Let Go of Self Love

A year ago the word Frozen referred to food that was in your freezer and “Let it Go” was something you told you four year old when you wanted them to release their grip on a toy or their sibling or when you were counselling someone over some hurt from the past.

That all changed on November 27^th of last year when Disney released “Frozen” on an unsuspecting world.  The animated movie is loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson’s story “The Snow Queen”.  And it wasn’t the first time that Disney used an Anderson story as inspiration, The Ugly Duckling was released in 1931 in Black and White and then again in 1939 in colour.  And of course the most successful adaptation, until Frozen was the Little Mermaid.

But Frozen changed all that, but it wasn’t easy.  For those of us brought up on Hans Christian Anderson’s tales you know that the Snow Queen was not a light hearted tale. 

Anderson’s version begins with an Evil Troll called the Devil, the Snow Queen was Evil and Anna’s name was Gerda and she wasn’t related to the Snow Queen at all.   The only other differences were that Kristoff’s name was Kay, Sven’s name was Bai there was no snowman named Olaf or prince named Hans.  Kay is taken captive by the Snow Queen and it rescued by Gerda and the Reindeer. 

Two notable things about the story, Gerda gains entrance into the Snow Queen’s castle after she prays the Lord’s Prayer and the story ends with Gerda and Kay back home and all grown up.  And in closing Gerda’s grandmother reads to them from Matthew 18:3 “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

But there is a Queen and there is Snow.  I think the term would be “inspired” by Hans Christian Anderson’s story.  But it obviously worked because to date it has accumulated over $1.2 billion in worldwide box office revenue,

It ranks as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing film of 2013, and the third highest-grossing film in Japan.

Frozen won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go"),the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, five Annie Awards (including Best Animated Feature), and two Critics' Choice Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go").

And you are thinking: so what?  Well, over the next seven weeks or so we are going to be looking at things that we need to let go of as we follow Christ.  Things that keep us frozen in our Christian walk.  Things that shouldn’t bother you anyway, but do. 

What are those things that we need to Let Go of when we meet Christ? Things that may be acceptable for us to hold unto before we met Jesus but really have no place in our lives after we meet Jesus.  And we think that some of those things are pretty simple, but we don’t always get it.

The story that was read for us earlier is a very familiar part of the Jesus story, as a matter of fact I preached from this same passage a year ago when we started our series on the Walking Dead.  But at that time I focused on the nine lepers who didn’t come back and this morning I’d like to take the time to focus on the one leper who did come back. 

So, you know the story.  Jesus and his apostles are approached by this group of Lepers begging for something they could barely imagine. 

They are asking to be healed, for Jesus to stop the progression of this horrible disease that has robbed them of all they had.  Ten are healed and they go their way, but then one stops and comes back to thank Jesus.  Here is a pop quiz, how many were thankful?  Probably all ten.  They just didn’t express their thanks, but I guess the question is: if they didn’t express their thanks were they really thankful?  If we don’t express our gratitude for what we have, and for what people do for us are we grateful?  When our kids are little we teach them to say thank-you, or at least I hope we do.  Perhaps British Poet Walter Savage Landor  had it right when he wrote, “We often fancy that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.”  And so on this thanksgiving Sunday I would challenge you to Let go of Ingratitude or Self-Love or whatever it it that keeps you from suffering from thanklessness. 

So what do we learn from the man who came back?  Luke 17:12 As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance. . .  The first thing is that He Understood His Hopelessness

 We were watching a W-5 special last week about the Ebola crisis in West Africa, which hits pretty close to home because I have taught in Sierra Leone and was planning a teaching and medical trip back there for this coming February, we’re not going. 

And the special focused on the spread of the disease and what is being done to help bring it under control.  And as I was watching I was reminded that our denomination has been there from the beginning, before Canada offered aid, before the US offered aid, before Bill Gates and the UN poured money into find a solution the Wesleyan Church was there.  While they were still numbering the cases in the dozens the people of Cornerstone were not only praying for the crisis we were giving to empower World Hope in the battle.   

And one of the things that the medical community agrees on is the supply of clean water is critical in slowing the spread of the Ebola virus.  And so there is no telling how many lives have been saved because of the wells that have been drilled by Cornerstone over the past two years. 

But I digress.

Probably one of the most poignant images from that special was a man lying ill in the middle of a dirt street and life was just going on around him, but nobody was coming near.   They were afraid of being infected with a disease they knew would probably be fatal.  And so there he lay, dying alone. 

And I immediately thought of Lepers 2000 years ago.  When you were diagnosed with Leprosy it was a death sentence.  There was no known cure, if you had leprosy it was assumed by you and by everyone else that you would die.  And because of the fear surrounding leprosy you would die far from those you loved and far from those who loved you.

And that’s what had happened to these ten men, they had been exiled outside of their village, far from their homes, their only companions were those who suffered with them.

2000 years ago there was no cure for leprosy, there was only quarantine, isolation and a drawn-out painful death. 

Most of us don’t live a life without hope, at least in the physical sense.  Most of us are aware that compared to most of the world that we live a blessed life. 

And as I prepared this message I thought about how we need to be thankful and grateful for where we live, and then I thought is that even fair?  4 years ago I was in Ghana when the earthquake hit in Haiti and I was told by a Ghanaian friend of mine “In Africa we watch what happens in Haiti because it reminds us of how lucky we are to live in Africa.”  And when I’ve told people that their reaction ranges from: that’s terrible to think that way to that certainly puts in in perspective.  

But how often is it suggested that we should be thankful because of the misfortunes of others?  You should be thankful that you’re not as sick as Suzy.  You should be thankful at least you have something to eat and a place to sleep. 

It would be rude if I said “I’m thankful that I’m Denn and not Fred.”  Because that would imply that somehow being Denn is better than being Fred.  But is that any different than saying “I’m thankful that I’m Canadian and not Sierra Leonean?   

And where we were born was no more our doing then who we were born. 

But the leper didn’t even have someone worse off to compare himself to.  He couldn’t say “well I might have leprosy but at least I don’t have. . .”  Because two thousand years ago there wasn’t anything worse.

And while we live in a blessed country and have more physically than they majority of the world could even imagine, spiritually we are without hope.

In our natural state, the way we were born there is a gulf between us and our creator that we can never hope to bridge.  That is why we are reminded in the bible Romans 3:23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Before we can be thankful for the grace that God has poured out on us we have to understand the hopelessness of our spiritual condition before we received that grace.  Grace is not just a nice addition to our lives it is our only hope. 

This man knew that without divine intervention that he was destined to live a desperate lonely life, without hope and without a future. 

But then there was a whisper of hope, the story of someone who could make him clean and give back to him all that leprosy had taken away.

And so as we continue to read in the story, Luke 17:12-13 As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”   He Understood His Helplessness

We don’t know how the lepers knew about Jesus, or more mysterious how they knew Jesus was coming, but in him they saw their only hope. 

This man knew that there was absolutely nothing he could do for himself.  Not only was he without hope he was without help.

And he couldn’t even cover his disease up, listen to what was required by the law of the day,   Leviticus 13:45-46 “Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must tear their clothing and leave their hair uncombed. They must cover their mouth and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as the serious disease lasts, they will be ceremonially unclean. They must live in isolation in their place outside the camp. 

This man knew that he could do nothing to help himself.  But spiritually we often try to bridge the gap between us and a Holy God. There is within us an innate need to re-connect with our creator and when that doesn’t work we try to pretty up our lives.  And so we try to do it with religion and ceremony and good deeds.  But it is never enough.  The bible reminds us Isaiah 64:6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

And so now into the lepers’ world of hopelessness and helplessness came the rumor of one who could not only offer him hope he had lost but who could also offer him the help that was out of his reach.  And so he asked for the one thing that he wanted more than life itself, to be healed.  That his disfigured face would once again be looked upon with love instead of revulsion, that twisted limbs would become straight and that life, life would return to normal.

Luke 17:14 He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. And He Understood What Had Happened.    And the thing that they wanted more than anything was given to them.  

There are two miracles here; the first was that they believed, the second was that they were healed.  Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests and they went, didn’t question, didn’t ask “what if we get there and there’s no change?”  

And the story says And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.  If they hadn’t gone, do you think they would have been cleansed? If they had of chosen to go see their families first, or gone back to work.   I don’t know, what I do know is that as they obeyed the miracle happened.  And imagine as they are walking along the conversation that took place if they looked at one another and began to see the changes, “Hey Fred, your nose just grew back, and Bill you’re not shuffling anymore.  I can feel my fingers again, and I feel like singing.” 

I wonder what it felt like as the nodules disappeared and skin was made smooth again, as twisted limbs became straight and strong.  I wonder if they had lost appendages to the disease and what it felt like as fingers and toes grew back.

But this is what the one who returned understood.  Life would never be the same again.  For better or for worse he was given a second chance at life.  And we don’t know if he was able to fit back into his old life or not.  Had his job been given to someone else? Had his wife remarried? Would people accept him as a new man or would they always associate him with the leper he had been?  We will never know, but this we do know.  That after he met Jesus he was no longer the man he had been.

As Jesus followers do we understand that?  That when we meet Jesus that we will never be the same. 

In the book of John there is a very familiar story told about Jesus meeting with a member of the religious elite, a man named Nicodemus.  And it seems that even though for most people Nicodemus seemed have had it all under control Nicodemus understood his hopelessness and his helplessness and so he came to Jesus and if we pick up the story in John 3:3  we read Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

And that confused Nicodemus.  John 3:4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”   The term born again still confuses people today, it has been used and abused so much and yet people still don’t click into what it means.  John 3:5-6 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

Time and time again the scriptures use the analogy of a new birth for the person who has embraced the grace and forgiveness of Jesus.  It’s not just the old life with a veneer of religion, it is a new life.  Paul explains it best in 2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

Just like the leper was given a new life when he met Jesus and believed each of us is given a new life when we meet Jesus and believe.  Jesus told the leper “Your faith has healed you”  and Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.

Do you understand what happens when you meet Jesus?  You are given a new life a different life, or at least that’s how it’s supposed to be. You should see God in a new way, and people in a new way.  Your priorities should change and hang onto your seats, your behaviour should change. 

So let’s go back to the story.  Luke 17:15-16 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. He Understood His Need to Give Thanks

He didn’t just assume that Jesus would know he was thankful, he took time to say “Thank you”.  Do we just assume that people will know that we are thankful for what they’ve done in our lives? Or do we take time to say thank you? 

2 things I discovered a long time ago, the first is that thank yous are free and the second is that they go a long way.

It was in a different context but Martin Luther King, Jr once said ”In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”  People notice when they aren’t thanked, petty or not that it the reality of life. 

And the lone man was the man who didn’t take it for granted.  Perhaps the others were grateful but someone they felt like they deserved it, or just assumed that is what Jesus was supposed to do. 

You know what I’m getting at here.  They thought “Well of course Jesus healed us that’s what he’s supposed to do.”  Kind of the difference between a dog and a cat.  You feed a dog and they think you are the most wonderful person in the world, you feed a cat and they wonder what took you so long.  Somebody said that when you take care of your dog the dog thinks you must be a god, when you take care of your cat the cat thinks it must be a god.

We don’t thank the Doctors who make us better physically because that’s what they are supposed to do, we don’t thank the teachers who make us better intellectually because that’s what they are supposed to do, and we don’t thank the pastors who help us grow spiritually because, well let’s not go there it’s too self-serving. 

But seriously, when you pick up your kids this morning in Jr. Church or Nursery, take two seconds and thank those who gave up their time so your kids could learn more about God.  Did you enjoy the music this morning, thank the praise team and sound guy who were here Thursday night and early this morning preparing it for you.  How about the clean bathrooms that’s worth thank Erv for.  And did you have a cup of coffee. . .  you see where I’m going. 

Too often people view God as some genie in the air who is there only to take care of our wish list and we never acknowledge the debt because we don’t really acknowledge the gift.  Most prayer lists have a lot more items on the “I want” side than on the “Thank you side.”  When our prayers are answered how often is it written off as a coincidence?  Or do we think “Well of course God answered my prayers, he’s God that’s what he’s supposed to do.” 

Don’t take God for granted! He doesn’t have to answer your prayer, after all he’s God.

As Christ followers how often do we acknowledge the debt we owe to Jesus?  At some point every one of us was like the lepers, we were in need of a new life, a life that we could not obtain on our own, have you thanked God for that Gift?

If you have never received the new life that is promised to us it is available for the asking, it is a gift and a gift cannot be earned, or it wouldn’t be a gift.  But while you can’t earn a gift you have to accept it. 

Have you accepted the gift of grace?  The gift of Salvation?  The gift of eternal life?  If not than why not today?