September 21, 2008

"Life Under New Management"

II Corinthians 5: 11-21

Sometimes we talk about time as if it were a commodity, something we can hold, something we can own. In our fast-paced culture, books and seminars on managing our time are increasingly popular.

Amazon.com offers 434 books. “Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity.” I want that one. “Eat the Frog: 21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time.” Some of you needed that one long ago. “Juggling Elephants: an easier way to get your most important things done.” Any elephants in the room?

Yet time really isn’t a possession, something we actually have. My mother used to ask me, “What are you going to do with all that time you save? Put it in a bottle?” What we do possess is talent and energy – certain abilities and the strength we need to use them. We don’t have time. We use it. What we manage is ourselves, setting goals, determining priorities, making plans and taking on tasks.

And for a disciple of Jesus Christ, for Christians, “self-management” is really about being managed by our Lord and Savior. So the question is simply this: “How can we make our days and hours count for him?”

The apostle Paul wrote letters to several early church communities to teach and encourage them in the things of faith. In II Corinthians 5 he walks us through a theology for practical living that we can apply to the faithful use of time. Verse 17 offers the important central theme for us. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, you are a new creation; the old has gone, the new is here!” When anyone accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that life is under new management.

If you asked pastors or members of a church, “What is your ministry all about?” you would get some predictable answers. Most would say, “We’re about loving God and loving people… or, we’re about reaching up and reaching out.” Some would say, “We preach God’s truth to set people free… or, we teach eternal truths in contemporary ways.”

If I asked you what your life is all about, what would you say? “I’m about loving and honoring Christ my Savior; caring for my family; working to make money to provide for our needs; enjoying the things and experiences of life that are enjoyable?” A personal life-purpose statement is a good thing to think about, write down, and work with.

Pastor Craig Groeschel in an emerging church in Oklahoma writes this: “Here’s the way I look at it. If a Martian came to visit earth… (Work with me, okay?) Let’s say this is a CSI Martian who’s come to investigate your church (or your life). (Still with me?) What would it think you’re about? Would it say, ‘That church or that human is all about someone named Jesus?’

In II Corinthians 5, Paul shares both negative and positive motivation for faith in Jesus Christ and the desire to live for him. First, he writes, “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade people…If we are ‘out of our mind,’ as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.”

The Bible word for fear is most often the Greek word for phobia and it is used mostly as a response to God. Anxious dread or even terror is meant by the word. Isaiah wrote, “The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread” (Isaiah 8:13). But it also describes trust in the awesome God who saves. David sings in Psalm 22, “In the congregation I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him. Revere him, all you descendents of Israel.”

Here Paul shows that fear can be an essential part of faith. Fear of divine judgment drives us to accept, receive from Jesus Christ, forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation. As a church and as individual Christians, to live for Christ is to be concerned for others. Knowing the fear of the Lord, “we try to persuade people.”

When our son Mike was 8 or 9 years old, Dottie and he got into collecting baseball cards. Card shows at the mall were fun to walk through. Purchasing (even “investing” in) whole unopened season sets became essential to these collectors. But then the 1994 baseball strike dealt a fatal blow to their enthusiasm. The cancellation of the World Series reduced the entire ’94 season to a meaningless string of exhibition games. We felt cheated. Major League Baseball became quite phony to us. Hitting and home run records along with the championship Word Series always gave meaning to the regular season. Now it seemed the meaning was gone.

The Bible is clear that a Judgment Day is coming that will give meaning to life, the life of the church and the life of individuals. God will call every thought, word and deed into account. Everything we do matters to God. And without Christ, we would fall under the righteous wrath and just judgment of the Lord. People without the Savior will go unsaved. Those without Jesus Christ will perish. “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade people.”

The apostle Paul also gives us positive motivation for this life under new management. After reaffirming the meaning of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, he spurs us on. “Christ’s love compels us… And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”

II Corinthians 5 calls us back to the fundamental commitments as followers of Christ: 1) an awareness of the judgment of God; 2) to the proclamation of the corresponding good news of the gospel; and 3) to the passion for others that comes about as a result.

Pollster George Barna says that regaining these basics of the Christian life will not be easy for anyone in our crowded day and pluralistic age. “The hustle and bustle of daily life prevents many people who see themselves as religious from consciously thinking of themselves as a representative of Jesus Christ. Surveys show one-quarter of adult Christians say they are “always” mindful of being such ambassadors for Christ. Only 17% say they are “often” aware of that mantle; another one-fourth are “sometimes” conscious of that privilege. The remaining 30% claim they “rarely or never” think of themselves in this light.”

And the word Paul uses for ambassador is presby, Presbyterian. We Presbyterian-brand Christians ought to be first and foremost ambassadors for Christ, the older, wiser presbyters, sharing Christ with the lost and lonely, the unsaved and disconnected.

C.S. Lewis expressed the hope we have and we can share in this way: “It is a serious thing to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship; or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping one another to one or the other of these destinations. There are no ordinary people. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

Which do you want for the people in your life, for the people in the world around you? How will you use the time, talents and energy God has given you? How will we as a church set goals and prioritize for the sake of reaching others for Christ?

“Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord” (we know the seriousness of the threat of judgment without Christ), “we try to persuade people” (in words and deeds that show the grace and goodness of Christ, the offer that’s truly too good to refuse). Yes, some people will think “we are out of our mind.” Others will know that it is “Christ’s love that compels us… Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he or she is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” The intended love, joy, and peace of God take hold. And we are therefore “Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.”

“Getting Things Done… Eat the Frog… Juggling Elephants.” However you manage your time, share the good news with others. Live for Christ. Your life is under new management.

Let us pray together.