HOW TO BECOME VIRTUOUS

We do not come out of the womb as virtuous people. We are selfish, very selfish. We cry because we have been forced to live in a new environment. When we are hungry, we want fed and we want fed immediately. We want to be the center of attention and we get it. It does not matter if it is in the middle of the night or the middle of something that is very important in the life of our parents. That’s their problem. We have a problem, a need, and we want it tended to and at once.

Not very virtuous, is it? In fact, it is quite self-serving. It doesn’t get much better as we grow older. Our wants and needs, no matter what our age, always trump those of anyone else, even those we are supposed to love, even those who love us when, perhaps because of our selfishness, they would rather not. Left to our own desires and devises we would become quite selfish and virtues of any kind would be quite absent in our lives.

That is why we have to learn to become virtuous; but first we have to realize that being virtuous is something that we want to become. We only come to that understanding because we have seen virtuous people in action, seen how it is much better to give than to receive, to love even when love is not returned, to hope in the face of adversity, to believe in the goodness of others even when our head tells us we are foolish. Virtue is taught by others before it is learned by ourselves.

Others give us a glimpse of what the virtuous life is like. We see it and then we want that life for ourselves. That is the first step in becoming a virtuous person. We have to want to change our way of living because we have come to understand that there is a better way to live, a more joyful and fruitful and fulfilling way to live all because we have seen people living that way, living that virtuous life.

The next step is figure out how to become such, what steps we must take to reach that goal, what changes in our behavior must be made in order to attain it, realizing that those steps will be difficult because any change in life and in lifestyle is always difficult. The older we are in undertaking a change, the more difficult. “I’m too old to change” is said for a reason!

Those steps involve changing our habits, changing the ways we usually respond to situations. And as we all know, habits are very, very hard to break because they have become part of our standing operating procedure, as they say, our MO. We “always” act that way, respond that way, think that way. To act and respond and think differently requires a change in habit. That does not come easily.

That’s the easy part: knowing what habits we have to break and new habits we have to cultivate in order to live a virtuous, even a more virtuous life. The hard part is putting those new habits into practice. The good news is that we have done it before. As selfish as we were coming out of the womb, we have become less selfish and more loving. It is only when a habit has become a way of life that we have attained our goal. Even then we have to keep on practicing that virtuous habit.

IT HAS TO BE REAL

The old adage informs us that a picture is worth a thousand words. Whether or not anyone ever calculated how many words it would take to describe what is in a picture is probably beside the point. All any one of us has to do to prove the point is to hold a picture in hand and try to describe exactly what ones sees. Whether that description takes ten words or a thousand words, the point is made.

 A picture, of course, is not real. It is only a depiction of something that is real. There is a difference between seeing a photograph of a sunset than seeing the sunset itself. And while one may use the same words to describe both the picture and the reality, there is still a real difference. For something to be real, it has to be real. It cannot be a description or a picture of something that is real.

This is especially true when it comes to our faith. We can expend thousands of words explaining what it means to be a Christian. I have a few hundred books on my shelves that do just that. Yet none of those books do anything but explain what it means to follow Jesus even if they are loaded with examples of Christianity in practice. While those books give a real explanation of faith in practice, nothing is being practiced.

For our faith to be real, it has to be real. We can talk a good faith. We can preach a good faith. We can give examples, multitudes of them, about how Christians the world over have put their faith into practice. All that is well and good. We all need to understand and even visualize what it means to live a faith-filled life, a life that Jesus commands us to live and one he showed us how to live by his own life.

But no example and no amount of words replaces a real lived faith. Nothing. A real live faith has to be truly alive, a living, breathing life. Our faith demands that we feed the hungry and clothe the naked and visit the sick. We know that. Our faith comes alive, however, only when we actually fed hungry people and clothe those who are without and personally visit those who are alone.

It is wonderful and good and even necessary to have a working knowledge and understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. We need to have a clear picture in our mind, if you will, what all that means and entails. Those words and pictures, while necessary and essential, go only so far; but, in the end, they are inadequate because they do not go far enough. They need to become real, really lived out in our daily lives.

We know all that, certainly. Yet, it seems, we are often convinced that we are good Christian’s, devoted followers of Jesus, simply because we can paint a good picture of what it means to be such. We can explain what it really means to be a Christian without really being one, without actually living as one.

That is not to say that we do not live such a life. It is to say that all too often it is all too easy to talk a good Christianity without actually having to live out a good Christian way of life. Our faith to be real, has to be real and not simply a picture of the real.

FEAR GOD?

A few weeks ago Arlena and I were visiting with her Mom and taking her to lunch. As we drove to the restraint, we passed two men standing on corner holding signs. One read, one word in each line from top to bottom, “Fear God, Repent or Burn” The other sign said something about Jesus Christ being the name of our savior and not a cuss word, as if I needed to know that.

If we had not been on our way to lunch and had not been at an intersection and had I not been driving and thus unable to say anything to the men holding the signs, I would have stopped and asked one simple question of the one telling me to fear God. I would have asked, “What does Jesus say is the greatest commandment?” I assume, biblical expert and teacher of wisdom that he purported to be, he would have answered, “Love God above all else…”

Before he could have finished his sentence, I would have interrupted and said, “Bingo!” and got in my car and driven off. “Love God,” Jesus said and Jesus was only repeating what was/is said in the Old Testament about our relationship to God and neighbor. Scripture tells us that we are to stand in awe of God, but it does not require that we fear God, not in the least.

We are to love God. There is no way in the world that we can love God if we fear God. We cannot love someone we fear. That is an impossibility. Living in fear that we will offend God, frightened that if we die in sin we will burn in hell, is no way to live and not a way of life that God would either demand or expert from us. Perhaps those two sign-holders were out proselytizing because they were repenting of their sins and hoping this God whom they feared would forgive them and save them from the fires of hell. That is only a presumption on my part, however.

The truth is that God loves us unconditionally. God’s love for us does not depend on our returning that love. God certainly hopes that we do in the way we live out our lives. But God will not stop loving is if we do not. As human beings we may cease loving someone who has deliberately hurt us and sometimes, if the truth were told, we do. But God never does and never will.

We do not love God and others because we are afraid of what might happen to us if we do not. We love God because God first loved us. We love our parents because they first loved us. We do what is right not because we are afraid that we will be punished if we do not. Rather we do what is right because we do it out of love, because of God’s love for us, because the love of others for us, because we love.

None of this is to say that we do not do or say that which is unloving and selfish. We all do and we will all continue to do as long as we live. But the more we realize how much God loves us, the less selfish we will be and the more loving we will become. The only thing we need to fear is that we will forget how loved we are. Sadly, I think, that is what those two sign-holders have forgotten.

I AM THE MESSAGE

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel we read of Jesus’ last instructions to his followers before he leaves them for good. After his resurrection he spent some time with them going over one last time the message he wanted them to give to the rest of the world. He wanted to make sure they both understood that message and understood just how they were to convey that message all over the world. Then he left.

The picture Luke paints in his account of this event in the Acts of the Apostles is of this group of followers looking up to the heaves as Jesus ascends from them, mouths wide open, eyes fixed, just standing there. Two men in white robes ask them why they are standing there looking up instead of getting on with the task at hand, namely spreading Jesus’ message. And they did.

Sometimes what we easily miss when we read the Gospels and especially when we read the part where Jesus commands his followers to spread his message far and wide, is that Jesus was speaking not just to those people gathered around him that one last time, but he was and is speaking to us as well. We have the same responsibility, and to no less a degree, to spread that message as did those first followers.

And we are to spread it in the same way they did: by our very lives. Yes, Peter and James and John and all the rest, Paul and Barnabas – all of them – preached the message. They taught what Jesus taught. But the only reason their words did not fall on deaf ears, the only reason they were able to make disciples of those to whom the taught the message in word is that they also lived the message in their daily lives.

The people who heard the message with their ears saw it lived out in the lives of those who were preaching the message. These first disciples remembered how Jesus was constantly taking to task the leaders and teachers of the Jewish people because they did not live out in their own lives what they were teaching the people. His disciples were not to make that same mistake, the mistake of believing that they did not have to practice what they preached. They had to and they did and that is why the made so many converts. There was no other way to teach the message of Jesus.

There never was and there still is not. Those first disciples, in essence, in fact, were the message. They were a living, breathing message. And so we are today, or at least that is what we are supposed to be. I am the message. Each one of us is the message. How well that message is received will depend on how well you and I live that message in our daily lives. That is simply the truth.

Yes, it is true that the truth of the message does not depend on whether or not the messenger is a living example of the message. The Gospel message stands on its own. That does not excuse us from not making every effort we can to be a living message to everyone we meet of who Jesus is and what Jesus still teaches. We will fail every day to live that message fully, but we must never forget that the command to teach the message Jesus gave back then he gives to us today. We are indeed, in word and deed, the message.

IT'S AS SIMPLISTIC AS THAT

A preacher decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. At the beginning of the sermon four worms were placed into four separate jars. The first worm was put into a container of alcohol. The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke. The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup. The fourth worm was put into a container of good, clean soil.

At the conclusion of the long, long sermon, the Minister reported the following results: the first worm in alcohol: dead. The second worm in cigarette smoke: dead. The third worm in chocolate syrup: dead. The fourth worm in good, clean soil: alive. So the Minister asked the congregation, "What did you learn from this demonstration?"

Maxine was sitting in the back and quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke, and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!" Well, it doesn’t get any simpler or more simplistic as that, does it?

Because we live in an age of 30-second sound bytes, we have become accustomed to wanting the answers to complicated and complex questions in simple-to-understand terms. We do not want a long discussion about the finer points, without which, of course, any response will be insufficient. What we get now are not simple answers but simplistic answers which somehow become dogma as in “Smoke, drink and eat chocolate and you will be fine.” Sure.

In this highly-politicized season we are being bombarded with simplistic answers to very, very difficult and complicated questions and issues. “A free market will solve our problems.” “Just get the government off our backs and all will be well.” “Tax the rich and the deficit will be drastically reduced.” There are no simple solutions to very large problems and you can take that to the bank, as an old TV character used to say.

We know the truth of that politically even though we too often buy into those simplistic answers. We also know it to be true from a faith perspective that simple answers, while often true, often are simplistic when put into practice. Jesus gave us, following up on the Old Testament, a simple answer to the way we should live and thus, if we all lived that way, to solving all the world’s problems: love God above all else, with all our heart and mind and strength, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Simple answer, but in many ways, in actual fact, also simplistic. Jesus loved everyone equally and totally, even those who were putting him to death; but his love did not prevent his death. Just as a freer market of less government or high taxes on the rich will solve some problems, they will not solve all of them and may even create more problems.

Simple/simplistic answers always sound good. Yet most of the problems we deal with every day are always more complex than any simple or simplistic answer can resolve –  like smoking, drinking and eating chocolate to stay healthy. Be aware of the simple and beware of the simplistic. It’s as simple and simplistic as that!

TAKE TIME TO RESPOND

We live in a world, or at least in a country, where consumption seems to be the calling card. We eat more than we should, certainly eat more of the wrong foods and not enough of the right ones. We consume more of the world’s natural and dwindling resources than we have a right to while, at the same time, making it more difficult for the rest of the world to obtain its fair share.

We seem to be so preoccupied with getting, obtaining more and more. Perhaps the word “seem” is incorrect. Perhaps the truth is that we are preoccupied. We tend to think, or seem to be convinced of the truth that more is better rather than realizing that less is more. Who hasn’t eaten so much at a wonderfully delicious and even nutritious meal that the stuffed stomach mitigated against our being able to really enjoy the meal. Too many of our children have more toys than they can possibly enjoy any one of them.

All that is bad enough; and even though it is a guilt trip, this reminder that we spend too much time, energy and money in obtaining and consuming that which we deem will make us happy or happier, there is another point to all this. It is an important point and one that we all too easily overlook, take for granted or, even worse, do not recognize at all as being something of which we should be aware.

The point is quite simple: when we allow ourselves to be preoccupied, even at times consumed, with getting – getting food, getting possessions, getting money, getting – we become unable to respond to what God gives to us, freely gives to us at no cost and asks nothing in return other that we appreciate what we have been given and to not misuse that gift in any way.

One of the reasons why more is less is that when we have little, we always appreciate what we have. The more we possess the less we seem to appreciate and enjoy those possessions. We sometimes have so many possessions that we have to store them in the attic, the cellar, the garage or even rent one of those storage facilities somewhere across town almost to the point where we even forget what we have and certainly have no way of enjoying them.

Then, too, one of the reasons why we seem unable to respond to what God gives us is that we either have taken for granted what those gifts are or we can’t grab hold of them and store them away for future enjoyment. They are meant to be enjoyed all the time but can only be enjoyed when they are recognized for what they are: God’s free gifts to us. Once recognized, then and only then can we respond appropriately.

What are those free God-given gifts? They are too numerous to mention, but consider some: life itself, each day, the sunshine, nature in all its glory, the fruits of the earth, God’s total love for us and the ability to love God and others and be loved in return, God’s forgiveness and the ability to forgive and be forgiven. Each of us can add to that list of the gifts God gives to each freely, unasked, with the only request that our response is to recognize these gifts, to be thankful and never, ever take them for granted.

ROSE GARDENS                                                                                       

It’s been almost 40 years since Lynne Anderson recorded “Rose Garden”. I know that because I was one of over 3.6 million people who listened to her sing that song on YouTube. The opening words are fascinating: “I beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, there's gotta be a little rain sometimes.” Sunshine and rain do go together. We need both. However, life is really about living in a rose garden, analogies being what they are.

When I was growing up, my Mom had a large rose garden in the back yard along with her vegetable garden. She also had rose bushes scattered around outside the house. They were always beautiful when the roses were in full bloom. There were times when she asked me to pick some roses to put into a vase for us to enjoy inside our home. Doing so was always a somewhat dangerous business.

Rose bushes come with thorns. One must be aware of those thorns when both tending to the bushes and when picking the roses. Many a time I came away with a scratch or two because I was not very careful. On a few occasions those pesky thorns went deep enough that I started to bleed. And while the injuries inflicted by those thorns were not in any way life-threatening, they did hurt.

Isn’t that what life in this life is really like? We live in a rose garden: a wonderful and beautiful world, God’s marvelous creation all around us to behold and enjoy and revel in if we so choose to do so. And who wouldn’t? Who shouldn’t? And yet this world of ours, as beautiful as it is, is full of thorns that cause us pain and suffering. And no matter how careful we are, we will sometimes be scratched. There are times, too, when those scratches will draw blood, real blood.

If we had our druthers and had a choice of which garden to live in, the biblical Garden of Eden or the real world’s Rose Garden, we would all choose paradise, or what is described as paradise. But that is not an option for us. The garden in which we live, as wonderful and as beautiful as it is, is also a dangerous place at times. As much as we might wish it were not so, it is so.

This world has always been a rose garden. That is the way God created this world, the biblical description of The Beginning notwithstanding. While we live in this Rose Garden, we will all receive our fair share of scratches, some more than others, unfortunately. We will also suffer puncture wounds from the thorns that are part and parcel of life among sinful human beings, some wounds deeper and more painful than others. There is no escape and no other Garden to flee to.

But amid all the thorns and enduring all the scratches and wounds that come our way, what still remains is the infinite beauty of the Garden itself. Even more is our faith that in the end, as beautiful as this Garden is, what awaits us is a Garden of unspeakable beauty where there are no thorns to cause any more pain and suffering. When our pain is so deep that we cannot see the beauty, that faith is what keeps us going until we can once again.