Because
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Reading
Series I, Cycle A
A group of kindergarten children visited the local police station and were given a tour by one of the police officers. While there, they got to look at some wanted posters of notorious fugitives. One child pointed to a picture and asked the officer if it really was a picture of the wanted person. The policeman guide answered that indeed it was.
Then the youngster inquired, "Well, if that's him, why didn't you keep him when you took his picture?"
We've all been there. On the other side of a "why" question.
"Why do I have to eat my broccoli?"
"Because it's good for you."
"Why is it good for me? I like chocolate better. Isn't chocolate good for me?"
"It's good for you because it has all kinds of good things in it to make you big and strong."
"Why does it have good things in it and chocolate doesn't?"
"Because that's just the way it is. God made broccoli to have important vitamins and all kinds of good things in it that makes your body grow healthy."
"If God made it so good for us, then why didn't God make it taste as good as chocolate?"
You try everything within your power to keep up. You try to answer each question. You go through that whole chain of "why" questions until you reach a point where there is nothing left to say but ... what?
"Because."
"But Mommy, why do I have to go to bed?"
"Because!" No need to qualify that answer. No need to tack on "I said so" or "Your daddy will answer that when he comes up here and you don't really want to hear his answer." Just a simple, "because."
A friend of mine has a son who was the master of the "why" question. He would question everything, and unless you could come up with a reasonable answer, it was unacceptable to him. Some of his teachers loved that about him. For others, that characteristic drove them up a wall. If a teacher gave him an assignment, even at an early age, it had to be justified, or he would not do it. It had to make sense to him, or he would have no part of it. If he was told to do fifty math problems for homework and they were all simple addition, he might do ten. "Why do the others?" he would ask. "They are just busywork." If given an assignment to conjugate verbs, or diagram sentences, he might do half of them. As he would say: "To do more is just busywork."
Busywork - this boy had no patience for busywork. Even if you explained that the practice was to help him learn and understand for the long run, he would come back and say he could do it in less time, with less work, and understand it just as well and for just as long. Of course, because of this attitude, his grades were usually less than what the other students received, and then he would have to engage in extra credit activities that he never equated with busywork.
We live in a world that has been influenced completely by the scientific method. That is the method of questioning everything in order to find answers as to why things are as they are. Why do things happen this way? Why do people behave the way they do? Why does this person grow up to be a physician who saves hundreds of lives and his brother becomes a murderer? Why do followers of Jesus still fall into sin? We want to be able to explain everything, and sometimes we just can't. Sometimes our audience isn't ready to hear what we have to say, and sometimes we don't really have satisfactory answers to all the questions about God and creation.
A colleague of mine once told me a story about how her six--year--old daughter had come to her with the question: "Where do babies come from?"
This woman admitted that her heart began to pound and her palms got sweaty, but she knew that the time had come to have "the talk" with her young daughter. So she cleared her throat, took a couple of deep breaths, and began to tell her daughter about how a man and woman fall in love. She described how men and women have different bodies and how God created them to work together to create babies. She went into detail about eggs and sperm and how through this miraculous event, a baby starts growing inside the mother.
The woman concluded her explanation after about fifteen minutes and then smiled at her daughter and gave her a big hug. When she released her, her daughter said as though completing the original question, "Oh, because Julie said that babies came from storks and I said that babies come from hospitals. So which one of us is right?"
Why do you love someone? Layer by layer you try to get to the bottom of that question until you reach the point ... because. Just because.
Scripture tells us "We love, because God first loved us." Our love, then, is simply a reflection of God's love. Or, at least, it should be. And yet we know that when we examine our motives, even in loving someone, we often find there is more involved than: "We love, because God first loved us." We love, because we find some sort of fulfillment in loving and being loved. We love because we have been taught that loving is the right thing to do. We love - there we go again, trying to explain why we love, using the scientific method of stating a problem, putting forth a hypothesis, testing it, and then coming up with a conclusion.
But is "because" the real answer to "why do we love?"
Why do you strive to live a good and holy life? Is it "because"? Because God expects it of you? Because if you don't you will be punished and you fear living eternally separated from God? Is it because that's the way you were brought up? Why do you, assuming that you do, live a good and holy life?
Someone once said that the answer to "why" is not "because." Rather, the definitive answer to "why" is "why not?"
The answer, "because God wants us to," is the wrong answer. Now, it's the right answer, but it's the wrong answer. Does that make sense? God wants us to live a good and holy life. God wants us to love one another. Those are both accurate statements. But the right answer as to why we live good and holy lives is because we want to.
In other words, "Why not?" God has done this for us, so why not do that for God? God has set us free to live as we please, so why not live to please God?
We don't say, "Why not?" in a flippant and arrogant manner as though it isn't any big deal. We can say, "Why not?" because it's still our choice. Not just because God says so, but also because we choose so!
There was a couple who made a sizable contribution to the church to honor the memory of their son who lost his life in the war. When the announcement was made of the generous donation, a woman sitting in the congregation whispered to her husband, "Let's give the same amount for our boy!" Her husband said, "What are you talking about? Our son wasn't killed."
"That's just the point," she said. "Let's give it as an expression of our gratitude to God for sparing his life!"
Why not? We live good and holy lives not because God told us to, not because our parents told us to, not because the church tells us to. We live good and holy lives as an expression of our gratitude to God.
God has already given us approval through Jesus Christ. We are free to live accordingly. God saved us and we can now live as saved people. How we live as saved people depends on how we understand what it means to be saved. If we believe that our salvation is dependent upon the things we do, then we are not living as saved people, rather we are living as people attempting to be saved.
If we believe that our salvation is dependent upon the blood of Jesus Christ, then all that we can do to "live as a saved person" is to show our gratitude toward God. And the text from 1 Peter implores us to do so by "loving one another deeply from the heart."
Two friends were camping in the forest and were standing by their tent on the first morning sharing some coffee. Suddenly, they spotted a grizzly bear heading for them at full speed. Quickly, the one man reached down and grabbed his running shoes and started putting them on. The other man looked at him and said, "What are you doing? Do you think you can outrun that grizzly bear?" Jumping up and beginning to take off, the first man replied, "No, and I don't need to. All I need to do is outrun you!"
Many people go through life doing only what they feel they need to do. If going to church and giving a little money is all they feel they need to do in order to stay ahead of God, then that's what they do. If making a good living and supporting their family is all they feel they need to do, then that's what they do. If saying a quick prayer before meals and reading a few verses from the Bible is all they feel they need to do, then that's what they do. They do it because that's what they feel they need to do. They figure that's the least that God expects from them, and the least is good enough. "And besides," they figure, "just look at our friends and neighbors. They don't do half the good that we do."
Those are "because" kinds of answers. When we live our lives trying to fill in all those explanations that go with "because," we find ourselves fruitless and ineffective in our efforts.
But when we live our lives as kind of a "why not?" answer, we begin to approach God's intent for us. Why not love our neighbors? Why not do good things for people as a reaction to God's goodness towards us? Why not live as though Jesus saved me and has given me the freedom to show my gratitude and joy without any requirements or strings attached?
You can live your life "because" and continue to fill in the reasons for the rest of your life. Or why not just live? Live each day in gratitude for everything you have, and will have, eternally. Live as though you have a God who has taken care of all the big problems and who has given you the means to deal with the small ones. Live with the love that has been showered upon you in this life and will follow you into eternity.
Just live life as the gift that God has given you. And why not?
Then the youngster inquired, "Well, if that's him, why didn't you keep him when you took his picture?"
We've all been there. On the other side of a "why" question.
"Why do I have to eat my broccoli?"
"Because it's good for you."
"Why is it good for me? I like chocolate better. Isn't chocolate good for me?"
"It's good for you because it has all kinds of good things in it to make you big and strong."
"Why does it have good things in it and chocolate doesn't?"
"Because that's just the way it is. God made broccoli to have important vitamins and all kinds of good things in it that makes your body grow healthy."
"If God made it so good for us, then why didn't God make it taste as good as chocolate?"
You try everything within your power to keep up. You try to answer each question. You go through that whole chain of "why" questions until you reach a point where there is nothing left to say but ... what?
"Because."
"But Mommy, why do I have to go to bed?"
"Because!" No need to qualify that answer. No need to tack on "I said so" or "Your daddy will answer that when he comes up here and you don't really want to hear his answer." Just a simple, "because."
A friend of mine has a son who was the master of the "why" question. He would question everything, and unless you could come up with a reasonable answer, it was unacceptable to him. Some of his teachers loved that about him. For others, that characteristic drove them up a wall. If a teacher gave him an assignment, even at an early age, it had to be justified, or he would not do it. It had to make sense to him, or he would have no part of it. If he was told to do fifty math problems for homework and they were all simple addition, he might do ten. "Why do the others?" he would ask. "They are just busywork." If given an assignment to conjugate verbs, or diagram sentences, he might do half of them. As he would say: "To do more is just busywork."
Busywork - this boy had no patience for busywork. Even if you explained that the practice was to help him learn and understand for the long run, he would come back and say he could do it in less time, with less work, and understand it just as well and for just as long. Of course, because of this attitude, his grades were usually less than what the other students received, and then he would have to engage in extra credit activities that he never equated with busywork.
We live in a world that has been influenced completely by the scientific method. That is the method of questioning everything in order to find answers as to why things are as they are. Why do things happen this way? Why do people behave the way they do? Why does this person grow up to be a physician who saves hundreds of lives and his brother becomes a murderer? Why do followers of Jesus still fall into sin? We want to be able to explain everything, and sometimes we just can't. Sometimes our audience isn't ready to hear what we have to say, and sometimes we don't really have satisfactory answers to all the questions about God and creation.
A colleague of mine once told me a story about how her six--year--old daughter had come to her with the question: "Where do babies come from?"
This woman admitted that her heart began to pound and her palms got sweaty, but she knew that the time had come to have "the talk" with her young daughter. So she cleared her throat, took a couple of deep breaths, and began to tell her daughter about how a man and woman fall in love. She described how men and women have different bodies and how God created them to work together to create babies. She went into detail about eggs and sperm and how through this miraculous event, a baby starts growing inside the mother.
The woman concluded her explanation after about fifteen minutes and then smiled at her daughter and gave her a big hug. When she released her, her daughter said as though completing the original question, "Oh, because Julie said that babies came from storks and I said that babies come from hospitals. So which one of us is right?"
Why do you love someone? Layer by layer you try to get to the bottom of that question until you reach the point ... because. Just because.
Scripture tells us "We love, because God first loved us." Our love, then, is simply a reflection of God's love. Or, at least, it should be. And yet we know that when we examine our motives, even in loving someone, we often find there is more involved than: "We love, because God first loved us." We love, because we find some sort of fulfillment in loving and being loved. We love because we have been taught that loving is the right thing to do. We love - there we go again, trying to explain why we love, using the scientific method of stating a problem, putting forth a hypothesis, testing it, and then coming up with a conclusion.
But is "because" the real answer to "why do we love?"
Why do you strive to live a good and holy life? Is it "because"? Because God expects it of you? Because if you don't you will be punished and you fear living eternally separated from God? Is it because that's the way you were brought up? Why do you, assuming that you do, live a good and holy life?
Someone once said that the answer to "why" is not "because." Rather, the definitive answer to "why" is "why not?"
The answer, "because God wants us to," is the wrong answer. Now, it's the right answer, but it's the wrong answer. Does that make sense? God wants us to live a good and holy life. God wants us to love one another. Those are both accurate statements. But the right answer as to why we live good and holy lives is because we want to.
In other words, "Why not?" God has done this for us, so why not do that for God? God has set us free to live as we please, so why not live to please God?
We don't say, "Why not?" in a flippant and arrogant manner as though it isn't any big deal. We can say, "Why not?" because it's still our choice. Not just because God says so, but also because we choose so!
There was a couple who made a sizable contribution to the church to honor the memory of their son who lost his life in the war. When the announcement was made of the generous donation, a woman sitting in the congregation whispered to her husband, "Let's give the same amount for our boy!" Her husband said, "What are you talking about? Our son wasn't killed."
"That's just the point," she said. "Let's give it as an expression of our gratitude to God for sparing his life!"
Why not? We live good and holy lives not because God told us to, not because our parents told us to, not because the church tells us to. We live good and holy lives as an expression of our gratitude to God.
God has already given us approval through Jesus Christ. We are free to live accordingly. God saved us and we can now live as saved people. How we live as saved people depends on how we understand what it means to be saved. If we believe that our salvation is dependent upon the things we do, then we are not living as saved people, rather we are living as people attempting to be saved.
If we believe that our salvation is dependent upon the blood of Jesus Christ, then all that we can do to "live as a saved person" is to show our gratitude toward God. And the text from 1 Peter implores us to do so by "loving one another deeply from the heart."
Two friends were camping in the forest and were standing by their tent on the first morning sharing some coffee. Suddenly, they spotted a grizzly bear heading for them at full speed. Quickly, the one man reached down and grabbed his running shoes and started putting them on. The other man looked at him and said, "What are you doing? Do you think you can outrun that grizzly bear?" Jumping up and beginning to take off, the first man replied, "No, and I don't need to. All I need to do is outrun you!"
Many people go through life doing only what they feel they need to do. If going to church and giving a little money is all they feel they need to do in order to stay ahead of God, then that's what they do. If making a good living and supporting their family is all they feel they need to do, then that's what they do. If saying a quick prayer before meals and reading a few verses from the Bible is all they feel they need to do, then that's what they do. They do it because that's what they feel they need to do. They figure that's the least that God expects from them, and the least is good enough. "And besides," they figure, "just look at our friends and neighbors. They don't do half the good that we do."
Those are "because" kinds of answers. When we live our lives trying to fill in all those explanations that go with "because," we find ourselves fruitless and ineffective in our efforts.
But when we live our lives as kind of a "why not?" answer, we begin to approach God's intent for us. Why not love our neighbors? Why not do good things for people as a reaction to God's goodness towards us? Why not live as though Jesus saved me and has given me the freedom to show my gratitude and joy without any requirements or strings attached?
You can live your life "because" and continue to fill in the reasons for the rest of your life. Or why not just live? Live each day in gratitude for everything you have, and will have, eternally. Live as though you have a God who has taken care of all the big problems and who has given you the means to deal with the small ones. Live with the love that has been showered upon you in this life and will follow you into eternity.
Just live life as the gift that God has given you. And why not?
