“Our Lenten Fast: For the Good of Others, for the Sake of Christ”

Philippians 2:1-11, Matthew 25:31-40

 In one sense, self-help is an oxymoron or an impossibility.  In C.S. Lewis’ children’s fantasy, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader , a boy named Eustace Scrubb is transported with two of his cousins to a place called Narnia.  Unlike his cousins, who have visited Narnia before, Eustace is annoyed by this strange, new world.  When he and his cousins go on a sea voyage with the King of Narnia, Eustace makes a royal nuisance of himself with his fussing, complaining and general rudeness.  No one on the ship really likes him, and he certainly doesn’t like any of them, so when the ship weighs anchor offshore of an island, it is no surprise that Eustace sets off on his own, unnoticed, to explore the island.

 Coming upon a cave, Eustace discovers that it is home to a dragon that has just died.  He goes into the cave and discovers a pile of treasures.  After playing with these for awhile, trying on rings and bracelets, he grows drowsy and falls asleep among the dragon’s riches.  When he awakes, he realizes that he has been transformed in his sleep into a dragon himself.  Leaving the cave, Dragon Eustace discovers that he can fly, so he quickly returns to the beach camp of his friends, only to discover that they consider him a threat.  For the first time in his life, Eustace feels lonely and cut off from others. 

 Eventually Eustace is able to make his cousins understand that it is him underneath all the scaly, scary skin.  Eustace, grateful for their trust and kindness, begins to help the crew gather supplies for the next part of their journey, but as the day approaches when the crew will be returning to their ship and their voyage, they wonder what will become of poor Eustace.  He is much too big to travel on the ship with them.

 Understanding his plight, Eustace longs to return to his human form.  One night, he awakes from his sleep on the beach to see a lion standing near him, beckoning him to follow him into the forest.  Eustace does.  He walks after the lion deep into the forest and up a mountain.  There the lion speaks, commanding him to bathe in a pool.  Eustace obeys.  After his bath, he tries in vain to scratch off his scales and rid himself of his dragonish appearance.  The lion tells him that this is something he cannot do for himself, and with his great claws the lion expertly shreds Eustace’s dragon flesh so that it falls off him like a garment, leaving him once again a boy.

 Returning to the beach, Eustace and his cousins are delighted to be reunited, and Eustace proves to be quite a different person from then on, not because of his own attempts at self-renovation, but because of the lion who helped him. 

 Eustace is more than a character in that story.  He is also us.  Like Eustace, we are naturally self-absorbed.  Some of us have a very good idea of what we want out of life, and we feel compelled to get it.  We tend to view others in terms of the way they seem to fit into our life plans.  Some of us seem to worry and fret more about others than ourselves, but the core of our anxious thoughts is still seeded with concern for ourselves.  “What will he think of me if I say ‘no’?”  “I don’t think she likes me.”  “I’m going to look really dumb when they see that I can’t dance.”  Our preoccupation with ourselves isolates us from each other, and from God.  We cannot change ourselves, or rid ourselves of our selfish nature either.  Our attempts to make of ourselves “our best self” are as hopeless as Eustace’s attempts to scratch himself free of his dragon flesh.

 But Jesus, the Lion of Judah, can help us.  Jesus, God’s Son, took on our human nature – soul, flesh and all.  The only part of us He was born without was the corruption of our sin.  Unlike us, Jesus lived His life without the blinders of selfishness over His eyes.  He lived to be what we selfish ones consider to be below us.  Jesus lived to be a servant of God and people. He saw people as precious creatures.  He was drawn to them.  He was a friend to people that had very few.  He cared even for those who hated and misunderstood Him.  He was not a pushover though, for Jesus loved people out of His complete trust in God.  He served God by serving others in love. 

 His love for God and people was complete and perfect, and it led Him to rescue us from our plight.  Since sin and selfishness separate us from God and people, Jesus allowed Himself to be singled out and condemned by people and by God instead of us.  On the cross Jesus hung and died under God’s holy judgment while people rejected and mocked Him.  Banished in death from the presence of God and people, Jesus paid the price we all owe for our sin.  Then God raised His Son to life to give new life to us. 

 The baptismal font is the mountain pool where our Lord washed us and stripped us clean of our selfish ways.  Each day we live before God, forgiven for our sins, welcome in His family, and called to live by faith and love for God and others.  Jesus’ death frees us to die to selfishness and His life frees us to live to serve.  

 Tonight’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians bids us to fast from selfish living by recalling all that Jesus has done for us: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others”. (Philippians 2:1-4) 

 Are you thankful to Jesus for giving His life for you?  Is your heart warmed when you consider the height, depth, width and breadth of God’s love for you?  Do you realize how close God comes to you when someone preaches the Word to you?  What does it mean to you to have the Holy Spirit living in your heart since you’ve been baptized?  Isn’t it a Spirit-wrought miracle that mere wafers and wine can feed us Christ’s body and blood?  Whose works are greater than God’s?  And to think that He has chosen to do His work in our lives! 

 As a well-loved child asks his father if he may help him in his work, the love of God moves us to ask God how we may participate in the work He is doing in our lives by His grace.  He answers: “stop looking at each other as threats or competition; believe me when I say that they are your family.  Listen to each other.  Look for ways of helping each other and try them.   Celebrate the good work others do and learn from them.   You can do this.  You can be a servant because my Son was yours. Put your ‘self’ in my hands; I take care of you, so that you can care for your husband, your wife, your children, your parents, your church family and your neighbors at work, school, and wherever you are.  Jesus will help you to live for the good of other people, and as you do He has a surprise for you.  As you live for His sake, imitating His servant ways, you may catch glimpses of Him in the faces of those you serve.  Where once the self-life brought you loneliness, Christ’s servant life gives you joyful companionship with people and God.”  Amen.