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Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Fr. J. D. Ousley
25 March 2007Phil. 3“Something to Live For”
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
I have a friend who is a veteran on Wall Street. He has done very well, and he has enjoyed his work.
In the course of his career, my friend has seen several generations of college graduates and business school graduates launch their own careers in finance.
Now we have all read about the huge salaries and bonuses that people in this business receive. And those of us who are not in this field recognize that work on Wall Street is exhausting, and very difficult, and extremely time- consuming. Still, we may feel that people who gain such huge bonuses are overpaid!
To many workers within the financial industry, however, salaries are relative. It's what you earn compared with what someone else earns that counts.
In fact, my friend told me that he knows a number of people in their thirties who have made their mark on Wall Street and done so well that they regularly earn half a million dollars a year. Not bad! Again, for those of us not in the business, $10,000 a week is a healthy paycheck!
Yet, these workers feel that they are in a rut. They have become stuck at the half-million-dollar-a-year level, and they can't get promoted. They get so discouraged that they think of retiring!
Granted their occupation places a high value on money. Yet, to outsiders whose annual pay is much less, the frustration of these Wall Streeters seems a bit exaggerated!
The goals they have set for themselves seem too high. Or perhaps these folks are measuring their work by the wrong standards.
In the First Lesson for today, St. Paul describes the standard he uses to evaluate his life. He wants, he says, "to press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."
Our translation of Paul's statement is awkward — it goes on a bit, and has too many prepositions. But the meaning is pretty clear.
Paul has one goal in life. It is a goal so desirable that he calls it a "prize." It is a goal that draws him "upward" — away from other standards that might absorb his attention.
Paul's goal is best described in the last words of the passage; it is "the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."
In other words, as Paul says elsewhere, his goal is "knowing Christ Jesus." His goal is "knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings."
Knowing Christ, living according to his teaching — this is what it means to follow "the call of God." This is a great prize, even though the way toward this prize may be marked by "sufferings" that are symbolically shared with Christ himself.
Clearly, we are in a very different world-view than that occupied by financial wizards! Yet many of these wizards, like my friend, are practicing Christians. We at Incarnation should be well aware of this, since only a few steps away from the church is the former residence of the famous banker, J. P. Morgan. A century ago, Morgan had immense influence in financial markets — at the same time, he was also a prominent leader of the Episcopal Church.
It would be presumptuous for those of us who are outsiders to say that we "understand' the young workers' disappointment. Yet it's tempting to wonder whether Paul's words might help them to see their frustration with their stagnant salaries in a new light.
How do their ambitions compare with Paul's goal? If they themselves are Christians, how do the standards they are judging their lives by compare with the claims of Christ? Here's another way to put the question. A member of our church who is the head usher, Basil Elliot, helps out in our church offices occasionally during the week.
When he sees me, he will ask me what the coming Sunday sermon will be about. If the topic interests him, Basil will then say, "Now I have something to live for!"
In reality, of course, Basil has more to live for than the prospect of my Sunday sermon! But his figure of speech is a good one. What do we live for? Or, as St. Paul might ask, what are the prizes we believe we should strive for?
Paul has nothing against upward mobility. It's fine to want to advance up the ladder. Indeed, Paul refers to the prize he is devoting himself to as an "upward call."
But the call of Christ differs from the progress up the ladder of society. We don't advance toward Christ like a contestant in a talent show progresses by winning round after round.
For one thing, winning in a talent show only occurs when rival contestants' lose. It's what economists call a "zero-sum" game. If there is one prize and a person wins it, the other contestants are left with nothing.
By contrast, the prize that Christ brings is available to everyone. You don't have to gain this goal at the expense of someone else.
In that case, though, is the prize worth having? How valuable can this prize be if everyone can win it?
Well, Christians find value in their work this way: instead of competing against others, Christians strive against the evil in the world and the evil in themselves.
This striving for good in the world is beneficial to everyone; if I serve effectively, I feel good and others benefit, too.
Here's an example of this kind of striving. Last Sunday, we discussed the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the members of the United Nations.
Now if these goals are achieved in the next ten years by the coordinated action of nations and individuals, there will lots of winners: children who now live in extreme poverty will be winners; women who are oppressed; those suffering the effects of HIV/AIDS. In fact, the whole earth will be better off when the environment is protected. As our Presiding Bishop has noted, these are goals that Christians following the call of Christ can enthusiastically endorse.
And as we reflect on what we might do about the social problems of the world, we may want also to think about what we can do for our own souls.
We can ask ourselves what do we live for? To what goals are we devoting our lives?
If we aren't winning the prizes we want in our careers, what does that mean? Should we perhaps strive for some other prizes outside the office — in serving others, for example?
It may be a secular heresy to say so, but earning a living isn't all there is to human existence. And for Christians, fulfilling life comes from responding to the call of Christ.
Loving God and our neighbors gives us rewards that the world cannot give. And, as we note on this Legacy Sunday, our work can make an impact on the future.
Members of the Vestry were reminded this weekend of the vision of former generations of Incarnation members who gave so generously to purchase and maintain a 700-acre camp and conference center in Connecticut.
And we who worship at Incarnation should think of the generosity of our forebears who built this building and who gave endowments that help to keep it running. One recent legacy provides the money to open the church during the week. Another will help underwrite repair of our windows.
Our spiritual ancestors at Incarnation left gifts that have lived on beyond their earthly lives — as, we may hope, their desire to know Christ also lived on, so that having shared Christ's work in this life, they might share Christ's life for eternity.
And now unto that same God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever, Amen.