Scripture: Romans 14:7-8; Romans 7:15-19; Psalm 115:1; Matthew 20:1-16; Luke 15:11-32 Series: 2020
Part of the ‘The Way’ series on discipleship, this sermon takes Romans 14:7-8 (‘we are the Lord’s’) to argue that the goal of discipleship is becoming Christlike by emptying ourselves of everything that is ‘not love.’ Drawing on Moneyball’s Billy Beane, the preacher shows that external markers of success are unnecessary; just as a ball comes the same speed regardless of looks, we don’t need the false identities (‘real man,’ ‘cool kid’) culture imposes. Sanctifying grace works gradually (Paul in Romans 7), not by a snap of the fingers. Using sports metaphors, the vineyard workers, and the prodigal’s older brother (Psalm 115’s ‘not to us but to your name be the glory’), Pruitt insists the pressure isn’t on us to win life’s game—Christ has already won the victory, grace is offered to all who come late, and God is still transforming lives even amid the pandemic.
Illustrations: moneyball-billy-beane, astros-world-series-game-7, wesley-emptied-himself-of-all-but-love, free-throw-game-on-the-line, bandwagon-fan, apprentice-becomes-the-trade, workers-in-the-vineyard, prodigal-son-older-brother
Not to Us
Romans 14:7-8
We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
Growing up, I was a big baseball fan. My father grew up in the Houston area and he was a fan of the Colt 45s and then the Houston Astros and he passed that on to me, as well. I was at Game 7 of the World Series last year where the Astros where the Astros lost. It is really hard for me to watch baseball since that game. When I was in college, I got even deeper into baseball and especially into what is called Saber-metrics or advanced analytics. A lot of it came about through this one book called, Moneyball. Now, Moneyball turned into a movie in 2011 with Brad Pitt, but the book came out in 2003 and it is by this finance writer, Michael Lewis, and it really is as much a business book as it is a baseball book because it is about differentiation. How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors, especially if your budget can’t be as large as theirs. How do you compete if you are a small market team with the New York Yankees or the LA Dodgers? And so Lewis looks at the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics, Billy Bean. And he starts with this story about Billy Beans life which is a great metaphor for the whole book. Billy Bean was a great baseball prospect coming out of high school. He was tall. He was strong. He could hit. He could throw. He could run. He the 5-tools that people used to talk about a lot more than they do today. He was also very handsome: he looked like a ballplayer. Scouting reports would even say: “Looks like a ballplayer.” Now, I am not that wonderful at baseball, but I don’t think you need handsomeness to hit the ball. It doesn’t really impact a game of baseball. It may impact other aspects of your life. But when a ball is coming towards you, a ball doesn’t slow down, take a look, and think, “that person is really attractive so I am going to let them hit me.” The ball comes the same speed regardless what you look like. And yet, baseball scouts so often were blinded by these external appearances and were not able to see what directly impacted games. What does it take to win a game? Out of all of the analytics that came out of Moneyball, one I really appreciate is called WAR: Wins Above Replacement. Which basically uses the idea of a replacement level player, an average player: Would you improve a team over an average player, or would you decrease the teams wins? How many extra wins would you give to a team? What does it really mean to win a game? Is it in your boxscore, your skill, your position, your coaching, what does it take to win a game? What does it take to succeed? My brothers and sisters, we are continuing our sermon series on The Way, on what it means to follow Jesus Christ. The early Christians were not called Christians: they were called followers of The Way. What can it mean to follow Jesus? What does discipleship really look like? Discipleship, one of those words that often gets confused with discipline like disciplining your children, but also comes from a root like, apprenticeship, being a student. What can it mean to follow Jesus on the way? Our Scripture comes from Romans 14:7-8: “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” What is the goal of discipleship? What is the goal of faith? What is the goal of a baseball game. We can start there. A baseball game is quite clear about its goals. The goal is to score more runs than your opponent and get them out 27 times. Same thing with basketball, we have the basketball playoffs going on right now. You need to score more points than an opponent four times in 7 games. If you do, you will go on to the next round. And so what is going to help you to beat your opponent. The goals of different businesses are also clear. You can hone in on the goal: what are you trying to accomplish? What is the goal of discipleship? What is the goal of Christian faith? Now there are a lot of ways to answer that question. All of those ways come back to Jesus Christ and the person and work of Jesus Christ. Who Jesus is? What Christ has done for us. What Christ offers to us.The life Christ opens up to us. We can think of the activity of God before we are aware of God, which in Methodist circles we call prevenient grace, the activity of God which justifies us and makes us right with God is called justifying grace. And the grace which makes us more holy, and this I want us to think of as the goal of discipleship. The goal of discipleship is being like Jesus Christ. It is similar to apprenticeship can look like. If you are an apprentice plumber, your goal is to become a plumber. If you are an apprentice woodworker, your goal is to be a woodworker. As a Christian, as a disciple, your goal is to be like Jesus. That is not possible. We are not the sons of God, but we are made in the image of God from creation. Our image of God has been restored through Christ’s sacrifice, through baptism, through the Holy Spirit in our lives. And we can become more Christlike. What that looks like practically is like this old Charles Wesley hymn. He left his Father’s throne above. So free, so infinite his grace. He emptied himself of all but love.
So we think of ourselves, think about your life. Think about what you do, who you see, where you go. In our lives, in all of our lives, there are moments of love, moments that are grace-filled. There are also moments of not-love. Moments that we wish we could have back. Moments when we weren’t our best self. Moments when we weren’t acting Christ-like. So in this, if we understand the words of Charles Wesley describing Jesus, to empty yourself of all the not loves that are going on. And the great thing is: you don’t need them. You don’t need these not loves in your life. It is kind of like Moneyball, thinking about Billy Bean. Billy Bean was a prospect who looked like a ballplayer. But in the end, he wasn’t one. He didn’t need to look like a ballplayer to succeed. He didn’t need many of those aspects that people were looking for to help his team win. It was unnecessary. As a Christian, there are so many things in life that many of us have been raised to think or taught to make us think that ‘we need this. This is so important. This is what a real man does. This is what a real woman does. This is what a cool kid does. These identities we put on ourselves. Many of which are not based on love, not based on self-sacrifice and self-offering. And what discipleship points to is that we just need those not-loves in our life. We can empty ourselves of them. And it is really important, as well, to remember that discipleship is not a snap of the fingers. It is not just waking up one day and saying to yourself: Okay, I am going to stop sinning. And that is it. And we are done. Early in Romans, Paul goes into it in Romans 7, saying, “I do the things I don’t want to do. And I don’t do the things I want to do.” That happened to Paul the Apostle who received this vision of Christ, of course it is going to happen to us, and yet God is still faithful. In discipleship, we learn how to empty ourselves. We pray for it so that we don’t think we need that not love in our life. God offers us ways of seeing God in this world, of meeting God in this world. Tools to help us empty ourselves of all but love. That faith is not about our own effort or discovering ourself, but the Holy Spirit working with us, within us, and around us, to transform us to more Christlike people. This happens in community, like we spoke last week, that God calls us together to life together. It happens in our own lives, when we are willing to admit that we don’t live for ourselves but for Christ. And there is freedom in that. We don’t need to win the game called life. You don’t have to try to get the high score of life. You are done with that kind of living. You are free. You are loved. And you can offer this love to others. It is like thinking about the end of a game. The game is on the line. All the pressure is on you. You are at the free-throw line. You have to get three shots and your team wins. And if you miss, your team loses. All that pressure is on you. That is not what God offers us. The pressure is not on you to win the game. Christ has already won the victory. It is amazing that to be a Christian means that we can be bandwagon fans. We can come in late. We can come in at the end of the fourth quarter, and we still are a part of the team. This is that parable of the workers and the vineyard. The first workers come at 9:00am and they are told that they will receive one denarii, and then workers come at noon, and then workers come at 3:00pm, and then workers come an hour before closing. And afterwards, they all get paid the same because the same payment from Christ is an immeasurable gift of life together with God. And some may be grumbling, those workers how started early, those Christians who have been Christian all their life and have struggled to be faithful all their life, and they see people who had a life apart that was not very Christlike, a life that went wayward, a prodigal life, and they come back, and they also receive grace. Some of us may feel like the older brother to the prodigal son and think, “Hey, Dad, I never left. I never left. Why are you celebrating him?” And yet, God’s grace is sufficient. We don’t need that glory. As it says in Psalm 115, “Not to us but to your name be the glory, O Lord.” The older brother was thinking about his glory and not God’s name. When we are jealous of other people who live lives of sin before faith, we are looking at our own glory, we are desiring those things that are not love, and we need to empty ourselves of that. We don’t need that in our life. The life of God is not just somberness and avoidance of fun, it is a full life filled with Christ’s purpose, now and in the future. The kingdom of heaven is here. You don’t have to wait around to join in with what God is doing in our community today. God offers that to us this day. It is happening, my brothers and sisters, it is happening at our church. Lives are being transformed in the midst of a pandemic. People are being baptized in the midst of a pandemic. God is still working. God hasn’t taken a break. God isn’t finding other things to do on Sunday morning. God is with us. And no matter what we have done. No matter what we haven’t done, God’s doors are offered and open to us. Our churches doors are open. You are loved. The way is offered to all. You don’t have to be the strongest. You don’t have to be the most beautiful or the most handsome. You don’t have to be the richest or the most well-connected, God’s life is offered to you. You don’t have to hit the winning shot, Christ has won the victory. You don’t have to look like a Christian, Christ has won the victory. You don’t have to look like a good parent. Christ has won the victory. You don’t have to look like a good student, Christ has won the victory. Grace is offered to you. Take a step. Empty yourself of a little not love this week. Drop one of those things that you just don’t need in your life this week. God will answer you as you pray. God’s grace is offered to you this day.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.