Too Much

          Dave Matthews had a song, “Too Much,” in which he sang about insatiable desire.  I thought it was an obvious parable about contemporary culture.  We tend to want too much.  And sometimes, we want irreconcilable desires.  We want to eat whatever we want, and we want to keep our schoolgirl figures.  We want government services, but we want them not to cost us.  We want peace and harmony in the family, but we want it on our terms.  We want it all.

          We want too much.  For Christians the season of Lent provides a wake-up call regarding our endless desires.  We begin with an acknowledgement of our limitations on Ash Wednesday with the stark reminder that we are all going to die.  Gee, who wants to think about that? Then we are encouraged to give something up for Lent; another denial of what we may be craving.  And if that is not enough, we keep being reminded about taking up our cross and following Jesus, who himself was cruelly crucified on Good Friday.  Who wants any of this?

          Isn’t there an easier way?  Well, of course there is.  There are countless other ways to live our lives.  In Jesus’ own day, there was the way of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  There were the extreme ways of the Essenes, or of King Herod, by way of contrast.  There are a variety of ways of living that many find preferable today --- the way of the Kardashians, the way of FOX news, the way of MSNBC, the way of Honey Boo Boo, or the way of the couch potato --- simply watching this endless stream of entertainment (so-called).  If you want it bad enough, you can find plenty of affirmation to buttress your chosen way of living and thinking, whatever that may be.

          But the person who says, “I’m going to follow Jesus,” in this self-indulgent culture is challenged daily to test her or his wants in the crucible of what God wants for us.  And the cross is the litmus test of whether what we want fits with God’s ultimate plans.  There is plenty of cross-avoidance among Christians, no doubt.  But sooner or later, if we claim what we believe, we cannot avoid the sacrifice of Jesus.  The cross stands as a judgment against every self-indulgent choice we make, individually or communally. 

          The irony of our too-much culture is that no matter how much we have, it never seems to be enough.  We always want more, and never seem satisfied.  But Jesus reminds us that God is enough.  And in that enoughness, Jesus was content.  I believe that’s what’s so attractive about Jesus; he was satisfied.  “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  True, but nevertheless, Jesus was still content.  Deep down, I think that’s all we really want, too, . . . to be satisfied with enough.  This is my prayer for all of us.  May we be content with God.  And if we are, it will be enough.     

 

What We Want and What We Need

We all want something out of church.  Let’s admit it.  Some want the fellowship of good friends who share common values.  Some want moral instruction for their children.  Some want spiritual guidance for their teenagers.  Some want answers to difficult questions.  Some want easy steps to happiness. Some want consolation for life’s troubles.  Some want an energetic worship service with music that makes you want to dance.  Others want just the opposite – worship that is solemn with music that leads to meditation.  Some want a sermon that speaks to the intellect.  Others want a sermon that speaks to the heart. 

I hope it is obvious that no one can have everything they want in a church.  There are too many competing expectations.  How do we manage to have church in the midst of all these differing desires?  Perhaps because we realize, somehow deep down in our heart of hearts, that church is not really about what we want at all, but about what God wants. 

Jesus says, “take up you cross daily and follow me.”  And the more we seek to put aside what we want out of church in order to take up our daily cross the more likely we are to be a church that satisfies our souls.  We sometimes discover that what we wanted was not nearly as important as what we needed, and God always provides what we need as we follow Jesus in this life of daily cross-bearing.

Oh, churches still have squabbles.  And sometimes we have knock-down, drag-out confrontations.  But the more we bear the cross the less we’ll sweat the small stuff and the more likely we’ll find common cause. 

Take a look in the mirror and be honest with yourself.  You want something out of church.  What is it?  Then ask yourself, “What does God want from me?”  When you get in the habit of seeking the answer to that second question you will be closer to helping the church be a gateway to the kingdom of God, and you may find exactly what you need, if not what you want, out of church.