« Giving Better than We Get | Main | The Plight of Our Humanity »
June 13, 2004
How to Build a Worthy Legacy
How to Build a Worthy Legacy
Psalm 20 / I Samuel 12: 1-5
II Corinthians 7: 2-10
June 13th, 2004
This past week all of us were drawn to remember the life and presidency of Ronald Reagan. The moving ceremonies at the National Cathedral and at the presidential library eclipsed our recollection of the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy Beach.
Twenty years ago, on June 6th, 1984 President Reagan's voice faltered as he said, “The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right . . . faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead—or on the next.” Twenty years later we commemorate the death of a president whose name will linger and we remember the men of Normandy whose names are mostly forgotten.
As I watched the magnificent funeral of President Reagan in our National Cathedral, and heard the eloquent, heart-felt words of Margaret Thatcher, President Reagan’s children, and so many others, I thought about the young men to whom Julia Ward Howe referred in the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” “As He [that is, Jesus Christ] died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.” The men of Normandy Beach once sang those words not realizing they would fulfill the last line.
Often in watching President Reagan’s funeral I felt very proud to be an American. He made it seem a very good thing to be an American. Even President Gorbochov was there to celebrate the life of this great American. In the Book of Proverbs we read: "When a man's ways please the Lord, he wakes even his enemies to be at peace with him." I also found my heart aching and very grateful to the young people of our country who have fought for our freedom, and who still risk their lives to bring hope and decency to this horrendously troubled world.
It is good that we stop in the mad whirl of life and think on these things periodically, because you and I too are leaving a legacy of one kind or another. Have you pondered how you will be remembered? More to the point, have you pondered the impact of your life whether or not your name will be remembered?
I had no idea that the attention of the world would be drawn to President Reagan and Normandy beach when I chose the Scriptures before us this morning, or the topic, “How to Build a Worthy Legacy.” Instead, it was what Samuel and the Apostle Paul said of themselves in these two moving passages. They both left a worthy legacy.
Before reminding us all of Samuel’s and Paul’s legacy I need to remind us all that this business of legacies has not only to do with “great people,” presidents, prime ministers, prophets, and apostles. The legacies that make a family, or a church, or a university, or a nation great exercise their influence more quietly.
People yet unborn need a legacy that is now gathering in the young folk in this church—in you who are in grade school, high school, and college. I hope we foster greatness of soul here. We need a legacy developing in faithful grown-ups who are not well known, unmarried folk, married folk—parents, husbands who love their wives, wives who love their husbands, homes that exist for others as well as for their own good.
We associate fame and publicity with the idea of a legacy. The various media, in particular television have created the word “celebrity” that refers to a new category of demigod. Publicity has become confused with legacy. We have several halls of fame, which athletes and actors aspire to know they belong to before they die.
Our day is preoccupied with the moment, with quick as possible everything, including fame. But what kind of legacy is this leaving?
What does “legacy” mean? My Oxford Unabridged Dictionary gives a number of meanings, of course. But it begins by relating it to the function of a “delegate,” a person who is sent on a mission. It refers to the message or business committed to a delegate or deputy. A legacy is a gift, something that will benefit, enrich, and make better the lives of those who receive it.
With this in mind let’s look at what the old man Samuel said to Israel and the weary Paul said to the church at Corinth.
Samuel reminded Israel, “I have listened to everything you said, and I made a king over you. Now you’ve got a king and I am old and gray. “ Though King Saul was a good man when Samuel chose him, that Israel should have a king was a tragedy. It meant they wanted to be like every one else. It meant they were not content with God’s historic way of leading them. He said, “I have walked before you since I was a little boy. Tell me, have I ever taken anyone’s property? Have I used my authority to oppress anyone? From whom have I ever taken a bribe?” He asked this because in his role he had great opportunity to milk the public for personal gain.
The people replied, “You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man’s hand.” Then Samuel went on to speak to them of the really important matters. He reminded them how God appointed Moses and Aaron to bring their forebears out of Egypt and saved them often from danger, and gave them a land. But they forgot the Lord.
This last is the only thing he said that seems to refer to the Law God gave them. They forgot the Lord means that they were distracted from following the ways of the Lord. In fact, as the story of this day unfolds for us we discover that Samuel had to remind them that this legacy of forgetfulness reaped a painful harvest for them.
It was the time for harvesting wheat, when every farmer hopes for sunny skies. Samuel used a severe lesson to bring his people to their senses. He said, “I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain; and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for a king.”
So Samuel called on God, and the rain fell in buckets. You and I know what it’s like to have rainfall in buckets, don’t we. It rained then like it rained here in the past few days. And the people begged Samuel to pray for God’s forgiveness. He did. He also reminded them, “Only fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.”
Samuel never got caught up in the grandeur that accompanied the coming of royalty to Israel. He never forgot how God called him in the night as a little boy. His life unfolded according to the principle of his prayer that night, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” He never outgrew seeing himself as a servant. This prompts me to wonder how do you and I see ourselves?
The contrast between Samuel’s steady, faithful life and the busy, bustling, forgetful-of-God ways that took over Israel is striking. So Israel remembered the legacy of Samuel as a bit of seasoning by which they recalled their roots. But they kept forming the same kind of legacy as their forebears to pass along to their children. This led to being destroyed as a nation, the Temple burned, and exile.
Many years later the Apostle Paul spoke to a church that so soon had forgotten what is the stuff of being the church. Paul pleaded with them, “Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God.” And then he opened his heart to them.
“Open your hearts to us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.” He asked this because he might have used his immense prestige to personal advantage. And when he wrote severely to them it was with loving purpose. Because he grieved them, they changed their ways. “For you felt a godly grief . . . godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret.”
As this letter of Paul to Corinth moves along we read of his awkwardness, humanly speaking, before them. He had not even taken a salary for his work. But rather than admiring him for such devotion without compensation, they despised him for it. What costs us little may seem of little value to us.
When we think of the legacy of Paul we remember his groundbreaking teaching, the doctrines of justification by faith, the fruit of the Holy Spirit—and all of that. We remember the nature of his life itself. He had a temper, apparently, that made him collide with Barnabas, his first missionary companion over Mark, the nephew of Barnabas. But that rift was reconciled. We have the example of his life, chronicled for us by Luke in the Book of Acts and in his letters NOT because he found his own life of such interest but because his message was inseparable from his life. What he believed and taught and what he lived synchronized so regularly before other people that his Gospel and his life were inseparable.
This is the legacy of Paul, not just his doctrine. Paul, who taught us that “by grace are you saved through faith, not of works lest anyone should boast,” displayed a life of such diligent works that he left no impression that the faith he taught was only a head and heart kind of thing.
So we go back to thinking not only of the teachings of Samuel to Israel and Paul to the early Church, but of the legacies they left in the outworking of their lives of faith. Because their lives were the books people read most clearly.
It is this that my heart tells me we need to remember as we are even now shaping the legacy we will offer the next generation. Say what we want; our live are the books other people read.
Are we leaving behind a Christianity that so stresses believing the right things, teaching the doctrines that have been refined since the Reformation in an atmosphere of controversy, so that we leave the impression that the Christian faith is mostly a matter of saying, believing—and today, with the emphasis on evoking strong feelings, feeling strongly?
I hope that you and I are preparing a heritage of right beliefs. I hope as well that you and I are leaving a legacy of faithfulness that works its way in steady goodness, steady obedience to the loving commands of Jesus. It is easier to die for our country on a battlefield or for our faith in a moment of testing than to live out a life of faithfulness.
Christianity does not find its greatest usefulness in extreme moments when we are called to do or die, but in the shaping of lives to the glory of God and to the blessing of others.
Perhaps one of the reasons why the death of President Reagan eclipsed the great sacrifice of life for freedom that happened on Normandy Beach is that over the course of his eight years in the presidency he earned an increasing admiration. He was more beloved at the end than at the beginning of his presidency. The young men who died at Normandy gave the sacrifice of their lives instantly, and we mourn their deaths before they could enjoy the fruits of their sacrifice. But Ronald Reagan had the chance to let his character evolve before us. We saw as well as heard him.
It was far from beside the point that Jesus Christ preceded Nancy in his affections to the point that he not only showed us how he loved his wife, but showed us how he loved people, and not just American people. We wonder how his faith in Jesus forged his love of people.
But I cannot leave you this morning thinking only about the legacy left to us by a beloved president, by brave young men at Normandy, or by Samuel and Paul. Life moves on not just on the momentum of great legacies bequeathed by good people, whether in high visibility or in countless homes and communities beloved to a few.
The grace of God has continually intervened to hold all things together. Jesus left a kind of legacy no other person could leave. When He died to make men holy, He poured out a lavish gift without which the finest legacies of the best people would be fruitless. Jesus’ death that we celebrate this morning poured out on us the mercy of God. What a legacy that is!!
Any of us who rightly realizes this cannot help but feel what Charles Wesley felt, expressed in that great hymn, “And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior’s blood? Died he for me who caused His pain? For me, who him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be that Thou my God should’st die for me?”
I am unspeakably grateful for the good legacy of every good person. I pray God may enable you and me to leave a legacy to the next generation that will bless them.
But nothing any of the best of our kind can leave can compare with the love of God that is our legacy in Jesus Christ. Turn your eyes on Him and the other good legacies find their explanation. Jesus is our only hope, our only sure guide, our only salvation.
This morning we take the Eucharist, the “Thanksgiving,” the holy feast of Jesus. As you take that bread and wine, let your hearts soak in gratitude. And go from this place to live out your gratitude to Jesus. And if and when you and I do this, we are forging the legacy that can serve best our generation and that to come.
Let us pray: O Lord, we thank you for all those good and great people who have left us a goodly heritage. But we thank you most for Jesus, whose legacy is life itself. Help us to follow Him, and following Him to draw along others to his train. Amen.
Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, Indiana
Posted by faithpres at June 13, 2004 09:30 AM