Hollow Man
Originally scheduled for
May 8
Have you ever noticed that the military likes to recruit using
slogans which ask if you have what it takes? American business is
much the same way. They're always looking for people who have what
it takes to become a high-ranking executive, a dynamic manager and
leader of people. Most major corporations have programs which
specifically look for such individuals. Have you ever seriously
looked at one of these people? It's a disturbing life:
·
Such a man is always "on.” He is an actor, constantly on stage.
·
In the saddest sense, he is a "company man." The company owns him.
·
The longer he is such a man, the more he becomes what we call an
"empty suit." He is hollow.
How does a man get that way? It's not something that happens
instantly. But it is something that happens from the inside out. To
rise up the corporate ladder, he accepts the values and ethics of
his corporation. The Christian knows what those are. Those values
hold things like money is the most important thing; power is
extremely important; and prestige is more important than life
itself. It's like a diet. If you want to lose weight, you have to
change what you eat. If you want to become the corporate man, you
have to change what you eat — spiritually.
Perhaps that is why Christ, introducing us to the Lord's Supper,
said that this is his body, this is his blood. Various Christian
denominations dispute what this means in the physical sense, and
dispute it vigorously. But there is little difference in the views
of what it means spiritually. Spiritually, you take in Christ. That
may seem hard to understand; but let's look at it in the light of
one of the other things he said: "I am the way, the truth and the
life."
·
He is the way. To accept this means that you follow him and his
teachings, studying his words and make them your own. It means you
put them into practice.
·
He is the truth. In our day, when truth seems to have become as firm
as gelatin, he is still the rock. What he tells us is true, and we
should live by it.
·
He is the life. Without him there is no living, no real living.
Ultimately, at his return, we find that there are those who live
with him and those who experience the second death.
So it comes down to this: which kind of man do you want to be? Do
you want to be the man who is hollowed out by the world, or the man
who is enriched from within by the living Christ? You proclaim an
answer to that every time you take communion; does that answer
reflect the real you?
