Who is the Greatest?
Who is thePromises Greatest? Promises, Ruth 1:1-18
Matthew 23:1-12 November 5, 2017
By By Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady Pastor January 14, 2007
San Marino Community Church
1750 Virginia Road San Marino, CA 91108 San Marino Church (626) 282-4181Community • Fax: (626) 282-4185 1750 Virginia Road www.smccpby.com • [email protected] San Marino, CA 91108 (626) 282-4181 • Fax: (626) 282-4185 www.smccpby.com • [email protected] All rights reserved. These sermon manuscripts are intended for personal use only and may not be republished or used in any way without the permission of the author.
the extent preserve quality of the spoken word in thisRev. written adaptation. November To 5, 2017 possible, effort has been made to Who is thethe Greatest? Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
This week I imagine we have all felt a little disappointment with game seven of the World Series’ when the Dodgers lost to the Houston Astros. It’s been since 1988 that the Dodgers were in the World Series so hasn’t been often that our hometown team has had the chance to compete at this level, for the world championship. Every year teams compete to determine which team is the greatest team in baseball, and football, and basketball, and hockey. We want to know who is the greatest on the tennis court, the superior court, even the Rose court. We endlessly pursue the competition to finally crown the greatest. In February 1964, before his title bout with Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali famously made his “I am the greatest” speech before reporters. “I am the greatest! He’ll fall in eight to prove I’m great and if he keeps talking jive, I’ll cut it to five.” Now that is confidence! Ali won the fight in seven rounds. Every athlete knows you have to step on the field, or in the ring, or the batter’s box with confidence. But that word itself comes from Latin, “con – fide” means literally “with faith.” Maybe that is the reason all those athletes point toward heaven when they achieve the results they hope for! This morning’s scripture is concerned with the ways we use others and try to climb over others on our way to success. We measure our own success by how others treat us, whether we are invited to the right parties, whether people respond to our Facebook posts, whether we drive the right car, and live in the right community with the attending impressiveness for family and friends. As a culture we are fascinated with the success of others, especially the rich and famous, those “on top”; even those who fall from their coveted positions of wealth and prestige and power; from sexual entanglements, or “insider trading” or unfair steroid use. We are fascinated with who’s on top, who is the greatest, and we’re never far from taking our own pulse wondering how we compare with others. Who is the most attractive, who is “most likely to succeed?” Who has the most beautiful home, the most remarkable kids, the best vacations and the best looking Christmas card pictures? We are constantly measuring our own greatness but rarely do we measure up. Who is the greatest? It’s a 2
November 5, 2017
Who is the Greatest?
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
question we have asked in boardrooms, backrooms, and even bedrooms. So here in our text Jesus takes up a familiar issue, and exposes our pretentions even in our spiritual life. We spend way too much time and energy pretending to be better than we are, instead of actually finding the energy to care more about others than we do ourselves. Recently in The New York Times, Ruth Whippman’s article appeared in the Sunday Review. She is the author of “America the Anxious, How Our Pursuit of Happiness is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks.” In the article she tells the story of arriving in America from Britain “friendless and lonely.” She knew no one. So she researched apps for her phone that could cheer her up. The app she eventually chose messaged her every hour or so with a positive affirmation that she was supposed to repeat to herself over and over. “I am beautiful,” or “I am enough.” She writes, “The problem was, every time the phone buzzed with an incoming message, I would get a Pavlovian jolt of excitement thinking an actual person was trying to contact me. ‘I am enough,’ I would snarl bitterly upon realizing the truth, unable to shake the feeling that, without friends or community, I really wasn’t.”1 “Happiness comes from within,” said the inspirational photo-card in her Facebook news feed a few days later. Having spent the last few years researching and writing a book about happiness and anxiety in America, she noticed that this particular strain of happiness advice — the kind that pitches the search for contentment as an internal, personal quest, divorced from other people — has become increasingly common. Variations include “Happiness is determined not by what’s happening around you, but what’s happening inside you”; and “Happiness should not depend on other people”; and the perky and socially shareable “Happiness is an inside job.” One email she received from a self-help mailing list even doubled down on the idea with the turbocharged word mash-up “withinwards.” She writes, “In an individualistic culture powered by self-actualization, the idea that happiness should be engineered from the inside out, rather than the outside in, is slowly 1 Whippman, Ruth, “Happiness is Other People”, New York Times Sunday Review October 27, 2017
3
November 5, 2017
Who is the Greatest?
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
taking on the status of a default truism. This is happiness framed as journey of selfdiscovery, rather than the natural byproduct of engaging with the world; happiness that stresses emotional independence rather than interdependence; one based on the idea that meaningful contentment can be found only by a full exploration of the self, a deep dive into our innermost souls and the intricacies, tripwires of our own personalities. Step 1: Find Yourself. Step 2: Be Yourself. This isolationist philosophy is showing up not just in the way that many Americans talk about happiness, but in how they spend their time. People who study these things have observed a marked increase in solitary, happiness-pursuing activities carried out either completely alone or in a group without interaction, with the explicit aim of keeping each person locked in her own private emotional experience. Spiritual and religious practice is slowly shifting from a community-based endeavor to a private one, with silent meditation retreats, mindfulness apps, and yoga classes replacing church socials and collective worship. The self-help industry — with its guiding principle that the search for happiness should be an individual, self-focused enterprise — is booming, with Americans spending more than one billion dollars on self-help books a year to help guide them on their inner journeys. Meanwhile, “self-care” has become the new “going out.” For some, even worship becomes a private affair without interaction. Churches begin to look more like exercise classes, with everyone in their own private world, the equivalent of having headphones on while taking a spin class with the pastor as the motivational instructor attempting to help you become your best self. We become isolated even while with groups of people. Instead of reaching out to others we compare ourselves to others. Where is God in all of that? Is that really what Jesus is calling us to be about? While placing more and more emphasis on seeking happiness within, Americans in general are spending less and less time actually connecting with other people. Nearly half of all meals eaten in this country are now eaten alone. Teenagers and young millennials are spending less time just “hanging out” with their friends than any generation in recent history, replacing real-world interaction with smartphones. 4
November 5, 2017
Who is the Greatest?
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
And it’s not just young people. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the average American now spends less than four minutes a day “hosting and attending social events,” — a category that covers all types of parties and other organized social occasions. That’s 24 hours a year, barely enough to cover Thanksgiving dinner, and your own child’s birthday party. The same time-use data also allocates another, broader category to “socializing and communicating.” This is any kind of socializing and communicating between two adults, where this is their main activity rather than an incidental part of something else, like working. All in all — and that includes daily bouts of nagging, arguing and whining — the average American spends barely more than half an hour a day on social communication. Compare that to time per day spent watching television (three hours) or even “grooming” (one hour for women, and just over 44 minutes for men). We are self-absorbed! But apparently that is nothing particularly new, only the expression of it is new. Jesus called it out when he saw it among the religious officials of his day. Back a few chapters, in Matthew 18, the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” He called a child and put him before them as a positive example and said, “Unless you change and become like children, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest.” Now he illustrates a similar point except with the negative example of the religious officials before them. They look the part but miss the point. Externally they have the packaging but none of the substance. I’ve got to be careful here because when it comes to religious officials, I am one! Hypocrites come in all shapes and sizes. A title doesn’t always mean substance. You can have eminence without competence. It happens all the time. We often engage in our own form of hypocrisy pretending to care about others when really we are only self-serving, seeking to improve the quality of our own life, not the quality of others’ lives. The irony is that while we are much less than we pretend to be, so too are we much more than we think we are – because we are children of God, loved by the creator of the universe, fellow heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord, and imbued with the Holy Spirit so we 5
November 5, 2017
Who is the Greatest?
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
can rise above the usual human degradation and exploitation. We have been given a new identity in Christ and no longer need to climb over others on our way to make a name for ourselves. When you really begin to understand that, you live with confidence — you live with faith! You enter the courtyard following worship not with a desire to meet your own needs but to reach out to someone else and care about their life, their needs. Welcome someone to church this morning! Talk about the Dodgers.I don’t care! According to Ruth Whippman, what we are doing here this morning is increasingly unusual in our isolated society. Let’s celebrate it with confidence. The Proverbs include a caution, “Pride comes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Often I would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. When Jesus talks about scribes and Pharisees he is talking about good people who get stuck and never move beyond their need for approval and recognition. Who is the greatest? “The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Amen
6
Matthew 23:1-12 November 5, 2017
By By Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady Pastor January 14, 2007
San Marino Community Church
1750 Virginia Road San Marino, CA 91108 San Marino Church (626) 282-4181Community • Fax: (626) 282-4185 1750 Virginia Road www.smccpby.com • [email protected] San Marino, CA 91108 (626) 282-4181 • Fax: (626) 282-4185 www.smccpby.com • [email protected] All rights reserved. These sermon manuscripts are intended for personal use only and may not be republished or used in any way without the permission of the author.
the extent preserve quality of the spoken word in thisRev. written adaptation. November To 5, 2017 possible, effort has been made to Who is thethe Greatest? Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
This week I imagine we have all felt a little disappointment with game seven of the World Series’ when the Dodgers lost to the Houston Astros. It’s been since 1988 that the Dodgers were in the World Series so hasn’t been often that our hometown team has had the chance to compete at this level, for the world championship. Every year teams compete to determine which team is the greatest team in baseball, and football, and basketball, and hockey. We want to know who is the greatest on the tennis court, the superior court, even the Rose court. We endlessly pursue the competition to finally crown the greatest. In February 1964, before his title bout with Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali famously made his “I am the greatest” speech before reporters. “I am the greatest! He’ll fall in eight to prove I’m great and if he keeps talking jive, I’ll cut it to five.” Now that is confidence! Ali won the fight in seven rounds. Every athlete knows you have to step on the field, or in the ring, or the batter’s box with confidence. But that word itself comes from Latin, “con – fide” means literally “with faith.” Maybe that is the reason all those athletes point toward heaven when they achieve the results they hope for! This morning’s scripture is concerned with the ways we use others and try to climb over others on our way to success. We measure our own success by how others treat us, whether we are invited to the right parties, whether people respond to our Facebook posts, whether we drive the right car, and live in the right community with the attending impressiveness for family and friends. As a culture we are fascinated with the success of others, especially the rich and famous, those “on top”; even those who fall from their coveted positions of wealth and prestige and power; from sexual entanglements, or “insider trading” or unfair steroid use. We are fascinated with who’s on top, who is the greatest, and we’re never far from taking our own pulse wondering how we compare with others. Who is the most attractive, who is “most likely to succeed?” Who has the most beautiful home, the most remarkable kids, the best vacations and the best looking Christmas card pictures? We are constantly measuring our own greatness but rarely do we measure up. Who is the greatest? It’s a 2
November 5, 2017
Who is the Greatest?
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
question we have asked in boardrooms, backrooms, and even bedrooms. So here in our text Jesus takes up a familiar issue, and exposes our pretentions even in our spiritual life. We spend way too much time and energy pretending to be better than we are, instead of actually finding the energy to care more about others than we do ourselves. Recently in The New York Times, Ruth Whippman’s article appeared in the Sunday Review. She is the author of “America the Anxious, How Our Pursuit of Happiness is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks.” In the article she tells the story of arriving in America from Britain “friendless and lonely.” She knew no one. So she researched apps for her phone that could cheer her up. The app she eventually chose messaged her every hour or so with a positive affirmation that she was supposed to repeat to herself over and over. “I am beautiful,” or “I am enough.” She writes, “The problem was, every time the phone buzzed with an incoming message, I would get a Pavlovian jolt of excitement thinking an actual person was trying to contact me. ‘I am enough,’ I would snarl bitterly upon realizing the truth, unable to shake the feeling that, without friends or community, I really wasn’t.”1 “Happiness comes from within,” said the inspirational photo-card in her Facebook news feed a few days later. Having spent the last few years researching and writing a book about happiness and anxiety in America, she noticed that this particular strain of happiness advice — the kind that pitches the search for contentment as an internal, personal quest, divorced from other people — has become increasingly common. Variations include “Happiness is determined not by what’s happening around you, but what’s happening inside you”; and “Happiness should not depend on other people”; and the perky and socially shareable “Happiness is an inside job.” One email she received from a self-help mailing list even doubled down on the idea with the turbocharged word mash-up “withinwards.” She writes, “In an individualistic culture powered by self-actualization, the idea that happiness should be engineered from the inside out, rather than the outside in, is slowly 1 Whippman, Ruth, “Happiness is Other People”, New York Times Sunday Review October 27, 2017
3
November 5, 2017
Who is the Greatest?
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
taking on the status of a default truism. This is happiness framed as journey of selfdiscovery, rather than the natural byproduct of engaging with the world; happiness that stresses emotional independence rather than interdependence; one based on the idea that meaningful contentment can be found only by a full exploration of the self, a deep dive into our innermost souls and the intricacies, tripwires of our own personalities. Step 1: Find Yourself. Step 2: Be Yourself. This isolationist philosophy is showing up not just in the way that many Americans talk about happiness, but in how they spend their time. People who study these things have observed a marked increase in solitary, happiness-pursuing activities carried out either completely alone or in a group without interaction, with the explicit aim of keeping each person locked in her own private emotional experience. Spiritual and religious practice is slowly shifting from a community-based endeavor to a private one, with silent meditation retreats, mindfulness apps, and yoga classes replacing church socials and collective worship. The self-help industry — with its guiding principle that the search for happiness should be an individual, self-focused enterprise — is booming, with Americans spending more than one billion dollars on self-help books a year to help guide them on their inner journeys. Meanwhile, “self-care” has become the new “going out.” For some, even worship becomes a private affair without interaction. Churches begin to look more like exercise classes, with everyone in their own private world, the equivalent of having headphones on while taking a spin class with the pastor as the motivational instructor attempting to help you become your best self. We become isolated even while with groups of people. Instead of reaching out to others we compare ourselves to others. Where is God in all of that? Is that really what Jesus is calling us to be about? While placing more and more emphasis on seeking happiness within, Americans in general are spending less and less time actually connecting with other people. Nearly half of all meals eaten in this country are now eaten alone. Teenagers and young millennials are spending less time just “hanging out” with their friends than any generation in recent history, replacing real-world interaction with smartphones. 4
November 5, 2017
Who is the Greatest?
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
And it’s not just young people. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the average American now spends less than four minutes a day “hosting and attending social events,” — a category that covers all types of parties and other organized social occasions. That’s 24 hours a year, barely enough to cover Thanksgiving dinner, and your own child’s birthday party. The same time-use data also allocates another, broader category to “socializing and communicating.” This is any kind of socializing and communicating between two adults, where this is their main activity rather than an incidental part of something else, like working. All in all — and that includes daily bouts of nagging, arguing and whining — the average American spends barely more than half an hour a day on social communication. Compare that to time per day spent watching television (three hours) or even “grooming” (one hour for women, and just over 44 minutes for men). We are self-absorbed! But apparently that is nothing particularly new, only the expression of it is new. Jesus called it out when he saw it among the religious officials of his day. Back a few chapters, in Matthew 18, the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” He called a child and put him before them as a positive example and said, “Unless you change and become like children, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest.” Now he illustrates a similar point except with the negative example of the religious officials before them. They look the part but miss the point. Externally they have the packaging but none of the substance. I’ve got to be careful here because when it comes to religious officials, I am one! Hypocrites come in all shapes and sizes. A title doesn’t always mean substance. You can have eminence without competence. It happens all the time. We often engage in our own form of hypocrisy pretending to care about others when really we are only self-serving, seeking to improve the quality of our own life, not the quality of others’ lives. The irony is that while we are much less than we pretend to be, so too are we much more than we think we are – because we are children of God, loved by the creator of the universe, fellow heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord, and imbued with the Holy Spirit so we 5
November 5, 2017
Who is the Greatest?
Rev. Jeffrey V. O’Grady, Pastor
can rise above the usual human degradation and exploitation. We have been given a new identity in Christ and no longer need to climb over others on our way to make a name for ourselves. When you really begin to understand that, you live with confidence — you live with faith! You enter the courtyard following worship not with a desire to meet your own needs but to reach out to someone else and care about their life, their needs. Welcome someone to church this morning! Talk about the Dodgers.I don’t care! According to Ruth Whippman, what we are doing here this morning is increasingly unusual in our isolated society. Let’s celebrate it with confidence. The Proverbs include a caution, “Pride comes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Often I would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. When Jesus talks about scribes and Pharisees he is talking about good people who get stuck and never move beyond their need for approval and recognition. Who is the greatest? “The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Amen
6
