That’s Crazy!

Grace United Methodist Church

November 15, 2009

1 Samuel 1: 4-20

⁴On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; ⁵but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. ⁶Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. ⁷So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. ⁸Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

⁹After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. ¹⁰She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. ¹¹She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.” ¹²As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. ¹³Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. ¹⁴So Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.” ¹⁵But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. ¹⁶Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” ¹⁷Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” ¹⁸And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.

¹⁹They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. ²⁰In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

 

I have always been a fan of Winnie the Pooh. I remember as a young girl in elementary school, my Mom would dress me in her bedroom each morning before school. As we got ready, I would watch Pooh’s Corner (I believe it was called), on the Disney Channel. Now, this was not the animated Winnie the Pooh with which you are all probably familiar; rather, it was live actors and actresses in costumes who acted out scenarios in the Hundred Acre Woods. Though the stories were new and relevant to the lives of children in the late 1980s, the timeless characters were still the same as they had always been. Including Eeyore. We all know Eeyore pretty well. “Don’t mind me,” he says all the time. Eeyore, whose tail is nearly always lost, is the animal in the Hundred Acre Woods with the proverbial rain cloud over his head. And Eeyore is always this way; he always has been, and he probably always will be.

As we read the opening verses of the first book of Samuel, we see that Hannah is in much the same state. Though happily married, Hannah is barren. Because of the expectations of society at that time, barrenness was horrendous on many levels. Aside from the great personal sadness that comes with our inability to bear children, Hannah would have also had to deal with the stigmas of a society that placed great value on a couple’s ability to produce offspring and continue the family line. Such inflictions were often viewed as the result of sin or disobedience in the eyes of God, and men were shamed if they were not able to produce offspring. That’s probably why Elkanah had two wives, the other one being Peninnah; though he loved Hannah, Elkanah wanted offspring and Hannah was not able to do that for him. So you can imagine the great sadness that Hannah must feel in the face of her barrenness. And then to top it off, it seems that Peninnah provokes and irritates Hannah; that she chides Hannah endlessly because as the Scriptures tell us, “the Lord has closed her womb.” It’s one thing for Peninnah to give Hannah a hard time when they are alone in the household, but Peninnah chides Hannah even when they are in public, even when they are at the Temple of the Lord. “There goes the Barren One. There she is, no fruitfulness there.” We can nearly feel the humiliation Hannah must have been experiencing as this continued year after year.

I imagine that Hannah probably felt much like Eeyore. While the others in Hannah’s circle go happily about their lives, Hannah has no companion but her gloom. Even when her husband brings her a double portion of his sacrifices to feed her, Hannah would only weep and not eat. “Don’t mind me,” we can almost hear Hannah saying, as she tries to avoid the incessant chiding of her rival. “Don’t mind me.”

Then, one year, as the family made their annual pilgrimage to the Temple in Shiloh, Hannah decided that she had had enough. This is where Hannah is different from Eeyore. You see, Eeyore is content to continue in his dejected state for all time, but Hannah is not. So we are told that after eating and drinking in Shiloh, “Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord.” In my opinion, this is one of the most beautiful lines in Scripture. Hannah rose. Hannah made a conscious decision before God that she was not going to live her life in misery anymore. “When we are despised, dejected, rejected, misunderstood, marginalized, or ostracized, there’s no need to spend time simply crying about it.”[1] God desires that we would all do as Hannah did and present ourselves in God’s presence. Whether we are dejected or overjoyed, God desires that we would come into his presence with fervent prayer. Hannah’s prayer was so passionate that the priest Eli, looking on, thought she was drunk or crazy. Sometimes living our lives as God would have us to live them makes us seem strange or weird or crazy in the eyes of those around us, but when we are willing to follow God so unabashedly, great things happen, just as they happened for  Hannah. Yet, we have to remember that the tide did not turn until “Hannah rose and presented herself before God.”

Sometimes, we have to rise to the occasion and admit that we are no longer satisfied with the status quo and we’d like some things to change. And then we have to take action in that direction. If I may, I’d like to mention Winnie the Pooh again. My most favorite Winnie the Pooh story is the one where Pooh eats too much honey and then he gets stuck in rabbit’s hole. Now, we all know how much Pooh loves honey; he takes every opportunity he can get to eat some honey. But when Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit’s hole, some changes have to be made. As much as Pooh loves honey, he’s not so happy in that hole, nor is Rabbit very happy about having Pooh’s backside displayed on his wall. So, rather than continuing to eat honey, Pooh realizes that some things need to change, and he takes action (with Rabbit’s help), and cuts off the honey until he’s finally small enough again to squeeze out of Rabbit’s hole. Pooh could’ve stayed in that hole, eating honey for the rest of his life, but he quickly realized that he wasn’t very happy or comfortable there, so Pooh took determined action to make things change. And that’s what Hannah did too.

Hannah got busy, and we can learn much from Hannah and how Hannah lived a life in faithful submission to God. Hannah teaches us the importance of expressing our need before God. When Hannah entered the Temple on that day in Shiloh so long ago, she held nothing back. Sometimes we get worried that we have to be always stoically faithful, never faltering or seeming needy in the eyes of God. We admire and value positive thinking, goal setting, and program planning. But the truth is, we all have needs as well, and we have to express those needs before God just as Hannah did. You see, in entering God’s presence in earnest prayer and supplication, Hannah recognized that wholeness in her life lay beyond those things she could control and rested in God as the larger reality of her life. Certainly, there are things in our lives which we can handle of our own accord, but when things spiral out of control, we must fervently turn to God with our needs, trusting that by presenting ourselves in God’s presence, new possibilities will be opened before us.

We can also learn from Hannah the trustful persistence required to claim God’s grace. Even as Hannah prayed passionately in the Temple, she trusted that God’s grace was available to her, even though we are told that it was God who closed her womb. If we reflect on this for a moment, we realize that there was really something of a boldness in Hannah’s persistence before God. God closed Hannah’s womb in the first place, how dare she ask that he might give her a son? People might think that we are crazy if we go about asking for the seemingly impossible; and yet, this is what is required to know God’s grace in our lives. It’s not that God’s grace is not offered freely to all, because it is, but to experience the fullness of that grace in our lives requires more than just trekking to the church on Sunday mornings as Hannah traveled to the Temple annually. We have to seek God’s grace persistently, trusting always that this grace from God really can transform our lives.

Finally, Hannah demonstrates very clearly that the proper response to the gift of God’s grace is to give it back. Hannah knew this from the very beginning. We can imagine Hannah in the Temple; desperate for the teasing to stop, desperate to please her husband, desperate to have a child of her own. We all know what it’s like, when we so want something, we’ll try and bargain to make it happen. We try and make deals with God.

There was a movie starring Burt Reynolds years ago. All throughout the movie his character tried to kill himself. At the end of the movie, he swam out into the ocean, as far as he could possibly go. When he reached that point, he decided he didn’t want to die. He began swimming back to shore, and as he was swimming, he started to bargain with God. “I’ll give you 75% of all I have, if you get me back.” He would go a little farther, “God if you get me back to shore I’ll give you 40% of all I have.” Finally, as he reached the shore he said, “I’m a man of my word, 20% of all I have is yours God.”

We can bargain with God, but when it comes to responding to God’s gift of grace, God asks no less than that we would “give it all back;” not 20% or 40%, not even 75%; all of it. From the very beginning, Hannah told God that if he would give her a son, she would dedicate him to God until the day of his death. And sure enough, as soon as Samuel was weaned, Hannah returns to the Temple with offerings and sacrifices, and she dedicates her son to God. When grace brings new life, we, too, must give back of the grace we have received. We must worship God, praising God for the gift of grace. And then we must leave the sanctuary and go out into the world and serve, sharing God’s grace with others.

Hannah was barren, and Hannah was burdened, but Hannah believed and Hannah prayed. We can chose to mope in misery like Eeyore, or we can chose to take action like Hannah. We can listen to the chiding of our rivals around us, or we can trust God’s grace to transform our lives, and we can know its fullness in faithful response. Christ calls us into God’s presence, and Christ calls us into the world to serve in God’s name. God wants nothing less than that our lives would be greatly blessed in God’s grace, but it requires that we act on the call from Christ. We can be barren and burdened, or we can believe and we can pray.

 

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[1] James Forbes, “Hannah Rose,” in 30 Good Minutes, http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/forbes_3206.htm (accessed 11/12/2009).

O, How the Mite-y Have Fallen

Grace United Methodist Church

November 8, 2009

Mark 12: 38-44

³⁸As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, ³⁹and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! ⁴⁰They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

⁴¹He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴²A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. ⁴³Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. ⁴⁴For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

 

I’m sure that some of you are a little nervous right now that I’m going to talk to you about money and about how you all need to give more to God and to the church. I certainly could do that; the story of the widow’s offering lends itself well to a sermon about tithing and giving to the church. But I want to go a little broader than that today. I want us to think about personal sacrifice, and God’s call upon us to offer all of ourselves in service to Christ.

Last week we took time to remember and celebrate the lives of the saints who have gone before us. Both those who guided the way for us long ago, and those who have held our hands and walked with us more recently. As I mentioned last week, in my mind a saint is someone who devotes her entire life to following and serving Christ and who inspires others to do the same. God wants all of us to be saints; God wants all of us to be people who commit our lives in service to Jesus and lead others to do the same. One of the most significant aspects of being a believer and a Christ follower is being willing to make sacrifices. The widow made a great sacrifice of her resources when she put the two copper coins into the Temple treasury. But a great part of serving Christ also requires a sacrifice of our time, our desires; really our whole lives.

God requires much of us who claim the Christian faith. God wants more from us than simply warming seats in a church on Sunday mornings. God wants a priesthood of all believers. God wants every member in ministry. God expects that we will take the Kingdom that began with Jesus Christ and we will do everything we can to help that Kingdom spread and grow. But if we are going to be faithful in the work that God has called us to, then we have to be willing to push aside some of the things in our lives that are ultimately unnecessary. In other words, we have to be willing to make some sacrifices; and when it comes to being followers of Christ, sacrifice takes on many different forms.

The most powerful definition of sacrifice I have ever heard came from Kendall Soulen, one of my seminary professors. In my Systematic Theology class, Kendall offered this description, “Sacrifice is costly self-giving.” Costly self-giving.

What does costly self-giving look like? I believe the widow of today’s gospel lesson gives us a perfect picture of costly self-giving. In Jesus’ time, widows were the epitome of the poor and helpless. They had no status in society, no resources, and no one to provide or care for them. And so Jesus here lifts up the widow in contrast to the rich people who can give extravagantly to the Temple treasury and make sure others see them doing it. Society tells us that the great people are those with money, power, and prestige. But Christ paints a different picture. Jesus lifts up the widow’s gift as noteworthy because she has given literally her “whole life;” those two seemingly insignificant copper coins, which were actually all she had to live on that day. Greatness is not determined by the size of our gift, but by our willingness to sacrifice extravagantly in God’s name. The widow’s gift was small in comparison to the bags of money being thrown in by the rich, but her sacrifice was total.

So what about today? What is sacrifice? What is it to really give of ourselves? I think costly self-giving looks like putting aside that deadline to provide a shoulder for a mourning friend to cry on. I think costly self-giving means stepping away from our agenda so we can hear the hearts of the people around us. I think sacrifice leads us to push aside our fears and open the doors for the “unknown.” I think costly self-giving means offering to God our “first fruits,” not just our excesses. Sacrifice means that we put God first in our lives, and we shape all of our actions based on that; we push our own desires aside to follow God’s will. I believe that sacrifice means we have struggles; that we know pain and disappointment in our lives, so that those persons who have never known anything but pain and disappointment might get a taste of God’s grace, mercy, justice, peace, and most especially, God’s love. This is costly self-giving. This is sacrifice.

Admittedly, what I propose is a tough pill to swallow. Sacrifice is counter-cultural in every respect. America’s market-driven consumer culture sends a constant message that any sacrifices we make should be for self-gain, not at self-cost. And that’s not really sacrifice at all. As Kevin Watson says in his recently released book, A Blueprint for Discipleship, “It is often easier to coast in our faith in the direction in which our culture leads us.”[1] But coasting at the whims of culture is not costly self-giving. Yet imagine how different our world might look if all people (or at the very least all Christ-followers) truly engaged in costly self-giving. How many widows, orphans, or ill, might have been served if all of the wealthy parading by the Temple treasury had made the same sort of sacrifice the widow made? What about a similar sacrifice from us? Just imagine the many lives that might be transformed by our willingness to step out of our comfort zones and proclaim the Gospel message to people in our lives. Think of the hope that might be restored in our willingness to speak out against injustices against the marginalized. Imagine the love that is shared when we give of ourselves in service to another. The gospel we as Christ-followers are called to proclaim requires that we make sacrifices and at times even suffer a bit, but because of what Christ has already done, the return on such sacrifices is enormous! God’s Kingdom is glorified and expanded!

With that in mind, I want to share a story with you. You might also consider it a biology lesson. It is a story about the way in which they train Arab Steeds so as to carry on that particular strain of horses. These Arab Steeds are chosen for breeding and selected in much the same way as we are selected. We are a special people, chosen and called. The breeders of these horses select the best they have. They take the best of each year, each generation that comes along; they pull them out and then they train the horses to obey, to have intelligence, and to be able to do things that will require strength and skill.

Among other things, the horses are taught this: There is one supreme loyalty. When the trainer blows one particular call upon the bugle, it does not make any difference what the horse is doing, that horse is to go to the trainer; across water, over hedges, through barbed wire, against stone walls; somehow the horse is to get to the trainer when that particular blow is sounded by the bugle.

Then, once everything has been done to give the Arab steeds the best kind of training, here is what the trainers do. They take the horses and put them in a great corral at the top of a hill, and they leave them there without water a day and a night, and through the next day. It is burning hot and those horses are without water.

I don’t know whether you have ever been without water for a long time. I have been for long walks in the heat and burning of the day, with nothing but an empty water bottle in my hand and no water fountains nearby. When you get going like that and just have to keep walking, your mouth gets so dry it’s like it’s full of cotton. It is torture to have to go a long time without water. And if it is torture for the human being with the ability to think, imagine what it must be for those Arab horses; twenty-four hours without water. Yet, the trainer persists. Another night goes by, and another maddening day. Forty-eight hours and no water, and night falls again. The horses mill around that great corral, butting themselves against the sides of it, feeling the water down there in the stream at the foot of the hill, calling to their fevered bodies – fifty-two hours, fifty-four hours, fifty-six hours, and still no water.

Then, in the morning, they see the trainer coming up toward the gate of the corral. There before them, down the hill, is the water flowing in the stream. The trainer slips the hasp of the gate and the great gate swings wide. You can imagine the stampede that results as the horses tear down that hill towards the water. Then, when the stampede is at its height, the trainer back inside the gate of the corral blows this bugle, and only those that turn back are considered worthy of carrying on the bloodline of the Arab horse!

We know what it is to have a seemingly unquenchable thirst or insatiable hunger. We know what it is to take that first sip of water after a busy day in the heat, or that first bite of food when our stomachs ache with hunger. The question for us, like the test of the Arab Steeds, is this; when we have our greatest desires within arm’s length and God summons us, will we abandon that pursuit in order to answer God? Will we turn away from what seem to be our greatest hopes and dreams so that we can answer the sounding call of God? Will we climb walls, ford streams, and weave through barbed wire in pursuit of God’s call? Certainly this is not easy, but it is what God asks of us. God is our one supreme loyalty, and we must live our lives such that all we do is faithful to that loyalty; even when it requires sacrifice. God has already engaged in such costly self-giving himself. Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice; laying “down his life for us so that we might live, and so that we might be a sign to the world of the power of the coming kingdom of God.”[2] It is for this cause, the Kingdom cause, that we too are called to follow Christ’s example and to sacrifice; to give of ourselves at a cost, even a great cost. This was the mark of the widow’s gift. This is the sign of the great saints, and it is God’s call to us. And I fully believe that if we can truly engage in costly self-giving, then our service in Christ’s name will be complete and we will come to know and experience in its fullest sense the Kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven.

 

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[1] Kevin Watson, A Blueprint for Discipleship (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2009), 39.

[2] Watson, 41.

Hurry Up and Wait

Grace United Methodist Church

November 1, 2009

John 11: 32-44

²When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵Jesus began to weep. ³⁶So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

 

Years ago on a TV show, a guest appeared that was a body builder. He entered the stage with his huge muscular body, and the crowd went crazy as the body builder began to flex his muscles and show his power. The first question asked of him was this: “What do you use all those muscles for?” Without answering, the body builder again began flexing his muscles while the crowd cheered wildly.

A second time, the question was asked, “What do you do with those muscles?” Again, the body builder flexed his muscles and the crowd became almost ecstatic. After asking a third time, “What do you do with all those muscles?” the body builder just sat in silence. He had no answers. The man was all power but his power had no purpose other than to show off and bring attention to himself.

For something to have meaning, it must have purpose. We easily associate the meaning of Lazarus’ life with his walk out of the tomb after being dead four days; and how Jesus’ miraculous work in Bethany helped show his close association with God the Father. But Lazarus’ life, the events surrounding his death, and Jesus’ miracle in raising Lazarus from the dead have significance far beyond that single moment. Jesus wasn’t just flexing his muscles in a fancy show for the grieving crowd; he was showing us how to grieve, but also how to live.

Today, we mark All Saints’ Day; a day of high celebration in which we traditionally commemorate all the saints, known and unknown, who are joined with God eternally. But this is also a time when we as a Christian community remember the departed faithful who are close to us. We cannot engage in such remembering without acknowledging the feeling of grief, perhaps profound grief, that comes as we recall the friends and family who are no longer with us here. This is one of the things that is important about the story of Lazarus’ death. This is one of the few places in the Gospels where there is a deep show of grief from Jesus. We are told three times that Jesus was “deeply moved” or that he wept. In classical Greek, the usual usage for what is translated here as “deeply moved” is that of a horse snorting. With this in mind, we can only assume that Jesus was seized by such deep emotion that he let out a great involuntary groan from the depths of his heart. Jesus had lost his friend to death, and death is a difficult thing for those of us left in its wake.

When my grandfather passed away 10 years ago, I was a sophomore in college. I returned to school after his funeral and the next day I went to the Wesley Fellowship. The campus minister, aware of my recent loss, approached me and putting his hands on my shoulders, he asked how I was doing. Tears welled up in my eyes, but as I tried to choke them back, he looked and me and said, “It’s okay to cry.” And so I did. Jesus wept when his friend died. We, too, can weep when loved ones die. Yet even as we grieve, we can continue giving meaning and purpose to the lives of those who have gone. We can help them live on by honoring the impact that so many have in our lives. Isn’t that what we celebrate on All Saints’ Day; the lives of those who have inspired us in some special way? What better way to help them live on than by living out that inspiration in our own lives.

Our thoughts of saints often take us to the disciples or early church fathers; Saint Matthew, Saint John, Saint Augustine. Yet, I firmly believe that there are many more saints in this world; toiling away daily, even when their work goes unnoticed. When I think of a saint, the first thing that comes to mind is someone who devotes her life to following and serving Christ, and who inspires others to do the same. How many such people have we had in our lives? We can imagine them even now. As many of you are aware, my grandmother died recently. When my grandmother’s mind began to fail her a few months ago, she thought everyday was Sunday. And each day, she would get up and lay out her dress clothes to go to church. This was a mark of who she was. She was a devout Christian; her apartment was full of Bibles and devotionals and notes from her time studying the Scriptures. She offered her time and her resources to the church and to God’s causes in the most generous of ways; unlike anyone I have ever known. She followed Christ with her whole life, and she inspired me to do the same. She was a saint, and my life is better because she was a part of it. So the question for me now is how will I honor her life through my own living? This is the question for all of us. How will we honor the saints who have gone before us?

For me, the answer to this question is that I will strive to follow Christ more closely each day. God wants us all to be saints. God wants us all to follow and serve Christ and to inspire others to do the same, just as we have been inspired. We are ordinary people, but God wants us to be ordinary saints, and when we seek to follow God’s will in our lives, we honor those saints who have gone before us. The Gospels tell us how to do this, and we can find direction even in the events surrounding Lazarus’ death and resurrection, and through the actions of Jesus and his disciples.

One of the great mysteries of this story is the fact that Jesus did not come to Bethany before Lazarus died, when Mary and Martha had summoned him with the news that Lazarus was sick. “Hurry up!” Mary and Martha say. But Jesus says, “Wait.” And when Jesus arrives four days later, as we heard, Mary tells him that if he had been there her brother would not have died. But Jesus’ late arrival does not indicate inaction on his part. The people rolled the stone away from Lazarus’ tomb and there was no smell. Before Jesus called Lazarus out, he lifted a prayer to his Father, thanking God for hearing him. And when Jesus summoned Lazarus out, he emerged a whole man. When Jesus had received word of Lazarus’ illness, his response was this, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory.”[1] Biblical scholar Tom Wright says that we can only assume that in those days Jesus spent away before returning to Bethany, “he was praying: praying that though Lazarus would die, he would be preserved from corruption; praying that when eventually they arrived in Bethany, the body in the tomb would be whole and complete, ready to be summoned back into life. And when they took the stone away he knew that his prayer had been answered.”[2] And so Jesus thanked his Father for hearing his prayers. The clue to the miraculous raising of Lazarus from the dead was Jesus’ steadfast faith and fervent prayer. If Jesus needed to spend time in prayer, how much more will we as we seek to follow God more closely in our lives?

Then there is a lesson from the disciples. Though there are some things that only God can do, like raising Lazarus from the dead, there are also those things that God wants us to do; those places where God wants us to participate in Christ’s work in the world. In small town New Mexico, a few years ago, Mary Bratcher accidentally ran over her own pet dog, Brownie. The family tearfully buried the mutt in a field near the house. Mary’s young son, Toby refused to believe Brownie was gone, and so did Brownie’s mother! The hound dog dug up her offspring, and the following day the family found Brownie on the porch, caked with mud and dried blood. He was barely breathing as they rushed him to the veterinarian. Brownie suffered a broken bone in his shoulder and a lost eye; but he has recovered, and the family has given him a new name — Lazarus!

Unfortunately, such stories are not very common; and in the Gospel story, the real Lazarus really was dead. Unlike that determined hound dog, we have to deal with grief in the face of real loss. And, unlike Jesus, we do not have the option of bringing others back to life. Only Christ has the authority to command the dead to “come out,” to emerge with the breath of life once again filling their lungs. But once that miracle has been accomplished, Christ turns to the disciples and encourages them to join in that blessed work as he instructs them to “unbind [Lazarus], and let him go.” We are to be workers together with Christ. Jesus invites us to walk with him, and he also calls us to serve in his name; to continue the work that was begun in him. The great saints of this world are the ones who do this work faithfully. We honor their memory when we seek to do the same, and we also draw nearer to being the saints that God would have us to be.

On this All Saints’ Day, we do well to grieve the loss of loved ones near and dear to us. It doesn’t do any good to hide grief, or pretend it does not exist. Jesus wept when his friend died, and we too should weep. But even as we say with the mourning crowd at Bethany “Come and see,” leading Jesus to the place of our deep grief and sorrow; he is also saying “come and see” to us, showing us that even in the deep sorrow there is a place of light and love; a place of resurrection hope that God wants all the world to know about. Jesus prayed that God’s glory might be made known when Lazarus emerged from that tomb, and he thanked God when it was clear that God had acted. We, too, should offer our prayers and thanksgivings to God just as Jesus did. And with Christ’s life-giving sacrifice and resurrection before us, we must follow his call and continue his work. Our task is to take the message of God’s light, love, and hope, into the world. When we engage this task, we honor the lives of the saints who have gone before us, we celebrate all who have inspired us, and we ordinary people become the saints that God would have us to be.

 

 

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[1] John 11: 4

[2] Tom Wright, John for Everyone: Part Two (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 15.

Jump Up!

Grace United Methodist Church

October 25, 2009

Mark 10: 46-52

46They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” 50So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” 52Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

We talk about hope a lot. As a matter of fact, as I was sitting at home working on this sermon, I was scanning the TV listings for the evening, and one of the movies showing on that particular day was, Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Despite all the talk about hope, assurance of hope is not so easily found it seems. Last week, we listened as Job mourned the absence of God even as he searched and hoped for God’s presence and justice. Today, we have the story of blind Bartimaeus, who himself has lived a life full of hopeless difficulties. So where’s the hope?

As we search for that answer, let’s put ourselves in Jericho for a moment. Have you ever been on a trip where you had been gone from home for several days, living out of a suitcase and separated from your friends and family? The day comes for you to head back home and you are so excited. And then you find out your flight has been delayed or worse yet, cancelled! If you’re anything like me, you get really antsy and anxious when something like that happens.

So here we are, traveling with Jesus. A huge crowd is following him as we make our way out of Jericho and toward Jerusalem. It’s hot and dry and dusty and we are all just excited to be on the road again. And then someone begins shouting from the roadside. It’s annoying, a nuisance, like your flight has been delayed. As Jesus turns to the voice, your anxiety level increases; no wonder everyone in the crowd is trying to “shush” this beggar hunkered on the side of the road. This is not on the schedule. We don’t have time for this. Can’t we just get on with it and get to Jerusalem? All the discouraging comments would be enough to quiet the hopes of any of us. But not Bartimaeus!

Mark lifts up the story of blind Bartimaeus because Bartimaeus is a model we should all imitate. We all come to places where we feel more hopeless than hopeful. And often, in the midst of that, we reach out to God and yet feel as if there is no help. It is then that we should yell all the louder; that we should cry out to God all the more! And this is exactly what Bartimaeus does! The story of blind Bartimaeus is not important so much because Bartimaeus was healed of his blindness, but more because Bartimaeus had the type of faith that heals. We can hope for many things, but until we seek God in faith, those hopes are nothing but empty vessels.

So here is Bartimaeus. Sitting by the roadside begging, simply trying to get by; and yet, all the while clinging to a hope that he might one day see again. Then he hears a crowd coming near. Can you imagine the excitement that must have welled-up in Bartimaeus’ heart when he realized it was Jesus coming his way? So Bartimaeus cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Bartimaeus was so overcome with excitement and hope that he most surely did not even notice the grumblings of the crowd now gathered around him. “Who does this guy think he is? He’s a nobody; a nuisance; he doesn’t matter! Get him quiet, we need to be on our way to Jerusalem!” Bartimaeus was a man who had obviously heard about Jesus. He had heard about the miracles Jesus had been performing. And here comes this great man; he may never come this way again. This was Bartimaeus’ big chance! So, Bartimaeus hollered for Jesus! Bartimaeus wasn’t going to let anything get in his way, he was determined that he would speak to this man who heals! We are all given the opportunity that Bartimaeus was given. Jesus came his way. And Jesus comes our way. This was Bartimaeus’ time to reach out in faith and hope, or let Jesus just pass on by. So Bartimaeus decided to take action and he cries all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And then, Mark tells us, Jesus took notice. Jesus stood still, the story says, and he called Bartimaeus to him. Let us be reminded, when we call out in faith, Christ will hear us!

You see, when we have hopes; when we want things to turn around and be better in our lives, we have to pursue that with everything we’ve got. We cannot just sit idly by, lift an occasional prayer asking that things may change, and then expect that a magic wand will be waved and all will be right in the world. We have to seek to know God in Jesus Christ more and more, and then we have to listen actively for the approaching crowd that signals the coming Messiah. And when we are moving forward in the faith and the naysayers begin to boo and hiss in our ears, telling us to be quiet, we cannot stop calling out for Jesus! And through this all, we have to believe, really believe that Jesus can help us. Such was the faith of Bartimaeus, who caught Jesus’ attention; such is the faith which gives substance to our hopes.

We have come to that time of year when most of the flowers in our lawns have wilted and sagged. The autumn sleep has begun. Yet, as I took a hike earlier this week, a bit of unexpected color caught my eye. One little, yellow flower had poked a blossom up above the leaves. Seemingly, its expectations were different from the rest of the plants nearby. Exhibiting a faith that the sun would be there when it poked through, it was determined to blossom that day no matter what. For a Christian, it is no different. If by faith we expect God to act on our behalf, and if we step out in faith as Abraham did when he walked his son Isaac to the altar, or as Bartimaeus did when he heard Jesus approaching, we can have hope that God will take care of us, and we can be assured that God will act!

Bartimaeus, full of hope, cried out in faith, and sure enough, Jesus acted! “Call him here,” Jesus said. So the crowd, which now seems to have had a change of heart, recognizes that because of Bartimaeus’ faith, something amazing is going to happen and they tell Bartimaeus to get up because Jesus is calling him. Then, Bartimaeus gets up and goes to Jesus. But it’s not just like Bartimaeus eases up in his blind state and stumbles over to where Jesus stands. No. Bartimaeus jumps up, he springs from his place by the roadside, and he throws down his cloak as he moves quickly toward Jesus. Bartimaeus threw down his cloak! Do you know what that means? Certainly, cloaks were meant to keep people warm in Jesus’ day. But for the beggar, the cloak was more than a piece of cloth by which to stay warm. It was the way money was collected; kind of like we use a hat or a guitar case or a milk jug today. So for Bartimaeus to throw that aside is huge! Again, Bartimaeus is exhibiting a great faith. Bartimaeus so believes that his hopes will be fulfilled by Jesus, Son of David; that he will no longer be blind, that he will no longer need to beg by the roadside in order to maintain his existence. Bartimaeus doesn’t need that cloak anymore to collect money because Jesus is going to heal him!

Do we have that kind of faith? Do we believe so strongly that Jesus Christ will fulfill our hopes that we willingly, perhaps even joyfully (?), toss aside that which keeps us from following Christ with everything we’ve got! This is the kind of faith through which we can have hope. Jesus’ question to Bartimaeus expresses exactly the possibility for which Bartimaeus has always hoped! “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks blind Bartimaeus. It’s as if Jesus is asking Bartimaeus a whole slew of other questions: Do you, Bartimaeus, want to give up begging? Do you want to have to live differently, to work for a living, to have no reason to sit by the roadside whining at passers-by? But Jesus’ question does not deter Bartimaeus. “My teacher,” says Bartimaeus, “let me see again!” Bartimaeus wants the new life; not only his sight, but the chance to follow Jesus. That, my friends, is true hope, a hope grounded in deep faith; a hope which looks beyond the self to Jesus and Jesus’ very hopes for our lives; a hope which aspires first to follow Jesus fully and completely, and only secondly to pursue our own dreams.

So Jesus heals Bartimaeus saying, “Go; your faith has made you well.” That’s it! Bartimaeus’ greatest hope has been fulfilled! Yet again, this is Bartimaeus’ chance. He can head back into the village of Jericho and look for work; he can fashion himself a house and get on with life. Jesus gives him the freedom to “Go.” But Bartimaeus doesn’t go anywhere! Instead, Bartimaeus “follow[s Jesus] on the way.” Bartimaeus continues to show his deep belief in the Savior of the world, his profound faith in the Messiah, a faith that allowed his hopes to be fulfilled, his life to be transformed. You can almost imagine this one-time blind beggar staying close to Jesus as they climbed the road toward Jerusalem. He probably drank deeply of every Word that Jesus spoke. He probably took in every visual impression along the way. And a little while after this he may have been one of the ones to witness Jesus on Palm Sunday; to see his Savior go into Jerusalem. Bartimaeus’ new eyes probably also took in the Crucifixion on Calvary and the resurrected Jesus and the exciting, Spirit-filled Pentecost! He may have even been part of the leadership of the early Church, holding meetings in Jericho.

Bartimaeus had heard about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of David who heals our lives. And when Jesus came Bartimaeus’ way, Bartimaeus took the opportunity to call out in faith, hoping that he too might be healed. Faith brings assurance to our hopes. When we call out to Jesus, Jesus will call back; and when he does we must spring up, leaving our old lives behind, throwing our cloaks to the side. And when we tell Jesus that we want to see, that we want to be made whole, that we want our hopes fulfilled; if we do this in faith, Jesus will say to us: “your faith has healed you.”

Then, in gratitude for what Jesus has done for us we give him our unswerving loyalty. We deny ourselves and follow him into a whole new existence; an existence where we learn more and more every day how much we really are loved, how much we really do matter, how in Christ our hopes are not empty vessels! It may take a while. We may have to yell over the discouraging drone of the thronging crowds. But we should not hold anything back. Things might be tough, but if we call out, Christ will hear us, and Christ will respond! Let us not lose hope!

All Is Not Lost

Grace United Methodist Church

October 18, 2009

Job 23: 1-9, 16-17 (NIV)

¹ Then Job replied: ² “Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. ³ If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! ⁴ I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. ⁵ I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say. ⁶ Would he oppose me with great power? No, he would not press charges against me. ⁷ There an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge. ⁸ “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. ⁹ When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

¹⁶ God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. ¹⁷ Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.

Let me begin by acknowledging that this is a difficult passage to hear, as is much of the book of Job. We have a tendency in our modern world to like things to be nice and clean; neat and easy to understand; joyful and upbeat. Job is really none of those things. We tend to try and make Job manageable by focusing on the “patience of Job,” it is even a modern-day cliché; but Job is far more complex. Job does much more than merely exhibit patience. The book of Job is messy, complicated, and even depressing at times. Yet, this is precisely why Job is so important. We balk at the idea of being angry at God. We look at God as an ever-present, ever-loving being, and when all we feel are emptiness and sadness, we are afraid to talk about it because somehow this seems to be an inappropriate front to God. We have this general idea in our heads that we are being disrespectful if we cry out that God seems totally absent from our lives. And yet, this is precisely what Job does, and the passage we heard a few moments ago is a prime example of that. Job gives us permission to feel bitterness in the face of injustice. Job allows us be upset and to cry out when God seems absent. But Job also tells a story of faith; a faith which does not falter in the face of the greatest trials. And like Job, we must keep the faith no matter what we face.

We begin today a series on hope. I think to really talk about hope; about the importance of hope in our Christian journeys, and about having hope, we have to acknowledge that there are times in our lives when things are so bad it is as if all hope is lost. So we begin today with Job, who was in such a situation himself. As we know, Job is hit with one trial after another. And in the passage we hear this morning, Job is at his wits end. He admits a bitter complaint. Job acknowledges a heavy hand, despite his groaning. Job expresses his desire to go before God in trial, desperate to be free of his many difficulties, but laments that even this is not possible because he cannot find God; God is absent. Job cries out that his heart is faint and he is terrified. I think we all have at least a sense of what Job is feeling; perhaps at times such feelings have been more prevalent than at others, but it doesn’t change the fact that there are times when we desperately need God and it seems as if God simply is not there.

I believe we are all familiar with Mother Teresa; known the world over for her work with the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying in the slums of Calcutta, India. By all measures, she was and is an exemplar of the Christian faith. But as we began learning after her death in 1997, Mother Teresa’s faith was not as rock-solid as outward appearances would indicate. Like so many who seek after God, Mother Teresa struggled in the midst of great doubt, wondering about the presence of God. In 1979, three weeks after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize for her work, Mother Teresa wrote in a letter to a spiritual confidant, “Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see,–Listen and do not hear – the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak…I want you to pray for me – that I let Him have [a] free hand.”[1] In personal letters and writings, Mother Teresa spoke of “dryness” and “darkness.” In a lament to Jesus, Mother Teresa wrote, “When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven – there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. – I am told God loves me – and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.”[2] At times, she was even driven to a doubt about the existence of God. This spiritual pain seemed to persist through much of Mother Teresa’s life and ministry.

The truth is we all have periods of “darkness” in our lives. We all face the pain and sorrow of losing a loved one. Or we agonize in watching a loved one suffer. Some struggle themselves in the face of overwhelming illness or disease. Parents worry about their children; sons and daughters worry about their parents. Families break and marriages dissolve, leaving nothing but stress and depression in their wake. Presently, we are facing the darkness of a financial recession; once soon-to-be retirees have lost a lifetime of savings. Jobs are disappearing left and right. Such darkness in our lives is compounded when we cry out to God for help and for comfort and find no response, no reprieve, no respite from the agony. How can there be hope in the face of such hardships?

All is not lost. There is always hope. But hope is nothing without faith. Those of you who were involved in the recent Bible Study on Hebrews will hopefully remember our discussion of the eleventh chapter of that letter, which begins this way, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith brings assurance to hope. Our hope lies in the future, but it is mere optimism if we do not have faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead. As difficult as it may be; in the “darkness” of our lives, we must seek to maintain our faith in God and hold fast to it. As we heard this morning, even as Job laments the absence of God, he forges ahead, persisting in his search for God. “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.” Job says, “Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.” Job is persisting in his faith. Despite the darkness cloaking his life, Job declared that he would not be silent, that he would continue to cry out for God. When we are relentless in our faith, we can hold on to hope.

Mother Teresa, too, continually sought after her faith even in the darkest despair. She found ways to live through her spiritual struggles, and she never abandoned her belief or her work. That is our task too. If you are like me, then you have wondered how Mother Teresa maintained her belief and forged ahead in her work in Calcutta. Throughout her life and career, Mother Teresa had spiritual advisors and confidants. In perhaps her darkest hour of doubt, her spiritual advisor, Joseph Neuner, told her three things she desperately needed to hear, and things that we need to hear too. Rev. Neuner told Teresa that there is no human remedy for the “darkness” we sometimes find ourselves in. He told her that feeling Jesus is not the only proof of his being there, and that her very craving for God was a sure sign of God’s hidden presence in her life. And finally, Neuner advised Mother Teresa that the absence she sensed was a part of the “spiritual side” of her work for Jesus.[3]

We were created to long for God. We are designed to desire God in our lives. God has made humanity this way. And when it seems that God is completely absent, this craving, as Neuner says, is a sure sign of God’s hidden presence in our lives. This longing becomes the basis for faith, and with this deep desire for God within us, we must forge ahead. If we are to maintain faith in the dark hours of our lives, it requires patient perseverance. When John Wesley himself was in the throes of a period of doubt in his life, the German preacher, Peter Bohler said this to him, “Preach faith until you have it, then, because you have it, you will preach faith.” We must preach faith until we have it, so to speak. We have to be diligent in our prayer life; even if that means our prayers are full of laments in God’s absence. We have to study God’s Word through the Scriptures. We have to abstain from those things which distract our attention from God. We must follow God’s call and seek God’s will. Of course, none of these things are easy, but they are the building blocks of our faith and in turn our hope.

In the midst of everything, Job never stops talking to God, and neither can we. Job may not understand how God hears him, but it is a statement of faith that Job is able to voice even his pain and confusion to God. We are better off to rail against God as Job does, or cry out to God in pain as Mother Teresa does, than to turn away from God in our time of darkness. God has willingly entered into an hour of darkness on our behalf. God in Jesus Christ came to this earth and subjected himself to hatred, brutality, and even death, so that we might have hope. Will we shun that great act? We know God more fully because God incarnate walked on this earth. We know God’s love and grace more fully because Jesus not only taught us about God’s love and grace, he demonstrated it as well. Might we know God more fully even when God seems absent? In some way, we often come to know the meaning of a thing through its absence rather than its presence.

Think of it this way. A carpenter goes into his well-furnished workshop, complete with stacks of wood, containers of nails, and racks and racks of tools. As the carpenter focuses on the work of his project, he thinks very little of the individual items. The wood, the nails, the hammer are simply taken for granted as part of the carpenter’s activity. But then, in the midst of his diligent work, the hammer breaks as the shaft snaps off at the head. Suddenly, the carpenter is acutely aware of the hammer. Once simply taken for granted, the image of the hammer, what it does, how essential it is to his work, are all vividly present to the carpenter precisely because of its absence. So it was for Job, who felt not the justice of God, and so longed for it even more. So it was for Mother Teresa, whose soul was empty, and so she prayed God’s hand at work in her life all the more. And so it shall be for us, if we hold fast to the faith as Job did and as Mother Teresa did. God’s love and passion are no less real to those who hold fast the faith than the hammer is to the carpenter.

God’s time is not our time. God’s ways are not always our ways. But we have known and experienced God’s love in our own lives; that is most likely the reason we are all gathered here this morning. And having known and experienced God’s grace and love, we can doubt its existence no more than our own reality. The Bible teaches us that if we meet the trials of life with the steadfast constancy of faith in Christ, life becomes infinitely more splendid than it ever was before. The struggle is the way to glory, and the very struggle itself is a glory. So, in those deepest, darkest hours of our lives, we can have faith because we already know of the reality of God’s love through Jesus Christ. When that darkness stretches on for weeks, or months, or even years, we must cling to that faith and strive after it. And in our striving after faith, we will find hope. All is not lost. God is at work in this world. God is at work in our lives. What a glory!

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[1] David Van Biema, “Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith” on time.com (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html). Accessed 10/5/2009.

[2] Ibid., Accessed 10/6/2009.

[3] Ibid.

Not Just a Bunch of Talking Heads

Grace United Methodist Church

October 4, 2009

Genesis 11: 1-9

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

5The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

A few years ago, I was on a road trip with several college students. We were on our way to Charleston, South Carolina, and I was driving the van late at night. I told the students that whoever rode “shot-gun” had the task of talking to me and keeping me awake. As we made our way over the flat, hypnotizing roads of South Carolina, the young man in the front seat was determined to do his task. So he engaged me in a conversation about the diversity of peoples around the world. The young man was curious about why God created us with different skin colors and why we speak different languages. We talked about it for a while, but never drew any really hard and fast conclusions; probably because there is no easy answer. But this story of the Tower of Babel attempts to provide an answer for why we are scattered about the earth and why we speak different languages. Yet, the lesson of this story goes far beyond that.

We love the story of the Tower of Babel because it’s vivid, and we can easily imagine the enthusiastic spirit of the community as they work together to make bricks and build this massive structure reaching towards the heavens. And then we can imagine the anger of God as the language of the people is confused and they are scattered around the world. Now we know why we speak different languages. The end. But if that really were the end, we probably wouldn’t be as drawn to this story as we are. What makes the story of the Tower of Babel so appealing to us is the fact that an explanation is provided for why God has caused us to have different languages, and yet the explanation itself seems contrary to God’s will. God wants us to be in relationship with one another and with God. So why is God the one doing the scattering?

Part of understanding the significance of the Tower of Babel comes in viewing the story as a parable. The Genesis narrative has already revealed to us that there are many nations scattered around. We learn this in the preceding chapter where we are given a full listing of all of Noah’s descendents. Hear these verses that fall immediately before the story of the Tower of Babel: “These are the descendents of Shem, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations. These are the families of Noah’s sons, according to their genealogies, in their nations; and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.”[1] Thus, we already know the story of how there came to be different nations and different languages. So what is the real meaning of the story of the Tower of Babel? What is its real significance?

As one way of getting a glimpse of what’s going on in Babel, let’s think for a minute together about teamwork. And since football season is now in full swing and you all are probably tired of hearing about my basketball career, we’ll use the football team. In general, the goal of any football team going into a game is to win. But, of course, winning requires teamwork. The offensive line is needed to protect the quarterback so that the quarterback can throw the ball to the receivers or hand it off to the running backs. And though the quarterback takes the ball initially, it gets down the field through the work of the running backs who run the ball, or the receivers who catch the ball. Of course, on the offensive side, there’s also the kickers who can put in a field goal if a touchdown opportunity is missed or kick the extra point after a touchdown. Then there’s the defense, which works to keep the other team from scoring; or in Tennessee’s case, which scores when the offense fails to do so. It literally takes the hard work of every player on the field to win a game, and if any one piece messes up their role, it means failure in reaching that goal of winning the game.

So, when God created humanity, God’s idea was that we would be a team. But not just a team to ourselves; we were to be a team working with God. God’s plan was that we would “fill the earth and subdue it.” God’s plan was that with God making a way for us, we would scatter across the world and share the story of the one True God: YHWH, as the Israelites called him. It’s kind of  like God’s the quarterback calling the plays and directing the team, and we are the running backs or receivers who take the hand-off from God or turn back to God to catch the pass so that the ball can get down the field. We can try and function as a team without God, but without someone to manage the ball, we’re not going to do very well. We’re not able to move forward as God intends, and we are not able to accomplish the goal that God has in mind. And that’s exactly what God saw happening with the community in Babel.

They were trying to function on their own and as a result, they were ignoring the game plan. They were settling in one place rather than filling the earth. They were communicating only with one another rather than sharing the message of God’s love around the world, and perhaps worst of all, they were building this great tower that essentially amounted to an idol of massive scale. In essence, their action was a challenge to the divine command given at creation to fill the earth. And so God, as the “team leader,” intervenes. It was not that God was upset at the people for what they were building; rather, God was disappointed by the motivations of the people. God recognized that though the people were united, their concerns were isolated – focused on self-preservation – which could promote any number of projects that would put God’s creation in jeopardy. This is why the story of the Tower of Babel is important; because it is a reminder of what our motivations should be. This story is a reminder of why we are here, of why God created us, and why God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us.

The story of the Tower of Babel would seem to tell us that God does not want us to be united, but that’s not the case at all. Rather, by confusing the people and causing them to scatter, God is seeking to promote the right kind of unity. The kind of unity God desires for us occurs only when the community encompasses the concerns of the entire world and encourages difference and diversity to that end. We are united as a body when we live together without conflict or oppression, and when we have common goals in line with God’s purposes for the world. This is why Jesus came: to unite us and point us to God and God’s will for this world. Jesus came to show us that though we are different, we have a common message to share of God’s love. And precisely because we are different, we are able to reach all the different peoples scattered across this earth. Just like all the players filling different positions on the football team, we are more fully able to carry out God’s plan for creation because we are diverse and yet united.

Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. Jesus came that we might know the unconditional love and grace which God has for us. And Jesus came so that we might see how we are to share that love and grace with others. Jesus’ life in this world – his ministry, death, and resurrection – inaugurated God’s Kingdom here on earth. God’s Kingdom is a diverse community united by the common love of a Savior, and God’s Kingdom will be fulfilled when such unity is achieved throughout God’s creation. Not only did God in Jesus Christ make all this possible, he also gave us a way to continually remember our place in the body of Christ, and our role as followers of Jesus. That reminder comes in our sharing of Holy Communion.

When we gather at the Lord’s Supper, we remember the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. When we share in this meal, we are reminded of the charge that is before us to be bread in the world, offering life and hope to all who are lost. Our gathering at the Lord’s Table is a reminder of our unity in diversity; particularly on World Communion Sunday. And our sharing in the Eucharist is an anticipation of that day when all people, from all walks of life, and all across the world will gather around God’s great banquet table and share in his Holy Meal together, as one body. But that won’t just happen on its own; we as individual believers and as a church community have to work toward that common goal, looking to God who shows us the way. The story of the Tower of Babel reminds us of this. The unity of the church is not found only by focusing on unity here. The mistake of the people in Babel was that they were concerned only about their community and their tower. A unified front that is concerned only with buildings and programs, but is not in tune with the needs of the community is not really unified at all. True unity is really more of a gift; found in those things that are not centered on one’s own self-interests; those things which may not even be tangible at all. Unity will be forged most successfully in getting beyond our own kind on behalf of God’s Word in the world. Real unity will be known when we sit at a common table with God and with our neighbors; all whom we are to love unconditionally as God loves us. Across any and all barriers, this is the love which unites.

We must begin today. We must focus beyond ourselves and strive for unity beginning here, and spreading out into the Soddy Daisy community and beyond. So as you come to the Communion Table this morning, remember these things. Remember that you are loved. Remember that you are claimed as a child of God. Remember that we are all part of the body of Christ, and though we are many yet we are one, gathered around this Table today worldwide. And remember that with the call and claim on our life comes a charge to be scattered across the earth, united with people everywhere in sharing the message of God’s love with all people all around the world; beginning right here on our very own doorstep.

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[1] Genesis 10: 31-32

You Can’t Stop the Rain from Falling.

So What Makes the World Go ‘Round?

Grace United Methodist Church

September 27, 2009

2 Corinthians 9: 6-15 (NIV)

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹As it is written:
“He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.” ¹⁰Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

¹²This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

As I begin this morning, I want to invite each of us into a few moments of reflection. I would like each of you to recall, as best as possible, the moment in your life when you were happiest. But even more than happiness, try to call to mind that time in your life when you knew the most complete content and satisfaction you have ever felt. I engaged in this very activity this week, and I’m sure we all had similar memories flash through our minds as we thought back over our lives: baptisms, sports victories, musical accomplishments, weddings, Confirmations, and graduations. Certainly, these are all very happy times in our lives. But I imagine that many of you, like me, settled on something of a different nature in marking that moment of complete content in your life; a time when you gave an important gift to a special person, a time when you offered your gifts to improve the community, or maybe when you were serving on a mission trip in the name of Christ. For me, my most satisfying memories (and there are several of them from this particular trip) came while I was on a trip in Uganda; serving in that country in the name of Jesus Christ. I knew and experienced God more fully and completely in those two weeks than I ever had before or have since. In the midst of extreme conditions of poverty and despair, I found joy. I was completely content because I sensed that God was working through each of us on that trip as we interacted with the people of that country. Walking through prisons and slums and over the hills of rural Uganda was tough, but in our willingness to serve, God showed up in a mighty way. We can’t stop the rain from falling, but through generosity the world keeps “going ‘round.” Through giving the whole world comes to know more complete satisfaction.

You see, we are designed to give of ourselves. We are designed to be generous. God created us with a willingness to give; to God and to others. This is the way God has made us; we actually have the need to be generous. We have a God-given impulse toward generosity. And when we are generous—to God and to our families, friends, neighbors, and others who are in need—our hearts are filled with joy.

There is a writer who tells the story of a time when he was a young boy and a beggar came to the door. On this particular occasion, his parents were out and he was alone in the house. This being a different time many years ago, the boy answered the door and listened as the beggar described his need. On a boyish impulse, the young boy went to his room, broke into his own savings bank and gave the beggar all that was in it. He goes on to explain that never before or since did he know such sheer happiness as came in that moment. There is indeed great joy in generosity. Our hearts are enlarged by the very act of giving. And when we give generously, we become more generous. It feels wonderful to give because in giving we bring joy not just to those who receive our gifts, but in our own lives as well.

Yet giving is a delicate transaction. Giving must not be marked by the slightest degree of reluctance because then it is not freely given. If even the tiniest string is attached, then it is not truly a gift. Living in the 19^th century, Robert Louis Stevenson’s home was managed by household servants who loved him very much. His servant boy wakened him every morning with a cup of tea. But on one occasion, his usual boy was off duty, and another one had taken over. The boy woke him not only with his usual cup of tea, but also with a beautifully cooked omelet. Stevenson thanked him saying, “Great is your forethought.” The boy responded, “No Master, great is my love.” When we give out of love, we are able to give freely without hesitation in the same way that God has given unconditionally to us in so many ways; most especially in the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. And it is God alone who can put in our hearts the love which is the essence of the generous spirit.

God is looking for persons who will give, as Paul writes, “not reluctantly or under compulsion,” but “cheerfully.” God loves the happy giver, the one who is generous in the very way that God has designed us to be generous. Anyone who’s ever dug down deep enough to give a gift—a gift that really required some sacrifice or cost something in money, time, or effort, and then watched the smile of gratitude on the faces of those who receive—anyone who has given in that way knows what it means to be a cheerful giver. What a concept; that giving will make us happy! But it’s the truth! Giving is not a burden, it is a joy!

You see, our generosity is an outpouring of God’s own generosity in our lives. It’s like the ripples that cascade out from a rock thrown in a pond. As Paul says, “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” We do not deserve God’s favor, and yet we receive it. God graces and God sows. And grace received demands a response. The grace that comes from God finds its fruition as it flows through us to others.

You see, grace from God comes as a gift. God’s grace prompts grace in and among people, and that grace returns to God in the form of thanks. When my sister and I were growing up, my Mom was always quite insistent that we write thank you notes for any gifts we received. Part of our Christmas Vacation ritual involved at least a half a day at the kitchen table or on the couch with pens and notecards scattered around us, writing thank you notes for the plethora of gifts received earlier in the week. It was important to my Mother that my sister and I learn to show gratitude for the blessings in our lives. Our generosity to the church and to others—our willingness to serve in the name of Christ—is our thank you note to God. It is the way we show gratitude for the great graces of our lives.

From the very earliest times, the primary way people worshipped God was by offering sacrifices to God. Can you imagine this? We are talking about a time when worship was solely an offering given to God! There was no singing, there was no sermon; worship was simply an offering. That’s completely remarkable to me; worship is rooted first in our gifts and offerings to God! Yet, it seems to me, we have come to this point where we view the offering as a “necessary evil.” We gloss over it like so much junk in our mail pile. But offering is worship, and worship is our offerings to God. So these earliest worshippers would build an altar and offer the fruit of one’s labor upon it to God. They would burn the sacrifice of an animal or grain as a way of expressing their gratitude, devotion, and desire to honor God. The scent of the offering was said to be pleasing to God. It wasn’t that God loved the smell of burned meat or grain. Rather, God was pleased at the sight of people giving a gift that expressed love, faith, and the desire to delight and honor God. When we bring our offerings before God, when we are generous with all of our lives, it is a sign of our deep gratitude of the many blessings of our lives.

This idea that we give to God so that God will give back to us is completely backwards. We do not serve God so that we can get something in return; we do not give to God so that God will give more to us. We are to be generous because God has already given to us! And the amazing thing is that when we give to God and to others, the blessings just seem to come back to us; perhaps in something as simple as a feeling of complete contentment. Of course, there is no guarantee in our giving we will be completely free of all worries. There will be times when it will seem that the rain is never going to stop falling. Yet God’s love covers all. And when we give generously, the unmistakable blessings of God flow into our lives; we are touched and changed, even transformed.

There is a famous Jewish Rabbinic story. A man called Monobaz had inherited great wealth, but he was a good, kind, and generous man. In a time of famine, Monobaz gave away all of his wealth to help the poor. His friends came to him and said, “Your fathers laid up treasure, and added to the treasure that they had inherited from their fathers, and are you going to waste it all?” Monobaz responded, “My fathers laid up treasure below; I have laid it up above. My fathers laid up treasure for this world; I have laid up treasure for the world to come.” When we use our resources generously and without reluctance to bring help and comfort to others, though it may seem we are poorer, we really become richer. We tend to believe that if we give, there won’t be enough left for us. Yet, when we give our lives to Christ, invite him to be Lord, and allow the Holy Spirit to begin changing us from the inside out, we find that our aim in life shifts from seeking personal pleasure to pleasing God and caring for others. And the more we grow in Christ, realizing that our lives belong to him, the more generous we become. Generosity is a fruit of spiritual growth. And we all know the time-tested truth: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

We can shrink away in fear. We can make excuses. We can try to avoid the charge in our lives. But the bottom line is this: Generosity is our profession of faith; it is our love of neighbor, and it is our thank you note to God. We were made to give. We were made to love, and we were made to show that love through generosity. And when we give of ourselves, we are transformed. Deep down, we all know the true joy that comes with generosity. And when we are generous in love, we know more fully the blessings of God in our own lives. So the question is this: how will we be generous? How will we give of ourselves? How will we offer our time and resources to help others? What sacrifices will we make in the name of Jesus Christ so that all might know the sacrificial love of Christ offered to them?

Let us pray: Change my heart, oh God. Clean me out inside. Make me new. Heal my desires. Help me hold my possessions loosely. Help me to love you. Teach me generosity and help me to have joy! I offer my life to you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

What a Relief!

Grace United Methodist Church

September 20, 2009

2 Corinthians 8: 1-15

¹And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ²Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. ³For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, ⁴they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. ⁵And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will. ⁶So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. ⁷But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

⁸I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. ⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

¹⁰And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. ¹¹Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. ¹²For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

¹³Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. ¹⁴At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, ¹⁵as it is written: “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.”

I am in the midst of reading a book written by a Chaplain of the Maine State Warden Service. In her book, Here If You Need Me, Kate Braestrup describes her encounters serving as the spiritual presence in the Warden Service, and raising four children as a single mother after the death of her husband. Late in the book, Rev. Braestrup describes a conversation she had with her oldest son about the love of Jesus Christ and what it is to follow Jesus Christ and seek to live as Jesus lived. As Peter’s mind is opened to the radical love of Jesus Christ in the midst of this conversation with his mother, he comes to this conclusion. “If I really take Jesus seriously, if I really am willing to give up everything I am and everything I have in the service of love, if I really am a Christian…it seems to me I would have to give my place in heaven to someone else, someone who otherwise wouldn’t get to go…Right, Mom?”

Needless to say, Rev. Braestrup’s response to her son’s revelation was stunned silence. What he is proposing is an extremely radical idea that is shockingly hard for any of us to imagine. My first response was that not even Jesus has done that. Jesus still sits in heaven, at the right hand of the Father. But one of the things Paul urges upon the Corinthians in this very passage we heard a few moments ago is that in fact Jesus did give up his spot in heaven for us. “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Jesus’ sacrifice was not only on the cross, but it began in heaven when Jesus laid aside his glory and consented to come to earth. Indeed, Jesus has made a radical sacrifice on our behalf, and if we take Jesus seriously, we will do the same in our own lives. This is precisely the matter which Paul is pressing upon the Corinthians and all his readers, particularly related to generosity.

As Christians, our lives are marked by the way we reflect Christ. One of the questions I often have to ask myself is this one, “Am I living my life such that if I meet someone new today they will be able to recognize that I am a Christian.” Most of the time, my answer to this question is, “No,” which I am sure is true for many of us. You see, the way we live our lives reflects what we value, and this includes how we use our resources. I think it’s fair to say that for the most part, the way we spend our time and resources does not reflect to those around us our identity as Christians. Despite the messages that are thrown at us each day through commercials and advertisements, we do not exist simply to consume as much as we can and get as much pleasure as we can while we are here on earth. We have a higher purpose. We need to know and understand our life purpose—our vision or mission or calling—and then spend our resources in ways that are consistent with this purpose or calling. As those who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, we are to follow the example that he has set before us; to give of ourselves sacrificially in all ways.

The Bible tells us that we were created to care for God’s creation. We were created to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We were created to care for families and those in need. We were created to glorify God, to seek justice, and to do mercy. All of our gifts and resources should be devoted above all else to helping fulfill this calling on our lives. We are to use our resources to help care for our families and others—to serve Christ and the world through the church, missions, and everyday opportunities. As Paul reminds the Corinthians in celebrating the generosity of the Macedonian church, “they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.” We have a life purpose that is greater than our own self-interests; it is our very commitment to the Lord, and how we spend our God-given resources reflects our understanding and commitment to this life mission. Every encounter we have with another person, even every action we take in our lives, is an opportunity to be a channel of God’s grace.

As Paul writes this second letter to the church at Corinth, he is appealing to their life mission as a way of urging them to generosity in the collection for the poor at the Jerusalem Church. And as an example for the Corinthians and all his readers, Paul lifts up the Macedonian church, which in the midst of “severe trial” and “extreme poverty” has pursued its life mission and been richly generous. Paul’s appeal for the collection for the church at Jerusalem, and more generally God’s call to generosity, is not just an option we might chose to engage in; it is a joyful obligation through which we might share God’s grace with others. As Paul tells the Corinthians, this is not a command. It is, however, a call. And our faith is measured by how we, in free will, respond to this call; particularly in this case to the call to generosity of giving.

In the late 1890s there was a tight-rope walker, a real showman named Blondin, who stretched a tightrope across Niagara Falls and then, with ten thousand people watching and cheering he inched his way from the Canadian side of the Falls to the U.S. side. When he got there the crowd was going wild, shouting his name, “Blondin! Blondin!” Blondin raised his hands and quieted them. “I am Blondin,” he said. “Do you believe in me?” The crowd shouted back, “We believe! We believe! We believe!”

Again Blondin quieted the crowd. “I’m going back across the tightrope, but this time I’m going to carry someone on my back. Do you believe I can do it?” “We believe! We believe!” the crowd yelled. He quieted them one more time and then he said, “I need one more thing to make this performance complete: I need a volunteer that I can carry on my back over the falls. Those of you who said you believe—Who among you will be that person?”

Do you believe God can carry you, and will carry you, in all things? Will you be that person, will you be those people, who show what they believe? Part of our response to grace comes in a faithfulness of returning to God a portion of all that God has given to us. Even in the face of challenges and difficulties, we can give generously as the Macedonians did. And through such giving we in turn know great joy and abundant blessings. But this takes faith. If we are truly giving in faith, it means we will give out of our “first fruits,” not out of our excesses. But we need not fear, as Paul reminds us, we are to give according to what we do have, not according to what we do not have. What a relief! If we cannot tithe, we need not be discouraged, but if we establish a starting point based on what we do have, we can work toward the generosity of giving which Paul calls us to in this letter to the Corinthians. This is called proportionate giving.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul says, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up…your gift to Jerusalem.” As we see in Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church, the New Testament principle for Christian giving suggests that we lay aside a definite proportion for God’s causes first ~ “off the top” ~ and that we grow in our giving as we prosper. The challenge of proportionate giving is first to start where you are now by determining the proportion of income you are currently giving. This can be calculated simply by dividing your monthly gift to the church by your monthly income. You may be surprised to learn that the average United Methodist gives 2% of their income to God’s causes. This is one indication that perhaps our inclination is to give to God out of what remains rather than out of the first fruits of our blessings from God. Yet God is letting us use the money God gives us in order to reach the world for Jesus Christ. What a relief that is! Once we have determined what proportion of our income we currently give to the church, we should seek in the next year to increase that giving by a certain percentage. That could be .5%, it could be 1%, or it could be 5% or more. Just depending on our abilities. Indeed, it is staggering to think about increasing from 2% to 10% in one year, but this is not the most important thing. What is important is seeking to respond to God’s grace in our lives more and more over time. Our giving should increase year after year until a level is reached where you and I, as persons committed to Christ, are completely satisfied and comfortable with our giving level. Like our prayer life, our worship practices, and our spiritual disciplines, our giving to the church should be reflective of our relationship with Christ. And as we grow in grace, so should we grow in generosity to God and others.

Proportionate giving and tithing enables us to look at our earning, saving, and spending through the eyes of God. It reminds us that our ultimate self-worth comes from our assurance that we are children of God; created by God, loved by God and saved by God! Giving increases our faith, frees us from anxiety, and brings us closer in our walk with God.

One Sunday morning a pastor encouraged his congregation to consider the potential of the church. He told them, “With God’s help we can see the day when this church will go from crawling to walking.”

The people responded, “Let the church walk, pastor. Let the church walk!”

He continued, “And when the church begins to walk, next the church can begin to run.”

And the people shouted, “Let the church run, pastor. Let the church run!”

The pastor continued, “And finally the church can move from running to flying. Oh, the church can fly! But, of course, that’s going to take lots of money for that to happen.”

The congregation grew quiet and from the back someone mumbled, “Let the church crawl, pastor. Let the church crawl.”

Friends of Grace United Methodist Church, we can either fly or crawl. We can reflect the generous love and grace of God in our lives, and help the world experience the saving message of Jesus Christ, or we can stand by and hope others will get the job done. We can respond to God’s call and seek to live more fully into our life mission, or we can ignore it. Which do we choose?

Let us show God now what we think of the gift of Grace, and how very, very much we love the Lord and how grateful to God we are for every blessing of our lives. “Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable.”

Sowing the Seeds of Satisfaction

Grace United Methodist Church

September 13, 2009

Hebrews 13: 5-8

⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” ⁶So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” ⁷Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Philippians 4: 11-13

¹¹Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. ¹²I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. ¹³I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

I think it is fair to say that we have all experienced restlessness rather frequently in our lives. Sometimes we get restless waiting in line at the grocery store. Or maybe we get restless when we’ve got an appointment and the laundry isn’t quite finished drying. Perhaps we experience restlessness when we have something important to do the next day and we just can’t seem to stop thinking about it. And I think it’s fair to say when we get restless, we tend to stay restless for a while, as one thing always seems to lead to another.

Remember the story about the up-and-coming entrepreneur who was opening the door of his sleek new Jaguar when a truck roared by, hit it, and ripped the door off its hinges? The police quickly arrived at the scene and found the man jumping up and down in the street. He was shrieking to anyone and everyone who would listen about the horrible damage done to his precious automobile.

The stunned audience looked on as the police began talking to the man. “You wheeler-dealers are all so materialistic!” began the investigating officer, shaking his head in bewilderment. “You make me sick!”

“What’s your problem?” the driver quickly snapped back.

“You’re so worried about your precious Jag,” said the cop, “that you appear not to have noticed that your left arm was ripped off!”

“Oh no!” bellowed the man as he looked down at the grisly stump where his arm had been a few minutes before. “Where’s my Rolex?!?”[1]

We often get so caught up in the mundane and the materialistic that we miss the “big picture.” Saint Augustine’s words of so many years ago are still quite true today, “our hearts are restless until they find rest in God.” And yet, so often we seem to get restless in worry about fleeting matters. In recent years, we have witnessed a number of devastating natural disasters, including hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and wildfires. Even now a vast and costly wildfire ravages the forests around Los Angeles. Natural disasters remind us that everything in this world is temporary. This is why Jesus tells us to “Take care!…for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”[2] Yet our culture is constantly telling us that this is not true. The result is restlessness in our hearts. Despite the fact that we believe and trust in Jesus and know his words to be true, we still find ourselves devoting much of our time, talents, and resources to the acquisition of more stuff. We say that our lives do not consist in the abundance of our possessions, but we live as if they do.

I’m sure many of you have heard of Restless Leg Syndrome. This is a condition in which one has twitches and contractions in the legs; sometimes even to the point that it becomes disruptive to sleep and the regular patterns of life. Restless Heart Syndrome works in much the same way, but in the heart—or soul. The primary symptom of Restless Heart Syndrome, however, is restlessness or discontent; a complete dissatisfaction. We find that we are never really happy with anything. The moment we acquire something, we barely take time to enjoy it before we want something else. This is why the writer of Hebrews warns us to keep our lives free from the love of money, and encourages us to be content with what we have. As believers, trust in the material–investing our hearts in the temporary–is misplaced, and it is a contradiction of faith. When we do this, we are perpetually dissatisfied.

But would you believe that there is a certain restlessness and dissatisfaction that God intended us to have? God actually wired our hearts so that they would be dissatisfied with certain things, causing us to seek the only One who can fully satisfy us. There really is something to this idea of a God-shaped void in our lives. We are meant to yearn to know God more, to want more and more of God, to cultivate a deeper prayer life, to pursue justice and holiness with increasing passion, to love others more, and to grow in grace and wisdom and character each and every day. These are the seeds of satisfaction.

The problem is that the very things we should be satisfied and content with are those things with which we find ourselves hopelessly discontented. For example, we find ourselves dissatisfied with our stuff, our jobs, our churches, and even our families. These are the very things God has gifted us and blessed us with, and we are so often ungrateful. You can’t help but think that God must look upon us and feel the way we feel when we give someone we really care for a special gift and he or she asks for the gift receipt. It’s as if we’re saying to God, “I don’t like what you’ve given me God, and I want to trade it in and get something better than what you gave me.” Such thoughts sow dissatisfaction in our lives.

So how do we sow the seeds of satisfaction in our lives? In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul wrote of the “secret” to contentment. Paul says, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Like Paul, we too can learn to be satisfied in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves.

Of course, the greatest key to complete satisfaction, as Paul tells us, is to completely trust in God’s will and God’s love, having faith that we can “do everything through Christ who gives us strength.” The world tells us that satisfaction is found in ease and luxury and comfort and money. But this is precisely the stuff that gets in the way of our relationship with God and thus our ability to be satisfied! Paul has really hit on something big here when he tells us that contentment is found Christ and Christ alone. Jesus tells us that we are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…[and to] love your neighbor as yourself.”[3] When we seek God above all, when we pursue God with all our hearts, then we will know rest, we will know true satisfaction.

Certainly, that is a mighty task, but even the longest journey begins with a single step. And there are some “baby steps” we can take to begin sowing the seeds of satisfaction in our lives, even as we seek to continually grow in God’s grace. As Jesus tells us, “we cannot worship both God and mammon.” Mammon is stuff. So when we are about to amass more stuff, we might begin by asking the question, “How long will this make me happy?” Often, we buy something thinking it will make us happy. What we quickly realize is that happiness lasts about as long as it takes to open the box. We might be pleased and satisfied when we make the purchase, but the item does not continue to bring satisfaction over a period of time. The result is that many of the things we buy are simply not worth the expense. One solution to this is to try before you buy, but it is also helpful to ask the question, “for how long will this make me happy?” And to keep in mind that our ultimate happiness lies in God in Jesus Christ alone.

Another step we can take in sowing the seeds of satisfaction in our lives is to work at developing a grateful heart. Gratitude is essential if we are to be satisfied. In his first letter the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul said that we are to “give thanks in all circumstances.” Jesus Christ has made a great sacrifice on our behalf. God has blessed our lives in great and abundant ways. A grateful heart recognizes that all of life is a gift and celebrates that. When we are truly grateful for the blessings of life, we can be content with what we have. Satisfaction comes when we spend more time giving thanks for what we have than thinking about what’s missing or wrong in our lives.

Another step in sowing the seeds of satisfaction in our lives is to cultivate simplicity. Satisfaction and simplicity go hand-in-hand. When we simplify our lives we are more able to be grateful for the blessings of life given by God. Here are some suggestions on how we might simplify our lives. We can set realistic goals to reduce our own personal consumption and the production of waste in our lives. I’m sure there are many ideas we have and work towards, but perhaps there are some other ways we can reduce consumption in our own lives. It’s also helpful to use something up before buying something new.  Before making a purchase, the discipline of asking two questions, “Do I really need this?’ and “Why do I want this,” will help determine the true motivation of making any purchase. When we think through our reason for purchasing an item, we may discover that our motivation is not a good one. The discipline of thinking through the way we use our resources will help us be grateful for what we have, and continually offering our thanks to God will help us stay focused on the big picture. When we can do this, we will know more complete satisfaction in our lives.

Of course, sowing the seeds of satisfaction requires great self-control. Simplifying our lives requires disciplines and asks us to make the tough decisions at times. But when we discipline our lives in relationship to God’s will for our lives and the entire creation, we begin to know true satisfaction. The self-control and discipline that develops as we seek God’s will for our resources becomes a wall around our hearts that protects us from ourselves, from temptation, and from sins that are deadly and can ultimately destroy us. Discipline is about forgoing instant gratification by stopping to think about the True Source of our satisfaction.

So the question is this: will you sow the seeds of dissatisfaction, or will you sow the seeds of satisfaction. You and you alone determine how your garden will grow. If you decide that “life does not consist in the abundance of possessions,” and that you can “be content with whatever you have,” then you are sowing the seeds of satisfaction. Choosing satisfaction means that we look to God as our Source and Provider, giving thanks to the God who gives generously to us, and living our lives generously in return.

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[1] http://members.fortunecity.com/hlwhite/index.html (accessed September 9, 2009).

[2] Luke 12: 15

[3] Matthew 22: 37, 39

In God We Trust
Grace United Methodist Church
September 6, 2009

1 Timothy 6: 6-8, 17-19
6Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; 7for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

17As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

Since the middle of the 20th century, every piece of US Currency has printed on it the national motto, “In God We Trust.” Yet how many of us, when we pull a bill out of our wallets to pay a balance due, are gripped not by the confidence borne of faith, but rather by a sense of fear? We find ourselves in the midst of an economically frightening time. We cannot trust our financial institutions, the stock market, our banks, or our government and we find ourselves very afraid. The fear that grips us in our present situation may indeed be the most potent enemy we are facing today, worse even than the financial hardships themselves.

Over three-quarters of a century ago, our nation found itself in a financial crisis of epic proportions, not unlike our present state. In the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President. I would like for us to hear today some of the words he spoke in his first inaugural address, beginning with these: “[L]et me first of all assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” FDR goes on to say, “In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory…In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels. Taxes have risen, our ability to pay has fallen, government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income, the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade, the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side, farmers find no markets for their produce, the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

“More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

“Yet,” says Roosevelt, “Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we still have much to be thankful for.”
And that, my friends, is the key for us in this present age. We still have much to be thankful for. In the face of whatever may challenge us, we must believe and not be afraid. This is precisely the message which Paul is urging upon Timothy, and all the readers of this pastoral letter. Our hopes should not be in the uncertainty of riches, but in God who richly provides. The question is not “if” but “when” the economic downturn will be reversed. When we look at past economic trends, there was always a significant turn-around after a time of loss. While we wait for that rise, the reality is that more people may lose their jobs or their homes. Others may need to sell their cars because they can no longer afford the payments. Many may need help and support. And some may not feel the effects of the financial crisis at all. But we must not allow ourselves to be controlled by fear because we are a people of faith, and the Scriptures and our faith in God reassure us that we are going to be alright.

“Do not fear, for I am with you,” says the prophet Isaiah. “Do not be afraid, for I am your God.” Indeed, God is with us in the midst of whatever crisis we may be facing in our lives, financial or otherwise. But to know this comfort, we have to keep our faith in God. We cannot bend to the whims of society, which tell us that security lies in wealth. At the heart of our current situation is the credit crisis. Credit comes from the Latin word credo, which means “I believe” or “I trust.” When credit is extended to us, it is with the trust that those resources will be repaid. But as we now see very clearly, trust in the material, in the things of this world, is as fragile as sifting sand. We have borrowed beyond our means for too long because we sought security in acquisition. As Christians, our credo, our belief and our trust, is in God and God alone. We affirmed that this morning when we said together the Apostles Creed. As you recall it begins with this phrase, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” We believe in God Almighty, our trust is in Jesus Christ, “his only Son, our Lord,” the Savior of the world. But do we really live out this belief in our lives. Or have we put our trust in the wrong places and now find ourselves consumed by fear?

Indeed, fear is a natural human response. There is no avoiding fear in the midst of the horrors of this world. The question is this, what will we do when fear strikes? Above all, we must seek Jesus and we must cling to God. In the midst of crisis and financial worries, Christ offers us comfort and hope. He says, “[D]o not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?…But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Our greatest security rests in God in Christ Jesus, and in him, as Paul tells Timothy, we must place our hope. In the midst of financial crisis, we cannot let our faith wane. When we place our faith in God and follow God’s will for our lives, then we are “storing up for [our]selves the treasure of a good foundation for a future.” In such a foundation, says Paul, we may “take hold of the life that really is life.”

Even as we hear Paul’s assurance of life in God, there is a difficult message that comes with it. How do we know and experience this life ourselves? Paul tells us that we are “to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.” I think we all know this is difficult to do, especially when funds are as tight as they are right now for so many people. But it is possible, and as an example, let me tell you a story about this very church. Grace, like many other churches and non-profits, is in a very tight place right now too, and really has been for some time. Even today, we are in the midst of an increasingly precarious financial situation, one that grows more dire each day. Let me assure that as we work through these present times our leadership will be faithful and will keep you informed. As one member told me this week, “We’ve never had a lot of money, but we get by.” Well, I want us to celebrate for a moment all the ways that Grace is “getting by,” all that Grace does in the name of Christ, even with extremely limited resources. On this very day, we have begun a revitalized Children’s Sunday School program. We have sent a team on mission to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi for several years. This past summer, around 20 young people walked through our doors to participate in Vacation Bible School. Our weekly Bible Study is going strong and growing. We have an amazing staff that does amazing work every week, and often goes beyond the call of duty, giving to this church in extravagant and sacrificial ways. We are in the beginning stages of gearing up for the now annual Grace Pumpkin Patch, through which potentially hundreds of people will step foot on our campus. Indeed, Grace is stepping out in faith to follow God’s will in this world; and even in the face of financial strain, great ministries are happening!

When we are faithful even in a little, God will also be faithful. Yet, part of learning faithfulness is learning to give; learning to trust God in the same way that God has placed trust in us. In the end, we will become not what we own but what we do. As the Lord asks of us, we must be ready to “do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.” We cannot in fear hopelessly grasp at the empty things of this world. You see, God has appointed us as stewards of creation. As Paul reminds us, “we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it.” Everything that we have is God’s. We will know assurance of faith, contentment, peace, and hope when we are able to recognize God’s generosity in our own lives and in turn be generous with others. God has entrusted us with the care of this earth’s resources, and in faith, we are to be generous with what we have; keeping hope that through our generosity we will “take hold of the life that really is life.”

Certainly, good and generous hearts build lives worth living. But the generosity God calls us to should not simply be about ourselves. In selfish thinking, we lose faith in God and in its place we invite fear and sin. The economic crisis that we find ourselves in today is in great part a spiritual crisis that has stemmed from our failure to seek God’s will in our lives and to pursue it in complete faith, totally and unabashedly giving all of ourselves in service to the kingdom. In order to keep hope alive and squash the fear that so often grips us, we must recognize our place and our task in the midst of the body of Christ. Even as we navigate these tough financial times, we are to be beacons of hope and light for others. In our striving not only to keep our own faith but simply to keep our heads above water, we must hold fast to the hope of our salvation and share the message of that salvation with the people around us; inviting them to find deliverance, redemption, hope, and a new way of life.

“In God We Trust.” This should be more than a motto printed on the bills that pass in and out of our wallets each day. This should be our life credo, the hope which keeps us from falling into fear in the midst of crisis. When we put our whole trust in God, when we have faith that God offers to us “the life that really is life,” and when we pursue that life and God’s will with goodness and generosity, then we will find the security that today seems so elusive. I would like to end as I began; with the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address. “These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and our fellow-men.”

One of the greatest examples of ministry comes at the Lord’s Table. Before dining this last time with his disciples, Jesus knelt and washed their feet, serving those whom revered him as their Master. And then Jesus presided as the host at a table of remembrance and a table of anticipation, offering himself in sacrifice so that all who call upon the name of Christ and gather at this table might know life and life abundantly. As we share in this meal today, let us be assured in faith of the hope offered through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and let us be reminded of the summons of Christ to be in ministry in the world with glad and generous hearts; bringing hope and light throughout this land.