Have-to's and Get-to's

8/30/09 from my sermon from Ephesians 2:1-10

Hello, my name is Lynn, and I am an eldest son, super-responsible, high-achieving, goody-goody, workaholic. I have been in recovery for many years, but I have also had many relapses.
I don't know where I got it--from my family of origin, or Protestant work ethic, or where--but somehow I thought if I were only good enough, God would have to love me. I know that I am the only one who has ever felt this way. (Laughter)
Some of us get confused. We think that Christianity is about doing good works, being perfect, and earning our way into heaven. It is like there is a points system. I know all of the St. Peter at the Pearly Gates jokes only reinforce this. "Well, let me check in my book, and see if you had enough good deeds."
The problem I had with this was that even though I was working very hard to please God, I never felt very happy. I felt a sense of obligation. I felt I never could do enough. I was always disappointing God...others....and maybe what was the worst...myself. I felt like the passage says, dead in my trespasses.
Thankfully, in my senior year in high school, my girl friend showed my a passage of scripture. It was right before a big revival. I didn't need the revival. The verses from Ephesians 2:8-9 were exactly what I needed to hear. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not because of works, lest anyone should boast." What a relief! What a burden lifted! It wasn't about what I did, but about what God had already done. It was a gift, not about my good works.
Now I have fallen back many times, trying to prove that I deserve to be saved, but this is the gospel. We are saved by what God has done in Jesus Christ.
When I went to seminary, I found that I was in pretty good company. Martin Luther, of the Protestant revolution, went through the same process. He crawled up the steps of St. Peter's in Rome on his knees, and many other things, trying to prove how good he was. But it was a verse in Romans that got to him, that said, faith was made him righteous, not his good works. John Wesley, who started the Methodist reform movement, that eventually became our UMC, had nearly the same exact story. He visited in prisons and even became a missionary to these American colonies in the 1700's , trying to convert others, but having no assurance of his salvation, until his heart was "strangely warmed" by God's grace.
You know that I am an Aggie, so I keep things simple so that I can understand them. So I came up with this distinction between have-to's and get-to's in understanding God and salvation. Let me illustrate. Some people look at the 10 commandments as have-to's....they are rules not to be broken. If you look at the rest of the OT, you find that they get expanded to some 630 commandments. Then when the scribes and Pharisees come along, they grew to thousands in number as they were applied to every part of life.
But I look at the 10 commandments as get-to's. They are about relationships...between God and us. Remember how they begin...."I am the LORD, the one who brought you out of bondage in Egypt." There are only 10 simple things to tend to, only 8 of them in the negative. I like what Godly play teaches about these with children. They are called the 10 best ways of living.
Then when Jesus comes along, remember how he approached the 10 commmandments in Matthew's Gospel, in the sermon on the mount, chapter 5. "You have heard it said...you shall not murder," number 6 on the top ten list, "But I say to you, if you harbor hatred and anger in your heart, you have just as well murdered." "You have heard it said....love your neighbor, but I say to you, love your enemies." Jesus takes us way beyond what the law requires to what love is.
Have-to's feel like "what is the minimum I need to do in order to pass this class?" Get-to's feel like "how much can I give back to you for all you have done for me?" Have-to's feel like rules. Get-to's feel like relationships. Have-to's feel like fear of punishment. Get-to's feel like gratitude. Have-to's feel like law. Get-to's feel like love.
May I tell you a story? When you used to go camping in the mountains of New Mexico, several families would go together meeting near Tres Ritos. After setting up camp, we would go further up the mountain to get firewood, filling up a pick-up with huge logs. Back a camp, my Dad among others would say, "Now you boys work up that firewood." A have-to that we resisted. But Mr. Wattenburger would say, "Now Marty, I bet no one could split that log in just 5 ax blows." "Oh, yeah, watch this!" And proceed to do it. He would say, "Now Lynn, you and Duffy couldn't saw through that big log with the cross cut saw in under a minute." "Oh yeah, watch this." And we did. He made it into a get-to. Have-t0's feel like work. Get-to's feel like fun.
I came across some quotes from years ago. I don't even remember where I got them, but they are keepers about have-to's and get-to's. "The church is not an institution forcing us to follow its rules. It is a community of people inviting us to quench our deepest thirsts at is table. Doctrines are not alien formulations to which we must adhere, but the documentation fo the most profound human experiences which transcend time and place, handed down from generation to generation as a light on our darkness. Jesus never threatened people into church. The only ones threatened were the religious ones."
So should we do good works? Absolutely, but only as a response to our salvation, not as a way of earning it. Verse 10 says, "For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works , which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life." Once we have received the gift of our salvation, we spend the rest of our lives saying thank you to God by our deeds.
This is what I have found to be true: People will do things out of love that they would never do out of law.
We give backpacks today to people we don't even know because we get to.
We go on mission trips to New Orleans to do home repair. Understand this, we pay money to go work long days, putting up sheet rock for no pay, then stand in line waiting for one of the showers before going to bed in our bunk beds in the dorms. And we say it's fun, because we get to do it.
I am starting a series of sermons today on the foundations stones of what we UM's believe. I want to be clear from the beginning that all of our vows and sacraments are get-to's not have-to's. So we don't have to pray, we get to. We don't have to be present, we get to. We don't have to give money, we get to. We don't have to serve with our spiritual gifts, we get to. WE don't have to witness, we get to. We don't have to come to this table, we get to. We don't have to be baptized, we get to. We don't have to be saved, we get to. We don't have to have peace in our lives, we get to.
I want to be the pastor of a get-to church.