The High Cost of Living Well 11/14/48
Scripture: Matthew 16: 21-27
Text: Matthew 16: 24, 25; “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
The text for this morning’s meditation is one those profoundly sincere sayings of Jesus, reported in the 16th chapter of Matthew, verses 24 and 25, and reported also in exactly the same words in Mark and in Luke -- “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross (Luke says ‘take up his cross daily) and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” The subject and general arrangement of the sermon are suggested by Alfred Wesley Hurst. The subject is this: “The High Cost of Living Well.”
The high cost of living has been giving all of us some concern. Advances in the cost of housing, of winter fuel, of summer travel, of food for the family, and of most other budget items have worried us more or less insistently.
A matter which should give us just as insistent concern is the high cost of living well. This has little to do with inflation, depression or normalcy in economics. Sometimes it is more costly and difficult than at other times. But it is never cheap. Many of the costs of living well are hidden and are revealed only after careful analysis.
Jesus never suggested that the good life could be realized without heavy costs. He himself was tempted with short cuts and bargains -- such as the suggestion that he turn stones into bread to win a following among the hungry and oppressed. But he renounced all such unworthy bargains. He declared frankly, “If anyone would follow me, let him renounce self and take up his burden, and follow me.” That is to say, let him pay the price.
(1) The first cost we might examine, let us call it the initial cost of production, is basic. “Which of you,” said Jesus, “desiring to build a tower, does not sit down first and calculate the cost, asking if he has the means to finish it?”
Yesterday I had opportunity to see the Petenwell power dam project on the Wisconsin River near Necedah. It is tremendously impressive in its size and complexity. It takes little imagination to realize that in the minds of a few men and in the planning of an engineering and business staff the cost of those countless details of construction had to be carefully estimated at the outset of the undertaking
The costs of the abundant life have never been low. The good life requires above all things great discipline. “Happy is he who has thy discipline,” says the Psalmist. And Jesus declared, “Everyone has to be consecrated by the fires of discipline.” The good life makes stern demands, and production cannot even begin without paying.
(a) The high cost, in discipline, of living well physically cannot be avoided. The body is neither good nor bad of itself. It can be used to debauch life or to serve the high spiritual purposes of living. Many a soldier has gone to pieces physically not through disease, but because he has failed to achieve self-mastery. Not a few industrial workers and business managers have done the same. The morale of a soldier and of a worker is quite as important as his freedom from disease.
Lynn Harold Hough says that the body is like a magnificent horse. Unbroken and untamed it is a wild and lawless thing; but trained, saddled, and skillfully jockeyed it can speed to the winning of a race.
Christianity does not worship the body. Neither does it repudiate the body as does the ascetic. It would build and discipline the body’s strength and apply it to fine uses.
(b) Then there is the high cost of living well morally, for there are well-tested moral sanctions woven in the very texture of the universe. The keeper of the world looks across the counter and says, “Only truth and loyalty and mutuality are the mediums of exchange here. Falsehood, treachery and selfishness are outlawed in this establishment.”
These principles are summed up in the Old Testament: “What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” [Micah 6: 8]. The cost of living the moral life well is high because of the dark element in human nature which leads man to do evil willfully. Aware of truth, man makes room for falsehood in his heart. Saluting loyalty, he harbors treachery. Proclaiming mutuality, he harbors and “justifies” selfishness. The cost of life redeemed from evil is tremendous in struggle and sacrifice.
(c) Our analysis reveals also the high cost of living well intellectually. Man is a thinking animal who deliberately chooses when confronted with alternatives. He reasons with himself and his fellows. And his mind needs to be trained with information and good experience. For without discipline it may be the instrument of distortion and falsehood. Teaching the Pacific Islanders to read and write was sound when the missionaries put the Bible and good literature into the hands of the new learners. If the illiterate of today’s world are taught to read, only to be filled with evil propaganda, all civilization will be the more retarded.
Ignorance is part of the world’s tragic plight. Its only cure is knowledge of the truth. “Ye shall know the truth,” said Jesus, “and the truth shall make you free.” [John 8: 32].
Last night’s local Tribune carried an article on the comic book situation in which an opinion of mine was quoted along with others. I meant it when I said that a great deal of time spent on them is wasted time. I read and enjoy a limited number of strips that seem to me to be funny, and to be a fair or stimulating commentary on life. I think that the Tribune has moved in the right direction in substituting pointed and amusing antics of “Bugs Bunny” for the excessive deviltry with which a wholly fanciful “super man” such as Red Ryder incessantly grapples.
But I think that the news is more important than the strips. And I think that the time and money spent, particularly by children, and also by adults, on the voluminous illustrated pulp called “comic books” is a tragic misuse of attention and resources. It is wretchedly poor budgeting and miserable stewardship. The high cost of living well must be paid with an informed intellect.
(d) Our cost analysis is not complete without an appraisal of the high cost of living well spiritually. Man is both dust and deity. He has an inescapable earthy kinship with the animal kingdom. With the lower forms, he shares biological impulses to preserve and perpetuate life and he is subject to the laws of chemistry and physics. Far beyond that, he is a living soul with kinship in the realm above him. Created in the likeness of God, he has the power to decide, to create, to imitate, to control and master and use that which is below him; to worship and obey that which is above him. “He is to be king of nature and the loyal and loving servant of God.”
But there are no cheap bargains in spiritual well-being. The cost is high. I used to sing “Invictus” with gusto -- “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” The truth of that assertion is so limited as to be almost useless. I am not the master of my fate, nor the captain of my soul. The mysterious Power that created me and whose laws and circumstances govern my life is the only true master of my fate. God alone can be captain of our souls. The price of a man’s spiritual well-being is his recognition of divine power and his right relation to it.
(2) The high cost of living well includes another item which we might call taxes. Moffatt translates a passage from I Peter 5: 9 thus: “Learn to pay the tax of suffering, as the rest of your brotherhood throughout the world.” Jesus put a cross at the center of life’s importance. Agony was not removed by him nor for him. Indeed the cross seems to be at the very heart of God, who seems to say “I will not destroy you for living an imperfect life; I will suffer for you.”
A sorrow bravely lived through; a burden faithfully borne, makes us richer in poise, tenderness and courage. If a man can contemplate the cross of Christ and not be moved to turn his back on his own devastating pride, there is nothing that can budge him. But millions have been moved by the cross.
(3) A further item to be computed in the high cost of living well is the retail cost in deeds of service. Goodness is expendable. It must be good for something. When I say, “Well, I’m really a pretty good fellow; I pay my bills and don’t cheat anyone; I don’t break up anybody else’s home, and I’m reasonably temperate; I may not get to church much, or sing very loud when I do, but probably I’m as good as the next fellow” -- when I say that, I am discounting entirely the retail cost of living well. If I’m any good at all, I must be good for something, actively serving.
Goodness is retailed by individual persons who have achieved a measure of true greatness in the willingness to serve and the performance of the same!
Social formulas will not save the world. They are too cheap unless filled with the consecrated effort of persons! Some years ago a man looked over a ship’s rail with me at dock workers killing time in meaningless movements after the ship’s loading was done. He said, “Look at those fellows loafing out another hour of pay time. My, but I’d like to see a change in the system.” I wasn’t impressed with his remark. No other system will work without the personal integrity of the people.
Socialism breaks down unless all of the ants of the hill work toward a common purpose with individual, cooperative zeal. Private initiative breaks down unless the private initiator willingly assumes all of the responsibilities that go with the privilege of his freedom. If his initiative places at his direction more power, money, natural resources, higher potential, he has an unavoidable duty to distribute those accruals among all who are affected by the enterprise.
We are not rightfully the exclusive possessors of everything that comes to hand. We are stewards of that which God has committed to our care -- no more, no less. And that stewardship includes a fair proportion of our time, interest, talent and substance given for the promotion of God’s kingdom in the hearts of all individuals!
Here then is our analysis of the high cost of living well. It takes into account the “cost of production” in physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual discipline and fitness; the “tax” of suffering; and the “cost of distribution” in deeds of service.
And after all our analysis, the good life is still the gift of God. Men and ants can work endlessly on a hill only to have it swept away in a flood. Man can plow, plant, and cultivate, but the life-germ of the seed, the life-giving sun and rain are the gifts of God which make possible the harvest. The issue is in His holy hands.
If any man would harvest life well-lived, if he would be Christ’s follower, let him discipline himself, bear his suffering, and follow Christ’s way of humility, purity, unselfish love, and unfailing integrity.
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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, November 14, 1948