Your Future Self

Your Future Self Luke 13:31-35 Wayne Gretzky, one of the most famous hockey players from Canada, once said, “Most players skate to where the puck is. I skate to where the puck will be.” That’s why he was so great. He played to the future. Jesus’ ministry reminds us that we should align ourselves with God’s future, and put our future selves in charge. Now what do I mean by putting our future selves in charge? Imagine yourself 10, 20, 30 pounds thinner. Imagine having no debt. Or imagine having the ability to speak a foreign language. I’ve always wanted to learn sign language. Your current self, the person you are right here, right now, cannot achieve these goals. I can’t lose 30 pounds by tomorrow. I can’t be entirely debt free by Tuesday and be a sign language interpreter by Wednesday. But my future self could very well do it, if I applied myself. Your future self can do what you might like to do. We as a church would like to have had 50 people in church, today. Well that didn’t happen, but it could in the future, and the not too distant future at that, if we really wanted to do what was necessary to get there. So why not put our future self in charge? Why not play to the future. That is what Jesus was doing. Katherine Milkman is a behavioral economist. She looked at how daily decisions are affected by whether the current self or the future self is making those choices. For instance, Milkman explored how people buy groceries online. Has anybody done that over the last couple of years? We make orders from Sam’s Club quite regularly. Specifically, she has looked at what people order when they buy for next-day delivery, compared with what they order for delivery three days in advance. The current self buys for next-day delivery. The future self buys for three days in the future. She found that people spend much more money when they buy for immediate consumption, and they tend to purchase less nutritious food. “If you buy for rush,” she says, “you buy junk.” Your future self, on the other hand, buys whole grains and raw vegetables. When you make a plan to eat better in the future, you tend to buy food that will support a nutritious diet. We can decide to make choices with a focus either on the current day … or a future day. Put your future self in charge! Make a grocery list and stick to it. Pay down your debt each and every month. Spend 30 minutes a day exercising. Start learning something new. Some of us have been studying CS Lewis. It’s been quite a learning curve for us, but one we are sticking to, and learning. 2 The more certain the future is, the more determined you are to succeed, the more power it has. So, make the future certain. Give it power in your life. Put your future self in charge of your current, daily decisions! Jesus had an amazing ability to make choices from the perspective of His future self. When He was traveling toward Jerusalem, some Pharisees said to Him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you!” Why these Pharisees were warning Jesus, we don’t know. But regardless of their motivation, they are speaking to His current self. “Get away from here,” NOW! “Herod wants to kill you,” TODAY! That would make most anyone panic if we heard such a message. We would drop everything and run for our lives. But Jesus put His future self in charge. “Go and tell that fox for Me,” He says, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish My work.” Jesus has an agenda for what He is doing: today and tomorrow and the next day; cast out demons and perform cures. In three days, He’ll finish His work. Jesus has put His future self in control, not Herod. Jesus moves forward because He knows that His future has to align with God’s future. “I must be on My way,” He says to the Pharisees, “because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is a holy city, the site of Israel’s temple, but it is also a city with a history of violence toward prophets: Uriah and Zechariah were killed there, and maybe even Isaiah. Jesus knew that He, too, would die in Jerusalem. Soon after Peter made the bold statement that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus told him and the other disciples that He must “undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22). For Jesus, the future self was always in control. Remember, the more certain the future is, the more power it has. Jesus knew that He must suffer and be killed, and on the third day be raised. His power was only growing. His future was all the more certain. After stating His intention to travel to Jerusalem, Jesus offered a lament over the city, a passionate expression of sorrow. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” He cried out. “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Jesus knew that He would be killed in Jerusalem, but this horrible fate did not mean that He hated its people. Instead, He desired to show them His parental love and protection, along the lines of a hen sheltering her chicks in a time of danger. 3 Jesus showed them compassion, but the people turned away from Him. As a result, they would have to face the consequences of their choices. Then He predicted that they would not see Him until Palm Sunday, when a multitude of disciples would say, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.” Every step of the way, Jesus was focused on God’s work in the future. On good days and bad, this orientation gave Him fortitude, perseverance, urgency, resolve, and power. So, what is the message of this passage for us, as we make our way through the season of Lent? What would it mean for us to put our future selves in charge, as individuals and as a congregation? More than anything else, we need to live each day with a focus on both the cross and the resurrection, just as Jesus did. We keep the cross on the horizon by remembering that Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Keeping the cross in front of us means that we focus on service to our neighbors, following a Lord who said that He “came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). The American writer Jay Parini says that “Jesus never meant to establish a formal church with rituals and organized practices, to ordain priests, or to issue doctrinaire statements that formed a rigid program for salvation. Other than ‘follow Me,’ His only commandment was ‘to love one another as I have loved you.’” When we follow Jesus, we keep the cross in our future. When we love one another, we practice the same kind of self-giving love that Jesus demonstrated when He died for us. The cross shows us just how far Jesus will go to show us just how much He loves us. As individuals, we move toward the cross when we love each other with a Christ-like love. As a congregation, we focus on the cross when we measure our success in terms of feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, healing the sick, visiting prisoners, and welcoming strangers (Matthew 25:35-36). With the cross in our future, we are filled with great power. But the crucifixion is not the end of the story. Jesus moved from the cross to the empty tomb, from death to resurrection, and so can we. The path to the empty tomb is a journey to new life. When our future self is focused on resurrection, it is open to a makeover. Jesus “wished for us to experience a change of heart …” says Parini, “… a shift into a larger consciousness, a life-enhancing awareness of the mind of God.” When we keep the empty tomb in our future, we expect to be changed. This means becoming people who can forgive others because we have been 4 forgiven by God … who can welcome strangers because we have been welcomed by Christ … who can act boldly because we have been filled with the power of the Spirit of God. With a further focus on the resurrection, we know that nothing in all creation, not even death itself, “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). For most of us, a focus on the present day keeps us trapped in a narrow vision, like a horse with blinders on, seeing only what is right in front of us and having no vision of what might be ahead. But a focus on the day of resurrection? That opens up new possibilities. As individuals, we can act in ways that we never thought possible. And as a congregation, we can put aside our institutional worries and boldly share the grace, love, healing and hope of Jesus Christ. The ministry of Jesus reminds us that if we put too much focus on our current self, we hurt ourselves and our church. But what if we put our future self in charge, focusing on the cross and resurrection? Then we can love one another with sacrificial love, and experience new life. In this season of Lent, let’s keep our focus on the future that matters to Jesus. I’ll close with a true story. Now listen carefully for you need to finish the story. I trust you’ll know what to say. Here some years ago, within our lifetimes, there was a communist lecturer pontificating on the merits of the communist system. He paused before summing up. His large audience listened fearfully. “Therefore,” he said, “there is no God; Jesus Christ never existed; there is no such thing as a Holy Spirit. The Church is an oppressive institution, and anyway it’s out of date. The future belongs to the State; and the State is in the hands of the Party.” He was about to sit down when an old priest near the front stood up. “May I say three words?” he asked. … The lecturer, disdainfully, gave him permission. He turned, looked out over the crowd, and shouted: “Christ is risen!” Back came the roar of the people: “He is risen indeed!” They’d been saying it every Easter for a couple thousand years; why should they stop now? Let us live – to the future.