The sermon where my dad got it really wrong

My dad preached 3,640 sermons in his career as a Christian pastor.

That’s my math. He may figure something else.

I heard at least two thirds of those sermons.

I’m sad to say (for Dad) that the sermon I remember best is the one I grew to think of as maybe his worst.

The title of the sermon was ‘The Most Important Thing in the World’ or something like that. I remember it because Dad and I talked about the sermon the week before he gave it on a Sunday morning.

Dad started the sermon by asking: “What is the most important thing in the world?” The rest of the sermon tried out different answers to the question. Things like pleasure, popularity, and wealth.

I don’t recall, but I bet my entire haul of Christmas gifts this year that Dad used this Bible verse in the sermon: “For where your treasure is, your heart will be also” (words of Jesus Christ in Gospel of Matthew 6:21).

The Bible verse I know he used in the sermon was this one:

“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Words of Jesus Christ in Gospel of Matthew 16:26).

I'l get right to the point. Dad’s entire sermon built up to this: The most important thing in the world is…one’s own soul.

I know what he was trying to do. Among those in the pews, Dad knew a lot of people who had not given themselves to be baptized into Christ. He was pleading with each one of them: Save your soul before it is too late!

In the Church of Christ, we used to joke about “fire insurance.” As in our baptism is insurance that saves us from the fire of hell.

So my dad made his point: The most important thing in the world is one’s soul. I suppose that in that Church of Christ congregation, most people agreed with him.

But the reason I remember that sermon so well is that it is the first time in my life that something my dad taught did not sit well with me.

I felt a strong tug away from the teaching I heard from the pulpit.

I even heard a whisper in my own mind: “How can it be true that my soul is the most important thing in the world? That would make my soul more important than the souls of every other person on Earth.”

At lunch that day, I asked Dad to answer the question.

We debated a little. Dad came down firmly on the necessity of making one’s own soul the priority. That when it comes right down to it, a person has to do what is best for himself.

I asked: “But what if you had a choice between saving your own soul or saving the souls of others at the cost of your own soul? Are you saying that it’s better to save your own soul and let others go?”

Dad said something about the eternal horrors of hell being so horrific that one must do whatever is necessary to avoid them.

I don’t think the conversation went on from there. At least I don’t recall.

But what troubled me was that Dad’s teaching that day seemed to be the exact opposite of the example of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ did not act as if his own soul was the most important thing in the world. Jesus Christ did give his own soul for the souls of all living things.

I imagined that if we asked Jesus himself “what is the most important thing in the world,” his answer would be the world.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son…” (Gospel of John 3:16).

Someone did ask Jesus something similar to “what is the most important thing in the world.”

An expert in the Jewish religion (the religion of Jesus) asked him: What is most important?

Jesus answered:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…[and] love your neighbor as yourself” (Gospel of Matthew 22:36-40).

The most important thing in the world, according to the Christ, is love.

Love for God that manifests itself as love for others.

This kind of love comes only when we entrust our own souls to the love of another. When we are so sure that our souls are safe and sure in the love of another, we are free to love God and love others the way that Jesus teaches us to love them.

When Dad used these words of Jesus Christ, “for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul,” he left out the first part of the teaching.

Jesus said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Gospel of Matthew 16:24 -25).

In other words, for our souls to be saved, we must not treat them as the most important thing in the world. Instead, we must entrust them to the Christ in the same way that he entrusted his own soul to God when he gave it up for the souls of all living things. If the Christ loves our souls so much that he would give up his own soul for us, how can we not entrust our souls to one who loves this way?

When the Christ teaches us to take up our crosses, he invites us to entrust our souls to God in the same way that he did. He invites us to lay down our souls in love for other souls in the same way that he did.

This is what it means to love God and love neighbors.

A Christian who is following the Way of the Christ no longer has any concern for her own soul. She knows it is safe and secure in love. So she is free to love her neighbors and to make their souls her priority.

The promise of the Christ is that, when we make others “the most important thing in the world,” we find ourselves. We find our own souls alive, safe, and secure in the sure love of God.

The Good News (Gospel) is not that we might save our own souls by following a divine prescription of religious rituals and rules. That would be bad news.

The Good News (Gospel) is that the Christ, in love, laid down his own soul to save our souls. The act is done. Our souls are safe and secure in the love of God if we choose to believe it.

If we choose to not believe it, no amount of rituals and rule-keeping will ever make us feel safe and secure. We will spend our lives trying to do enough to save our own souls, “looking out for Number One.”

And, sadly, the Christ teaches that all of our best efforts to save our own souls will only forfeit what he already has for us.

You soul is safe and secure in the love of God. The proof is that the Christ gave up his own soul for your soul. Best of all, God showed that even death would not stop his love from giving life to your soul. It’s what he did first for the Christ and what he promises to do for everyone who believes.

What more could God and his Christ do to earn your trust?

If you do trust God, you are free. Free to give yourself wholly to the most important thing in the world: Love.

Love for God. Love for others. Love for the world in all its wonder.

You are free to see where this love takes you.

Because you know that the God who loved you first and loves you always will bring you back home to the soul he is keeping for you.

Grace and peace.

P.S. I don’t know anyone who is a better embodiment of the selfless love of Jesus Christ than my dad. The sermon I wrote about here happened almost 30 years ago and I don’t know if he would preach it now. I share it here because of how it built the ring in which I’ve wrestled with God for most of my life. What I believe about God now may have started with the questions that sermon raised back when I was a teenager. I don’t think I believed Dad back then because I knew he didn’t practice what he preached that Sunday morning. He so clearly made love of others the most important thing in his world. There is no doubt in my mind that he would have sacrificed his own soul for the souls of his children or his church. Dad just didn’t live as if he believed his own soul was the most important thing in the world. I don’t know anyone who better embodies what it looks like to take up a cross and follow Jesus Christ.