Mar.  17, 2019                 Citizens of Heaven                            

         His name was Zach, and he was a IRS agent. He was good at his job, he knew what deductions were legal and what weren’t. He was fair and just, but he found that he had few friends, few people like the tax man, even fewer, those who are fair and just. Over the years, he often was exasperated by the deductions people tried to take, in time he was often quick to see the worst in others.  

         Her name was Samantha. And Samantha was a housewife, at least that was her dream. So she married her high school sweetheart, but somehow that just didn’t work out and a few years later she was divorced. She tried again, this one took for 5 years and she had two kids, but it too ended. She tried again, and again, and again. She just could understand, she was a good person, this was all supposed to be so easy, but she just kept marrying losers.

         His name was Nick, and Nick was a priest. But Nick had some doubts, doubts about his church, doubts about the priesthood. Oh, Nick told himself, he believed in God, there was no problem there, and he was a good man, keeping the commandments and doing the work of the church, but there was always this nagging doubt, did his life mean anything, did it really make a difference.

         Her name was Mary, and Mary, shall we say, was a professional. She had long ago given up on the idea of marriage and children. But that wasn’t important, none of that mattered. All that silly moral stuff that people talk about, they were liars, none of it mattered, the most important thing was to be a good person yourself, so that no matter what you had to do to get along, there was still something inside you that was pure, and good.

         A few years ago, I did a series on C. S. Lewis book, “Mere Christianity” A book that tries to get people to examine their faith, so that they can hear the Christian message anew, bringing faith and hope and new life to them.

         In the first section of the book, Lewis speaks about the Law of Human Nature. The difference between right and wrong that all people seem able to recognize. Lewis says, we love the law of right and wrong, for it establishes the ideas of justice and the common good that are in all our interests. Yet, at the same time, we hate the law of right and wrong, because it keeps us from acting solely in our own interest all the time, it keeps us from worshiping ourselves.

         And so, because of this love and hate relationship with right and wrong, we find that we have this same love and hate relationship with God, who gives us the law of right and wrong. We are not as good as we think we are, nor as bad as others think us to be, we are just people, people who love what is right, and people who love what is right for us.

And therein lies the problem, because as we live loving what is right for us, more and more, we love what is right for all, less and less, until we become lost, until we become enemies of God, and our lives become broken. And no amount of telling ourselves we are good, can set us right.

        

         Many of you might have heard of Zack by another name, his name was Zachaeus, and when he found Jesus, his whole life changed, he found an acceptance for himself by which he was able to accept others, for who they were.

         You might have heard about Sam, Sam was the woman at the Samaritan well, who learned that life was about more than marriage and babies, and she at last came to know a relationship of love, a relationship with God.

         You all know Nick, Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night, who discovered that his life in the church lacked that Spirit of God’s love that truly makes a difference in our lives.

         And Mary, Mary of Magdalene, who discovered that what you do, does make a difference in your life, that God wants us to live only the best life, and ultimately, the life that is best for us!

         Here again, these words of Paul to the Philippians,

         “For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.”

        

         The season of lent, is a time for Christians to examine their faith, and whether we have bought the lie some tell ourselves that they are good by societies standard, when in fact they have become enemies of God. How many of us go about seeking our own wills, seeking glory by the standards of the world, and set upon our own personal desires, and find we are unsatisfied.

         To be citizens means to enter a realm where we are not our own any more, but where we are God’s. A life in which we seek God’s affirmation, not the world. A life where we seek the glory of God’s goodness in ourselves rather than our own.

         And when we live this new life, we find the burden of being responsible for our own goodness fall away, and a new life that frees us, to find our true joy and happiness in our lives.

         It worked for Zach, Sam, Nick, and Mary, and it can work for you!