For the Glory of God Alone

Scripture Lessons: Isaiah 56: 1, 6-8 and Romans 11: 1-2a, 29-32 Sermon title: For the Glory of God Alone Preached on October 9, 2022 I grew up here: not just in Marietta, but in this church, which means that the verse quoted to me often enough is Luke 4: 24: “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.” Truly, it can be a scary thing coming home as a pastor to the community that remembers me as a teenager. A couple weeks ago, I attended a meeting of local pastors and the Marietta City Mayor, Thunder Tumlin, at the Marietta Housing Authority. The director of the housing authority is Pete Waldrep. I grew up with his son and daughter, so he remembered me and included in his opening remarks, “I know that Joe Evans is a leader in this group. I’ve known him a long time, so let me just say, he’s come a long way.” This kind of thing happens about once a week. This week, I had a lunch meeting with Doc Harvin. Doc is an elder on the session. I grew up with his son Glenn. When we were in high school, Glenn asked me to drive his car home from a concert in Atlanta. I wrecked the car at an intersection in Buckhead. Therefore, I ask you: Why would I try to come back here? Why would I return to this place where I cannot escape my checkered history? I’ll tell you. It’s because I thought it might make a difference. Do you know how good it feels to make a difference? John Kueven invited me to lunch the week before last. You may have heard that John, Maggie, and their son, Chance, will be moving to Gainesville at the end of the school year. John has been asked to run several hospitals there in Northeast Georgia, and in telling me how he made his decision to pick up and move, he said, “Healthcare in this country needs reform. Hospitals need help. Patients deserve better care than they’re getting, and I want to be in a position where I can improve things for as many people as possible, so I’m taking a job where I have greater influence and can help more people.” That’s how he made the hard decision to move. He framed the decision considering his span of influence: whether or not he might make a greater difference. Do you know how good it feels to make a difference? Those who live for a higher purpose know that there is no greater joy than living for the glory of God alone. “For the glory of God alone” is the fifth of the five solas or “alones” of the Reformed Tradition, and so this is the fifth sermon of the series. You’ve now heard sermons on grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and Scripture alone. Today, it’s “for the glory of God alone,” and I believe it’s this one that pulls it all together because by His grace we have been saved. By faith, we’ve been shown the way to live. In Christ, we know the Savior. Through Scripture, we see the example. Now, we put it all into action. How will we live? What will we do? I’ll be talking about it today, as well as next Sunday and the Sunday after that because it matters. It matters how we live and how we spend our days and our hours. It matters not only to the world, but to us, to our souls. Do you know how it feels to live for the glory of God alone, or are you wondering “What does that even mean?” When I was interviewing for this position here in Marietta, we weren’t sure if we were ready to sell our house and leave our friends and community in Columbia, Tennessee. We didn’t know if we were ready to uproot our two girls and move here. Yet, we came to interview and toured what would be my office upstairs, which has a private bathroom. My wife, Sara, will still say, “That’s when I knew we were moving, when Joe found out he’d get his own bathroom if we moved to Marietta.” However, a life lived for bathrooms alone isn’t much of a life. A life lived for money alone isn’t either. A life lived for convenience, entertainment, any of that has been tried and tried again. He who lives without a worthy goal or a higher purpose often finds that his life feels empty. He is like a ship without rudders, for no one lies on his deathbed thinking, “I sure would like to watch one more episode of House of the Dragon on HBO,” or, “If only I had splurged on a nicer car.” All of us, when we lay on our deathbeds, will ask ourselves: “Who will remember me when I’m gone?” “Have I made a difference?” “Did my life matter?” Of course, money matters. Even bathrooms matter, but those who choose careers thinking only of money and convenience are missing out on the feeling that comes from making a difference. Are you making a difference? As you may know, I ride my bike to the church when I can. The car that I drive, I never wash or clean it out. It’s gross. Our girls hate to ride in it. My wife hates to drive it. When I’m in a funeral procession, I always ask to ride with the funeral director because I don’t want my car to be seen in a procession out to the cemetery. Because of this habit, I get to know the funeral directors, and one back in Tennessee, his name is Matt, and he was only about 25 years old. His father, Tony, ran the place, but I wondered why such a young man would be interested in running a funeral home, so I asked him about it. Matt told me that when he was in high school one, of his friends died, tragically. His friends’ parents were distraught, yet there was a funeral to plan. There were details to consider. Matt watched his father sit with his friends’ parents, gently walking them through all the steps, and in that moment, Matt knew that in a time of death, people can be taken advantage of. Were it not for his father meeting with his friends’ parents, they might be dumping money into a casket they didn’t need and services that weren’t necessary. In that moment, Matt knew that he could make a difference just by being an honest and compassionate funeral director, and so he chose his career. He knew his purpose. Now I’m sure he makes plenty of money. I’ve ridden in his car, and it’s nice. But Matt lives for the glory of God alone. Do you know what it is to live for the glory of God alone? The Apostle Paul said it like this: “Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy…, so they have now been disobedient in order that…they may now receive mercy” from you. Now that’s big. It’s a big deal for us to share mercy. To change lives. To live, not for self alone but for the glory of God alone. Paul nudges us to live this way, and we need to be nudged for too many of us receive God’s mercy and keep it to ourselves or treat the Gospel like the best kept secret in Marietta. That’s why my favorite Presbyterian joke will always be: What do you get when you mix a Jehovah’s Witness with a Presbyterian? You get someone who knocks on your door but doesn’t know what to say. When I’ve told that one too often, please let me know, or once we change, I’ll stop making the joke, for every one of us forgets that we are called to share the love and mercy of God that we have received. We can all do that, and none of us needs to change her career to do it because opportunities to share God’s mercy, to live for the glory of God alone, open up all around us all the time. You don’t have to become a pastor to do it. You just must remember that your job is just your job, but your calling is to glorify God. I witnessed it once in a grocery store in Decatur, Georgia. You know those lines where you can check yourself out without the help of a cashier? I was at Kroger years ago when those things were first introduced. That morning, I was in a hurry but not too much of a hurry, so I thought about the self-checkout line because it was empty. In the line with an actual cashier, a couple people were already there, but, like I said, I wasn’t in too much of a hurry, so I went to the line with an actual Kroger employee. I remember that the man in front of me bought cigarettes, cat food, and a newspaper. How did I know that? I’m a nosy person. Not only was I nosy enough to notice what the man was buying. I also eavesdropped on his conversation with the cahier. He was telling her about a book he was reading. “It’s a work of science fiction,” he said, “It will probably take me six weeks to read it. You must have a physics background to understand it. I sit and think awhile after I’ve only read five pages.” The cashier nodded. Then, the man said, “Could you also give me change for a ten? Two fives, please. I’m taking my mother to get her hair done, and if I only have a $10 bill, she’ll want to tip the stylist the whole $10.” “It looks like you got a haircut, too,” the woman at the register said. “You look nice.” “Not too nice though,” he replied. “I lost another tooth, so I’m scared to smile because when I do, I look like I’m from Appalachia.” That was a mean thing to say about people from Appalachia, I thought, but I didn’t say anything. I just kept eavesdropping. “I’m getting a new tooth though,” he said. The woman at the register looked pleased. “Come in here smiling once you do,” the woman said. He covered his mouth, “I’m smiling now, but don’t look. You may hear the theme song from Deliverance.” Then he left. The cashier looked to me. “I love seeing that man. He makes me smile every time I see him,” the woman at the register said, and I want you to know that God was smiling, too. That’s what happens when we live for the glory of God alone, for we give Him glory when we pay attention, show mercy, and spread kindness. It’s not hard, and it can be done anywhere, in any job, in any place, at any hour. Those who live for the glory of God alone do so anywhere and everywhere. Therefore, I invite you to do it. Now, maybe you don’t know about that. Maybe you don’t have time to do one more thing. I get that. Like all of you, sometimes I wish my life were less busy and less stressful, yet what I really wish for is for my life to have more meaning. A busy life is not the same as a meaningful life, so Christian theologian Miroslav Volf, a professor of theology at Yale, said in an interview recently, “It is possible that we are suffering under burdens that are too light.” When our lives lack meaning, we suffer even more than when we run ourselves ragged. That’s why we all must ask ourselves: What am I living for? Who am I living for? To live full, satisfying lives, we must live for the glory of God alone. Of course, I have this amazing privilege of having that as my job description. Still, it’s not always easy. I often get confused and distracted. I intended to visit Van Pearlberg in the hospital last Tuesday morning. I walked into his room, spoke to his roommate and his roommate’s wife, and saw that I had missed him. He’d already been taken to surgery. Disappointed, I went to visit a couple other members of our church, then came back by Van’s room. His roommate’s wife asked me if I was Van’s son. I told her I was his pastor. “Where is your church?” she asked. That’s when I started to understand what I was doing there. I told her that I’m proud to be the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Marietta, right on the Square. She told me she’d driven by it. I asked her to come in next time she drives by. Then I asked her husband’s name. It was Stanley. “May I pray for him?” I asked. We prayed. After I said “Amen,” I opened my eyes to see that she was crying. Do you know what that feels like? Do you know what it feels like to have made a difference? Do you know how good it feels to live for the glory of God alone? I tell you there is no greater feeling, so I urge you to go and do likewise. What do you think? Are you in? Are you all in?