Sermon

September 21, 2008

For what shall it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?

From the time I was a child, I’ve always had an interest in the space program. I’ve read more books and seen more movies about the space program than I can count. I’ve always been fascinated how science can light a rocket and send people outside the atmosphere of the earth. As some of you remember and others of you have probably studied, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, men walked on the moon. Called one of mankind’s greatest adventures, it is really something how three men could be strapped to the top of a rocket with more power than several nuclear explosions that would catapult them from the earth to another planet and back again. Astronauts were launched to the moon on top of a Saturn V rocket. The stack of rocket boosters and space capsule, as it sat on the launch pad, was 363 feet tall. Imagine being strapped on top of a 36 story bomb. Or being on top of the tallest building in Tampa, filled with explosive fuel. After a trip across a million miles of space, landing on the moon, lunar exploration, and the return trip, you know how much of that 363 foot stack came back to earth—the top 12 feet of it. The small capsule that carried the most precious of cargoes—the three astronauts. All of the rocket boosters, the fuel, the guidance systems, electrical cells, and everything else, were jettisoned away at some point and only the 12 foot crew module returned to the earth. All of the physics and engineering that went into building that huge rocket, was with the idea that only that precious part would return. Indeed, great pains were taken to make sure that the precious compartment that held the crew, small as it was compared to the rest of the machine, was kept as safe as possible. After all, what good was a trip to the moon, a moon walk and the return trip if the 12 foot crew module burned up on re-entry. In other words, it profited nothing to make this great adventure, and travel millions of miles over 8 or 10 days if the crew couldn’t make that last few minutes and last several thousand feet.

The human body is a complex entity, even more complex than the Saturn V rocket. Bones, muscles, nerves and tissue come together biologically to make up the human body. Emotions enrich the life experience of that body—there is joy and sorry, triumph and challenge. There are accomplishments and set backs. A rocket ship cannot experience true love. It can’t laugh, it can’t cry, it can’t bear children, it can’t know God. It’s kind of ironic that we’ve been able to send a man to the moon, we can watch a baseball game thousands of miles away as it is happening, we can talk from a wireless phone the size of a business card, and yet in many of life’s instances, we don’t know how to be honest, or forgiving, or even very nice.

The most important part of a human body is not the mind that thinks great things, or the hands that accomplish great works, or the feet that carry us on great adventures or even the heart which beats constantly just to keep life going, and through which goes our joys and sorrows, and from which comes true love. The most important component of the human body is the soul. The soul is the God-endowed part of the body. We know biologically how babies are made, but the miracle that unites biological matter from male and female occurs when God intertwines both and puts a soul into that entity. That’s why the Orthodox faith holds that life begins at conception. And so the human being is born and goes through its life—some people live three months, others three years, others three decades, others a century. And every life is different. Each person has his or her own unique set of gifts and talents, triumphs and challenges. Each person is the same, however, when it comes to a soul. The soul is to be protected at all times—it is supposed to be filled with Christ’s light, rather than the darkness of sin. The soul is not an organ that can be removed, like a heart. It cannot be X-rayed like a bone. It is like God in that it cannot be known in essence. The soul is what makes a person a person. The sparkle in someone’s eye, as an example. You can’t photograph it, or even describe it, but you know it’s there, we all have that spark. Or when you feel good all over, or are at total peace, you can’t X-ray that, you just know how it feels—that’s when the soul is full of joy. Or when you just feel wrong, and there isn’t a medical reason a doctor can tell you, you just have that “feeling” in the pit of your stomach—that’s when the soul is sorrowful. And when life ends, the body dies, all the organs stop working and breathing stops. And the soul leaves the body, the sparkle in the eye is gone, the body returns to the earth, and the soul returns to God, the place from where it came. And God judges that soul as either worthy or unworthy to enter into His kingdom. He will look carefully to see if the soul is filled with the light of Christ or with the darkness of sin and He will make His determination based on His standard, not our standard. It’s not how long a person lives, or how much material wealth he accumulates, or how many friends he has that get us to heaven. It is how well our bodies and our lives protect that soul, that little capsule if you will, that carries God within each of us.

On the impressive trip we make through life, only the soul survives and ultimately goes to God for judgment. The stock portfolio, the house, the car, the career, the family, nothing goes to God except for the soul. And just like the great space missions to the moon of yesterday, where the awesome rocket protected the tiny capsule, in life, our journey is supposed to protect the soul, the only part that will make entry into God’s Kingdom. On the trips to the moon, the most important moments were the lift-off, or the landing on the moon, the exciting spacewalks or tricky rendezvous maneuvers. The most important moments of the trip were the “mid-course corrections,” the times when measurements were taken as to whether the ship was off course in any way, and the brief firing of rocket jets to correct the course. Astronauts knew that it wasn’t the “glamour” parts of the mission they had to get right, but the mundane parts. After all, what good would it be to land on the moon and miss the earth by a few hundred miles on the return? And so they made slight course corrections to protect their tiny craft to make sure they arrived back on earth safe and sound.

The most important parts of life are not the glamour moments—milestones like graduation, marriage, children, job promotion and retirement are all important, don’t get me wrong. But the most important parts of life are the mid-course corrections, the time when we pause in prayer, in worship, in confession, and we look deep within our souls and we resolve to let the light of Christ outshine the darkness of sin, where we decide to put love in front of hate, to put trust in front of dishonesty, to put praise in front of gossip, to put empathy in front of judgment. Without these corrections on a regular basis, we risk missing the kingdom of heaven, the same way the astronauts risked missing the atmosphere coming back to earth. That’s why we are supposed to pray regularly, worship regularly, and receive the sacraments of Communion and confession regularly. Because these things keep our life on course, so that the soul can one day make re-entry into the presence of God.

Jesus tells His followers in the morning’s Gospel lesson, “For what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” The simple answer, nothing. No amount of good deeds can save a soul that is filled with sin, just like an impressive rocket ship means nothing if the tiny crew module isn’t safe and secure. And life really doesn’t have much meaning if there is nothing to look forward to when it ends. Lots of people in the world believe that at the end of life is the great nothing—so they spend this life getting everything, believing that all will end some day. And lots of people in the world believe that every soul goes to heaven, and so there is little motivation to do much of anything. And some people are like astronauts going to the moon. They believe that if they make the right course corrections, their little ship will make it home safe, but are keenly aware that if they are just a little careless, the results could be catastrophic. There is nothing wrong with having a life that looks like an impressive rocket—just don’t forget that only the small crew module is left at the end of the mission, only 12 feet of the 363 really matter at the end. Just like all that remains of the impressive human body is the soul, that’s the only part that matters at the end. And as for the impressive human life, it’s the readiness of the soul to meet the Lord, that’s all that really matters at the end.

As the astronauts plummeted towards earth on their journey home from the moon and only minutes remained, the thoughts were not on the moon rockets, the fame or the fortune to follow. I assure you they were on the course corrections—did we steer our course just right so we can get safely home? We’re not all going to be astronauts, probably none of us will every go to the moon. But we’re all going to stare down the end of life at some point. And I can assure you, you won’t be thinking about fame and fortune, your triumphs or even your tragedies, but about the course corrections of your life—did you make enough of them so that your soul will be steered into the kingdom of God? And because none of us knows when that end will come, that’s why we think about it today and should think about it every day. That’s why we should make a point of doing something about it today and every day. After all, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?