Emo Philips regularly tours the nation's comedy clubs, and recently released a CD titled Emo.
The Onion: Is there a God?
Emo Philips: Well, the God question, you can never know for sure. 'Cause let's say you died, and you're in heaven for, like, 600 trillion years. There still might be an announcement over the PA system, "Well, everyone, this is the best we could do. Sorry, we gave it a good go, you know, but we're imperfect." Mortal beings always need faith that God exists, that a perfect God exists. Like [mathematician Blaise] Pascal said, do you choose to believe, or do you choose not to believe? If you choose to believe, you have nothing to lose, but if you choose not to believe, what are you really going to get? That's Pascal's Wager, and that should be taught in kindergarten.
Pascal's wager. Should be taught in Kindergarten. Not sure if I believe that we should be teaching it to the tiny tinies, but Pascal's wager is a relatively important thing to get straight in your head. For you see, it's not what you think it is, not really. Most of us think it revolves around the idea that if you believe in God, and are right, you get eternal paradise, and if you believe in God and you're wrong nothing happens. But if you disbelieve in God and you're wrong, it's eternal hellfire, and if you disbelieve in God and you're right, nothing happens. But that's not the whole story.
Consider this - that there are still consequences to belief. Jesus goes over them in the Gospel reading for Sunday, in which he says in Matthew chapter 10:
Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father
his child, and children will rise against parents and have them
put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake.
Matthew 10:21-22a
Okay, so it's not a zero wager there. There will be some costs involved, sometimes fatal costs. There will be potential deaths involved, and at the lightest, seemingly, you will be hated by all. Jeremiah finds similar circumstances affecting him in the Old Testament reading:
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me...
The word of the Lord has become for me a reproach
and derision all day long.
Jeremiah 20:7,8
There are prices to be paid for discipleship. It isn't free. But what hangs in the balance? For you see, we have gotten too lax and carefree with the concept of death. Medical science has advanced to such a degree that we can keep people hanging on forever in their sickness and illness. People are living longer than ever before. Life is expensive, and really good here. You may not believe it, but in your life, you are living at the absolute top of the game. The world isn't fair, and in your case, it's unfair in your favor. You have everything you could possibly desire, hot and cold running water, injections so you won't get diseases, sewage that flows away from your house instead of into it, sizzling steaks and creamy cakes, you have everything you want in your entire life, up to and including boredom. Things are so good that you can get bored in this paradise. So it's easy for us to think that the costs of discipleship mentioned above are too high. Who wants to be killed when life here is so good? And it doesn't even have to be death, you know. The parts of Jeremiah that talk about being a laughingstock and all that, who wants that? You want to be seen as an important member of the community, you want respect, admiration, you want to climb the ladder socially, and you're certainly not going to do that by telling people that internet pornography isn't the best thing on planet earth. And so most of us have gotten to the point about God where we are neither hot nor cold about him. We are just sort of in the middle. If people ask us about Him, we get non-committal, hem and haw for a while, and don't say much of any real substance, because we really don't want to be outed as rather strange.
And this, my chums, is where things fall apart for us. We have forgotten what's at stake here. When Jesus speaks, as he does in the Gospel reading, he tells his disciples
So everyone who acknowledges me before me, I will also
acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever
denies me before me, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 10:32-33
That should give us cause for concern. It should give us a bit of a tremble and a shiver. Because we haven't always been the best at representing Christ. We get vague about our beliefs, we get mumbly about what we think and hold true, we answer with a lack of specifics, and in general we do our best to not be too specific about our faith in Christ and him crucified. We end up being lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, and therefore, as God says in Revelation 3:16, he will spit us out. We have turned the wager on its head, to understand that there are only costs to discipleship, but no benefits.
Funerals, and times like them, though, that all changes. When there is disaster, when there is disease, when time begins to run out, as it has done for all people throughout all the world, then we have a chance to seriously look at what the cost is next to the potential rewards. In the time of Jesus, those who followed him knew that death was never too far away. And faith in Christ and professing his name seemed to make sure that death was going to come a lot sooner. And yet, and yet, what was offered was so rich and full, what was offered was so powerful and great, that when they counted the cost, they realized that it was worth it. Life everlasting, paradise in eternity with God, won by his blood on the cross, was such a prize that it was deemed to be worth the struggle, and worth the effort.
And when you fail at representing Christ? You will. You will fear the mocking and reproach, you will fear the scorn and derision. You will deny Jesus like Peter did, you will be neither hot nor cold on the issue, you will stare at the floor and not make waves, you will get vague and uncomfortable, and you will purposefully not say something even when things seem important. And it is for that that Jesus died.
Do not forget that the Christian faith isn't about how well you represent Jesus. It's not about you making yourself the best ambassador for Jesus that you possibly can, because your salvation doesn't rest on it. Your salvation rests on Jesus and his work on the cross. If Peter could be forgiven for his denial of Christ, if Peter who publicly denied Jesus three times, under the watchful eye of Jesus himself, could be forgiven, then you can too. Because the Christian faith isn't about you doing your best and being judged on it, it's not about you making sure that you made the right bet, that you gambled and wagered on what was right all along, but that Jesus bet it all on you. He bet everything that he had on you, you were the prize to be won. He bet everything, his clothes, his friends, his comfort, his life, on you. And he won. That was the deal behind everything. Jesus knew, was well aware the entire time, that you weren't going to make the choice for him the entire time. He knows that you aren't stronger or better or more faithful than Peter or Jeremiah, and he's prepared for that. His work is not about making you better or more faithful, his work is about forgiving you, knowing that you can't handle the debt required, he handles it for you. That's the deal, it's always been the deal, that The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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