Recently I was struck by a great sermon
that was lead by my good friend Manley O’Connor (a fellow musician) in our fortnightly Skype Bible study meetings. The topic was on being Intentionally Inconvenienced. Not the first thing that would come to mind in a standard Bible study, and it also seemed to sounds a bit ambiguous, that is, until Manley proceeded to unpack the message.
We were reminded of the passage in Matthew 19: 16-23 which reads:
16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’[c] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]”
20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
The interesting connection made by Manley was when he told us to look at this section in a pyramid like form. If you take verse 18, you have a few commands from Christ: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal or give false testimony (lie). That is like the base of the pyramid. Verse 19 then mentions to honour your father and mother, and love your neighbour as yourself. This is like the middle of the pyramid. Lastly, verse 21, Jesus tells the rich man whom he is speaking to, to sell his possessions and give them to the poor. This is like the Tip of the pyramid.
Now here is where it gets interesting. If you notice, Christ seems to give the rich man these commands in terms of levels of difficulty. The average person does not constantly think about accidentally or purposefully murdering or lying, or stealing. It is simple enough for someone to go his or her entire life without murdering someone else. It barely even comes up in their thoughts. This is the bottom section; the easiest part of the pyramid to achieve and it doesn’t really inconvenience the rich man all that much.
Now the second level (middle of pyramid) and slightly more challenging part is for the rich man to love honour his parents and to also love his neighbour as himself. This is a bit more of a challenge as it actually requires something of the rich man both mentally and physically. He would have to be intentional about honouring his parents even when he didn’t want to, and he would have to go out of his way to show love to his neighbours even when he didn’t want to. In other words, he was being slightly inconvenienced! These first two sections were not such a problem for the rich man, which is verified by his comments on these commands. However, the key point remains, level 1 was and is an easier task to accomplish than level 2.
The third level (tip of pyramid) is by far the toughest as it requires the rich man to make the fully conscience decision to give all his hard earned (I assume) riches away, of which he would see no immediate benefit to him and his life in worldly terms. In other words, he is being utterly and completely inconvenienced! We see finally that the rich man seems unable to part with his money, and walks away saddened by the challenge from Christ.
Manley concluded and summed up the point of this account by relating it back to us (aiming at Christian musicians in general). The idea of us being a Christian in this world is not for us to live a life of convenience for ourselves. Jesus Christ did anything but live a life of convenience from his birth to his very painful death! Our lives are supposed to be a blessing towards others and ultimately, we are supposed to point people towards the Cross. Do we live a comfortable life where nothing we do challenges our faith or builds others and us up in Christ? The very pressing question that was left for us to ponder on was, in what way are you intentionally inconveniencing yourself to better someone other than yourself?
I have noticed that Christian musicians often seem to have this strange habit of equating their music with their ultimate purpose in life. It becomes their identity. This should not be the case. What were to happen if a drummer for example were to lose both his hands and legs, would that mean he has lost his identity? No, your identity must be in Christ and Christ alone! Our ultimate purpose in life is to love God and love and serve one another, ultimately bringing them to the knowledge of Christ. All too often when you speak with Christian musicians, the topic of God rarely comes up, and when you ask how much or when they last read their Bible or prayed, it’s the classic response of, “I’m slacking in that area, I need to get back on it.” As if it’s trendy to be slacking in biblical studies! What happened to Spiritual maturity (1 Corinthians 14:20)? It’s great that you’re a Christian, but as Christians we have been commanded to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15), make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19) and give an answer to every man that askes a reason of the hope within you (1 Peter 3:15). These things might not benefit you on earth in the natural ‘worldly’ sense, but they are for a much higher purpose, the development of your faith and for ultimately expanding the Kingdom of God. If your authority comes from the Bible, then it is best to take it seriously and follow its commands.
A final comment I want to make in order to clarify something in the rich man story is that I would suggest that if the man that Christ was speaking to actually just had limited finances, Christ wouldn’t have told him to sell his riches, since he wouldn’t have had any. Christ would have told him to give whatever he had been blessed with/capable of giving, whether that be time, teaching/tutoring, encouragement, prophecy or whatever it was. In this light, this message applies to every Christian. In what way are you using your gifting and talents to better the kingdom of God? In what way does your life actually reflect Christ? Christ did not just work in his job as a carpenter his entire life before ascending to heaven. He spoke to sinners, He healed, He taught, He helped, He forgave, He gave time… He intentionally inconvenienced himself to the point of death! As musicians and followers of Christ, the challenge has been set on the table: how can we intentionally inconvenience ourselves to the benefit of others?
One example given by Manley was his most recent idea, in which he told us that every month he is going to put away a certain amount of money each month and use that money purely to give to someone in need in order to bless him or her. This is going to intentionally inconvenience Manley a lot, but this was his challenge and he is currently undertaking it right now. This works for Manley. What works for you? What can you do outside your standard everyday life? How can you intentionally inconvenience yourself?