Sermon for Sunday, April 13, 2008WHAT KIND OF LEGACY ARE YOU LEAVING?By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz |
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Scripture: Luke 12:13-21 13 Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." 14 But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" 15 And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." 16 Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, "What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' 18 Then he said, "I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' 20 But God said to him, "You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God." We are talking today about how each of us wants to be remembered and what sort of legacy we want to leave. You may have heard the same inspiring story I heard a few days ago on National Public Radio about a 31 year old social worker in New York City. He works in the city and rides the subway one hour each evening to his home in the Bronx, except he gets off one stop before his residence to eat dinner in the same diner every evening. A few weeks ago he got off to go eat and he was accosted by a teenager with a knife who demanded his wallet. The social worker, Julio Diaz, gave the mugger his wallet, but then he did something very unusual. As the teenager turned to walk away, Mr. Diaz called out to him: “If you are going to be robbing people for the rest of the evening, you are going to be cold, so why don’t you take my coat also; it will keep you warm.” The young mugger was taken off guard; “Why would you do that?” Here is what Mr. Diaz said: “If you are willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was to get dinner and if you really want to join me, you are more than welcome.” Diaz said, “I just felt, maybe he really needs help.” They went to the diner where Diaz eats every night and sat down. And Diaz greeted each person in the diner—the manager, the dishwashers, the waiters—he knew them all. The teenager was surprised: “Do you own this place??” Diaz said of course not, that he just ate there a lot. The kid said, “But you are even nice to the dishwasher!” Diaz asked if he had not been taught that he should be nice to everyone. Then Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life and the teenager could not answer or didn’t want to answer. “He just had a sad face,” Diaz said. They ate dinner. Then the bill came. Julio Diaz said to the kid, “Well, you will have to pay the bill because you have my money. If you give me my wallet back, I will treat you.” The kid gave the wallet back and Diaz paid the bill and then gave the teenager $20 because, “I figured maybe it will help him.” Then, Diaz said, “Now that I have given you something, you have to give me something in return.” So the teen gave him the knife. Diaz told his mother later what had happened. She wasn’t surprised. She said, “You were the type of kid who if someone asked for the time, you gave them your watch.” I have been thinking about that true story and wondering what impact 31-year-old Julio Diaz has had on the teenager who robbed him. What kind of legacy is Julio Diaz trying to leave? How will people see him and think about him? How is he living his life? Let’s keep his example of kindness and compassion in mind as we look at another story about another man and how we remember him. The man is the farmer in Jesus’ parable. He had had a very successful year. His harvest was greater than he even dreamed it could be. He was so happy. He made plans about how to use his wealth. What were his plans? He planned to spend it all on himself!! He felt smug and egocentric. He said, “I am so proud of myself; I can just build larger buildings and relax and eat and drink and be merry and congratulate myself!! Jesus says, “And then he died, and all of these THINGS he took such great pleasure in—who will enjoy them now?” Then Jesus says, “This is how it is with those who store up treasures only for themselves but are not wealthy in what really matters most.” This is just one of the 17 parables out of Jesus’ 38 parables that tell us that what is risky about having so much is if we only use it for ourselves. The Bible never says that being affluent is bad. It does say that if we worship what we have and feel selfish and smug and think we have only ourselves to thank, we are in danger. The Bible asks us to look at what kind of legacy we are leaving—how we want to be remembered, how we are living our lives. The Bible asks us to be generous. Are we living generously and unselfishly and with compassion toward others like the example of 31-year-old Julio Diaz or are we only focusing on ourselves? We have quoted from the first chapter of Rick Warren’s book on the purpose driven life many times. We have also said that the deterministic philosophy in the book—that God causes all the bad things that happen—is very different from what we believe as United Methodist Christians. But his emphasis in chapter one is deeply Biblical. Warren says, “It’s not about you.” You are not the center of the universe. You and I were put here by God to serve. We were not put here to just grab and grub for ourselves. We were put here to serve and to make a difference. Or in the words of the sermon title, we were put here to leave a valued legacy for others. What kind of legacy are we leaving? How will people remember us? As generous, compassionate—or as materialistic and self centered? This question of our legacy is getting enormous attention in the past few weeks because of an exceptional college professor named Randy Pausch who has been covered in the Wall Street Journal, Parade Magazine, USA Today, and on several TV shows including Oprah and Diane Sawyer’s show. He also has a new book out last Tuesday that is on back order at one of the Barnes and Noble store I called to order some for today. Dr. Pausch is 47 and is dying of pancreatic cancer. He is the father of three small children. He is an exceptional teacher at Carnegie Mellon University and he has gotten so much attention because of lecture in a series there called “The Last Lecture”, what each teacher would want to say if this were the last time he or she could talk to their students. It is a chance to tell about what each person thinks is most important, to tell how they want to be remembered. You may have seen some version of Dr. Pausch’s lecture on You Tube; if you have not, I urge you to do so. He has many important lessons he wants to pass on to all of us though he says that he has truly given this lecture for his children so they will see him later when they are older and can learn more of the core values and life lessons he has tried to live by. Do you remember any of those lessons if you have seen or read about him? He says he has learned that things are not important. Clothes are not important. What he drives is not important. He liked having his new convertible a few years ago when he was still single and taking his young niece and nephew out for the day, but just as his sister was telling her children to be very careful in Uncle Randy’s brand new car, Uncle Randy was standing by the back seat pouring a can of soda over the seat. He said, “It’s just a car.” It is a thing. He was pleased he showed that attitude because later that day his 8 year old nephew was coming down with the flu and threw up in the back seat of the new car. But Uncle Randy had shown the boy that it’s just a car and he did not have to feel guilty about being sick. Pausch has other important values and lessons: we will all run into obstacles and brick walls that try to keep us from our goals and dreams. He says that brick walls have a purpose. Brick walls are there to show us how much we want something, and people who don’t want something badly enough will be stopped by them and others who really want that goal or dream will not be stopped. He says, practice gratitude—a good lesson for the farmer in Jesus’ parable. He urges us to write thank you notes by hand. He urges us to be generous—share with others. He says he learned that from his father who through his acts of kindness was one of the most authentic Christians he had ever seen. He learned that habit and that value of generosity from his father and when Randy Pausch was granted tenure in his first job teaching at the University of Virginia, he thanked the sixteen students and faculty who had helped him achieve that goal by paying for all of them to accompany him to Disneyworld for a weekend. His three rules for a sincere apology are worth the price of the entire book. He says most apologies are phony: “I am sorry if you were bothered by what I said or did”. He says that is a worthless apology! Here is what an apology should be according to Dr. Pausch:
There are many other lessons in the book that he learned from his family growing up, from his church, from his work and his relationships and from his wife and children. Here is how this relates to the topic of the morning and to our work together in this congregation: he entitles one of the chapters: It’s About How You Live Your Life. As we think about the three persons we have looked at—the 31-year-old social worker who approached the mugger with compassion, the wealthy farmer who focused only on himself and his comfort and his pleasure, and 47-year-old Randy Pausch, who do you want to be like? What difference are you trying to make with your life? What kind of legacy are you going to leave? How do you want to be remembered? What is your life standing for? On May 11 we will all be given an opportunity to put another stake in the ground as we bring commitment cards to the altar table and promise together to expand what we are doing in this church by expanding space. Some of you can see an immediate connection between that Sunday morning and everything else we have talked about today. Others of you are saying, oh, this is just the church talking about money again! Most of us in this church are here because we want to live so that we leave a legacy of generosity and service to others instead of just looking out for ourselves. To build more space will just let us do the same thing for more and more people, touch more lives with what is really important, what is really worth living for! Thank you God for that chance to make a difference together! Amen. |
