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The Essentials
A Sermon By Nathan J. Hill

Scripture: 1st Corinthians 3:10-15

Thanksgiving
“What a blessing it is to be here today, to share with you some of my experience, some of my toil in the Lord over the past eight months. I thank you for your continued prayers and support of me during my experience in Washington DC. It’s not over – I still have about two and a half months left in the Gethsemane Mission Year program. But I need to say thank you every chance I get – thank you for being faithful to God. Thank you for letting me share, thank you for again for having let me mature and work with you in this awesome church. You continually are a light to me.”

Ingredients
“One great honor bestowed upon me during this Gethsemane Mission Year experience was to be nominated as the unofficial house cook. That’s right – in a house with three vegetarian young adults, they elect the meat eater to cook. But it’s been a fun experience. I’m learning many things. I’ve discovered vegetables that I didn’t know existed. I’ve discovered ways to cook vegetables that actually make them appetizing – no small feat indeed! I’ve cooked bizarre and strange things – lentil Bolognese, Brazilian stuffed peppers, corn & potato soup, red onion and zucchini pizza, and fresh pico de gallo. Amazing, right? When I was a bachelor here and attending school at Cameron, I was a decent cook, no doubt. I could cook Burger King, McDonalds, Taco Bell — you know the staples. But this past year has been fun because I’ve learned that with a little work, patience, and experimentation, I can do much better and I don’t even need a slab of steak. And what’s important in these good recipes is the ingredients. Sometimes, you can sort of fake things a little bit, but if you really want the taste – the full flavor – you need all the ingredients. And no, substitutes don’t always work. Adding extra stuff might make it too thick, or make it too sweet, or too salty, or… just bad. So, as house cook, I had to pay attention to the ingredients, because it was awesome when I would get home, toil over dinner, and share it with my roomies… and they would make all these cool sounds like – “hhhmmmm… oooohhhh… wow.” Cause then I knew, I got it right. I got the recipe right. And the flavor was there.”

Heart Story
“Life to me is like a good recipe. When you fill your life up with the right ingredients, you get the flavor, you get it right. And when you don’t, life comes out too hot, too cold — something isn’t right. You thought it was going to taste great, but it turns out that it doesn’t. Something’s missing. You didn’t get what you hoped for. And life in our world today is like one bad recipe after another for many folks. Maybe some of you here today are wondering why things didn’t turn out as planned? Maybe some of us here are even contemplating adding a few ingredients to the mix of your life?

Interestingly enough, my past year has been a process of changing my own recipe. I’ve always been a spiritual, inquisitive sort of dude. I love being in church, being active, and serving God. But my life always gets pretty hectic. There are always bills to pay, financial worries ahead, academics, personal obligations, big ideas, dreams, goals, friends, family… It’s a wonder I have time for myself, time to just sit and think. I’m always being tugged one way or another. And for a while, I sort of thought – hey, this is life. Get used to it. But this year, as part of Gethsemane Mission Year, one of the virtues we were challenged with was – simplicity.

I have to admit that I didn’t pay it much attention when I applied for the program. Simplicity? I figured that meant I would pray a little bit more than usual, leave my car back here in Oklahoma, read a new book or two, and I don’t know… maybe fold my clothes from time to time. But as my year took off, I began to wrestle with this idea, simplicity. It is the simple and complicated question of asking – what do I really need in life to be happy? What truly brings me joy? What are the essentials? What are my life’s necessary ingredients? What can I truly live without? And so that is the focus of my message this morning, a message that the Holy Spirit stirred up in my heart, a message that I am still struggling with on my own.”

Scripture
“In our unusual scripture this morning, we find the Apostle Paul giving a nice talking to the church at Corinth. That’s probably the most polite way to put it. To give you some background, Corinth was considered the Las Vegas of the 1st Century. It was the place to be on a Friday night, the place to be if you had some money to spend, the place to be if you thought earthly pleasures were your one way ticket to happiness. And best of all, what happened in Corinth, stayed in Corinth! But Paul’s message of the Good News, of Christ crucified and resurrected, it resonated with the little heathens there. And a community of believers grew up in the middle of the glitzy strip of temples, bars, and parties. And boy, the holy spirit worked some stuff there, but it didn’t take very long for things to get off track. You see the Corinth people had some bad ingredients in their lives. They were convinced that the way to happiness was in fancy titles, wealth, physical pleasures and passions… The leader of their community should not only look good – he or she should speak eloquently and perform amazing signs of spiritual power. Yes, they were focused on the glitz and glamour, not the deep down reality of Christ. They were looking for the physical makeup on the outside, not the spiritual makeup on the inside. And who can blame them, surrounded as they were with the decadence of the greatest nation in the history of the world (at least at the time)? So Paul has to confront them and bring them back to reality. And how does he do it? He does it by bringing them to his level, a life filled with a desire to serve God. He pokes at their so-called wealth – “already you have become rich! Already you have become kings!” And then he sets that against the life of an apostle, one who seems to be marked for an early, dishonorable death… “made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels and men.” And he goes on to further this divide, speaking to the fact that the Corinthians think they are so spiritually mature, so strong, so honorable.. and yet Paul relates his own experiences and struggles in his ministry – experiences of being homeless, of being thirsty, of being hungry… and how even in the midst of this, even when persecuted… he follows God, even to the point of being considered scum of the earth.”

I think Paul definitely has some of the right ingredients, don’t you? Even in the midst of turmoil, strife, pain, and giant question marks – he is faithful to God. He perseveres, even if things aren’t looking good. He knows that the true test of a follower of Christ is found deep inside. It’s found in what the person values, what the person finds essential. And if the person finds their values in the earthly things – material possessions, physical pleasures, outward appearances – by Paul’s standards, and dare I say God’s standards, their ingredients are wrong. So, they turn to squabbling, division – they focus on all these things that are not of God – because they don’t realize that their recipe for life is missing something critical.”

Rose’s Story
“As I worked this past year at the Capital Area Food Bank, one of our jobs was to go out and do face-to-face interviews with some of the families and individuals who use the various pantries, kitchens, and shelters connected to us. At one of these sites, I sat down to do an interview with a lady named Rose. Rose was a delightful person, but she was a bit of a handful. She kept slowing down the interview process. I had a certain number of questions to ask, and she kept telling these tangent stories about her life… and I just wanted to get things out of the way. But her life story stirred something in me. So, I slowed down and listened more carefully. Rose was in her early 50s, intelligent, and energetic. As it turns out, she was caught in a cycle of poverty and welfare for the past two years, struggling with illness and caring for her daughter and grandchild. She worked as a professor at a local university in her last job, but when illness struck, hospital bills and a broken system hit her extra hard. She found herself without a job and dependent on whatever aid federal programs would give. Needless to say, I didn’t envy her position, but as she told me her story, I thought of my experience while working at Cameron University. I thought of the many professors there – even Jan, Earl, and Gail. I realized how easy it would be for any of us to have our life spiral out of control, and end up in Rose’s position. I was thankful that day, for what I did have, but I also realized. Life IS fragile. So doesn’t it make sense to spend my life on the things that truly matter to me?

In Washington DC, there are many conflicting images for those who live there. There are of course the gleaming, patriotic symbols of our nation’s long heritage. The Washington Monument is inspiring to see. The World War II memorial is a powerful testimony to our brave servicemen and women. The resources and displays in the Smithsonian museum are truly a treasure. But yet, a few miles in SE Anacostia as you drive in from the I-295, you are greeted with a corner of a building which is adorned with the faces of men, women, and children killed by violence each year in our nation’s capital. The first time I saw it – I was floored. To go from eyeing the Washington Monument, to seeing the smiling faces of the innocent victims of our broken society, it was quite a change of realities.

These conflicting images appear everyday in our cities and communities, and it attests to the reality that we often care more, as a people, to the glitz and glamour rather than the deeper questions. I know I catch myself in that trap, as I get hooked watching American Idol, the OC, or whatever new show comes out with “real” people doing bizarre things. I would prefer to turn the channel when another suicide, another homicide, another tragedy, another bombing in Iraq hits the screen. I’d rather turn on my iPod and forget about other people’s problems. I would rather engage myself in the material things of the world, the physical appearances rather than face reality.

Hooking It In
Simplicity is more than giving up a few extra things, though that might be a start. Simplicity is getting down to the core of your life, finding out what you care about the most and making sure those things are what God wants. Simplicity is learning that there are many things you can live without. It is also finding out what really matters, what you can’t live without. It is finding out what we must give up to follow Christ in our times. I have learned this year that I am ready to clear my life of junk. I want less bills to worry about. I want less possessions to have to maintain. I want to be able to focus on the essentials on my life – things like playing music, being with friends, being with family, enjoying a good meal, learning new things, reading good books, being able to relax without another financial disaster looming overhead, being able to pray, being able to just love others more. And the same question goes to you – what are your essentials? What are the things that you would rather spend time on? Certainly, I don’t think God calls us to unengage from the world. That’s impossible. You have to have a job, you have to pay bills, you have to do chores (sorry young’uns) – that’s reality. But do we need those new gadgets that are supposed to make life easier but end up complicating our busy lives? Do we need more commitments in our professional lives, so we spend even less time at home with the fam? Do we really need another car, even though we can barely keep the others in good shape? Do we really have to fill up our houses and spaces with more of the things that society tells us to buy? Will these things bring us happiness? Will they bring us closer to God?

Ending With a Bang
The more we clear out the clutter of our lives, the more we focus on our essential ingredients – the more time we will have time for God and those we love. Isn’t that awesome? The Apostle Paul was a perfect example of this. He went from town to town as a tentmaker, working his job and using it as a way to spread the good news. He traveled light, and this freedom gave him enormous opportunities to speak, share, and teach. He challenged the Corinthians because they were getting the wrong ingredients, focusing too much on the outside, the physical, the material – and he showed them by his own example how one truly lives out God’s call – by having the right ingredients, the right essentials – focused on God.

If you recall the story of Rose, the lady who had seen her life spiral out of control, from a professor to one living in poverty, the most fascinating, uplifting reality of her story was that though she was on the bottom, she still had some right ingredients. As we finished the interview, she stood up and grabbed her several bags of food and produce, and I noticed she had at least a couple of bags more than the rest of those in line. So I said, “Rose, is that all for you?” And she looked at me and cracked a radiant smile, “No. I have friends who need some of this more than me. It’s for them.” Even in the midst of her own tragedy, her essentials were set upon loving and giving what little she had to others. Those are some good ingredients.

So I challenge you today, to ask the questions, to dig in your own life, to let the Holy Spirit guide you – what do you truly need? What brings you joy? What fills your life with happiness? And I would pray that you would not look to the physical world, to the material possessions that our society wants to sell you at every turn, I would pray that you would look within, that you would listen for God’s call, that you would focus up on Jehovah Jirah, the ultimate provider, and get the right ingredients, so that even in the ups and downs of this crazy world, your life’s recipe tastes oh so good. Amen.