This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
God's Vision for Your Life
God's Vision for Your Life
DATE: April 11, 1999
TEXT: John 10:10

As we move closer to the millenium and the political season, political candidates will be sharing with us their vision for the country, state, or city, depending on the office they are running for. Through speeches and ads they will be trying to convince us that their vision is the best and that that vision has our own personal interests in mind.
Then, on some Tuesday in November, we will have the awesome responsibility of choosing which vision we want to buy into. We'll weigh the risks and the benefits of that vision and then choose the one we feel will best serve our personal interests. It's an important decision. Because the vision we choose will impact our lives.
Politicians aren't the only ones who have a wonderful plan for our lives. Many of us work for corporations that invite us to be a part of carrying out their vision. And that corporate vision determines the number of hours we put in, the kind of pay we earn, and our goals and objectives. That corporate vision drives our job.
If you're a parent, you find that your kids have a wonderful vision for your life--and that vision is to pay for whatever it is they want at the moment. If you're married, your spouse has a vision for your life, which includes caring for you and expecting the same care in return.
Many of us have our own personal visions for our lives--things we want to do, the kind of person we want to be. And that vision sets the tone for every decision we make and every action we take. And depending on the vision, that vision can have a positive or negative impact on our lives.
But people aren't the only ones with a vision for our lives. Inanimate objects, like money, offer a vision that, if we buy into it, can control our lives. Take Mercury's Imagine TV ads. They want you to imagine yourself sitting in their car. Money's vision is to spend it faster than we can make it. Money wants to bring us under its control.
The point is, the vision we choose to follow shapes our lives. That vision, in essence, drives or controls everything we do. So we want to make sure that we embrace a vision that will positively impact our lives--a vision that will enable us to enjoy all that life has to offer.
God has a vision for our lives that I believe is worth considering--for according to Jesus, it's a vision that can bring out the best in us, a vision that can help us enjoy all that life has to offer, a vision worth following. But the vision comes with a high cost--and that cost is our lives.
Today I want to look with you at God's vision-to look at the cost and the benefits, to see if that vision is worth embracing. But before we talk about it, let's pray together:
Prayer
Two young men were part of construction crew working on a multi-storied office building. Since they were both hired at the same time they quickly became friends and shared lunchtime together every day. The first day they ate together, Joe opened his lunch box, looked inside, and said, "I can't believe it. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I hate peanut butter and jelly." He crumpled up the sandwich and tossed them.
The next day, the same thing happened. Joe opened up his lunch box, discovered another peanut butter and jelly sandwich, expressed his disgust, and tossed it 17 stories to the ground.
This happened day after day until Joe's buddy started dreading lunchtime. Finally, Joe's friend had had enough and said, "If you don't like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, why don't you tell your wife not to make them?"
Joe turned to his friend and said, "Wait a minute. Don't bring my wife into this. I make my own sandwiches."
As the risk of sounding like Forrest Gump, life is like a sandwich. It consists of two pieces of bread--the beginning of our lives and the end of our lives. And the quality of our life is determined by what we choose to put in the middle. In other words, the vision we commit our lives to will determine how we live our lives.
As I've already mentioned, it seems that everyone has a wonderful plan for our lives. If we simply commit ourselves to it, be it a political party platform, a corporation, a religion, a drug, or a fitness club, our lives will be changed, or so the vision says. And depending on the vision we commit to, the vision will either enhance our lives or destroy them.
2000 years ago Jesus came to share with us God's vision for our lives. It's a vision Jesus obviously believed in because he ultimately gave his life for it. And if he's that committed to it, it's worth checking out.
He says very simply, "I have come that you might have life, and hit it to the full." Now, on the surface it doesn't sound all that revolutionary. Many vision vying for our attention today promise to enhance our lives--to make life more fulfilling. And, quite honestly, most of those promises fall short. So, its important for us to understand exactly what it is that Jesus means by giving us a full life, and if that promise can really stand up.
When Jesus says he's come to give us a full life, he's picturing a cup overflowing with water. In other words, he life he offers is so rich, so rewarding, that we can't even contain it all. One person translates Jesus' vision statement this way: "I have come so that you might live it up, so that you might experience life plus."
Jesus came offering us a life of health, wholeness, and vitality. A life filled with new possibilities, new horizons, a life that makes us fully alive, a life that makes each day a new gift and adventure.
Now it sounds good on paper, but while he walked on earth did he really deliver? Did Jesus model that kind of life plus living? Did his friends and contacts discover a new vitality for life? The best way to answer that question is to look at the way Jesus lives and associated with others.
One of the images of Jesus that often gets lost under the seriousness of his death and resurrection is that of Jesus hanging out at parties and celebrations. Jesus loved parties. Over and over again we read about him enjoying weddings, dinner engagements, and social get-togethers. He even transformed a funeral or two into a celebration. And it seems that Jesus was always the center of attention. He was the life of the party.
Now, certainly Jesus hung out at such events because he loved to be with people. But I also believe that Jesus partied with a purpose--and that purpose was to personally model God's vision of energized living and to make that vision a reality in the lives of others.
And as we look more closely at what he did at those parties, we catch a glimpse of the exciting vision he has for our lives and how that vision can transform us.
1) First of all, we see that Jesus' vision of life offers love to those who seemed unlovable.
More often than not, Jesus partied with those who were considered to be socially undesirable. He surrounds himself with people like Matthew--a hated, despised tax collector who stole from his people and worked for the enemy. May Magdalene, a woman who struggled with demons of shame and lust. Peter, a common laborer, and in the mind of the social elite, a nobody. By partying with these people Jesus was essentially saying that he was a friend with them, that he saw them as equals. He didn't demand that they get their lives together before he would spend time with them. He didn't tell them to shape up first. He simply loved and accepted them unconditionally. And that love restored heir dignity. It set them free to be the people God created them to be. And they discovered a new vision for life--a vision that set them free to live it up and enjoy the love Jesus had for them. His enthusiasm for life began to capture their hearts, and empowered them to enjoy all that heaven had to offer.
2) Secondly, Jesus' vision of life offers joy to the discouraged.
A little girl had just heard the story of Jesus turning the water into wine at a wedding reception. When her parents asked her what she had learned about Jesus from that story, she said, "When you have a wedding, it's good ides to have Jesus at your party."
Everywhere Jesus went, he spread joy. It's one of the characteristics of the life-plus life that he offers. That deep-seated sense that life, at its core is good, that every day is a gift, even if the day is filled with some challenges and hardships.
The vision Jesus offers to us includes a healthy dose of unlimited, uncontainable joy every day, a gift that energizes us in the good times, and gets us through the tough times.
3) Third, Jesus' vision of life offers hope to the hopeless.
Dante, in his Divine Comedy, says rather bluntly, "Life without hope is hell." Life isn't always rosie. And Jesus knows that first hand. He faced the tough times of life but found the strength to endure through hope.
Jesus vision of life offers hope-the assurance that God, not life's circumstances will have the final word. That promise enabled Jesus to face the cross and see the resurrection. And that vision of hope can help us face our crosses with strength and courage.
4) Finally, Jesus' vision of life offers forgiveness to the sinner.
During one party, Jesus was talking with a group of friends when a woman crashed the even and started pouring perfume on his feet, and wiping his feet with her hair. The host was stunned, not only because this woman interrupted his party, but also because of the kind of woman she was. She was a prostitute. And he was outraged that such a person would enter his home and accost a religious leader like Jesus.
But Jesus put his vision for life-plus into action and said, "This woman had done much that is wrong in her life. But I choose to forgive her." And that woman, touched by the unconditional forgiveness of Jesus, discovered what it means to live life to the full. Jesus gave her a fresh start. A new beginning. A chance to be the person God created her to be. An opportunity to lay aside her guilt and shame and to start enjoying life.
Jesus wants to do the same thing for you today.
2000 years ago Jesus came to invite us to commit our lives to a very simple, yet life transforming vision--a vision that can enable us to experience a super-energized life of love, joy, hope, and forgiveness--a vision that can become a reality in our lives as we take up Jesus' invitation to follow him--to allow him to be the center of our lives. That vision cost Jesus his life. And to enjoy it will cost us ours. But in the process, we find our lives and discover true life.
Today, if you long for that kind of life--a life of love, joy, hope, and forgiveness, Jesus invites you to participate in the party he's hosting--the celebration of a life time.
AMEN