One of the joys of living in this part of God's world is that every once in a while I have the opportunity to participate in charity golf tournaments. It is a very charitable thing for other people to suffer through playing golf with me, but that is not what charity tournaments are about. Primarily, they are ways to support different worthy organizations and causes. On Friday I again had the privilege of playing in a tournament that for 35 years has supported the Scripps Clinic. One of the traditions in this tournament is the "million dollar shoot-out." The way it works is that, at the end of the day, 5 players who have hit their ball closest to the hole on a selected hole, and 5 other players who have their names randomly drawn from a hat, have the chance to hit one shot from 150 yards out and, if they make a hole-in-one, they win a million bucks. As luck would have it, I was selected from out of the hat (another case of charity right there!), and so I joined the 9 others who traipsed off down the fairway of the #9 hole at the Lomas Santa Fe Country Club so we all could have our chance at glory and money. The odds of holing a shot from 150 yards are infinitesimally small, of course, but it can be done. My thoughts as I prepared to hit the ball had not so much to do with winning the money as they had to do with simply not wanting to embarrass myself. You see, all the other golfers and their guests stand around the green to where you're taking your shot and watch. My prayer was just that I would hit a decent shot, which, by the way, is my prayer every time I swing the club.

God was good to me, and even though my shot went a bit left and into a tree that stands right next to the green, it was not a terrible mistake, and was in fact in the top half of the 10 shots taken. I was actually feeling quite good about myself as I walked back up to the green to join my wife and couple of friends that had stood with her. One of my friends, however, said, "Well, Jack, how does it feel to lose a million dollars?" And then I didn't feel so good.

Max Lucado wrote this story about someone who also had reason to feel badly about life. He wrote:

Though talented, she went unrecognized for years. Prestigious opera circles closed their ranks when she tried to enter. American critics ignored her compelling voice. She was repeatedly rejected for parts for which she easily qualified. It was only after she went to Europe and won the hearts of tough-to-please European audiences that stateside opinion leaders acknowledged her talent.

Not only has her professional life been a battle, her personal life has been marked by challenge. She is the mother of two handicapped children, one of whom is severely retarded. Years ago, in order to escape the pace of New York City, she purchased a home on Martha's Vineyard. It burned to the ground two days before she was to move in.

Professional rejection. Personal setbacks. Perfect soil for the seeds of bitterness. A receptive field for the roots of resentment. But in this case, anger found no home.

Her friends don't call her bitter; they call her "Bubbles."

Beverly Sills. Internationally acclaimed opera singer. Retired director of the New York City Opera.

Her phrases are sugared with laughter. Her face is softened with serenity. Upon interviewing her, Mike Wallace stated "she is one of the most impressive-if not the most impressive-ladies I've ever interviewed."

How can a person handle such professional rejection and personal trauma and still be known as Bubbles? "I choose to be cheerful," she says. "Years ago I knew I had little or no choice about success, circumstances or even happiness; but I knew I could choose to be cheerful."ⁱ

We are in the midst of a series of sermons dealing with the topic of how it is that you and I can have lives that matter, lives that are marked with success and happiness and meaning. We have noted that the only beginning point for such lives is not with ourselves but with the Creator of Life, God. And we have learned that the character of the Creator is such that he takes great joy in having made us, that he wants us to exist and that his intentions for us are positive. As the famous first question of the Larger and Shorter Catechisms states, "the chief end of man is to glorify God."

So far, everything we've acknowledged about this topic of having lives that matter has had to do with God, and that is fitting, because God is really at the center of all things. The existence of the universe and all that is in it is first and foremost about God, but God is not the only reality in the universe. So are you and I. Today we consider the second part of the answer that the catechisms give to the question of "what is the chief end of man?" Not only is the reason for our existence to point to the existence of God, it is also, in the words of the catechism, "to enjoy God forever." If you learn nothing else throughout these sermons, learn this: Your chief purpose is twofold: to give glory to God, and to enjoy God.

Whether you've just lost the chance at winning fortune by shooting an errant golf shot, or whether you are suffering through a healthy share of difficulties in your life, our faith still affirms that one of the major aspects of life as God designed it is that we would enjoy God. And so we are led to the question of how it is that we can enjoy God. What are the sources of joy in our lives, or, as the title of today's sermon asks, what's your pleasure?"

When I think of joy and pleasure, I think of things like 3 or 4 scoops of homemade vanilla ice cream smothered in butterscotch sauce. You might also think of things like sunsets at the beach, holding hands with that cute girl or guy, the first drive in your new car, a long nap on a rainy afternoon, receiving a phone call from your 4-year-old granddaughter, or looking at your watch and realizing the preacher has cut his sermon short and you're out of church 5 minutes early. Joy and pleasure derive from larger contexts as well. Happy families, meaningful jobs, nice homes, and good health are also part of the equation of human joy. And so, what part does God play in all of this? Is it possible to enjoy God himself?

Often the last thing we think about when we think of God is joy. For some people, God is the one who takes away our joy by pronouncing all the fun stuff of life off limits. For other people, God is the one who sits on his throne in heaven with a big book in which he records every single time we mess up so he can send us to hell when we die. For still others, God may be just an impersonal force of nature that set the whole process of life in motion but who doesn't really care and isn't really involved in anything so personal as our happiness.

Our faith tradition teaches a different view of God. Consider, for example, Noah. You remember Noah, he's the guy who built the ark and then sailed it to safety through a flood that makes Hurricane Isabel look like nothing more than a minor leak. Genesis tells us that in the very early days of human habitation on the planet, the human race had gone badly astray, so much so that God determined the best way to fix the situation was to wipe the slate clean and start over. Everything needed to go, except for Noah. In Peterson's translation of Genesis, "God said, 'I'll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds-the works. I'm sorry I made them' But Noah was different. God liked what he saw in Noah. This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community. Noah walked with God."ⁱⁱ

There are two facts about Noah on which we want to focus today. The first fact is this: he made it through the flood. There is a great deal of archeological evidence that early in human history there was in fact a great flood that engulfed, if not the entire world, at least a significant part of it, especially in Noah's neighborhood. And there are still some folks who are looking for the ark itself, and some who think they've found it. Whether or not you want to take the story of Noah literally, there is another level of meaning here. In scripture, water often represents the chaotic, dark and dangerous side of life, that part of life that is ruled by sin. Sin threatens to flood out everything that is good in life. But Noah made it through the flood. Noah made it through the sin, protected, as it were, by the boat, the boat that God told him to build. Let me state the obvious then: to make it through the floods of life, you have to be in God's boat.

And that is the second fact about Noah that we need to see today, a fact that we often overlook. When we think of Noah we think first of the boat. But why did Noah get to be a passenger on God's boat in the first place? Because Noah was already in there, spiritually speaking. Noah "walked with God." Noah was a righteous and blameless man.

In the story of Noah and the Ark, there is no question about where you want to be when the flood comes. You want to be in the boat. And the way you get your ticket for the ride is to be a person who walks with God. The way to sail through the ravaging threat that is sin, you have to be a person who knows God. The way to have the life that God intended you to have, the way to escape the end of life because you have so totally ruined your life, the way to enjoy the life that God gave you, is to be on the boat with God, in Noah's case literally speaking, and in our case, spiritually speaking. Noah enjoyed God's favor and therefore enjoyed escape from the death-dealing results of sin because he enjoyed a close relationship with God as he followed God's way of living in the world instead of the way of sin, which is opposed to God.

Here is where we are connected with God in an inextricable bond. We are made to glorify God for God's sake and not our own. The way we give God glory is to live by God's design, in righteousness and blamelessness, according to God's holy law. The cool thing is that, as we do this, we also at the same time find ourselves enjoying the life that God gives us. Glorifying God and enjoying life are two sides of the same coin. One cannot happen without the other. Rick Warren quotes George Bernard Shaw as saying, "This is the true joy of life: the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."  iii Because Noah had devoted himself to the higher purpose of living by God's ways he transcended the flood and found his life's purpose and joy as he became the pivotal figure in the rebirth of the human race. You and I are nothing more than "selfish little clots of ailments and grievances" unless and until we discover that our true joy lies not in seeking after our own way, but in seeking first the kingdom of God and of his righteousness, as Jesus counseled his disciples in his Sermon on the Mount.^iv

Robert Schuller writes this:

How much is a sprinkler-head worth? It all depends. Not much on a shelf in the hardware store. But attach it to a water line and it will bring life to plants, flowers, and fruit, feeding the human race.

Life and death-they're in the sprinkler head.

How much is a pen worth? It all depends. Whose hand holds it-and what that hand does with it.

What is a human being worth anyway? It all depends. A disconnected human life is a waste. Connected to an uplifting faith in a loving spirit that flows from the living heart of Jesus Christ, this simple person becomes a powerhouse of life-giving hope?^v

This quote is from Schuller's book Believe In The God Who Believes In You, in which he takes you through a study of the 10 Commandments. Finding your true joy is all about finding your true design, finding how you were made to live, finding out how to walk with God.

Our world tries to teach us that enjoying life has to do with tricking God into looking the other way while we engage in all sorts of things that we think will make us happy. We mistakenly believe that joy comes from always getting our way in life, so much so that we will kill anyone who gets in our way, but true joy comes from not killing, from not having to control everyone and everything. We mistakenly believe that joy comes from having that which we don't deserve and earn, so much so that we will steal what we want, but true joy comes from learning to be happy with less, and learning to be happy with what we earn, what we deserve. We mistakenly believe that joy comes from having complete freedom from outside influence and design, so much so that we deny even the existence of God, but true joy comes from learning to align ourselves with the God whose law and will cannot be denied. And so it goes. Every aspect of righteous living teaches us that the joy of being forgiven, of being focused, of being productive, of being hopeful, of being loved, of getting through whatever floods life may bring, has to do with discovering that our highest joy is forever bound to our highest calling, the pleasure of knowing and following God's way. What's your pleasure? It can only be found in your walk with God.

Amen.

i Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven, Word Publishing, Dallas, Texas, 1990, p. 3-4.

ii Eugene Peterson, The Message, NavPress, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2001, p. 21.

iii Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2002, p. 33.

iv Matthew 6:33.

v Robert Schuller, Believe In The God Who Believes In You, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1989, introduction.

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