Mueller, Gerald S.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 17Issue 2 Health and Wholeness Article 1211-1-1991Success and faithfulnessGerald S. MuellerFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Sermons is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationMueller, Gerald S. (1991) "Success and faithfulness," Consensus: Vol. 17 : Iss. 2 , Article 12.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol17/iss2/12Success and FaithfulnessGerald S. MuellerPastor, St. Luke’s Church (Anglican)Cambridge, OntarioText: Isaiah 49:1-7One of the problems with trying to live a Christian life inour Western world is that so much of what our society values,conflicts with what our faith teaches. Success, how it is defined,how it is obtained, and how it is valued, is one of these areasof conflict.Last century, Horatio Alger wrote over one hundred booksfor boys. They were extremely popular in their day, and sur-vived well into this century. I read some of them as a teenagerin the 1950s; some of you may well have read them in yourchildhood.Alger was a formula writer; almost all his books have thesame plot. The hero is a poor boy, from the slums or thecountry, who is determined to make his fortune. He scrapestogether enough money, for example, to begin shining shoes.He leaves home before dawn, shines shoes in the business dis-trict all day, and comes home well after dark. Then he studiesby reading books and newspapers he has found, using the lightof a street lamp because he can’t afford candles.One day he shines the shoes of a businessman, who is im-pressed with the effort the young man puts into his work, andwith his personality and charm, and offers him a job in hisfactory as a sweeper. Our hero works hard at sweeping, andat self-study, and attracts the attention of a manager who pro-motes him to mailboy. As the story goes on he does so wellthat he is promoted again, and then again, and then again.Soon he is earning an adequate income. However, rather than176 Consensusspending this on recreation, better clothes, food, or housing,he puts himself through high school by correspondence.Finally, the hero is invited to the company picnic or Christ-mas party, where quite by chance he meets the owner’s daugh-ter. They fall in love and have a romance, over oppositionfrom the father who wants the daughter to marry the son of abusiness colleague. During aU this our hero continues to workhard, studies even harder, and finishes college in night school.In time the father comes around, sees that our hero is a princeamong men, gives his permission for the marriage, appointshim manager of the business, and makes him the heir of all heowns. Effort, perseverance, and hard work have won the day,and the hero lives happily ever after.These books promote an understanding of the world whichwas very much a part of the 19th century thinking, and is stillthe way we see the world today. It is so common an under-standing, that most of the time we are probably not aware ofit, and even less often do we question it. But these Horatio Al-ger stories are cartoons of a principle that underhes our NorthAmerican view of the world.Firstly, these stories and our society define success in a veryparticular way. To be successful means chmbing the corporateladder and eventually coming to own the business. To be suc-cessful means to be wealthy and powerful. Secondly, successcan be achieved without fail by persistence and hard work. Ifone simply hangs in and works hard, success wiU surely follow.If you don’t think these ideas are still common, just readany of the popular magazines or books deahng with how tobe successful. Or watch late-night television, with its paradeof programmes dedicated to selhng systems for getting rich.A few years ago one of these was even called “The SuccessFormula”—it may still be on. They all claim that if one fol-lows their method one cannot help but succeed. They differfrom Horatio Alger only in that hard work is no longer required;success can be obtained through real estate or investment. Per-severance, taking time, are still required, but success, definedas the accumulation of money, is guaranteed.There are several problems with success being measuredby power and money, and with thinking success is the certainresult of hard work and persistence. There is of course theimmediate logical problem that not everyone can be the headSuccess and Faithfulness 177of a company, no matter how hard or how long they work! Itis not possible for everyone to accumulate more money thaneveryone else, no matter how dihgently they practice some sys-tem! Finally, the number of bosses’ daughters—or sons for thatmatter—available to be married is very limited!For Christians, those are not the serious problems. For fol-lowers of Jesus Christ, who take our Lord’s life as a model forliving, there are far more serious problems with this success-oriented way of thinking. If we beheve that God is fully re-vealed in the person and life of Jesus of Nazareth, then ourpreoccupation with success and wealth is the opposite of whatis revealed in Jesus.Jesus was not a success story! The poor boy from Nazarethdid not find wealth and power in the city. He lived the life of atravelling preacher, living on the charity of his few friends, andmaking enough enemies that at times he could only travel byroundabout routes. Instead of working hard all day and study-ing aU night, Jesus preferred to be with people, talking, eating,drinking; enough so that he was accused of being a glutton anda drunkard! Rather than hanging around in the business dis-trict where he might have met influential people, he preferredthe company of those on the fringes of society: simple work-ing people, and some dubious characters, some of whom wereknown to be criminal or immoral—in other words, Jesus madefriends of undesirables! Whenever he met wealthy or powerfulpersons, rather than seizing the opportunity to make an influ-ential friend, Jesus did his best to offend them. On his lastvisit to the city, he might have had a chance, and his support-ers even organised a parade for him. Instead of capitalizingon his popularity, he visited the temple financial district, andrather than learning some pointers from the entrepreneurs whowere successful at working the money exchange, he disruptedbusiness. He had irritated the wealthy and powerful people ofthe city beyond their toleration. They had him arrested andexecuted. Not a success story, is it? Not in the sense thatHoratio Alger and our society would define success!If Jesus reveals God, then God does not care about successstories, not as our world defines them. If Jesus’ choice of friendsreveals God’s choice, then God does not choose the successful.If we follow Jesus, then we ought not to expect that hard workand persistence in being a follower will always lead to rewards.178 ConsensusAnd, if we follow the God who is revealed in Jesus, then weought not and cannot measure our progress the way our societymeasures success.Consider our Old Testament reading. The speaker is a mys-terious figure, the Servant of Yahweh, often called the Suffer-ing Servant, who appears four times in the later chapters ofthe Book of the Prophet Isaiah. These passages are called the“Servant Songs” and the one read this morning is the secondof these. Christians have from the very beginning identifiedJesus Christ with the Servant.The Servant speaks to the world, the coastlands, and thepeoples from afax. The Servant relates how he was called fromhis mother’s womb and equipped for a mission of prcatchingand proclamation, with the purpose that in him God would beglorified. Through him Israel, the house of Jacob, would bebrought back to God.Yet it appears that despite all effort, in which he has com-pletely spent his strength, the Servant has failed. “I havelaboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing andvanity,” he says. He goes on to relate how God, rather thainchastising him for the failure, will use that very failure to bringabout an even greater effect than planned for the Servant’soriginal mission. Rather than bringing only Israel back to God,the Servant will bring salvation to the ends of the earth, to thevery nations of the world to whom the Servant is speaking inthis passage. God will take the Servant’s failure, and use it forGod’s own purposes.If hard work and persistence do not automatically lead tosuccess in the life of following God, what then does God expectof us? The same thing that God expected from his Servant,and the same thing that we find underlying the entire life ofJesus as we read it in the Gospels. Faithfulness!!! When weare baptized, we are called to the ministry of Christ, and weare given a mission by God. We are not given the means ofjudging our progress in this mission. The Christian life containsno built-in rewards, no raises, no promotions, to tell us howweU we are doing as Christians. The Christian life is always alife of ambiguity, in which we can never be sure we are doingthe right thing, or working hard enough. No matter how muchwe do for Christ, there will always be more to be done; themission given to us at baptism will never be finished in thisSuccess and Faithfulness 179!life. There are no indicators of Christian “success”! We don’tneed them, because, bluntly, God calls us, not to be successful,God calls us to be faithful!!! As with the Servant, God will use, our faithfulness for God’s purposes.Listen!Bishop Whipple was a Bishop of Minnesota, last century.He was a tireless worker for the Lord, and both as a frontierpriest and later as a bishop he brought many thousands ofsettlers and native peoples into the church. Once, when he' was on holiday in England he received a cable from an elderly;priest in New York, asking him to come and see him on his wayhome. As soon as his ship docked, he took a cab and drove to, this man’s home. He was received hospitably, and after theyhad settled in front of the fire, the old man said:“I’ve been working in this poor parish for forty years, seek-ing to be used by God for his purposes. I’ve tried, and I’vetoiled, and I’ve prayed. . . and I seem to have achieved nothing.Thousands have been won to God through you. Tell me, whyhave I been such a failure?”“Do you remember Mary so-and-so?” asked the bishop.The priest thought for a bit. “Yes,” he said. “I think so.Very early in my time here she came to a few confirmationclasses... but then she gave it up and dropped out.”“She left to go and live on her family farm after her fatherdied,” said the bishop. “She kept a home going, even after hermother died, despite a drunken and abusive half-brother, whomade her life a misery.” The bishop paused, then continued.“One day in an infrequent sober moment he asked her why shestuck it out there, when it was so awful for her. ‘I suppose it’smy religion,’ she replied. ‘What do you mean?’ the brotherasked with a sneer. ‘Well, I always find it hard to put intowords,’ she replied, ‘but I’ve got some notes I once took inconfirmation class... I’ll lend them to you. They explain itbetter than I can.’ ” The bishop paused again, then went on.“The brother took the notes, not meaning to read them, butIsomehow he did. . . and something in those notes opened the wayfor the Holy Spirit. He sobered up, and gave up his dissipatedlife, and went to college....He now stands before you as Bishopof Minnesota.”!There is something we need to remember when we lookit for signs of success in our life as Christians, and don’t findI180 Consensusany. Success does not matter; faithfulness does. When we arefaithful, God can take our failure and make it into the work ofthe kingdom.Note1 This story is adapted from “Bishop Whipple of Minnesota” in RichardTatlock (ed.), Stories and Prayers at Five to Ten (London: A.R. Mow-bray & Co., Ltd., 1959).

Success and faithfulness

Scholars Commons

Consensus
Volume 17
Issue 2 Health and Wholeness Article 12
11-1-1991
Success and faithfulness
Gerald S. Mueller
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus
This Sermons is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an
authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Mueller, Gerald S. (1991) "Success and faithfulness," Consensus: Vol. 17 : Iss. 2 , Article 12.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol17/iss2/12
Success and Faithfulness
Gerald S. Mueller
Pastor, St. Luke’s Church (Anglican)
Cambridge, Ontario
Text: Isaiah 49:1-7
One of the problems with trying to live a Christian life in
our Western world is that so much of what our society values,
conflicts with what our faith teaches. Success, how it is defined,
how it is obtained, and how it is valued, is one of these areas
of conflict.
Last century, Horatio Alger wrote over one hundred books
for boys. They were extremely popular in their day, and sur-
vived well into this century. I read some of them as a teenager
in the 1950s; some of you may well have read them in your
childhood.
Alger was a formula writer; almost all his books have the
same plot. The hero is a poor boy, from the slums or the
country, who is determined to make his fortune. He scrapes
together enough money, for example, to begin shining shoes.
He leaves home before dawn, shines shoes in the business dis-
trict all day, and comes home well after dark. Then he studies
by reading books and newspapers he has found, using the light
of a street lamp because he can’t afford candles.
One day he shines the shoes of a businessman, who is im-
pressed with the effort the young man puts into his work, and
with his personality and charm, and offers him a job in his
factory as a sweeper. Our hero works hard at sweeping, and
at self-study, and attracts the attention of a manager who pro-
motes him to mailboy. As the story goes on he does so well
that he is promoted again, and then again, and then again.
Soon he is earning an adequate income. However, rather than
176 Consensus
spending this on recreation, better clothes, food, or housing,
he puts himself through high school by correspondence.
Finally, the hero is invited to the company picnic or Christ-
mas party, where quite by chance he meets the owner’s daugh-
ter. They fall in love and have a romance, over opposition
from the father who wants the daughter to marry the son of a
business colleague. During aU this our hero continues to work
hard, studies even harder, and finishes college in night school.
In time the father comes around, sees that our hero is a prince
among men, gives his permission for the marriage, appoints
him manager of the business, and makes him the heir of all he
owns. Effort, perseverance, and hard work have won the day,
and the hero lives happily ever after.
These books promote an understanding of the world which
was very much a part of the 19th century thinking, and is still
the way we see the world today. It is so common an under-
standing, that most of the time we are probably not aware of
it, and even less often do we question it. But these Horatio Al-
ger stories are cartoons of a principle that underhes our North
American view of the world.
Firstly, these stories and our society define success in a very
particular way. To be successful means chmbing the corporate
ladder and eventually coming to own the business. To be suc-
cessful means to be wealthy and powerful. Secondly, success
can be achieved without fail by persistence and hard work. If
one simply hangs in and works hard, success wiU surely follow.
If you don’t think these ideas are still common, just read
any of the popular magazines or books deahng with how to
be successful. Or watch late-night television, with its parade
of programmes dedicated to selhng systems for getting rich.
A few years ago one of these was even called “The Success
Formula”—it may still be on. They all claim that if one fol-
lows their method one cannot help but succeed. They differ
from Horatio Alger only in that hard work is no longer required;
success can be obtained through real estate or investment. Per-
severance, taking time, are still required, but success, defined
as the accumulation of money, is guaranteed.
There are several problems with success being measured
by power and money, and with thinking success is the certain
result of hard work and persistence. There is of course the
immediate logical problem that not everyone can be the head
Success and Faithfulness 177
of a company, no matter how hard or how long they work! It
is not possible for everyone to accumulate more money than
everyone else, no matter how dihgently they practice some sys-
tem! Finally, the number of bosses’ daughters—or sons for that
matter—available to be married is very limited!
For Christians, those are not the serious problems. For fol-
lowers of Jesus Christ, who take our Lord’s life as a model for
living, there are far more serious problems with this success-
oriented way of thinking. If we beheve that God is fully re-
vealed in the person and life of Jesus of Nazareth, then our
preoccupation with success and wealth is the opposite of what
is revealed in Jesus.
Jesus was not a success story! The poor boy from Nazareth
did not find wealth and power in the city. He lived the life of a
travelling preacher, living on the charity of his few friends, and
making enough enemies that at times he could only travel by
roundabout routes. Instead of working hard all day and study-
ing aU night, Jesus preferred to be with people, talking, eating,
drinking; enough so that he was accused of being a glutton and
a drunkard! Rather than hanging around in the business dis-
trict where he might have met influential people, he preferred
the company of those on the fringes of society: simple work-
ing people, and some dubious characters, some of whom were
known to be criminal or immoral—in other words, Jesus made
friends of undesirables! Whenever he met wealthy or powerful
persons, rather than seizing the opportunity to make an influ-
ential friend, Jesus did his best to offend them. On his last
visit to the city, he might have had a chance, and his support-
ers even organised a parade for him. Instead of capitalizing
on his popularity, he visited the temple financial district, and
rather than learning some pointers from the entrepreneurs who
were successful at working the money exchange, he disrupted
business. He had irritated the wealthy and powerful people of
the city beyond their toleration. They had him arrested and
executed. Not a success story, is it? Not in the sense that
Horatio Alger and our society would define success!
If Jesus reveals God, then God does not care about success
stories, not as our world defines them. If Jesus’ choice of friends
reveals God’s choice, then God does not choose the successful.
If we follow Jesus, then we ought not to expect that hard work
and persistence in being a follower will always lead to rewards.
178 Consensus
And, if we follow the God who is revealed in Jesus, then we
ought not and cannot measure our progress the way our society
measures success.
Consider our Old Testament reading. The speaker is a mys-
terious figure, the Servant of Yahweh, often called the Suffer-
ing Servant, who appears four times in the later chapters of
the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. These passages are called the
“Servant Songs” and the one read this morning is the second
of these. Christians have from the very beginning identified
Jesus Christ with the Servant.
The Servant speaks to the world, the coastlands, and the
peoples from afax. The Servant relates how he was called from
his mother’s womb and equipped for a mission of prcatching
and proclamation, with the purpose that in him God would be
glorified. Through him Israel, the house of Jacob, would be
brought back to God.
Yet it appears that despite all effort, in which he has com-
pletely spent his strength, the Servant has failed. “I have
laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and
vanity,” he says. He goes on to relate how God, rather thain
chastising him for the failure, will use that very failure to bring
about an even greater effect than planned for the Servant’s
original mission. Rather than bringing only Israel back to God,
the Servant will bring salvation to the ends of the earth, to the
very nations of the world to whom the Servant is speaking in
this passage. God will take the Servant’s failure, and use it for
God’s own purposes.
If hard work and persistence do not automatically lead to
success in the life of following God, what then does God expect
of us? The same thing that God expected from his Servant,
and the same thing that we find underlying the entire life of
Jesus as we read it in the Gospels. Faithfulness!!! When we
are baptized, we are called to the ministry of Christ, and we
are given a mission by God. We are not given the means of
judging our progress in this mission. The Christian life contains
no built-in rewards, no raises, no promotions, to tell us how
weU we are doing as Christians. The Christian life is always a
life of ambiguity, in which we can never be sure we are doing
the right thing, or working hard enough. No matter how much
we do for Christ, there will always be more to be done; the
mission given to us at baptism will never be finished in this
Success and Faithfulness 179
!
life. There are no indicators of Christian “success”! We don’t
need them, because, bluntly, God calls us, not to be successful,
God calls us to be faithful!!! As with the Servant, God will use
, our faithfulness for God’s purposes.
Listen!
Bishop Whipple was a Bishop of Minnesota, last century.
He was a tireless worker for the Lord, and both as a frontier
priest and later as a bishop he brought many thousands of
settlers and native peoples into the church. Once, when he
' was on holiday in England he received a cable from an elderly
;
priest in New York, asking him to come and see him on his way
home. As soon as his ship docked, he took a cab and drove to
, this man’s home. He was received hospitably, and after they
had settled in front of the fire, the old man said:
“I’ve been working in this poor parish for forty years, seek-
ing to be used by God for his purposes. I’ve tried, and I’ve
toiled, and I’ve prayed. . . and I seem to have achieved nothing.
Thousands have been won to God through you. Tell me, why
have I been such a failure?”
“Do you remember Mary so-and-so?” asked the bishop.
The priest thought for a bit. “Yes,” he said. “I think so.
Very early in my time here she came to a few confirmation
classes... but then she gave it up and dropped out.”
“She left to go and live on her family farm after her father
died,” said the bishop. “She kept a home going, even after her
mother died, despite a drunken and abusive half-brother, who
made her life a misery.” The bishop paused, then continued.
“One day in an infrequent sober moment he asked her why she
stuck it out there, when it was so awful for her. ‘I suppose it’s
my religion,’ she replied. ‘What do you mean?’ the brother
asked with a sneer. ‘Well, I always find it hard to put into
words,’ she replied, ‘but I’ve got some notes I once took in
confirmation class... I’ll lend them to you. They explain it
better than I can.’ ” The bishop paused again, then went on.
“The brother took the notes, not meaning to read them, but
I
somehow he did. . . and something in those notes opened the way
for the Holy Spirit. He sobered up, and gave up his dissipated
life, and went to college....He now stands before you as Bishop
of Minnesota.”!
There is something we need to remember when we look
it for signs of success in our life as Christians, and don’t find
I
180 Consensus
any. Success does not matter; faithfulness does. When we are
faithful, God can take our failure and make it into the work of
the kingdom.
Note
1 This story is adapted from “Bishop Whipple of Minnesota” in Richard
Tatlock (ed.), Stories and Prayers at Five to Ten (London: A.R. Mow-
bray & Co., Ltd., 1959).


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