forever because he didn't measure up to what God expected of him. Paul was good, in his own eyes, but God demanded that he be perfect. You and I are in the same boat. Everything in this world -- fame, fortune, power -- everything will be gone. One day we will stand before God's throne of judgment to answer for what we've done. And no one can hide from God's all-knowing gaze. We will have nothing to bring with us on that day, except what we've done. At that time, we'll know how important it is to be known by Jesus as one thing -- a believer, righteous by faith in Jesus. And that's exactly what we are. "The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith" is what we are. We realize that we did nothing for our salvation, but that Jesus did it all -- lived how we were supposed to, died how we were supposed to -- to set us free from all our sins and make us right in God's eyes. When we stand before God some day, that's all that matters -- that God sees us as perfect because he sees Jesus' perfection covering us. God will know us as a believer, righteous simply by faith in Jesus.
But a believer won't want to wait until that day to let that marvelous fact be known. God knows already that we are his believers, righteous by faith. But what about others? Until that day when we stand before him, we will have other days, some people more, some people many, to let people know we are believers by how we live our faith.
William Shakespeare has the following epitaph on his gravestone in Stratford, England:
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
to dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
That is typical of what you might think would be on Shakespeare's tombstone. It is witty and deep poetry. That's what Shakespeare was all about in his life.
What will you be known for? I can tell you. After you're gone, you'll be known for the things you've done, for the person you were. And what will those things be? That's up to you. You can decide to hide your Christianity so that you won't be too embarrassed. You can make it difficult for people to tell that you are a believer so you don't have to be ridiculed for such an "old-fashioned" religion with old-fashioned values. Or, you could let people know exactly who you are, what makes you tick. You can let them know right now and for the rest of your life that you are first and foremost a believer, righteous by faith, and obviously living by faith as well. Amen.
