May 12, 2002
A sermon by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma
"He is a
franchise player. Whatever team he plays for, he raises the level of everyone's
performance. He inspires people to do their best." Words like that have often
been used of the great basketball player Michael Jordan. It isn't just that he
is the best. Even more important, he has this capacity to bring out the best in
everyone around him.
I think there is an equivalent of this in the moral and spiritual life. Just as there are great sports athletes, there are great spiritual athletes. They are not great just in themselves, they have this capacity to make everyone around them better. They raise them to a higher level of behavior.
In our own day we could point to someone like Mother Theresa. For decades she ministered in the slums of Calcutta--perhaps the worst slums and the most wretched conditions in the world. In Calcutta many people live on the streets. If they have a blanket, it serves as a mat by day and a covering during the night. Often the only source of unpolluted water is a fire hydrant. In the morning trucks roll in to pick up the bodies of those who have died during the night. And when the bodies are picked up, no one is standing around grieving their death. Here babies are born on the sidewalk to mothers whose only shelter is a cardboard box. There are no grandparents standing near, rejoicing that a baby has entered into the world. Here Mother Theresa and the other sisters help and comfort and touch the ones that no one else is willing to touch. What motivates her? Her creed is simple: "Every person in the world is a human being and a child of God and each one deserves our loving kindness."
But we don't have to go half-way around the planet to find someone like Mother Theresa. There are many more such people than we think, people who inspire, people who lift the level of behavior of everyone around them. I was exposed to two such people this week. Their names are Al Herzog and Ruth Chojnacki. Both of them are interviewing for a teaching job at our seminary in Columbus. The position has to do with teaching evangelism and reaching out to the diverse cultures that now make up our country.
Al Herzog is a pastor and a trained sociologist. He has a Ph.D. from Ohio State. If you ever met Al, you would remember him. He would make an impression on you and not just because of his academic achievements and credentials. Why? Because Al has a severe disability. I'm not exactly sure of the name of the disease from which he suffers, but he has had it all his life and it affects the way he walks, talks, and all his bodily movements. It also affects his speech. You really have to focus and get used to his speech patterns in order to understand him. I'm sure he has faced huge obstacles growing up. I'm sure that he's been teased and ridiculed for his disability.
How has Al responded to all the hardship he has faced? I could not detect one iota of bitterness. He has embraced it with faith and it has made him a compassionate, caring, witnessing person. He has had to think deeply about why things are the way they are and why people respond to things the way they do. And so Al has this wonderful capacity to help you understand why particular groups act the way they act and how you can reach them with the gospel.
It's interesting, isn't it? Here is a man who has been dealt a terrible hand in life, but he has faced it with faith and he is an inspiration and help to all around him. It kind of makes you ashamed to think about some of your own difficulties and problems. They pale in comparison. It makes you want to be a better person. It makes you want to be more compassionate and more caring and more faithful.
The other candidate is a woman named Ruth Chojnacki. Ruth is a brilliant woman, completing her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. If you know your universities, you know that is one of the premier universities in the country. Her credentials are impeccable. She really knows her stuff, and she is really adept at helping you understand and enter into the life of other cultures and suggesting the best ways to reach them with the gospel.
But her academic credentials are not the most important thing about Ruth. I think the most important thing about Ruth was exposed when we asked this quesiton: "What are the greatest successes of your life?" There was a thoughtful pause and then she said that she wasn't sure that "success" was a word that belonged in the Christian vocabulary. Why? Because the things we talk about as marks of success in this country are often so shallow and so self-centered. But if she were to use the word success, she would define it as "walking the way of integrity." In other words, always doing the right thing, always following the way of Jesus.
She then shared what she felt was the greatest success story in her life, and it had nothing to do with academic or scholarly achievement. It had to do with the many months she spent working among poor Indians in the Chapas region of Mexico. These Indians, she says, survive on less than $700 a year but nevertheless lead joyous Christian lives. One of these families had a baby with a severe heart problem. Nothing could be done unless the baby was transported to a medical facility in the city many hundreds of miles away. The parents were unwilling to do this. They were absolutely terrified of the city. It took a lot of conversation and a lot of time to overcome their fears and allow her to take the child to the city, but somehow she did it. She also raised the money and got the plane tickets to get them there. The little child is doing well today.
Again, I have to say that I felt ashamed in the presence of someone like Ruth. It makes you want to worry less about success and more about whether you are walking the way of integrity, the way of Jesus. It makes you want to be a better person.
Here's the critical question: where do we get the power to be the kind of people who raise the level of behavior of everyone around them? The key I think lies in the story of the Ascension which we read about in Acts 1. Now, Thursday was Ascension Day. It is not a day we make much of unless it falls on a Sunday. Even then, we often don't pay attention to it. What is the meaning of Ascension Day? Quite simply, it tells us that Christ is now at the right hand of God, which means that God now rules through Christ. It means that the compassion and the integrity that we see in Christ is going to prevail. It also says that we now have an advocate with the Father, i.e. when we pray, Jesus listens and intervenes for us.
So, how do we get the power to raise the level of behavior of all around us? By focusing on Jesus who is with the Father and who intervenes for us. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Colossians expresses the meaning of the Ascension in this way: "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." (3:1-2) In other words, set your mind on Jesus whose lifestyle of love will prevail. Jesus gives the same instruction to us that he gave to his disciples. He tells them to wait and to pray and they will be given the power of the Spirit. And that is why we gather as we do today: we wait and pray and ask that God will empower us to be people who make a difference, people who raise the level of behavior of all around them.
copyright 2001 by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma