In order to be first you need to be last.
This message from Christ doesn't really make sense in our modern society,
Does it?
Because we say that you get what you deserve,
You get what you work for,
And that you need to put yourself first to get on top.
Sometimes you need to walk over some people.
There need to be some casualties or there will be some inevitable casualties to reach the top.
Yet Christ taught us different.
Christ taught us that in order to reach heaven we need to stop this drive of being on top,
Being number one,
Being the first.
And we should go back to the basics and we should go back to love.
We should go back to serving one another.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
But now the question is what are those things?
If through Christ I can do anything,
What do I choose to do?
And that is where I think a lot of us seriously miss the boat.
We seriously think that now I can pray and have a mansion.
Maybe that's true,
Yes.
Maybe I can pray to not have to work.
Maybe I can pray disease away.
And again,
Maybe it is true and maybe when we do pray those things happen.
But it doesn't happen for every one of us.
And why is that?
We read in the book of James that maybe it's because we don't pray correctly.
Maybe it is because when we make those prayers and we pray those prayers it is that we do that from a place not love.
That isn't love.
We do it from a place of ego.
Lord,
Give me a mansion.
Give me a fancy car so that other people may look up to me.
Now how is that love?
How is that loving one another?
I think it's so far removed from love that it doesn't happen for everybody.
And if it does happen then perhaps have a look and see that the reason behind having that is that then one can help others.
That you are in exact position where Christ puts you,
Where God puts you so that you can reach out to your community.
We have so many different communities yet all is one.
But in our different geographical locations maybe Christ has put you exactly where you are to reach out to those around you,
To those who have forgotten the unity that they have with one another.
The unity that they have with God and the universe.
We see it's human.
The disciples,
The direct disciples of the Lord fight amongst each other.
Not after God has gone.
While God is still there,
While Christ,
Jesus is still with them they are already fighting on who is number one.
So it's nothing new.
Perhaps it's part of the human condition.
It's maybe even more than just our ego.
It may be that genetically the strongest survive and that is translated into us pushing each other down.
God is just so much more than our genetics.
God asks of us to try and transcend even that.
And when we get there we start to see that the only thing left to do is to love.
Once we get out of fear,
Once we get out of this drive to just survive and get on top no matter what the consequences,
Once we can take that one step out of it,
We can become silent and in that silence we can encapsulate and see all these thoughts,
These random racing thoughts that we constantly have and we can see them as being part of the human condition of being separated from Christ,
From God and not being able to recognize that it doesn't matter.
All these thoughts that we are having,
All this drive that we have is still going to end up in death.
And then what mattered,
Love.
What mattered was how did I take the situation and my environment that I am in,
The life that I was given and how did I use that to love the Lord and to love every human being and above that even how did I love every single creature on this beautiful planet that God has given us to experience.
Amen.
