Simple Rules for Living

A Sermon preached on Sunday, November 11, 2007

by Pastor Terry Davis

First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, CT

Luke 21:1 - 4 1He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; 2he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. 3He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; 4for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

Simple rules for living – there are a lot of them out there; self help books are full of them. Some of them are helpful and some are not. Moses had ten of them; Jesus had two of them, love God and love one another. Robert Fulghum created a best selling book named from his lead essay in the book in which he claimed “All I really needed to know I learned in Kindergarten.” Here is his list of fourteen rules he claimed to have learned in Kindergarten, and actually most of them are things they you should learn in life’s early list.

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.

It is hard to argue with many of them, although I am not sure that cookies and milk are necessarily good for adults, I bet we would all feel better if we took our blankies and went and laid down for a nap each afternoon; and the whole world would be better off if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

It may be presumptions to suggest I could do better than either Jesus or Robert Fulghum, but I do have three simple rules for living that I am going to share with you this morning based on nearly 65 years of living in this world and 40 years of ministry. Mine are not intended to replace Jesus rules but to supplement them.

My first rule is to take a walk every day, even better take several. I think Americans today are the most sedentary group of people who have ever lived on this planet. Any doctor can tell you that we need to get more exercise than we do to improve our health. I know there are lots of ways to exercise from lifting weights to running to playing a variety of sports, people with limited mobility can learn to do chair exercises or enroll in an aquacise program. I guess it is the daily exercise that is important, but I recommend walking because almost anyone can do it, it doesn’t wear down your joints like high impact exercise, and it is low cost. It also gives you time to think, time when the television or the radio isn’t blaring, unless of course you can’t live without your Ipod. You can even carry clubs with you and smack a little ball around while you are walking, but that vastly increases the cost and has been known to raise people’s blood pressure. I have a personal goal of 10,000 steps, five miles a day. I don’t always do it, but when I do I know I feel better, I think more clearly, and I sleep better.

Rule number 2 is to live within your income and save something. When you spend more than you make you have to borrow, and when you borrow you have to pay interest, so the next month you have less to spend because you have to pay the interest. Many people have dug themselves a big financial hole by consistently spending more than they earn. If you save, then you will earn interest instead of paying interest, and when an emergency comes up you can meet that emergency. Any financial planner can tell you that if you begin saving something every month beginning in your twenties and let the interest build you will be well off in your mature years.

My third and perhaps most theological rule is to give your self to something that is greater than yourself. Every life needs some cause, some passion. The four walls of I, My, Me and Mine enclose a very narrow and restrictive prison. God has gifted us and called us to serve the greater good, not simply to meet our own needs. Gloria McAdam has obviously dedicated herself to the task of feeing the hungry and certainly there are many others in this congregation for whom this is a cause they support with passion and dedication. Other people’s passion is the arts and both bread and roses are important. We know teachers for whom teaching is simply a way to earn a pay check, but others have dedicated their life to the education of children. Some people’s mission in life is to bring healing to those who are suffering. John Metz has devoted all of his professional life to meeting the needs of people living with HIV and AIDS. Other people have come to mid life and realized that something is missing in their lives because they still have not found a worthy cause or passion. Hopefully those who claim to belong to Jesus can identify with a cause that is in line with advancing the kingdom of God, the cause of Christ.

The widow Jesus pointed out obviously had a passion for serving God. She didn’t have much, as a matter of fact she had less than enough to take care of her daily needs, but all that she had she gave to God by putting it into the temple treasury. We might wonder how it made any difference; the temple was known all over the ancient world as a wonder of architecture, an elaborately ornamented building, filled with furnishings of silver and gold and rich fabrics. What could her little coin buy that would even be noticed amidst the splendor of the temple. But she loved the Lord who provided for her each and every day, she didn’t have much but she was still in the land of the living one more day, and it was her passion that day to make a gift to God. It may seemed to an observer more appropriate that she would take something out of the treasury to buy herself a meal, or even to find a room for the night rather than be sleeping out on the streets, but she had given herself to something greater than herself, to serving God in the only way she knew how.

Have you found a cause, a passion, something or more than one thing to which you are dedicated, something greater than yourself? As we dedicate our pledges this morning it seems appropriate to ask if the Church is on your list of really important things, causes in your life? None of us have the devotion of the widow who gave all that she had to the Lord in the only way she knew how to give, but does your pledge represent a significant portion of your income? Is it one percent of what you earn, five percent, ten percent? What is an appropriate weekly or monthly gift? Presbyterians average five percent, Moses thought ten percent was appropriate, and Jesus told the faithful when they did this they weren’t doing anything particularly meritorious, just doing their duty, just doing the minimum.

Walk every day. Live within your income and save something. Give your self to a cause, a passion that is greater than your self. They are pretty simple rules and I guarantee that anyone who follows them will find life richer and more satisfying.