Grace to you and peace from our loving God, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

You probably know that bit of Latin that I've chosen for the title of the sermon this morning. "Soli Deo Gloria" means "To the glory of God." You likely also know that this is what Johann Sebastian Bach wrote on each manuscript he completed. He abbreviated it with the letters "S-D-G," and a fuller translation would be "To God alone be the glory."

Jesus tells his friends, amazed that he would have any interest in seeing the decaying body of his friend Lazarus: "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

This morning I want to reflect with you on that phrase, "To the glory of God" or "To God alone be the glory". It is indeed one very fine way to speak of the Christian life. When we imprint those three letters on everything we do, we are living as God would have us live. SDG. Soli Deo Gloria—to God alone be the glory.

A teacher of the law asked our Lord, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

"The most important one" answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'"

Some variation of this verse appears ten times in the Old Testament. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." When something is important, it bears repeating. Four more times this same command is repeated in the New Testament. Fourteen times God's Word says, "Love the Lord your God...." It is the first and great commandment.

The question for this morning is, "Do we keep this commandment first in our lives?" What if I asked, "What is our number one priority in life? What is our personal mission statement? When confronted with the difficulties of live, as was Martha in this morning's gospel, in what do we trust? What are we living for?" Would we answer, "To love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength?" "Soli Deo Gloria—to God alone be the glory?" How do we make such a commitment to God in our society today?

Commitment is certainly not the strong suit of our generation. Adlai Stevenson once told of a pastor who so moved one of his congregation that the man jumped to his feet and cried, "Oh Lord, use me—in an advisory capacity." That's how most people would prefer to be used today, in an advisory capacity. How do we buck the trend and live for God alone?

In its simplest form, commitment is doing what we say we will do even when we don't feel like it.

That's what marriage vows are all about. Traditional vows include the phrasing "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, 'til death do us part." If there were only 'for better,' or 'for richer,' or 'in health' and only one person in all the world that we ever found attractive, we wouldn't need marriage vows. But we make the commitment for those days when things are 'for worse,' 'for poorer,' 'in sickness' and when we might find someone else appealing. The commitment says that the circumstances may change, but the marriage stands. Would that there were more people who understood the nature of this commitment.

I remember reading about a wage dispute in a city in Turkey. More than 1,000 employees of Turkey's Highway Authority filed divorce suits. Their grounds? They claimed that their wages were insufficient pay to allow them to support their wives.

That's an interesting approach to marriage. Have money problems? Get a divorce. It doesn't, of course, honor the commitment that marriage represents. It doesn't respect that our vows reflect the love of and give glory to God.

Commitments are made to rule our feelings. Commitments keep us on the right track when our feelings would cause us to veer. Commitment means if I say I'll do a job, I do it. If I say I'll show up, I show up. If I say I'll pay, I pay.

Commitment involves both care for others and sacrifice. It involves making painful choices. When my sons and I went on a canoeing trip, we knew that once we started, we could not turn back. As soon as we pushed off, we were stuck. There was no way out. We had to go to the end, like it or not. If about half way on the journey, one of the boys had decided that he didn't want to go the rest of the way, if would have been too bad. At the start of the trip, we had made a commitment. We didn't have to get into the canoe, but once committed, there was no easy alternative to finishing. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that many commitments are made without the same lack of options.

Our commitment to God is different in that way. Unlike being on a canoe trip, we do indeed have the freedom to turn back. There are other options every step along the way. We are constantly confronted with difficult choices.

That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die every day." It is simply not possible to be a devoted follower of Christ without dying daily to a host of things that try to get a grip on life, such as personal ambition, the approval of others, or greed. Our culture ferociously maintains that, "You can have it all." That is, very simply, a lie.

Commitment means dying to, walking away from, or giving up many things that might appeal to us. Commitment means consistently using our time, talent, and treasure for God. Commitment means to live "soli Deo gloria," to God's glory alone.

I saw a poll that was disturbing. According to the responses, most people go to church because they want to feel good. There is, of course, nothing necessarily wrong with feeling good. Still, we might question whether it is sufficient motivation for a Christian.

Many church goers these days want what some have called a "hot tub religion." They go for the peace of mind, or to meet people, or because it's good business. Commitment to Jesus Christ is hardly the top priority. And even more tragic, a growing number of churches are catering to comfort-oriented religion. It is not a simple thing to devote a life to the glory of God alone.

It requires, to use Jesus words, that we make all of our concerns subject to one central concern: "Seek first the Kingdom of God." So easy to say. so difficult to do.

Some of us, after all, were poor as children, and we're committed to never being poor again. The experience of the Great Depression shaped the psychology of an entire generation. You don't have to be around a person who grew up in the Depression very long to hear stories about what real poverty is. One fellow, with tongue in cheek, said his family was so poor they used to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and lick other people's fingers. Another said the garbage man would back up to his house and ask, "Pick up or delivery?"

Some of you know about poverty. Poverty brings pain; and so, we commit ourselves to having enough money to bring comfort and pleasure. There is, we know, another side to the story. I saw evidence of that in my visits with folks in Guatemala over the past 10 days.

Jesus said, "You cannot serve both God and money." That truth forces some difficult choices on those of us caught up in a material world. However, if we are to live to God's glory alone, we must subject every concern in life to this one great concern—loving God.

More to the point on this All Saints Sunday, keeping our commitment also means consciously and consistently following in the footsteps of those who have given their all for God. I don't even have to tell their stories. Abraham, Joshua, Miriam, Jonah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Paul, Marcella, Lydia, Edith, and a host of others. They weren't perfect people, but they were committed people.

And Jesus is the one who went beyond all others in demonstrating the nature of commitment. He confronted the most painful death ever devised—crucifixion—and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will." His example and his Spirit transformed those who came after him. The apostles, terrified by his crucifixion, were later empowered by his resurrection and then wouldn't keep quiet. They were committed, and they paid for their powerful testimonies with their lives. For millennia, faithful children of God in every generation have lived and died with that same single-minded commitment.

Now, it's our turn. Will we live for money, popularity, or power by playing god? Or will we live for God?

May God give us the grace and power to live for God's glory alone. May we take to heart what martyred missionary Jim Elliot once said, "He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." That is the standard of life to which each of us is called.

Soli Deo Gloria. To God alone be the glory. Amen.

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord unto eternal life. Amen.