"When EGO Gets the Best of You"

         

          Jesus said:  “My Kingdom is not of this world.” What do you think he meant?

Nov 25, 2018       2 Samuel 23: 1-7   John 18: 33-37

As you heard the words of King David written in 2 Samuel this morning what picture of David comes to mind?  Is it of a humble fearless shepherd boy who is eager to slay the lion who would do harm to his flock, the shepherd boy who is eager and ready to face the giant Goliath?   A humble boy who puts his trust, wisdom and strength in the hands of the almighty, a boy who listens to God’s messenger the prophet and obeys his command, or do we hear something else coming from David’s words.     What did you hear?    A little egocentricity maybe.

In today society the word EGO has been portrayed as negative entity within humankind by many a writer, psychologists, and psychiatrists especially when “I” in me gets to big, giving a distorted understanding of oneself or the building up of a false self as some writers describe it.   Any world leaders come to mine?? 

  

Eckhart Tolle in his book the “The Power of Now” describes ego as an entity within humans and in order to survive it needs to be feed.  It doesn’t care what it feeds on, a positive or a negative feed is all the same to ego.  Your Ego has one goal, to survival and that requires feeding it.  Some of our World leaders today give us examples of Ego at its worst.   

What Kind David is telling us here in the first reading is not a lie and at first glance you may not see the ego feeding but if you look closer and read on to see his full story, you will see how David’s ego plays havoc in his later life. This is a common problem in much of our lives as well.  We sometimes like to build ourselves up or on the other hand often like to build up someone else.  Often thought of as a good thing to do now and again.  But the question is, when we do this, does it really build confidence and self-esteem or does it give us a false sense of who we or others really are.    

I’m not sure how familiar you are with the story of Moses, another great man from the bible.  In fact he is the most important prophet spoken of in Judaism.  Moses was to free the Jews from slavery in Egypt and take them to the Promised Land.  Yet even he falls prey to ego at the very end of his journey and is not to be the one who accompany the Jewish people into the Promised Land, it would be His brother Aaron.  Moses makes a very poor choice in the desert during the very last leg of the journey.  The people are dying of thrust.  Moses prays for deliverance.   After receiving instruction from God, Moses taps a might rock with his staff and water comes pouring out.  But his ego gets the best of him as he boasts “here is the water “I” give you.”  We too run great risks when we steal away God thunder.  We often do not see or know the circumstances ego is building around our own lives.   Especially when we take credit for our generosity or for the things we seemingly have achieved on our own, but let this illusion be exposed folks for no one every completely does anything on their own.  What’s the old saying “It takes two to -----------.

The fact that you have life, that you exist, is a gift from the one who creates life.   Your ability to do well for yourself or to do acts of goodness are blessings given to you by God.  Arrogance, and ego are full of their own punishment and can bring with them circumstances that create kayos in your or someone else’s life.  God in His infinite Grace has given us tools to combat such kayos: repentance and forgiveness.  These two things become precious gems l in the tool box of righteousness, meaning: when we learn from our mistakes, we will turn away from those things that create pain and suffering in our lives.  Repentance sets us free from our bondage to sin and forgiveness allows us another change to begin the work of doing what is right good and holy.  These two tools, repentance and forgiveness of self, become our pathway back to wholeness a place where we can start all over again.  Now Isn’t that GREAT!

    

Jesus is the master of wholeness, humbleness and obedient to His Father’s will, Jesus never misses the mark.   He illustrates this for us in the passages we read from John today.   Pilate speaks:  “I am a Roman not a Jew and it wasn’t the Romans who handed you over to me.   What have you done?   Here you can see he is trying to get Jesus’ goat.   Trying to anger him, to get to boast about himself or to show His so called hand of power or authority.   Jesus’ response confuses Pilate.  He doesn’t boast about his “Kingship” but carefully chooses His words saying:  “My Kingdom is not of this world”.   Meaning it is not a Kingdom that bows down to worldly power, wealth, greed, injustice, discrimination, or violence.  It is a not a kingdom of affliction, suffering and condemnation.   Because if that were true Jesus says, “my servants would fight to the death for me”.   In other words Jesus is describing a Kingdom free from waring violence, greed, material wealth, and controlled force over peoples for personal gain.  Jesus’ kingdom is a kingdom ruled by a humble servant King who is forgiving, loving, compassionate, with mind of God.  It is a Kingdom rooted in love, justice, mercy, and grace. Confirmation here can be found in Micha 6:8.  “What does the Lord require of You”
Two separate Kingdoms within the same world.  He also makes it clear in his statement that those who seek to serve Him would also be free from violence and oppression, that which is not found in Pilate’s worldly kingdom or the present Kingdoms of our modern world.         

Then Pilate finally gives in saying “You are a king then!    Jesus replies:  “You are right in saying I am a King Pilate.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to that truth.  Everyone who hears the truth, and accepts it listens to me.  The lyric of this song tell it all!    “There’s something about that name” 

I guess the question we are left to ponder with for the coming week might be this.  Have you surrendered your life to Jesus?  Have you taken Him into your heart so as to be a reflection of His ways in your family, your church, your community?  If you have, you have entered into His Kingdom and you to will be ruled to by the mind of God.  Your work then, is to help spread the Good News of the Gospel wherever you may be.