Unlimited Warranty

“Unlimited Warranty”
Mark 8:31-38
Todd Buegler
March 8, 2006
Lord of Life


Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen.

Every day when I leave the house, Nathan and Samuel run up to me with their arms up in the air. “Daddy, pick me up!” Hugs. Kisses, and I go. Often times, however, I’ll discover hours later, and usually after some public meeting, the remains of the boys breakfast embedded on my shoulder…right about here. The highlight of these experiences was when I went to my final approval interview with the Bishop’s Office for ordination last May. After the meeting with the committee of seven, I discovered an almost perfect rendering of Samuel’s face, made up of “Go-gurt”, had been smiling out at the approval committee. To be honest, I think it might have scored points with the committee.

But when a young child comes up to you and throw their arms into the air, it is difficult to resist. The arms up, and the phrase “Daddy!” is a sign of their love, and their complete dependence on you. Children depend on their parents completely. For food, for clothing, for safety, for love, for acceptance, for boundaries, for someone to wrestle with, for someone to watch Saturday morning cartoons with… As parents, it is our job to provide for those who depend on us. Sociologists have said that childhood and adolescence is the process of a young person moving from total dependence, to independence, as they move into adulthood.

Our faith development is somewhat different, however. We do not move from dependence to independence. As we grow in our faith, we move from independence to dependence on God.

In our Gospel tonight, Jesus gives us a description of our relationship with God. Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to gain their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. (Mark 8:34-35)

This seems pretty counter intuitive; it goes against our natural instincts. To “gain life” we must “lose it?” Those who “lose our lives will gain it?” Our natural inclination is to say the opposite of Jesus. Our society teaches that our lives are our own. We are independent people who make our own choices, set out on our own paths, and create our own destiny.

In a culture where independence, self-reliance and the ability to “lift oneself up by your own bootstraps” is valued, the idea of losing one’s life, or of “dying to oneself” is foreign. One of our adult small group leaders on our recent sr. high ski retreat told me of a conversation in her group. One young person said that “God is just for those who need God. If things are going pretty well, and if nothing is wrong, you don’t need God.” Wow. This is a brutally honest representation of how many people feel, and of what our culture teaches. “We are self reliant, and when something goes wrong, we can turn to God like some kind of cosmic vending machine.”

Jesus also uses the phrase in our scripture text that we must “deny ourselves and take up the cross, following Him.” What does it mean to deny ourselves? While some might argue that it means to put God and others ahead of ourselves, I believe that it means simply to recognize that God is already ahead of us. God is God and we are not, and the root of human sin is to deny this truth. The fact is, we are not in charge. God is in charge, and we are totally dependent on God. This is a difficult thing for us to swallow. A universal truth is that we want to be in charge of our own lives. We don’t want to acknowledge our dependence on anyone, or anything.

There are several different things that may cause us to deny our dependence on God. For some of us, the urge to feel in control lies in our own self-centeredness. We are simply the most important person in our own lives, and our goal is to satisfy our own wants. For others, the root of our control issue lies in being judgmental. We are so insecure in ourselves that if we keep pointing out others faults, we can continue to feel in control and good about ourselves.

For some, legalism is the key to control. If I work hard enough…run fast enough…perform well enough, I can earn my way to whatever kind of merit falls into my path.

Whatever the cause, each of us in one way or another, at some level, resists denying our own control, and letting God be God; resists letting ourselves be dependent.

I have a friend who lives with a medical condition that his doctor calls “Sudden Death Syndrome.” It is a congenital, degenerative heart condition, and at any given moment, his heart could stop. You’ve heard the occasional story of the athlete whose heart just stops while he runs on the basketball court, and who never knew he had the condition? This is the condition my friend has. He had a defibrillator surgically implanted in his heart. It constantly monitors his heart rate and if there is any irregularity it will deliver an electric shock to the heart in an attempt to return it to normal rhythm. He said that the most disconcerting moment of getting a defibrillator was not the surgery to implant it, it was after the surgery when he had to sign the “limited warranty” on the device.

The defibrillator is slightly smaller than the size of a deck of cards and is implanted just underneath the skin in his chest. He’s shown me the spot, and if you look closely from the right angle, you can actually just make out the shape of the rectangle underneath the skin.

My friend has an interesting “take” on his device. He says that every morning he will stand in front of the mirror while shaving or brushing his teeth. His eyes will be drawn to the small scar and the spot where the device is and he’ll see the rectangle. He told me that “This defibrillator is my daily reminder that I am not in charge. At any moment, something could happen that would take my life away from me, and I am totally in the hands of God. I am not in control. I am totally dependent. Totally dependent.”

My friends, we are all totally dependent on God. Completely. As a child is to a parent, we are all to God, our Father. It is God who gives life. It is God who gives the food we eat…the shelter in which we live…the people who love us…the very air that we breathe. It is by God’s grace that we live. Even when we turn to God when we are in need, the very fact that we can turn to God is a sign of our dependence on God.

And denial of this truth, our attempts at living without God, does not make it less true. Our lives are a gift, and we are dependent on the giver. And God continues to give.

God gives these gifts, His grace, with no strings attached. God gives freely and without reservation, out of a sense of love for us. God’s grace is given even when we are unaware of it. The gift is still given; and when we turn to God, and throw our arms into the air, saying “Abba…Father…Daddy” God’s arms are outstretched to welcome us into his grip. God’s love comes with an unlimited warranty.

God grips you in His grace and loves you unconditionally.

Always.

Amen.