Fourth Sunday in Lent 'B'

Saturday March 25, 2006

Life’s Greatest Lessons — or—There Are No Free Lunches!

It’s a story that has traveled many miles and I’m certain has been heard at not a few board meetings or sales conferences. I suspect it may have also made the rounds of many pulpits.

At the beginning of the spring semester, a certain professor of philosophy charged his students with an assignment write a dissertation on the topic “The Key to Successful Living.” The assignment was due at the conclusion of the semester and would count for 80% of the semester grade. This was his concluding admonition: “Don’t get wordy; brevity will win the reward of a high grade!”

Of course young college students want to impress their instructors with their erudition and wisdom. The first wave of dissertations appeared in the professors box, some totaling 100 pages and more which occasioned a second warning, “Brevity counts for everything; less is more!”

As the papers continued to arrive, the warning was heeded by many but still longer than desired by the professor. He repeated his counsel. “As many words as necessary, as few as possible.”

On the last day, a student arrived with a carefully bound sheet of paper. On the cover was the title, “The Key to Successful Living.” The professor opened the cover and on one page he read: “There are no free lunches.”

The student got ‘A+’ for that semester! A scholar in the making!

The first and second Book of Chronicles are as the title suggests, historical accounts of Jewish history from creation up to the beginning of the Persian Empire under Cyrus.

They are not pure documentary accounts. They are faith history, the unfolding of Jewish events as interpreted by the narrator in the light of God’s revelation.

In essence, the lesson of Chronicles is quite simple and might be summed up in those famous words of George Santayana: “Those who do not remember the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.”

The Israelites just didn’t get it. They knew about God but they didn’t know God. They trusted their own judgement rather than God’s; they invested in their own wisdom, they indulged in their own selfish interests and they lost everything in the process. They desecrated Jewish worship by their infidelity to God’s law—not just the letter but the spirit.

Their infidelity was “rewarded” by their alienation and exile — political, economic and spiritual and they had no one else to blame but themselves.

God is not a God of vengeance but of mercy and compassion even in the face of the arrogance of religious leaders. Despite suggestions to the contrary, God has never willed the death of the sinner but that the sinner be converted and live. How many times have we read these words in one form or another. We heard them again today in the letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians echoed in the famous hymn by Newton: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!”

So God said to himself, “How can I convince them that I will not their destruction? I want them to have life in greater abundance. I know — I will send them someone who can show them the way to true freedom.

I will lift this One up for all humanity to see so that in lifting him up, all may be lifted up.”

This is the testimony of John the Evangelist who was more than a storyteller. He was a mystic who knew the mind of God and recognized in Christ, the full manifestation of God.

In his explanation of Christ’s role in redemption, John made a very strange association with an incident about Moses as described in the Book of Exodus. When the people became disgruntled in the desert because of their hunger and thirst, they grumbled against God. Moses was instructed to wrap his staff with a serpent and extend it over the people much as was done by pagan leaders. The people were healed. This too is a faith story. Moses was not a magician and was not adopting a pagan practice adopting it for a religious purpose. He used the staff as a visible sign of God’s presence to his people and of God’s desire to save them despite their disobedience.

John used that same Greek word, ‘hupsoun’ i.e., to lift up and applied it to Christ who was “lifted up” on the cross, and “lifted up” in his resurrection from the death and finally “lifted up” on the mount of the Ascension. He was lifted up for all humanity to see as the “way, the truth and the life;” the witness to justice, the light of hope, the path to salvation, the gateway to everlasting life.

John 3:16 is probably the most famous of all New Testament texts, the most often quoted in pulpits, on bulletin boards and on sign posts: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” He is the One sent that we too might be lifted up and enjoy the same reward as he — eternal life that John insists begins in this life.

John goes on to tell us that belief in Jesus Christ is the assurance of peace with God, the assurance of peace with ourselves, the assurance of peace with others; the assurance of peace in the face of daily challenges and ultimately the assurance of eternal life.

We must embrace Christ without condition just as God has embraced us in Christ without condition. We must commit ourselves to live with integrity and to love without measure. There are no short cuts —there are no free lunches but we have the gift of God’s grace to animate and empower us to goodness—“Amazing grace!”

Some time ago, I came across a book entitled, “Life’s Greatest Lessons—20 Things That Matter” by Hal Urban. It has been haled far and wide as a classic. The noted authority on leadership and management, Stephen covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” said this: “A tremendously enriching book full of classic wisdom to live by.”

Ken Blanchard, co-author of “The One Minute Manager” said: “With its timeless message for people of all ages, this book is going to become a classic. It should be in every home in America.”

Here are the chapter headings:

•Success Is More Than Making Money.
•Life is Hard… and Not Always Easy.
•Life Is Also Fun and Incredibly Funny.
•We live by Choice, Not by Chance.
•Attitude Is a Choice — the Most Important One You’ll Ever Make.
•Habits Are the Key to All success.
•Being Thankful I s a Habit — the Best One You’ll Ever Have.
•Good People Build Their lives on a Foundation of Respect.
•Honesty Is Still the Best Policy.
•Kind Words Cost Little but Accomplish Much.
•Real Motivation Comes from Within.
•Goals Are Dreams with Deadlines.
•There’s No Substitute for Hard Work.
•You Have to Give Up Something to Get something.
•Successful People Don’t Find Time — They Make Time.
•No One Else Can Raise Your Self-esteem.
•The Body Needs Nutrition and Exercise — So Do the Mind and Spirit.
•It’s OK to Fail — Everyone Else Has.
•Life Is Simpler when We Know What’s Essential.
•Essential #1 Is Being a Good Person.

But Napoleon Hill had the first and last word before the title page: “All great truths are simple in the final analysis, and easily understood; if they are not, they are not great truths.”

“There are no free lunches!”

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