"For the man who wants to save his own life will lose it; but the man who loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." (St. Mark 8:35 TEV)

"We're only number two; we try harder!" I'm sure you've all seen the magazine ad of the car rental agency that uses this slogan. In a way the slogan strongly reflects some of our national thinking. One of the key doctrines of our American enterprise is hard work.

If a person's going to succeed in life, we say, he will have to exert himself. It is often pointed out that American capitalism got where it did because the country was full of self-made men. People knocked themselves out to rise from financial obscurity to fiscal soundness and even wealth. To this day we tend to admire the self-made man - the one who started at the bottom and worked himself up to the top. The title, "president of the company," has a hallowed ring to it here in America.

So our nation holds to a kind of "work ethic." You've got to keep doing. You've got to keep

producing. Exert yourself! If you fail, try harder. Stick with it! Keep at it.

Now in a way all of us agree with this outlook, I'm sure. We don't admire laziness. We don't put a premium on wasting time. We encourage our children to work. When the grades at school begin to slip, the answer is, "You'll have to try harder!" When our boy is aspiring for a spot on the school basketball team, or when our recent college graduate doesn't feel she's rising through the ranks of her new job fast enough, we have a ready word of advice: "You've got to try harder!"

But there is a whole other side to this business of accomplishing something in life, isn't there? For there is a subtely and elusiveness about life and success that we must also take into account. So much so that the other side of the coin reads, "Don't try so hard!" Some things in life will escape you if you pursue them too vigorously.

Jesus once made this serious statement about that: "For the man who wants to save his own life will lose it; but the man who loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." "Don't try so hard!" Jesus was saying. The important things of life can't be gained by exertion.

How often you and I can boggle things by trying too had! Have you ever had an encounter with a person who was too friendly? There's a difference in being friendly and in trying too hard to be friendly. Other people's compliments about us can be so saccharine sweet, so gushy in praise that we feel embarrassed. We know very well we're not that good!

Or how about the subtelty of winning at romance? The by-word for success in this department very often is, "Don't try so hard!" Play it cool, and the person of your dreams may just come wandering up the path to you. The truth of the matter is, of course, that most girls are chasing some boy. The feminine trick is that the boy actually believes he's chasing the girl.

Today, at the risk of abusing and misusing the idea, let's be bold to say these words with Jesus anyway: "The man who wants to save his own life will lose it; but the man who loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." The apostles Peter and Paul applied these words to their ministries and were spiritual giants. Let's apply this now specifically to our spiritual and religious life. The power of Christ is the power that allows us to say, "DON'T TRY SO HARD!"

I.

Let's apply this approach, first of all, as far as our loving relationship with God goes. Let's apply this to our salvation. As I look around in my daily ministry I notice that many people are struggling to win God's favor. They have sins and human failures that burden them. They are weighed down by guilt. They do not feel as though they have measured up in a religious, spiritual sense.

Often their solution is to try harder. They focus almost exclusively upon what they must do, what they must achieve, to be acceptable in God's sight. Plainly their relationship with God is based upon what they think they are doing for God. It's the old story of trying to save ourselves by our own good works.

The words of the Apostle Paul break in at this point like a fresh breeze. "By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." There it is! Don't try so hard. There is no work you can do for your salvation.

But don't think that no work was ever done to bring you to a loving relationship with God! See Jesus Christ. Look at him. He did the work. He tried harder. He tried harder than any mere man could. He exerted himself and knocked himself out for you and me when he died on the cross. As the perfect Son of God his work was enough. No more need to carry around spiritual burdens and the weight of guilt and shame. Now we are even bold enough as forgiven Christians to say, "Don't try so hard! Christ has done the work. Take the gift of salvation. You have God's favor. In Christ you are dear children of God!" This is the spiritual freedom we possess in Christ. We don't have to try so hard anymore!

II.

As Christians we need to broaden this general thought concerning our salvation and also say, "Don't try so hard to establish the truths of the faith." In the past we Christians have had a way of overpowering people about our faith with proofs and claims. We've been so eager to sell someone on the Christian faith that we've oversold them. Countless times young people have told me that they no longer go to church because that's all they were made to do as children. Some preachers have come off being very pompous and almost infallible sounding in the eyes of prospects they have been trying to "win for Christ."

Have you ever tried to win someone for the Christian faith within your own family or household? It's a subtle matter, isn't it? You soon learn that you can't try too hard. What wins someone over will rarely be constant nagging about going to church or starting to attend some religious class. Matters of faith, if worth anything, are going to be matters of deep inner conviction. A loving and open relationship at home, a style of Christian living that is not "thrust" upon another - that's the low-key approach that calls for a delicate balance between trying and simply being our Christian self. No force or proof will be enough to convince and move most human souls.

And how about this matter of the churches trying to convince the world that the Bible is true, infallible, and absolutely God's Word? Synods and churches can try too hard to establish these basic items of faith. In the church's attempt to maintain the Bible as God's Word in a "doubting" generation, many persons have remained unimpressed. Even worse, folks within the Church have been turned off by a heavy-handed Word. Others have been estranged from the Church through ecclesiastical leaders who have appointed themselves as the keepers of the truth of God's Word. All along these church leaders fail to realize that the Word of God can stand on its own. Human pronouncement of the truth of God's Word has never made it true. Let's not try "too hard!"

III.

Then too, we can say, "Don't try so hard when it comes to a happy, contented daily life." The old saying may sound trite for its familiarity, but it is true: you can't buy happiness. A happy, contented daily life will come only as a by-product, never because it is actively sought. Jesus says, "Look at the lilies, they neither toil nor spin." Jesus points us to little children. They are the ones who know and experience the joy of the Kingdom! Precisely because they are carefree and trusting. They rarely try too hard. They generally "receive" a contented daily life instead of pursuing it.

It's obvious that the answer to all these things is not to do nothing. The answer is to do everything for the sake of Christ and the gospel. That's the magnificent lesson held before us today on the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul. Their ministries embodied the words of the text: "The man who wants to save his own life will lose it; but the man who loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." That is as much as saying that we are to live unselfishly. Get the center off of self and you will discover life coming to you. Be faithful in the tasks you know you can do well.

And trust that God has a timetable for your life! As the old hymn puts it, "This is my Father's world." Believe that you are living in the Father's world! He is working out your life according to his loving purpose. Dare to live in his world. Believe that he is ruling things in grace and mercy and love, for your good. As Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Don't try so hard!