Invested

Invested

Intro

Well let me start off things this morning the right way. To all our Mothers out there - a very happy Mothers day! And as always I feel compelled to qualify motherhood. After all, inclusivity brings us closer together and closer to the God who died for all people.

So to all the women who have birthed, fostered, adopted, taught, mentored, coached, looked out for, befriended, or otherwise loved another; to the mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, wifes, best friends - to all those women who feel led to love another person and help to guide and protect them to help them become what God intended them to be - Thank you! We are so very grateful to have you in our lives, and so very blessed to be able to celebrate you today. And I pray that continues every day. Happy Mothers day to you all.

But with this day comes a responsibility for me. An opportunity to help us all to see what makes mothers so great in the hopes of applying that to our own lives! And today I want us to do just that. So before we get going, take a moment in silence to remember all those women who have helped to bring you to where you are today.

Know that there in that silence, you can choose to become a little more like that picture of them in your mind. And in choosing, you will become a little more like Christ. Because to be a mother, is to choose to love beyond self.

Let’s turn together to our scripture today. It is from 1 Corinthians 9, verse 19-27. But as a point of reference, I want to read this first part mainly for context, and honestly partly because it helps my sermon last week!

1 Corinthians 9:19–27 ESV

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Scripture - 1 Corinthians 9:19-27

Pray

[boxers beating the air verse]

What makes a mom? A mom is gentle. Loving. Forgiving. Patient. Kind. They are a child’s first role model. They carry with them a burden that it is likely the rest of us will rarely encounter in this life. But that burden comes with the prize of knowing that love which only they can know.

But if I am asked, honestly asked, what the qualities of a mom really are, I would say this. Moms are and do all the things that don’t come naturally to us as humans.

A great mom isn’t like a boxer beating the air. No, they don’t do all of that for no reason! And not only that, they have to constantly train to be ready for the race of raising a child up in this life.

That is, in part, what Paul is speaking about here. Christianity is just like motherhood really, at least at it’s core. And Paul here is reminding us that everything we do - or better put - everything we are SUPPOSED to be doing isn’t for no reason. It isn’t useless. It isn’t like we are training for a fight that isn’t here! We are going through these motions just to LOOK like Christians - at least we aren’t supposed to be doing that.

So he uses this image to draw attention to that fact. How silly it would be to act as if you were a fighter, but never actually fought? What a waste of time it would be to think you were training for something that you knew would never happen! Like running aimlessly or just beating the air.

But that imagery, that symbology, it can water down our meaning here. And that is something I hope to leave with you all. Metaphor can be a powerful tool. But metaphors without a core meaning aren't nearly as powerful. So whenever we read scripture and see this type of imagery we must do our best to faithfully reduce it to what the author is getting at.

And for me, Paul is talking about something that we as Christians are supposed to be, and that all great mothers are - at their core.

[invested]

They are invested.

Now what do I mean by that? Well I don’t mean financially invested - although they surely are. I mean something more meaningful and deep than that.

You see, mothers don’t just let kids grow up. Growing up isn’t even the point is it? No, they want their kids to learn how to function in this world. And not just to function but to thrive in the world that they will be one day released into! To learn how to run the race of life, of faith, of everything! Not just to fight the air, but to fight with their souls and desires so that they will do the right thing for those around them.

So this game of life, for the mother, is bigger than just showing up every day and just being seen. It’s bigger than saying your are a mom but showing no concern at all for the children in your care! It is bigger than claiming motherhood but then acting as if you were single and had no children at all at home! Spending all your money and energy and time on things that are completely antithetical to all the things that mothers would want or do!

Being invested means that you beat your body into submission, making it your slave. It means that you make changes to your life to become the thing you are called to be.

Maybe to make the point a bit clearer to all of us, not just the mothers, I can say that other bit again but change “mother” for Christian.

So in our faith, for the Christian, it is bigger than just showing up every Sunday and being seen. It is bigger than saying you are a Christian but showing no concern at all for those Christians and other people around you in your care! It is bigger than claiming to be a Christian but then acting as if you were like everyone else in the world, with no call or purpose! Spending all your time, energy, social capital, and resources to fit in with ideas, groups, or things that are antithetical to Christ!

[motherpic]

Being invested in being a mom, just like being a follower of Christ, isn’t easy. It isn’t just putting on a cross or listening to music. It is making the old self a slave to the new.

Further, it doesn’t allow us that luxury of not being invested in the world around us. It doesn’t give us the freedom to just add the “idea” of motherhood or being a Christ follower or even of calling but then to just continue to live within the paradigm of whatever life we want to live - as if EVERY SINGLE THING WE SAY AND DO AND EVEN THINK DOESN’T HAVE UNBELIEVABLE REPERCUSSIONS IN THOSE WHO SEE US!

Just think about that. Mother’s can’t just do whatever they want, right? They can’t do it because if they do, they won’t raise the child they want to raise. They won’t prepare their children for the real world - for life that demands us to think for ourselves while thinking of others. That demands morality and responsibility. That isn’t focused so completely on self!

Although, even saying that, it is easy to see the results of that in this world. Not of bad mothering, mind you, but of people being raised in something - a family or or raised in faith - but being taught that it is all about self. My wants. My desires. My rights.

It’s funny, if we would look at faith this way, we would see so clearly what needs to be done to fix things. We can’t go on making life or faith about ourselves just as we can’t raise multiple children thinking they can all have what they want when they want it with no regard to the others. When we do that in faith and life, we allow everyone to shape God the way they want to and in so doing we make a God of ourselves. We create God in our minds - a god that loves us and our point of view and all we do so much that He ordained all of history to conform to OUR image of God in the world!

Surely when I say it you can sense how wrong it is. But that is what we do. We don’t let God be God, even when we don’t understand it. We don’t train in faith or struggle with scripture - we wrestle opinion from others on the internet or in the media so that faith lines up with what we want to do anyway!

We run aimlessly as if there was no goal in mind! We have stopped disciplining ourselves so that we can instead discipline others! Or at the very least, passive aggressively do so in order to gain social capital or to reinforce our mistaken positions. Just imagine a mother acting that way! Imagine a mom telling other people how stupid their kid was for thinking about some random point differently? Going to a group of friends and telling them how stupid their kid is because he doesn’t understand quantum physics yet. I mean he’s 3 already! What’s the problem?

They wouldn’t, at least they wouldn’t if they ever would hope or want to be one that helps create a functional and mature adult.

But Paul is making a bigger point even than that. You see, it isn’t just about what we say - although we desperately want it to be. It is about who we are deep in our core.

Verse 27 drives that home. I discipline my body to make it my slave, SO THAT AFTER I HAVE PREACHED TO OTHERS, I might not be disqualified. AFTER I have taught. AFTER I have spoken! AFTER I am no longer you mother, or father, or pastor, or friend! AFTER this life for me and you is long over, that OUR LEGACY OF LIFE AND WHO WE ARE AT OUR CORE might be found to be in Christ and to have been beneficial to the world around us.

[i learned it from watching you]

Some of you all remember this commercial. It was about drugs, and because we can be overly literal, we thought that was ALL it was about evidently.

But for those who don’t remember, it was about this dad who found some pot in a cigar box, which in an of itself should have been a real sign for him. But that’s neither here nor there. But he finds it and gets angry, obviously, and demands to know what child or where his son could have learned to do such a thing!

To which, the son responds as you see. I learned from watching you.

Church, I have a real truth you need to hear today. The only way to train them, is to train ourselves. Your example, the way you live, and the way you think and the way you act is what is teaching the world around you. It informs how they react to you and how they treat you. It is the race in which we all find ourselves, and the one for which we must train.

There is an old song that we probably all know that talks about that idea. And it is one that I think gets it wrong as much as it gets it right.

Be careful little eyes what you see. Be careful little eyes what you see. For the Father up above is looking down with love, be careful little eyes what you see.

And how true that is. We must train ourselves to do the right things. BUT AT THE SAME TIME - how wrong it is to defer the responsibility of that training. Be careful loving mom what you show! Be careful loving Dad what you do! BE CAREFUL CHRISTIAN WHAT YOU SAY! WHAT YOU DO! WHAT YOU VALUE!

You see great moms get it! Great Christians get it! Great people get it! We train our lives to run a race. And the prize at the end of that race isn’t for us! JUST AS THE PRIZE FOR CHRIST WASN’T FOR HIM! It is for EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO SEES US RUNNING IT!

[RUNNING THE RACE]

AND THAT RACE REQUIRES US TO CHANGE! TO BECOME THE NEW THING WE ARE CALLED TO BE! NOT TO ADD BEING A CHRISTIAN TO WHAT WE ALREADY ARE ANY MORE THAN MOMS ARE CALLED TO ADD HAVING A CHILD TO WHAT THEY WERE DOING BEFORE!

This race we are running, this calling we profess, it means that you lose yourself. Sorry not sorry. If who you are now - AND I MEAN IN THE CORE OF YOUR BEING AS IN YOUR HABITS AND DAY TO DAY LIFE. If who you are now is the same as who you were before faith then you aren’t running the race. You are on the sidelines acting as if you are running.

Moms know that. They know there is no time to act as if they were a mom! They know that a life depends on their being able to sacrifice and teach and lead another towards the goal!

And church - THAT MUST BE US TOO! WE MUST BE INVESTED IN OTHERS AND IN THE LIFE GOD SETS BEFORE US! AND THAT LIFE BRINGS WITH IT A CALL TO LOVE AND HONOR ALL OTHERS AROUND US! No matter their gender, sexual practices, race, politics, generation, habits, or anything else we could come up with! Church, we are all the same. We are all runners in this race of life. We are all a child of God. THAT MAN THERE BESIDE YOU, HE IS YOUR BROTHER! THAT WOMAN WITH A VASTLY DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW, THAT IS YOUR SISTER! WE ALL SHARE THIS EARTH, THIS HOME OFFERED BY GOD IN THIS MOMENT, AND SO WE MUST TRAIN OURSELVES - WE MUST BEAT OUR BODIES AS OUR SOULS INTO SUBMISSION SO THAT WE WOULD STOP LIVING FOR SELF AND FOR PROFIT AND FOR OUR FALSE CREATED GOD, AND BEGIN TO LIVE FOR THE TRUE GOD SO THAT WE MIGHT NOT MISS OUT ON THE PRIZE! A LIFE THAT BRINGS GLORY TO HIM AND NOT US! A LIFE THAT EXUDES HIS SPIRIT! A LIFE THAT REFLECTS HIM IN ALL WE ARE, ALL WE THINK,ALL WE SAY, AND ALL WE DO!

That is why you change! Why you sacrifice what you want to do. Why when you look at someone different and feel that urge to not love and not bend towards them and open up the door to God to them - that is why you do it.

[pic of mom]

Just as a mom. Ask her why she does it. Why is she kind? Why is she gentle? Why is she patient? Why is she always there? Why does she sacrifice what she wants for what you need at that moment? Why would she protect you when you don’t think like her or act like her or want what she wants?

Because she loves you. She loves the thought of you. She loves the idea that you exist and that you will one day create someone else who is just like you.

So too, we must love the world around us. Not for the idea that the world will be like us, but BECAUSE IT WON’T! Because it will be just what God wants it to be - just like a child is to a Mom.

My wife is with her mother today, and I am glad for that. Not just because her mother deserves that - which she does - but because I don’t think I could say this if she were here. Church Samuel isn’t ours. There is no hormonal connection to him through child-birth or even psychological connection created through the idea of blood connectivity. There is no biological connectivity to him there to be had.

But church, I have watched my wife treat him EXACTLY like she treated Olivia and Daisy. There is no difference at all. And I am perfectly sure she isn’t any different from most other moms out there.

The capacity to love another - and I mean to truly and deeply love, not this game of words and social pretense we have made loving another out to be - the capacity to deeply and genuinely love another lives in us all. It isn’t guided by biology or genetics or even uniformity of thought. It is guided by - and ultimately limited by ourselves alone.

Kate loves Samuel, as do I, knowing that one day he may decide he wants to know his biological parents more than us. He may despise the things that we love. He may view everything differently from us in this life. But still we will love him. Still our lives will forever be open to him, and bound to him. He will always belong to us in our hearts.

So we will train to run the race set before us. We will invest in him as in our other children. And that church is Paul’s message here. Invest. Invest. Invest. Not in self or for self. But invest in what is best for another for find God. And to find it in everything you do.

Church, that is you. That is the entire point of public faith. Evangelism has become this thing we do to convince others to believe in God, and often it is more used as a tool to figure out if someone thinks like us and therefore can be our friend. But public faith, evangelism if you will, is really the result of the life lived. The result of your investment in the world around you - not to change it, but to become a part of it just as it is! To love people where they are. To find common ground in all things. To realize that we are all on the same team. At the end of the day, you can say all the words you want to say, but your life says it all.

It is that way with children, with students, with friends, with the world. So invest in the world. Run the race, church. Not for recognition. Not for friends. Not for social standing. But to attain the prize of having led the world around you with the example that mothers offer us everyday. The example of Christ. Of love beyond borders and boundaries. Of radical inclusion. Of an actual trust in God for all things. Run that race, if only because that is the race that God is at, waiting for you at the finish line.