http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php en dthurmond@germantownumc.org Copyright 2008 2008-09-01T02:26:00-06:00 http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/a_sacred_thirst_and_a_holy_hunger/ http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/a_sacred_thirst_and_a_holy_hunger/#When:02:26:00Z Reverend Rick KirchoffDuring some of the research that I did this week for my message, I came across a website called “Get Hungry...Stay Hungry!” They asked the question, “What does it mean to get hungry and to stay hungry?” The owner of that website said this: “These might be the most powerful words you will ever hear as well as some of the strongest feelings you will ever experience.” Then he goes on to say, “While athletes may be born with athletic ability and skill and talent, it takes years of competition, honing their skills, bouncing back from defeat and injury and heartache to be able to reach high levels of success. They struggle to overcome adversity and pay for every ounce of success with blood, sweat and tears. These athletes breathe, eat, drink, and sleep “Get Hungry -- Stay Hungry.” Then, the author of the website leaves us with this question: “What could you accomplish if you had their passion, their desire, their energy, and their focus?” It’s in that spirit that we hear our scripture lesson today: one verse from the 5th chapter of Matthew. Matthew 5:6 NRSV Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Would you say it with me? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen. Every one of our lives are shaped by calendars -- each filled with squares and each square is another day. We live our lives one square at a time. Lewis Smedes wrote about this: “I bought myself a new date book…, the same kind that I use every year, spiral-bound, with a black imitation leather cover, wrapped around pages and pages of blank boxes. Each square has a number to tell me what day of the month I’m in…. Every square is a frame for one episode of my life. And...I’ll fill the squares with important things (appointments, birthdays, anniversaries), classes I teach, people with whom I am to eat lunch, everlasting committee meetings that I will have to sit through -- and those are only things I cannot afford to forget. I fill those squares, too, with things I do not have to write down to remember, (food and drink), thousands of cups of coffee, some lovemaking, some praying and I hope some gestures of help for my neighbors. Whatever I do…has to fit inside one of those squares in my date book. I live my life one square at a time.” Whether our calendar is on paper in a book, electronic, or in our heads, we all spend our lives filling up little squares. For most of us, our squares are chaotic, stuffed with all kinds of activities and we keep vowing that we’ll slow down someday and get around to the things that we know matter most. We say, “We’ll get around to them someday, when things settle down and we have more time.” The Holiest man who ever lived told an unforgettable story about that. And John Ortberg, in his newest book, It All Goes Back in the Box, paraphrases that story like this: He was a busy, important man who found the 40-hour work week such a good idea that he often did it twice a week. He picked up an MBA, joined professional organizations and got on boards of directors in order to expand his contacts. He listened to business books on a special CD player in his car that sped up the reader’s voice so he could listen in half the time. When he wasn’t working, his mind always drifted back toward work so that it was not only his occupation, but his preoccupation. His wife tried to slow him down, to remind him that he had a family. He knew that they weren’t as close as they used to be. He hadn’t intended to drift away. It’s just that they always wanted time from him and that’s what he didn’t have to give. He was vaguely aware that his kids were growing up and he was missing so much of it. From time to time, his kids complained about the books he wasn’t reading to them, the games of catch he didn’t play with them, and the meals he wasn’t eating with them. But after awhile, they just stopped complaining; they stopped expecting him to ever be different. “I’ll be more available to them in six months or so,” he kept saying to himself, “when things settle down and I have more time.” And though he was very bright, he didn’t seem to notice that things never settled down and slowed down. Besides, he said to himself when he felt guilty, “I’m doing it all for them.” Of course, this wasn’t even partly true. He would have lived this way if they didn’t exist at all. But because they lived in the home and ate the food and wore the clothes that his considerable money provided, he could say to himself, “I’m doing it all for them.” He knew that he wasn’t taking great care of his body. His doctor told him he had some warning signs (high blood pressure, high cholesterol) and told him that he needed to cut down on red meat and start an exercise program. So he just stopped going to the doctor. “There will be plenty of time for that,” he said to himself, “when things settle down and I have more time.” His wife nagged him about going to church. But he always had an excuse. Yet, in the middle of the night, in those times when he couldn’t sleep (those times came more and more often) he felt a profound sadness about life…it was not depression…for he was functioning just fine. It was more of a quiet sorrow that had attached itself to the walls of his soul, a subdued sorrow that simply would not go away. When it came, if he was awake, he had a drink…and if it was nighttime, he took a sleeping pill. One day, the chief operations officer of his company came to him and said, “You won’t believe this, but things are booming to such an extent that we can’t keep up. This is our chance to hit the mother lode. If we catch this wave, we’ll be set for life. But it will require major sacrifices. Our software system is hopelessly outdated. We’ve got to over-haul the operation from top to bottom.” He knew exactly what to do. He’d put his company through a technological revolution. They’d go wireless, 24/7 accessibility for everyone and universally mandatory hands-free phones. He was now available to everyone in the world except for those who needed him most and those he most needed -- his wife, his children, his God. He told his wife, “Do you realize what this means? Our future is assured -- we’re set for life. Once we’re secure we can finally slow down and go on that vacation you’ve been pestering me about.” But she’d heard it all before. That night, as he sat before his laptop rearranging the universe, there was one microscopic detail that had escaped his attention. An artery that had once been as supple as a blade of grass was now as dry as plaster and as stiff as cement. Blood cells could barely squeeze through. Every day, as he made his plans, drafted urgent memos, anxiously checked his portfolio, a few more chips of lipids and debris joined the blockage. Every cigar, every pat of butter, every angry word, every irritation-filled drive in the car, every self-preoccupied thought had done its work. For more than half a century his heart had quietly gone about its business. But now it skipped a beat. Then another! Then a third! He gasped for air and clutched his chest. He had a moment of blinding clarity. For the first time in a very long time, a prayer crossed his lips: “Oh, God….” His wife awoke at 3:00 a.m. and he was still not beside her. She went downstairs and saw him still sitting in front of the computer, his head on the desk. She touched him on his shoulder to wake him up, but he did not respond. She had a sick feeling as she dialed 911. When the paramedics got there, they told her he’d been dead for hours. His death was a major story in the financial community. His obituary was written up in Forbes and Wall Street Journal. In publications and at the memorial service, people talked about his accomplishments. “He was a leading entrepreneur…an innovator in technology and delivery systems.” “He was a man of principles,” somebody said. “He never cheated on his taxes, his expense account or his wife.” Another noted his civic achievements and called him: “A pillar in the community.” They commissioned a large marble memorial for him. On it they wrote the words: Visionary, Innovator, Leader, Entrepreneur. At the top they wrote his favorite word, one he’d given his life for: Success. They buried his body, put up his memorial stone, and everybody went home. When it was dark and no one else was there, the angel of God was sent to the cemetery. Unseen and unheard, the angel made his way past all of the other tombstones until he came to this man’s magnificent memorial. There, across the words: Visionary, Innovator, Leader and Entrepreneur, Success, the angel finger traced a single word to summarize this man’s life: F-O-O-L. Do you know the number one thing that keeps people from knowing and loving God? In survey after survey, people say the #1 thing that keeps us from knowing and loving God is: “I’m just too busy.” It is ironic that the early followers of Jesus couldn’t be stopped by persecution, poverty, prison or martyrdom. But we’re often stumped and stunted by something as trivial as “too much to do.” Yet, there is in each of us this hunger and this thirst for something more…a holy hunger and a sacred thirst that can only be filled with God and the things of God. The Psalmist speaks of this: “O God, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” St. Augustine put it like this: “Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee.” C. S. Lewis, reflecting on the long, slow process by which he came to faith wrote: “We have within us life-long nostalgia, longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off.” Bruce Springsteen sang about it: Everybody's got a hungry heart. Lay down your money and you play your part. Everybody's got a hungry heart. Sadly, most of the time we try to fill that hunger with the junk food of life and try to assuage that thirst with sugar water…like the guy in Jesus’ story, we give our lives to other pursuits. And we just settle; we lower our expectations that we’ll ever find anything to assuage the hunger and quench the thirst. Craig, a minister, tells about a guy who works at a service station where he buys his gas. He tells about how, before they computerized the pumps to take credit cards, he would have to go in and meet the attendant and give him his money for gas. He said the first time he met this attendant he asked him, “How is it going?” Without looking at Craig, the guy responded, “Lousy.” He clearly didn’t want to talk about it, so Craig just smiled and paid his bill. The next week he asked the attendant the same question and got the same answer: “lousy.” This went on for months. It became this despairing little liturgy that the two would repeat every week. Then one day as he was accustomed to doing, Craig asked, “How’s it going?” He expected the usual response. But this time, the attendant smiled and exclaimed, “Great!” Astonished, Craig asked, “So, things are improving?” “No,” he said, “I’m just lowering my expectations.” (from Craig Barnes, Sacred Thirst) Jesus came to remind us: we don’t have to settle. We don’t have to lower our expectations. He said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God and after the things of God.” Consider Jesus’ words for a moment! In the original language of those words, we catch a glimpse of what Jesus meant here in the words “hunger and thirst.” For he used words that translated from the Greek that mean “a craving, an insatiable or consuming desire.” Jesus says: Blessed are those who have a deep craving for a life-giving relationship with God and a passionate desire to structure their lives according to the nature and will of God. Those are who will be filled. Blessed are those who have an insatiable hunger and unending thirst not only to know God but to do the right thing, to take the high road, to think the best thoughts, who long to have a core of goodness in them that radiates out into every thought and action. Those are the ones who will be filled! Contrast that to what so often happens in you and me. We try to squeeze God into the edges of life. Not wanting to pay the price of not doing something else, we try to jam God into our already over-scheduled lives. If we’re not careful, we end up relegating God, the one who can fill that holy hunger and quench that sacred thirst, into the spare time and leftovers of our lives. We end up praying on the run, studying Scripture when we can fit it in, skimming over deep relationships and serving only when it’s convenient. And we compromise our values and sell our integrity for a buck. But Jesus said: Blessed! Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness…they will be filled. If we’re going to feed this holy hunger and satisfy this sacred thirst, we can’t wait for our lives to get less demanding or our calendars to clear. Jesus began a movement for those who knew they were hungry and thirsty and longing to feast on the bread of life and drink from living water. And the church that resulted didn’t explode with vitality and energy and power because people figured out how to shrink worship, or diminish study, or sidestep community, or reduce prayer, or minimize serving into tiny little convenient mini-commitments that easily fit into the spare time and leftovers of life. No! These disciplines were central -- their priority -- because they knew these were the source of their connection to the Risen Christ and the living water and the bread of life He could give. Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? I began by telling about Lewis Smedes and his calendar. He wrote: “Every square is a frame for one episode of my life. I live my life one square at a time.” And God has given each of us a day, with the same amount of time and choice of how we will fill it. None of us know how many squares we will get, but each must choose how we will fill them. In closing, I’d like to let the singer and poet Stacie Orrico speak and remind us of our holy hunger and our sacred thirst! I've got it all, but I feel so deprived I go up, I come down; I feel emptier inside. Tell me what is this thing that I feel like I'm missing…? There's gotta be more to life... Than chasing down every temporary high… There's gotta be more than wanting more. I’m sure there’s gotta be more. I've got the time and I'm wasting it slowly Here in this moment I'm half way out the door Onto the next thing, I am searching for... There's gotta’ be more to life…! There’s gotta be more! (song: “More to Life”) There is more! And “more” has a name. Jesus. He is the One who can satisfy that hunger and quench the thirst. Let us pray. O God, we give you thanks for your simple word that reminds us of the people you created us to be. Speak to the deep places. Amen. 2008-09-01T02:26:00-06:00 http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/equipped_everything_you_need_is_on_the_inside/ http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/equipped_everything_you_need_is_on_the_inside/#When:17:44:00Z Dr. Deborah SmithLet us pray. Dear Lord God, right now, we thank you for this day; and Lord, your servant Deborah stands in front of you and I ask, Lord, that you anoint my mouth, anoint my heart, my mind, so that everything that comes forth will be from you, Lord, and none from me. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen. Church, our scripture lesson is taken from Ephesians 6:10-20. Hear the Word of God. Ephesians 6:10-20 NIV Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. Church, this is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You know, Church, in thinking about our scripture lesson here today....excuse me just one more minute. (Deborah again walks over to the other side of the chancel area in order to retrieve her sermon outline.) You know, I don’t know about you, but it looks like this has just been one of those mornings! I didn’t remember my Bible, and how am I going to preach if I don’t have the outline? Church, have you ever felt that way? That maybe you were not adequately equipped or maybe you didn’t have the necessary tools or pieces to get started for your job, or even equipped enough to complete a task? This is something we grapple with everyday because we spend a lot of our time trying to get prepared. We get prepared for our vacations. We spend the month of August...and then some...preparing our children for school. We get prepared for marriage. We get prepared for road trips and family gatherings. The list could go on and on. We even get prepared to zoom across town in our cars, with that little monitor that tells you if the police may be around! We prepare ourselves all the time! Earlier, I know some of you may have thought I was confused or disoriented, or some of you may have been thinking it was perhaps time for you to leave because obviously I didn’t appear to be prepared or equipped to give the message here today. Some of you may have even become distracted and then some of you may have “zoned out” on me! Face it! Some of you probably thought I was just a little crazy...a little flighty, this morning! If you did “zone out,” come on back in with me, because just like me, Church, some of you may have gone through times in your life where you knew or felt that you were not equipped or prepared -- just like we need to be equipped for preaching, dealing with our families, our jobs, and even as we prepare ourselves for the Spiritual Olympics. In thinking about the Olympics, I am reminded of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics where an Iranian boxer was disqualified because he forgot to bring his boxing gloves to the ring! At the same Olympics, a Canadian yachtsman was disqualified for not remembering to bring his life jacket. As we have watched the Beijing 2008 Olympics, we have not heard of any instances of athletes forgetting their equipment, but we have heard personal testimonies of how some had to make adjustments when they were faced with challenges in their respective events. I suppose by now we all know or have heard how Michael Phelps had to finish swimming the 200m butterfly for his fifth gold in Beijing without being able to see because his goggles suddenly filled with water. He therefore had to count his strokes to reach the finish line. And, what about the women’s beach volleyball team that won its second gold medal? They had to play both games in the pouring rain, and they credited the fact that they were more than prepared because their swimsuits were their uniforms. They said that you never know what is going to happen. Do you really believe that you could go through life and be effective without being adequately equipped or prepared appropriately? The Olympic athletes have answered that, as we have heard how they trained and sacrificed for the Olympics; but even with some of the best training regimens and coaches, some still fell short because the task at hand was greater than their level of preparation. This is why in our Scripture lesson here today that I want you first to focus on how Paul tells us how to prepare or to get equipped for the Spiritual Olympics. Paul begins by saying in verse 10, “Be strong in the Lord.” This is exactly what we have seen the Olympic athletes do as they have prepared themselves with rigorous and demanding exercise routines and well-calculated diets that would support them with the energy and stamina that they need. In a like manner, if we are strong in the Lord, as Paul says to us, then it is here in this Scripture lesson that we need to take heed of our equipment, our strategies listed there. Paul begins this list by advising us that we must put on the whole armor of God and then follow through with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. Although these are military metaphors that Paul used during that time period, we can identify with them as we look at ourselves as we prepare to become Spiritual Olympians with emphasis on righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and the spirit. This very image reminds us that we are all individually equipped to participate in Spiritual Olympics. But, I must raise the question: How do we use what we have? As you can see from the list, everything identified as equipment and strategies is on the inside and focuses on protective armaments that shield and strengthen every individual believer, while the entire community of faith draws its vitality from the health of each and every soul present. This means looking on the inside of ourselves, looking on the inside of the church, and looking on the inside of the community. It is this looking on the inside, however, that causes us to wrestle with ourselves and each other. This struggle is sometimes caused by us when we are pushed back and afraid when we are faced with a challenge or a situation, like losing a home to foreclosure, losing our retirement savings due to a volatile stock market, or the sudden death of a loved one where we cannot see clearly or understand what to do or where to go, or we very simply did not or do not see it coming. We don’t look at how equipped we are, in times like that. Instead, we try to go it alone and do everything by ourselves without asking for help or input, or a word from our sponsor, Jesus. In short, Church, we try to resolve what we didn’t see coming or anticipate with our physical resources only, and we forget to include our spiritual strategies equipped with our spiritual armor, our spiritual resources. And when we have this mismatch, we even distract others and may cause them to fall short when we are not properly equipped. It is during times such as these that we have to pause and look at our equipment since it may not be fitting the way we need it to fit because we may not really know the manufacturer like we should. That manufacturer is Jesus, and He does not make a difference in our lives until we put Jesus at the center. It is then and only then that all of our equipment will work properly. The reality is that when we struggle on the inside with our armor such as truth and righteousness, it is difficult to wear that armor or even keep it on when so many around us tell us or encourage us to lie. We see it all the time in television programs and commercials, such as the commercial when the woman asks her husband, “Do I look fat in this?” And, let’s look at the most recent ongoing debate about the ages of the girls on the 2008 Beijing Chinese gymnastic team, “Were they all 16 and older?” And, in the terms of the righteous, I believe the question has already been asked: What shall the righteous do about poverty, about the homeless, about the escalating increase in incidents of violent crimes, or the AIDS orphans? How is your armor, Church? Well, in answering the latter question, perhaps, we can look at the model provided by our athletes -- the one where each one strives to train the body in such a way that it works in harmony with the game’s equipment and with the athlete’s mind. Like the athlete, as we prepare for the Spiritual Olympics, we need to ensure that we nourish our spiritual bodies with a balanced diet of prayer, praise, worship, and work. Too often we fall short in this area of spiritual health because for some unknown reason we get comfortable and simply believe that the spiritual aspect of our lives will take care of itself with little or no effort on our part. This is absolutely not true. Each of us must flex our spiritual muscles everyday as we deliberately make room and plan for prayer and devotion each and every day of our lives and not just when you come to church on Sunday. You see, Church, our faith must find words, and those words may come from us in the form of praise and adoration that may come forth in song and prayer. What I am saying here is that there are times when you may need to sing your own solo and preach your own sermon in the quietness of your heart or private space. In reflecting on prayer, please know that prayer is an especially critical part of our spiritual health. Prayer keeps us in close personal relationship with God and it is not just a time for giving God a litany of special requests according to your perceived needs. In saying this, I am reminded of a little boy who was almost six years old and he shouted to his family, “I’m gonna say my prayers now. Anybody want anything?” Prayer, Church, is personal communication with God and not a wish list. The issue we must understand is that our desires must first be surrendered to the will of God. But let us remember that as we look at our spiritual equipment, it is not dependent on our own abilities, our own understanding, or our own insights. What we are talking about is a spiritual partnership that must exist between the player (us) and the equipment (Jesus). Sometimes what we encounter in life is not about the equipment, but the player. This means that we must not forget faith which is listed in verse 16. Faith provides us with a covering over our lives and protects us. Faith becomes, and is, our strong defense against the spiritual difficulties that we face daily. We are equipped with spiritual power when we live in faith. Belief brings the power to eliminate the limitations that we impose on daily life. Many Christians believe that Jesus can do the impossible, but not for them. You see, Church, we all need a daily dose of God’s Word; we all need Bible study. This means that we can no longer look at studying God’s Word as something optional for the adults but required for our children. We need to be like the Olympic athletes as they strive to get into what they call a state of “flow” where the entire body, the whole mind and spirit are so completely engaged and perfectly coordinated that the player can absolutely do no wrong. Such a state like this is called “getting in the zone”, the Japanese call it ki, the Indians call it prana, the Russians call it “the white moment”, the Tibetans say lung-gom, and the Chinese say chi. And we, here today, as United Methodists, may call it Christian perfection. And with that, I say that we are sufficiently equipped to withstand any obstacle or any challenge, for when we put on our armor, we are trying to bring out the best in ourselves and the best in others. The better we equip ourselves, the better we equip others. So, as Paul admonishes us to persevere and to hold steadfast, we need to remember that as the body of Christ, we are equipped to participate in the Spiritual Olympics as individuals, but more importantly as a team. Remember, Church, Michael Phelps demonstrated this as he won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, but three of the medals required him to depend on a team; otherwise, he would not have set his phenomenal record. Successful athletic teams exhibit characteristics of selflessness, high morale, cohesion, and esprit de corps. Our spiritual team should be no different. Go forth in the Spiritual Olympics with your heart, soul, mind, and body. You see, Paul knew that our everyday Gospel living comes out of our own personal Gospel Identity and our Gospel Identity comes, and as it should, out of God’s Gospel Work. We are equipped, Church, for the work ahead of us. Everything we need is on the inside; we must wear the entire armor of God and not just a piece of it; it is all or nothing. Let us pray. Dear Lord God, right now we thank you, Lord, for coming into our midst, Lord. Thank you for challenging us to continue to be equipped. Lord God, we ask that you continue to go with us and be with us throughout this day. Amen. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: 1. Conner, Floyd. (2001). The Olympics’ Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of the Olympics’ Gold Medal Gaffes, Improbable Triumphs, and Other Oddities. Dulles, VA: Brassey’s Inc. 2. Dunn, James D. G. & Rogerson, John W. (eds.) (2003). Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 3. The New Interpreter’s Bible – A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume XI. (2000). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 4. The Collegeville Bible Commentary – New Testament. (1992). Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press. 2008-08-24T17:44:00-06:00 http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/in_training/ http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/in_training/#When:16:18:00Z Reverend Rick Kirchoff1 Timothy 4:7-10 NRSV Train yourself in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Galatians 5:22-23 NRSV The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen. Since the beginning of human history, starting perhaps when that first man and woman saw their own reflection in a clear pool of water, humans have been trying to fix things about themselves. We try to fix the outside of ourselves. We know how to fix the outside, don’t we? We can exercise it, we can starve it, we can Rogaine it, we can stretch it, we can lift it, we can nip and tuck it, and even lipo-suck-it. We can paint it, dye it, get some wrinkle cream and apply it. We can dress it well and change its smell. But all that does is change the outward appearance. There’s also the inner you...that part that really matters the most. That part that God sees and that other people see when they really get close to you. A part of you that is becoming amazingly beautiful or something unbelievably empty or something unimaginably dark. In every one of us in this room, there is a gap...a gulf between God’s dream for us...what God had in mind when God first created us...and what really is. This is where the rubber band comes in. I’d like each of you to take the rubber band that the usher gave you this morning. If you didn’t get one, you can look at the one that somebody else has. We’re going to do kind of an object lesson with the rubber band this morning. I’d like for you to put it on your thumbs and stretch it. Now, some of you are going to be tempted to put it on one thumb and put it against the arm of the person next to you and let it go! But don’t do that! Or some of you are going to be tempted to send it my way if you don’t like the message today! But here’s the idea of the rubber band. Loop it over your thumbs and stretch it. Feel the tension. One end of this rubber band represents your life as it is...today’s reality. The other end represents God’s dream for you...what God created you to be. God wants you and me to be this glorious creature: generous and courageous, truthful and loving, humble and pure-minded, to be in relationship with God. That’s God’s vision for you and me. So, on one hand we have the reality and on the other hand we have the dream. Now, would you say that there is at least a small gap in there...between God’s dream for you and the current, real-life you? A pretty large gap? What I’d like to do today in the little while that we have together is help us to realize the gap and discover God’s plan for how to narrow the gap. God intended us to bear fruit...the fruit of the Spirit. We read about them a moment ago...the fruit of the Spirit being love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Knowing that, I’d like for us to do a quick little sort of self-assessment of how we are doing in those areas. I’m going to lift up just a few of them this morning, and you can look at the rest of them when you are home by yourself. They are listed in the insert in your bulletin today...all nine of them...and some questions for self-examination. What I’d like for you to do, as I talk about just a few of these, is for you to give yourself an “S” if you are “superior” in that area, give yourself a “P” if you are doing “pretty darn good,” an “N” if you “need improvement,” and a “D” if you have to say, “Don’t even ask me about that!” The first one that I would like for you to think about this morning is joy. What is your current “irritability factor?” If you’re not sure, I bet there is somebody next to you that can help you with your answer. Do you mostly speak words of complaint or words of gratitude? How are you doing on joy? The second area I’d like to lift up is peace. To what degree is your heart and your mind at rest and at peace? How consistently are you troubled or anxious? Would people who know you best, describe you as contented or discontented? How about patience? How do you respond when you don’t get your way or you are tired or you’re frustrated? Are you able to wait in line or in traffic graciously and patiently? How do you handle it when people aren’t moving as quickly as you would like them to move? How are you doing on patience? (If you’ve already moved beyond patience and you are looking at the others, you better give yourself an “N”, because you need patience!) Before we leave the nine fruits of the Spirit, let me go to the ninth: self-control. Do you have any bad habits? Any at all? Do you feel like your patterns of either lust or envy or unforgiveness or greed or anger make you less than you’d like to be? Do you sense a little bit of the gap? I want to tell you a little bit about one of my gaps that I realized a week ago Friday. Last Friday, Jane and I were out shopping and we were in traffic on Poplar Avenue. I’ve told you before that I don’t do well in traffic! But my problem is, I keep telling you that I don’t do well, and I don’t get any better! I was getting annoyed. I was grumbling. I was looking for shortcuts. Jane sensed that in me and reached over and touched me gently on the hand and said, “Honey, relax! You know, you really do get impatient an awful lot.” I was offended when she recognized that. I made excuses, but I knew she was right. I changed the subject. I know this is a very unfinished part of me. I needed to listen to what she was saying to me, but I blew it off because impatience is a part of my gap...at least one of the parts of my gap that I’m willing to tell you about! I assure you, there’s more! It’s precisely that kind of thing...that kind of gap that is in every one of us...between the current reality on one hand and God’s dream on the other hand. It produces tension in our lives. We feel pulled in two directions and the tension always cries out in you and me to be resolved in some way. There are two ways to resolve that tension: one is to pull the vision back towards what is...to just lower my aspirations and settle for mediocrity. When that happens, you and I invariably do any number of things...among them, we say, “Well, you know, I’m just really only human after all. In fact, I’m not doing so badly compared to some other people that I know!” And we always pick some people that are doing worse than we are, and we tend to avoid self-examination, like maybe some of you did a few moments ago when you didn’t want to look at those nine things in the bulletin insert! We get distracted by alcohol and money and power games and pleasure and busyness and watching television and other kinds of entertainment. We avoid accountability and worst of all, we just kind of get used to sin. We get accustomed to it in ourselves and we rationalize that in us, it is really okay! That’s one of the ways that we try to resolve the tension. We pull the vision back towards the current reality. Spiritual growth happens when we “stop settling,” when we cease compromising God’s vision for our lives. Spiritual maturity is growing in our relationship with God and trusting in God and out of that relationship and trust, bearing the fruit of things like love, joy, peace and patience. That’s the target! That’s the kind of people Jesus wants to produce. But we look at that list and we just feel overwhelmed with how far short we fall. I know, I do! It’s like there’s an alarm going off, telling me, “Rick, you need to give this some attention!” And I don’t always want to do what it takes. It was sort of like a night several years ago. Jane and I were in bed asleep. It was the middle of the night, and I heard this loud “beeping” sound. Beep. Beep. Jane gave me an elbow and said, “What’s that sound?” I didn’t move because I knew that if I acknowledged hearing the beeping sound, Jane was going to say, “Get up and do something about the beeping sound.” So I said, “What sound?” She said, “You hear that! That beeping!” I said, “Oh, that beeping sound?” I said, “Well, I’ll go find out about it.” I went into the hallway and found the problem and I took care of it. I came back to bed. I pulled up the covers, and Jane said, “What was it?” I said, “It was the smoke detector...the battery is going bad.” She said, “How did you make it stop?” I said, “I took the battery out.” Jane said, “You did what? You can’t do that! What if there is a fire?” I said, “Jane, do you smell any smoke? I don’t smell any smoke.” So I pulled up the covers and we went back to sleep. At least I thought so! But then I felt that elbow. Jane said, “Rick, I smell smoke!” And you know what I had to do? I got up and put in a new battery. But here’s the truth. It’s that way in your life and in mine. In our life and in our house and in our soul, there are beeping sounds going off all the time. There is a gap there, and we know the gap is there, and we know God wants us to do something about it. But we tend just to get used to it, or think that it is somebody else’s job to work on the gap, or to stop the beeping sound. What this whole emphasis, this fall at Germantown United Methodist Church called Finishing Strong is, is the question: how do we move the reality more toward God’s dream? How can you and I – with God’s help – narrow the gap, not by compromising God’s dream, but by changing our reality? Now, I think I would get very little argument from any of you here this morning if I said to you that Jesus never imagined a church full of religious people, but who remain week after week, year after year, cranky, impatient, egotistical, judgmental, deceptive, greedy, gossipy, lustful, and self-righteous, until they die, and “then” they go to heaven where God transforms them into something wonderful, like angels. That’s not what Jesus came to do! His dream is to begin that wonderful transformation in you and me, here and now. Jesus said if you want to know what real life looks like, then, “Look at me.” He said, “Just look at me and come and follow me and learn to trust me and I will live my life in you.” While it is only God who can transform us, we are never passive in relationship to God. We can do things that either open us up to God and allow God to do God’s work within us, or we can ignore those things and just settle for the mediocrity of life. Dallas Willard writes about spiritual transformation. He uses a little acronym, VIM, a word that means to be full of energy and enthusiasm for life. As he writes, the “V” stands for Vision; the “I” stands for Intention; the “M” stands for Method. Vision. Intention. Method. (Willard actually uses “means” for the “M” rather than “Method.” But the word “method” better fits our “Methodist” context.) If you want to pursue spiritual transformation, then you and I have got to have a Vision. A very clear picture in our minds...a dream that comes from God about what life is meant to be. Then, flowing out of that vision, we’ve got to have Intention. I’ve got to be able to say that I am going to pursue this vision in my life and nobody else can do it for me. I have to say “I want this. I want this more than anything else in all of my life. I know I’m going to be wayward. I know I’m going to be messing up at times. I’m going to get off track. But I’m going to keep coming back to this vision. I’m never going to let it go. I’m never going to let it let me go because this is what I want. And I will do this, whatever it takes.” But it’s more than just about having a vision and intention. It’s also about having some Methods. It’s about the methods that train us. And training is “any activity we can do by direct effort that will help us do what we cannot now do by direct effort.” I’ve heard some of you already talking about it...you stayed up late last night watching the Olympics. Think about Michael Phelps. Eight gold medals! Seven world records! He has tremendous gifts for swimming. They say he has the ideal body: short legs, a massive torso, a 7-foot wingspan with huge hands, broad shoulders, narrow hips, and size 14 feet that act like flippers, as well. And such flexibility in his feet that they say he can lay on his back and curl his toes to touch his toes to the floor! But others have similar gifts! His coach says the difference in Michael is his superior fitness and his aerobic conditioning that comes out of years of training. And the result is: Michael makes the unnatural seem natural, the difficult look easy, and the impossible actually possible! Or let’s change the image. Jim Thrash. Jim Thrash can play the piano. He can play the organ. Let’s say that Jim invited you to come up here this morning to play a little Mozart or Bach. I know that if he invited me to do that, I could probably come over to the keyboard and I could play a little “Chopsticks” and one of the parts of “Heart and Soul.” But it wouldn’t sound anything like Mozart. Doing what Jim and Eva do, isn’t about sitting down at the keyboard and trying. It is about years of training. Hour upon hour of training, doing exercises that at first sounded nothing like Bach or Beethoven or Mozart, but finally they were able to sit down and hammer out the music. So vision and intention alone are never enough. It involves a third step: Methods...proven methods that train us. It’s the same with spiritual growth. Look at Jesus. Jesus engaged in certain practices that nurtured his relationship with God. He would go out into creation from time to time and people would miss him and say, “Where has he gone now?” He is out alone in creation...in solitude...to be alone with God. He immersed himself in the scriptures, marinating his mind in the word of God, memorizing great portions of it and then seeking to understand, “How do I apply that to my life and to the world around me?” He engaged in fellowship with His close friends. He worshiped God. He gave generously. And He got involved in acts of servanthood. And I want you to hear this: If Jesus felt He needed to do these things, then how dare we say, “I don’t need that. I’ve grown past that.” Over these next weeks, we’re going to be exploring the disciplines that Jesus practiced. The purpose of these disciplines is not to earn us some points with God, not to “one-up” someone else, or prove how spiritual we are. Rather, it is to position ourselves so that we can seek to know and love and trust God and out of that relationship that we have with God, bear the fruit of things like love, joy, peace, patience, and self-control. Some of you who were here last week may recall the story I shared with you about the 89-year old woman by the name of Mabel who lived in a nursing home, experiencing more suffering than any of us are ever likely to experience in our lives, yet living this extraordinary life of contentment and joy. But one of the things that you may have missed is that her life consisted of disciplines...disciplines that are familiar like prayer and solitude and meditation on the Scripture and worship, singing hymns and fellowshipping when it was possible, and giving of the little things that she had to others. There is power in those disciplines. Today in Fellowship Hall, you will have the chance to sign up for study...personal growth opportunities for the fall. But I want to leave you this morning with an Olympic image. It was 1968. The Mexico City Olympics. John Akhwari of Tanzania was running in the marathon. In an earlier qualifying race, he had sustained an injury, but John was determined that he would run the marathon. So, in spite of his injury, he entered the grueling 26-mile competition. All the runners took off in the race together and the day was moving along and day was becoming night as the race neared its end, a little more than two hours later. After another hour passed, all of the competitors had come into the stadium and crossed the finish line. Everybody except for John Akhwari. People were getting ready to leave, but then the TV cameras caught sight of John hobbling toward the stadium. First they focused on his face, etched in pain. Then they focused on his right leg. It seems somewhere along the way he had fallen, split open his knee, and wrenched his knee socket out of place. Someone had come along and bandaged him up and got him started and John Akhwari was on his way toward the Olympic stadium...dead last! Finally, he enters the stadium and people see this man and they begin to applaud. Then they stand up and begin to cheer him on. People stood and cheered, and the more they stood and cheered, the better he felt, and he began to jog just a little bit. They were amazed at his courage and his determination. His jog became a run, and finally he crosses the finish line and people erupt in cheers as if he had won the marathon. And in a way, he had! (To see John’s entrance into the Olympic stadium on U-Tube, click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq3rOMnLGBk) And God did not send Jesus across time and eternity so that we could just start the race. God sent Him to help us finish – finish strong! Let us pray. O God, we give you our thanks this day. Get us in training. Be our vision. And show us the way. Amen. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources: 1. John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted 2. John Ortberg, “The Gap” 3. Dallas Willard, a web article found at http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=119 4. The following web sites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stephen_Akhwari http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq3rOMnLGBk http://www.discoveringabetterlife.org.au/new_october1968.html 2008-08-17T16:18:00-06:00 http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/beginning_with_the_end_in_mind/ http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/beginning_with_the_end_in_mind/#When:23:50:00Z Rev. Rick KirchoffPsalm 8:3-9 NRSV When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Philippians 2:5-8 NRSV Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen. You and I can approach the human condition from two perspectives: physically and spiritually. But no matter which you choose, you are the pinnacle of God’s creation. Scripture tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, a little lower than God, and intentionally designed, just as we are! But it is not just Scripture that tells us this. Science helps us to understand this as well. It helps us to grasp the wonder of how we are made! Last year, as we began our fall sermon series, I shared with you how weary I get of the dichotomy that some in Christian culture make between science and religion. I told you how, when I was a teenager in a Methodist church across the city, a Sunday School teacher shared with me, after a lot of us had been asking questions about what we were hearing in Biology and what we were learning in church. This wise Sunday School teacher said, “Now, children, don’t worry so much about science and religion, because religion is meant to tell you the ‘why’ and the ‘who’ and science is about discovering the ‘what’ and the ‘how.’ Don’t be afraid!” Someone recently said that if your science and your religion disagree, then study them both more. While I was in Florida this summer, I heard Dr. Jack Stephenson speak about this. He so intrigued me that it got me reading about science and religion more deeply than I had done in quite awhile. I discovered that a part of how we are created that blends the “how” and the “why” is a way that God created your brain and mine. The late Dr. Paul MacLean had a theory that our brain is built in three layers...one on top of the other. There is a layer of your brain and mine that we share with reptiles and amphibians. There is a part of our brain that we share with mammals and herding animals. And then there is a part of our brain that is unique, given only to human beings, that makes you different and distinct from every other living thing. (sources – see notes below – based on the work and theories of Dr. Paul MacLean) I want to talk a little bit about this. It may seem odd, at first, but I hope that it will come together and make sense. The oldest part of my brain and your brain is what some call the reptile or the frog brain. It is shared by all of the lower animals and controls most of our very basic survival needs...our heartbeat, our respiration, our balance, our muscles, and our instincts, including foraging for food and procreation and the fight-flight mechanism that is built into every one of us. This frog brain, known as the medulla oblongata, is the foundation of your brain and mine. Part of its real function is to get us out of danger. It tells us to jump or to run or to fight or to freeze or to flee, and sometimes I’ve discovered that my frog brain just shuts me down. Ladies, if you are talking to your husband and he gets this glazed look in his eyes, and he just sort of sits there like a frog on a log, you can know his frog brain just kicked in. Sometimes, I’m guilty of this. Somebody is talking to me and I just zone-out. I just kind of freeze up. Some of you are probably saying, “I’ve seen him do that with me!” Well, I’ve seen some of you do that with me on Sunday morning during a sermon! Mostly, though, this part of you is concerned with getting food and keeping you from being food. It’s about self-protection. It’s the source of all of the fear and the rage and the anger that human beings express. It is fear-driven. It takes over when we are in danger and we don’t have time to think. It’s there to cause us to act, or to get out of the way of the car or the dog that’s coming after us. But there’s a second part of your brain called the mid-brain. It was developed when herding animals were created. This mammalian brain, or some people call it the cow brain, is the seat of our emotions and our social instincts that we share with all other creatures. But one of those instincts is to herd...to be in the herd. Herding animals really want to get in the middle of the herd, because if you’re on the outside, predators pick you off. Why herd? Because it’s safer that way! You’ve seen the wildebeests on National Geographic, haven’t you? They are trekking across the African savannah, headed for water, for better grazing. When the lioness comes along hunting, this herd brain says, “Oh my, I don’t want to be on the outside or up front or at the end. I want to be in the middle of the herd. How can I claw and scrape myself into the middle of the herd?” This part of us says, “If necessary, push someone else to the outside. I don’t have to be faster than the lion, just faster than you. I don’t want to be the one running looking back and saying, ‘Oh, no! She’s gaining on me!’” One of the questions that this part of your brain and mine asks us is, “Do I belong? Am I in the group? Am I included? Am I a part of the team?” If you’re a teenager, it’s that part of you that is constantly asking, “Am I popular? Do they like me, or dislike me?” It causes us to worry about our place in a herd or tribe or group. It’s also the source of that herd mentality that says if someone else is on the inside, then they’re a threat, pushing me to the outside. It also says to us, “Go along to get along. If everyone is doing it, it must be okay.” But God created you and me with something above the frog brain and the cow brain. God created you and me with a distinctly different part of our brain, the prefrontal lobe, right behind your eyebrows, that makes you extraordinary...that differentiates you from every other living creature...that makes you the unique, unrepeatable miracle that you are. This third part of you, stacked on top of the rest, gives us the ability to choose to get beyond fear and beyond place. It makes it possible for us to move beyond ourselves, to get above concerns for our own safety, and to care for the good of others. It enables us to ask, “Why am I here? What is my life meant to be about? What is my calling? What is my purpose? What does the other person need? And how can I make a difference in the world?” God has created you and me with an ability that no other creature on this planet has...to say: the reason I’m here is bigger than my survival and my place in the group. When the Psalmist asked, “What are we that God is mindful of us...that we are made a little lower than God?” it is this ability to choose, and to choose the “mind of Christ.” But you know, the truth is, we can spend our lives like a frog...like a cow. We can live in our frog brain and our cow brain. We can live our lives concerned with fear and place, and people do it all the time! You can probably identify some of those people. You know some of those people. There may even be some of those people in this room, or in your family! We can spend our entire lives fearful financially or physically, afraid about our health or about our relationships. We can live our lives in fear, or try to make other people afraid. We can live in a world built on an economy of fear. But you’ve got to know that fear and self-seeking is very different than the mind of Christ. And above that, less violent, but no less hurtful, we can live in our herd brain, holding on to our place in the world and excluding other people. I know that when I hear a preacher who is better than I am, at preaching, it kicks in! I immediately get threatened. I want to find something in him or her to criticize. You know about that! It happens when a new worker comes into your office and they are really good at what they do, and you get jealous of them. You want to find something about them to tear down. It happens in school. It happens in church. It happens at the office. We want to put other people down, and make them mess up, or trip them up, or make them less successful. That’s that herd brain kicking in. But that way of thinking is also different than the mind of Christ...different than what you and I were created to be. Because when we live life out of fear and place, we are always less than God created us to be. But when we’re in that third part of the brain, when we choose to have the mind of Christ, we live life as God intends. Now, I don’t think the Apostle Paul ever understood that our brain was layered one on top of the other. But I think that was what he was talking about when he said, “Have the same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus...who did not count equality with God as something to be grasped... but humbled himself and became a servant.” It is serving not because you have to out of slavery or fear. It is serving not because everybody else is serving and you are feeling pressure from the group. It is serving because simply you know deep in your being that that’s what you were created to do, and you want your life to be about holy things. God’s dream is that we live in this third part of ourselves and have the mind of Christ. How do we do that? Over these next weeks, we are going to be exploring how we can feed and exercise and nurture this third part of ourselves, and how we can nurture the mind of Christ in each of our lives so that more and more we see as He would see if He were looking through our eyes, and do what He would do if He were in our place. And we are going to explore how, as this world moves faster and faster, what it means to learn to slow down, to go deep, to drink deeply and be nourished by the riches of God’s grace and presence. As other people choose to live in mediocrity, just going along as part of a herd, how can we be that unique, unrepeatable person that God created us to be? As we live in a world that is constantly changing, how can we grow so strong in our relationship with God that we know deep, deep security and profound contentment? You see, the goal is to get beyond the frog...to get beyond the cow...to get beyond fear and concerns for place, and be the person God created. Now, what would that look like? Well, Paul tells us in the 5th chapter of Galatians! He says we would be more and more loving. We would become more joyful in our lives. We would have a growing sense of inner peace. We would have a genuine desire to be kind and to do good to other people. We would become gentler in our dealings with others. We would be more full of faith and able to exercise more and more self-control. (Galatians 5:22) We live less out of fear and less out of our need for acceptance. And we live continually more awake to God and aware and responsive to the needs of others. I could tell you about some of the great heroes of the faith who have done this. I could lift up people like William Wilberforce and C.S. Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King, Jr, but they are such heroes on such high pedestals that it almost makes the goal seem unreachable. So, in closing this morning, I want to tell you about two people...two very ordinary, elderly women who each, in their own way, discovered the mind of Christ, discovered that unique thing they were created to be, and lived life this third way. First, I want to tell you about Mabel. Mabel lived in a state-run convalescent center. It was understaffed and overflowing with senile, helpless, lonely, elderly people who were waiting to die. Even the brightest days in that state-run institution seemed dark and smelled of sickness and human waste. But one Mother’s Day, a guy by the name of Tom, went to that place intent on reaching out to one neglected mom. He said, “I don’t know why I picked Mabel, but I had a flower and I wanted to give it to her. I walked down to the end of the hallway where there were all of these elderly people, some on stretchers and some on wheelchairs. There I saw her. She was obviously blind. She had these big hearing aids. Her face had a tumor on one side.” Tom said, “I don’t know why I spoke to her because she didn’t look as though she could even respond, but I reached out to her and I gave her that flower. I said, ‘This is for you. Happy Mother’s Day.’ She took the flower from me and smelled the flower. Then, with a clear voice, she said, ‘Thank you. It’s lovely. But may I give it to someone else? I can’t see. I’m blind.’” Tom pushed Mabel down the hallway where there were other patients. She handed the flower to this other elderly person and said, “This is a gift to you from Jesus.” Tom said, “I realized there was something different about Mabel.” He began to visit with her once or twice a week for the next three years, until her death. They became friends. Mabel had lived on a farm with her mother for a long time. Then her mother died, and Mabel began to get ill, and then she moved into the convalescent home. There, for 25 years, she was dependent, wheelchair bound, blind, and now had this cancer growing. Tom said, “When I visited with her, some days I would read to her from the Bible. I found that when I would pause and take a breath, she knew the Bible verses and she would repeat them word for word. Sometimes I took a hymnal and I would sing to her, and she would sing along. But sometimes she would stop the singing and comment on the words of the song that were particularly relevant to her.” Tom said, “Pretty soon, I began to realize that I wasn’t ministering to her...but she was ministering to me!” So he began to carry a pen and paper to write down the things that she would say. One day he said, “Mabel, what is it that you think about all the time that you just sit here day after day, week after week, year after year?” She smiled and said, “I think about my Jesus.” He sits there, realizing that it is hard for him to even think about Jesus for five minutes at a time, and then he asked, “What do you think about when you think about Jesus?” She said, “Well, I think about how good He’s been to me...how blessed my life has been...how awfully good He is to me now. I’m one of those kinds of people who is mostly satisfied, and lots of folks would think I’m old fashioned, but I really don’t care. I’d rather have Jesus; He’s all the world to me, and she broke into song: ‘Jesus is all the world to me, my life, my joy, my all. He is my strength from day to day, without him I would fall.’” Here is a woman, as incredible as it may seem to you and me, suffering more than most of us will ever suffer in our lives...an ordinary human being who discovers a supernatural power to live an extraordinary life in the circumstances in which she finds herself. Her life is about simple things: Celebrating a gift that she has been given. Hearing scripture. Memorizing that scripture. Letting it marinate in her heart and mind. Worshiping. Fellowshipping with other people. Giving away the small gift of a flower or a piece of candy to someone else whenever something is given to her. That makes me think about the second person I want to share with you: Osceola McCarty, who before her death in 1999, lived in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Most anyone would not have expected anything from Osceola because she was an elderly black woman who had never married, was an elementary school drop-out, left school in the 6th grade to care for an aunt who was ill. After a year of caring for this woman she said, “I’m too far behind in school to go back to school,” so she just continued doing what she was doing, helping out in the family laundry business that was run out of their home, where they washed other people’s clothes and linens. From sunrise to sunset, she would wash people’s clothes and hang them out on the line to dry. It was not until 1995, when she was 87 years old, that anybody other than her family and her customers, paid her any mind. That was the year that she made a gift that awed this nation: Osceola McCarty, at 87 years of age, a wash-woman, gave $150,000 -- her life savings -- to the University of Southern Mississippi for scholarships for underprivileged students. Reporters and photographers wanted to take her picture and interview her. They did, and they said, “Why in the world did you give this money away? You’ve lived in poverty most of your life. Why in the world would you not spend it on yourself?” She smiled and said, “I am spending it on myself.” Later she would explain it this way: “There’s a lot of talk these days about self-esteem. It just seems pretty basic to me. If you want to feel proud of yourself, you’ve got to DO things that you can feel proud of.” If you want to feel proud, you’ve got to do things that you can feel proud of. Two women, Mabel and Osceola, real people, in circumstances very different than any one of us in this room, but people who got above the frog and the cow, above fear and place, to understand who God created them to be, and then they lived that way. That’s the goal of finishing strong: that we get out of our fears, that we get out of the herd, and we discover the unique unrepeatable miracle God had in mind when God first thought of you. Let us pray. Lord, we give you thanks that you have called us and claimed us to be your own. Send us your blessing this day as we let your Word resonate within us and we hear your call. In Christ we pray. Amen. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources: 1. John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, Chapter 1 (story of Mabel) 2. Dr. John Stephenson, “What Are We That God is Mindful of Us?” (recording) 3. The following web sites: http://www.ezls.fb12.uni-siegen.de/mkroedel/paul_maclean.html http://www.buffalostate.edu/orgs/bcp/brainbasics/triune.html http://www.kheper.net/topics/intelligence/MacLean.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_brain http://www.terrybragg.com/Article_Reptilianbrain.htm http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_05/d_05_cr/d_05_cr_her/d_05_cr_her.html 2008-08-10T23:50:00-06:00 http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/the_desert_and_the_roundabout_way/ http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/the_desert_and_the_roundabout_way/#When:21:28:01Z Rev. Rick KirchoffI invite your attention this morning to two readings from Hebrew scripture, from Deuteronomy and Exodus. I’m going to be weaving the two verses from Exodus in with the verses from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 8:1-2 NRSV This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. Exodus 13:17-18 NRSV When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, “If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. Deuteronomy 8:3-11 NRSV He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you. Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. Take care that you do not forget.... Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen. If you are a parent or grandparent, you will understand. You are on vacation and you have small children with you. When you are traveling in a car and you have small children with you, there is inevitably a question that they will ask. They will ask it soon, and they will ask it often! They will ask it with a kind of a whine in their voice. They will ask that question even when you warn them that you never want to hear that question again! Now, with a whine in your voice this morning, can you ask me that question? Are we there yet? Well, imagine going on a trip and hearing that question day in and day out, for forty long years. And you, having to answer: “No, we’re not there yet. We won’t get there today. We won’t get there tomorrow. But we’re headed for the one destination in all of the world worth traveling to. We will arrive, but we’re not there yet. And, no, I don’t know when we’ll get there. But I do know that we will get there.” The Children of God were on a journey -- a journey away from slavery to freedom; a journey away from poverty to abundance, headed to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. They didn’t expect it to take long at all. In fact, if you look at a map, you can see that they just had to cross the Sinai Peninsula, less than 200 miles. But God had an alternate route in mind, a roundabout way. Exodus says, “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, ‘If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness.” A roundabout way! And it wasn’t just some minor detour! They would spend forty years going that roundabout way. Forty years in the desert…forty years of wandering...forty years of wondering: “Are we there yet?” “When will we get there?” Forty years is a term in scripture meant not to be taken literally but to mark a very, very long time. What I want us to hear this morning is that everybody logs some time in the desert, going the roundabout way. I want you to know that if you have never spent any time in the desert in the roundabout way, you will some day! It is that state of mind that you didn’t want to be in, or that life experience that you didn’t want to have. It’s that feeling that you didn’t want to feel. It’s being in a place that you don’t want to be. And most of you can name your roundabout place...your desert. It’s when your heart aches with hurt or loss. It’s when a relationship shatters. It’s when a beloved child rebels, and becomes a prodigal. You know it when you endure financial disaster. You know it when you cherished a dream, looked forward to the day it would come true and then one day you awakened to realize not only has it not come true so far, but it wasn’t going to happen. The dream died and so did a little bit of you. Sometimes you’re in the desert on a roundabout way because of choices that you made; you look back and can’t believe you were so foolish, so blind. And sometimes you’re there for no discernable reason at all. And in the desert, on the roundabout way, faith can be hard. You pray, you pour out your heart to God, but you have no sense of God’s nearness and you wonder why you receive no answer. You read scripture, but find no comfort. You begin to think that you’re not just “in” the desert, but that the desert is in you. I want to tell you about a man who knew the desert and the roundabout way. His title is Dr. and the last name you know him by is Seuss. But neither is true! His real name is Theodor Giesel. As a young man, Ted suffered from great guilt after his preschool sister died of pneumonia…children who survive when a sibling dies often have this survivor’s guilt…they wonder how they can be happy when the whole family is so sad…. Ted’s dad wanted his son to get a doctorate and be an academic. He wanted Ted to go to Oxford in England and be an Oxford don. But that wasn’t what Ted wanted. Oh, he went to college, but not the college that his dad wanted him to go to. Ted was in college at the time when prohibition was happening. Anyone caught drinking or providing drink to anyone was arrested and charged as a criminal. In a rebellious time in his life, Ted threw a big kegger. He was arrested and charged as a criminal. As such, he was not allowed to be in the writer’s guild. He couldn’t use the name Giesel when he wrote, so he used a pen name, his mother’s last name. Her last name was Seuss, his middle name. He had to write in secret because now he had a criminal record. Ted went on to Oxford University in England after his graduation from undergraduate work, in an effort to please his father. But academic studies bored him, and he decided to tour Europe instead. Oxford did provide him with the opportunity to meet and fall in love with Helen Palmer, who became his wife. His wife, Helen, became ill in 1954, suffering from cancer. She had constant pain in her legs and feet and had a partial paralysis. She suffered great depression and eventually committed suicide. Ted was a man acquainted with sorrow, guilt and grief. Some say that Ted had an affair during his wife’s illness and that the affair contributed to her eventual suicide. We don’t know! Ted knew sorrow, guilt and grief. But late in his life, as he looked back over his life, he realized that in spite of all of the guilt, pain, loss and sorrow, he had recovered from the dark times; he’d found happiness and joy. He wanted to write about that to young people just starting out. It was the last book he ever wrote; its title: Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Every graduation, Borders and Barnes & Noble sell out of this book. Rumor has it that he wrote a part of this book at his wife’s grave. Dr. Seuss understood the desert and the roundabout way! Let’s hear from Dr. Seuss. Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care. About some you will say, “I don't choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street. (Many parents highlight that line!) And you may not find any you'll want to go down. In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town. It's opener there in the wide open air. Out there things can happen and frequently do To people as brainy and footsy as you. And when things start to happen, don't worry. Don't stew. Just go right along. You'll start happening too. Oh! The places you’ll go! You'll be on your way up! You'll be seeing great sights! You'll join the high fliers who soar to high heights. You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed. You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest. (Here, see the theme of the desert and the roundabout way): Except when you don’t Because, sometimes, you won't. I'm sorry to say so but, sadly, it's true Problems and hang-ups can happen to you. You can get all hung up in a prickly perch. And your gang will fly on. You'll be left in a Lurch. You'll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you'll be left in a Slump. And when you're in a Slump, you're not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done. You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're dark. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? And IF you go in, should you turn left or right... or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind. You can get so confused that you'll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place. (Seuss writes on for several pages about this. Then he says On you will go though the weather be foul On you will go though your enemies prowl On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike and I know you'll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are. (and) be sure when you step, step with care and great tact And remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. The end of Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, which I won’t divulge, is about finding joy again, knowing love, forgiveness, and hope, and moving on to the next place of life. And what I want you to hear this morning, as we prepare to come to this table, is that no matter where you are…even if you’re in a desert place or caught in the roundabout way…remember this: God has not forgotten you. You’ve not been abandoned. God has been with you every step, in every desert and on every roundabout way. And as strange as it may seem, the desert and the roundabout way can offer a unique opportunity to experience the depth of God’s love. When you’re at the top of your game, all’s well, and you’re untroubled by temptation, triumphing in all you encounter and you hear: God loves you! That’s a good thing! But we can so easily take that love for granted and think that we somehow earned it. But in the desert and on the roundabout way, the word of God’s love can speak to a deeper place in your soul. When the weather is foul and enemies prowl and Hakken-Kraks howl…where you’ve been battered by temptation and yielded to more than you want to admit…and you’re racked and rocked by doubt and fear and guilt…what a wonder it is to hear God say, “You are my beloved child. I love you still.” To be loved when you’re feeling lovable and strong is nice. But to be loved when you’re feeling unlovely, unlovable and inadequate...that’s life to one who feels like they’re dying…that’s grace! In today’s scripture, Israel is admonished to remember all that God has done. How “the Lord…brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery and led you through…the terrible wilderness…He made water flow for you from the rock and fed you with manna….” And today, at this table, in receiving the bread and drinking the cup, you and I are invited to remember God’s greatest gift. At this table of Holy Communion you come to place where you find bread for the wilderness and wine for the journey. Or, in the poetry of Dr. Seuss: Here’s hope to travelers where the streets are not marked, Where some windows are lighted, but mostly they're dark. This Holy Communion, this place you’ve been sent Is for people who are weary, whose life has been spent. For those worn ragged, who need a new start, The gift of all gifts…from the depth of God’s heart. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources: 1. John Ortberg, Love Beyond Reason, Chapter 7 2. Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! 3. Dr. John M. Stephenson, “Clean Heart” 2008-08-03T21:28:01-06:00 http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/on_the_edge_of_a_breakthrough/ http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/on_the_edge_of_a_breakthrough/#When:03:57:00Z Dr. Deborah B. SmithTo me, it seems like a long time coming, but I’m finally here, to give the Word of God this morning. Please pray with me. Dear Lord God, right now we just thank you for this day and I thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to come forth and give your Word. Lord God, I ask that you fill me up with your Holy Ghost’s power. Diminish Deborah. Increase your presence. Anoint my mouth, my heart, my mind, my lips so that everything I say will be to glorify you. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. Brothers and Sisters, the Scripture lesson is taken from Luke 5:1-11. Hear the Word of God. Luke 5:1-11 NRSV One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. Brothers and Sisters, this is the Word of God for the people of God. In reflecting on our Scripture lesson here today, it brought to mind a fishing story that I would like to share with you this morning. There was a man who enjoyed fishing more than anything else. This fisherman was so excited and so dedicated to fishing that his yearly cycle would go around the fishing cycle. Whenever it was time to fish, everybody knew that for the most part, you would find him at his favorite fishing hole. He couldn’t wait for fishing season to begin this particular year because he had a new rod and a new tackle box. So, he went to his favorite spot in spite of the fact that it was out of season, and he caught the most fish he had ever gotten in his fishing career. I mean, it filled up every chest he had and every container and he was so excited about it! He, in fact, was sharing this story with all the passion and excitement with another gentleman at a restaurant nearby, while he was having his fish iced and packaged to prepare for the drive home. While he was talking, however, he noticed that the man suddenly had a scowl or a frown on his face. So, he stopped for a moment and said, “Who are you, Sir?” The man replied, “I am the fish and game warden.” With a slight pause, the game warden asked, “And who are you?” The fisherman replied, “I am indeed the biggest liar in this part of Tennessee.” I guess at this point, you can say that this gentleman may have been on the edge of a breakthrough. He, in fact, found himself thinking, “What do I do with the load of fish I just caught? Do I leave it? Or do I take it with me?” Brothers and Sisters, this is the same kind of dilemma, of sorts, that we find Simon Peter with when he let down his nets to catch fish. We are using fishing to talk about a breakthrough because nothing is more powerful than to talk about fishing when you are talking about a breakthrough. You may say, “Why is that?” Well, when you fish, you have to be committed. This means that you are willing to go and fish even when you don’t have any guarantees at all that you may catch a fish. But your willingness and your commitment propel you forward anyway. This is so like a breakthrough. In the case of Simon Peter, as you recall, he had just returned from a fishing trip and had, in fact, caught nothing. He was preparing to quit when Jesus told him to go again and cast down his net. Now, remember, this means that Peter had just finished a number of tasks. He had been mending and washing his nets, replenishing his supplies, repairing and maintaining his boats, and even tending to his crew. In other words, Peter had been very busy, and some of us might even say, “Peter must have been tired.” Peter also knew that fishing was best a night; if nothing had been caught at night, then daytime fishing was useless. But, it was Peter’s faith and trust in Jesus that made him obedient. He didn’t complain about all his duties. He didn’t complain about Jesus’ directive to fish during the day and not at night, and he didn’t complain about his energy level. He obeyed God and he was successful. In fact, because of his obedience, he had just reaped the biggest harvest that he probably had ever seen in his fishing lifetime. With Peter witnessing this remarkable catch, Jesus took this moment to ask Simon Peter to come and be a fisherman of people, which means he was asking Simon Peter to leave that most impressive catch of fish behind. But, when you think about it, if Peter had said “no” to any one of the directives that he had received from Jesus, he would have lost his opportunity for a breakthrough. This scripture, Brothers and Sisters, challenges each of us to think about our faith and our commitment to Jesus Christ. Do we quit before we can even experience a breakthrough? Could we do as we are told or directed by God without questioning, as did Simon Peter? Peter had a choice to obey Jesus or rely on his own tactics or strategies that he had been using to catch fish. Instead, he was obedient and he was bountifully blessed. In short, he received a breakthrough, not one of just catching more than an adequate load of fish, but he also realized that it was because of this breakthrough that he was being asked to do new and great things for all people by following Jesus. He no longer would have to focus on fish, but he was now being called to focus on the work of the Lord. Now, did Peter have to forget what he had learned about fishing? Absolutely not! If anything, what he had been trained to do made Peter and the other disciples, John and James and Andrew, be what we term “highly qualified.” Because of fishing, they were all skilled in mending, washing, maintaining, training, and negotiating. These same skills, Brothers and Sisters, could be utilized in becoming fishermen of people. For example, I suppose that everybody in here today has some kind of personal issue, disappointment, or brokenness that needs to be mended or fixed. Who can better do that for you than Jesus? What about being washed in the waters of baptism through Jesus Christ, and this sacrament of initiation into the body of believers allows us to wash out the old self and wash in the new self. A newness of life. And don’t we need to maintain, train, and negotiate our faith on a daily basis through Scripture, through prayer, and through meditation? And by doing this, it may just mean that some of us might have to let go of the part of us that says, “I’m not good enough,” “I’m not intelligent enough,” “I’m not young enough,” “I’m not old enough,” “I’m not attractive enough,” “I’m not worthy of love.” I’m here to tell you the good news today. You can accept your breakthrough! You may be saying, “What does she mean by breakthrough?” “Breakthrough,” my Brothers and Sisters, is defined as “an act of breaking through an obstacle or restriction; a major achievement or success that permits further progress.” It means Jesus taking the physical things that we are so concerned about, and then manipulating it in such a way that it becomes a lesson about the spiritual things...our spiritual lives. And when you talk about “edge,” we are talking about the dividing line or point of transition. Let me lift up another story here to illustrate this further. My Aunt Effie and my grandmother loved to go fishing. Now, these two women had a plan, and they would brag about how they had their favorite spot and how they used the best bait, fresh worms. I think they knew how I felt about fishing because they never invited me, but they did invite one of my brothers! They said, “We’re going to tell you our secret and you really can’t tell anybody, and you’re really going to catch some fish.” So they took him down to their favorite spot and disclosed to him “the secret.” What they had was a fresh bed of worms nearby that they would unearth and pull out and put in their jars and give to each other. So they gave him his batch and said, “This is what you do. You get the little live bait and put it on the hook, put it in the water, and you’re going to catch some fish.” They left for a bit, and when they came back, he had no fish. So my Aunt Effie said, “What’s happened? You don’t have fish?” He said, “No.” She said, “Well, I told you...I showed you how to put it on the hook, showed you how to bait it.” He said, “Yeh. But they’re not biting.” So my Aunt Effie, who is very smart, very astute, decided to go around and step around the bush and see what he was doing. Well, my brother decided that he would modify that plan, just a little bit. He got the worm and he looked at the worm and it was wiggling a little bit too much for him. So he took the worm and dropped it in his hand and started shaking it and shaking it. Finally, when the worm was exhausted or unconscious, he would then take it and put it on the hook. My Aunt Effie came out and said, “Boy, no wonder you’re not catching any fish! You’ve got to have something wiggling if you want to catch fish!” He said it just didn’t seem right to put something on the hook when it was wiggling that much! Needless to say, that day, he didn’t catch any fish, nor was he taken back to fish again with them. Now, there are several lessons we can learn here about our breakthrough. First of all, they thought they had the perfect plan. We think that sometimes. The only perfect plan for our lives is the one Jesus Christ has for us. Second lesson: God wants people who are busy and excited about Christ and the love of God to attract God’s people. In other words, Church, you need to wiggle or move a little bit to go out there and show the love of Christ. Third, when God gives you a plan for your life, you must willingly, with faith, follow the plan. Finally, if you are so full of grief, self-consciousness, jealousy, anger, and greed, then your spirit may soon become lifeless and limp like that unconscious bait and you may be useless to God’s calling to become fishermen of men and women. We have to be willing to follow God’s plan for our lives, and not our own. How many of us sitting in here today can say that what we plan for ourselves in life has worked out according to our exact plans? I tell you, as you think about it, if you pray to seek God’s plan, you will have all of the strategies and techniques that you will need to implement God’s plan, if you pray, meditate, and worship. Because you know what, Church? We are all “highly qualified,” like Peter, to do God’s will! When we look at John 5:1-9, we are taught what it means to recognize God’s plan for our lives. In John 5:1-9, Jesus walks over to a man at a pool in Bethesda. This man had been an invalid for 38 years. So, Jesus walked over to him and asked him, “Do you want to get well?” The man, looking up at Jesus began saying, “Well, you see, Lord, I’ve had no one to help me in the pool and someone else jumps in front of me.” But do you know what, Church? The man was on the edge of a breakthrough and didn’t know it. He was busy giving Jesus this litany of reasons why he couldn’t do it when all he had to do was say “yes” or “no,” just like Peter. Finally he said to Jesus, “yes,” after his many excuses. And do you know what Jesus said? “Get up. Pick up your mat and walk.” He was cured instantly and picked up his mat and walked. Now, I know some of us can relate to this man in Bethesda. When you are asked to feed the hungry, do you ever say, “I would, but __________ (you fill in the reasons). When you are asked to visit the sick and shut-in, do you say, “I can’t go because __________ (fill in the reasons). Even when we sing the words to “The Summons” found in The Faith We Sing, there is a line in there...a question...that asks you, “Will you kiss the leper clean?” Have you really thought about those words or do you like it because of the melody or the song? Let me tell you, God doesn’t want your excuses. Excuses are the crutches of the uncommitted. If you are uncommitted, Church, you probably have already missed one of your breakthroughs or you could be on the edge of a breakthrough, right now, sitting here today, and not even know it. In breakthroughs, we have to be honest with ourselves and God. Like Peter, who said in verse 8: “Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man,” we have to acknowledge that we are indeed sinners. But God has shown that all are welcome. It does not matter that we are sinners. As a reality check, look at Jesus and His call to Simon Peter and the other disciples. Jesus already knew the potential of Simon Peter. He wasn’t focused on his sinful nature. Before Jesus made His offer, Jesus went to where the people were. He sat in their surroundings. He sat in the boat. Jesus knew that sometimes, to get a person’s attention, you have to go to where the people are. Isn’t that what Jesus did, and wants us to do today? We have to go outside of the church walls and be with the people...be with the hungry...be with the homeless...be with the wounded. When Jesus told Peter to cast down the net, Peter was on the edge of a breakthrough and didn’t know it. Jesus provided him with such a catch that the boat began to sink, and Peter yelled for his partners to come and help with the catch. Soon their boat was filled and also sinking from the heavy load of fish. But none of them lost their focus and all of them made it back safely to shore with that load. Notice that I highlighted “focus.” Sometimes, Brothers and Sisters, we can get so distracted with the things, the events, the brokenness in our lives, that we lose focus. We miss the breakthrough. This also demonstrates how we may need each other. We may need one another to lean on sometimes to get through a situation in our lives. This scene also demonstrates that not all breakthroughs are easy or smooth sailing. A breakthrough can be a little risky. It may mean taking a risk. It may cause you to be uncomfortable. A breakthrough may cause you to break old habits. It may cause you to lose or leave some of your old friends. A breakthrough may cause you to move to another city, or do something a little differently. How many of us, right now, are too afraid to move out of the little box that you are in, and move to the edge of the breakthrough that you may so desperately need in your life right now? Some of us need a breakthrough that could be financial. Some of us may need a breakthrough that could be health-related. It could be a psychological healing. It could be drug or alcohol related. It could be a self esteem issue. It could be one with self-pity, grief, anger, loneliness, and just overall brokenness. But today, I say we are all on the edge of a breakthrough. We can be more like Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Now, don’t think of breakthrough as change. Change is something that we too often control and is grounded more in the flesh. Breakthrough is more of a spiritual happening. What do I mean by that? We can change the color of our hair. We can change the kinds of clothes we wear. We can change our physical appearance. We can even change where we live. But, we can’t change the hurt. Sometimes we can’t change the sorrow. We can’t change our sadness, nor the betrayals that we may feel in our own hearts. Only a breakthrough can do that. Only God can do that. God is in charge of our breakthroughs. Jesus had the ultimate breakthrough, Church, when he arose from the dead to give us proof once and for all that the final and most permanent breakthrough, which is everlasting life, is available to us all. So, will you say “Yes” or will you say “No?” Or will you give excuses like the man at Bethesda? The choice is yours. Your breakthrough. Your breakthrough is coming through. You’re on the edge of a breakthrough. Let us pray. Dear Lord God, right now we just thank you for this day and we thank you, Lord, for teaching us what it means to be disciples. Lord, help us to know and accept the challenges for what it means to be fishermen of men and women. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: 1. Dunn, James D. G. & Rogerson, John W. (eds.) (2003). Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2. The New Interpreter’s Bible – A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume IX. (1995). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 3. Green, Joel B. The Gospel of Luke. (1997). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 4. McIntyre, Dean. Thinking About a New Hymnal #5 – What the People are Saying. April 4, 2008 (#185). 2008-07-28T03:57:00-06:00 http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/how_is_it_with_your_soul_getting_real_with_each_other/ http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/how_is_it_with_your_soul_getting_real_with_each_other/#When:02:44:00Z Reverend Rebecca LuterLet us pray. O God, our Guide and our Guardian, you have led us apart from the busy world into the quiet of your house. Grant us grace to worship you in Spirit and in truth, for the up-building of every good purpose and Holy desire. Enable us to hear and understand your Holy Word. Grant that the words of my mouth may be your Word, and the meditations of all of our hearts may be acceptable in your sight. May we be changed by the hearing of your Word so that we would worship you not just with our lips at this hour, but in word and deed all of our lives. For Christ’s sake, Amen. Our scripture comes to us this morning from the Gospel of John, the 15th chapter, verses 9-17. This is just after Jesus has told the analogy of “I am the vine and you are the branches.” Listen now for the word of the Lord. John 15:9-17 NRSV “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” May God bless the reading of this, His Holy Word, to our understanding. The Gallup organization did a study a few years ago on what it was that made churches successful. In responding to the results of this study, research specialist Michael Lindsey was quoted as saying, “The most satisfied church members in America worship at places where they feel like they belong, where they are valued and appreciated, and where friendships flourish. The data compel church leaders to help these kinds of meaningful relationships to take root and grow.” And pollster George Gallup, Jr., said, “The connections we've discovered between human friendships, spiritual maturity, church satisfaction and even feelings of intimacy with God are absolutely remarkable.” Should we find it remarkable? Jesus compares us to branches on a vine…and He is the vine. We grow together, and He is the source of water and food and our connection. Paul described our relationship this way, “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another….Let love be genuine….Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another….” (Romans 12:4-5, 9a, 15-16a).” Methodists have embraced this instruction in the form of a covered casserole dish. When a baby is born or a sickness comes, so do the casseroles! It is so true of Methodists, that we are featured in many jokes as the casserole carriers. In fact, in her book, Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral, Gayden Metcalfe notes, “You can tell a Methodist recipe because it almost always has a step that reads, ‘Blend sour cream and cheese.’” But beyond the casseroles, how do we rejoice and mourn together? Last week, I talked about Jesus being real and being honest with who he was. First, we have to be honest with one another, and we have to know and trust one another in order to share our burdens. Typically, when you ask someone, “How are you?” it is in passing, and you are not expecting a full run-down of their life, the ups and downs. In all honesty, you aren’t expecting a conversation. You are expecting a return passing, “Fine, how are you?” to which you will throw over your shoulder a “fine.” But this is not the life together we are called to live as the body of Christ. We are called to know one another. John Ortberg says it this way, “You can only be loved to the extent that you are known. You can only be completely loved if you are completely known.” Self-disclosure and confession are messy, but they are a first step in sharing your soul in community. Last week, we saw that Jesus was authentic, real, and fully knowable. And we are called to be like him. The reality is, because we are all human, and are not like him, we all carry a few deep secrets. “Maybe you’ve done things that you are desperately ashamed of, or made choices that are so painful that you try not even to think about them. Maybe things were done to you that have such a sense of darkness about them that you can’t talk about them. Maybe [you experience] feelings of depression or anxiety so deep you [sometimes don’t] know if you [can] go on. Maybe [you have] habits or behavioral patterns that you can’t break – you feel so weak. Every human being carries hurts or scars or wounds. Our tendency…is to hide [them] as if our life depended on it. This is exactly wrong. Our life depends on getting found. There is no healing [for your soul] in hiding.” (Ortberg) A first step in Getting Real with Each Other is to “move toward someone in your life who knows all about you.” A long time ago, I heard a definition of “friend.” It is “someone who knows everything about you and still likes you.” Move toward someone in your life who knows everything about you. If there is that one thing that you think, “I haven’t told anybody that,” the person that you trust the most...just try it with them! Share that with them. Because I have found that when you are vulnerable and open up and share, the other person who you trust the most and love the most, has things they want to share, too. And it can become a moment of growing together and loving more deeply. A second step is to join a group where you are comfortable telling the truth when someone asks, “How are you?” So often, we say that we’re fine when really we are a long way from fine. We say it because we don’t think the other person cares or wants to listen; we say it because we don’t want to be thought of as bragging or as weak; and we say it because we know we are expected to keep our veil on…and we know that the person asking is hoping we’ll say “fine,” so that they don’t have to respond. That is not Christian community. Our culture teaches us not to share our emotions. But we are instructed to “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep…and to live in harmony with one another.” We might be tempted to say that it is harder to mourn with those who mourn than to rejoice with those who rejoice because we know that we are taught not to cry and that we are not taught how to grieve. But the truth is, we don’t know how to rejoice, either. It seems like “rejoice with those who rejoice” would be easy. Who doesn’t love a party? The part of the branch that thinks it must be greener over on your part of the vine…why are you happy – do you get more sun, water, in better soil? In our society, from toddler age on, birthday parties are in competition for the best location, the most intricate cake, and the most interesting guest…and it lasts all the way up until the wedding and baptisms...and the cycle starts over. Whatever the joyous occasion…in our culture, we have a hard time rejoicing with those who rejoice sometimes without judgment or jealousy or pride creeping in and separating us. These are celebrations of the joys in life, times to abide with one another in love that our joy might be complete. They are times to be real with one another in happiness. And we are to weep with those who weep…. At the hardest point in his life, Jesus took his best friends with him to a quiet, dark place in the still of the night called Gethsemane. Mark tells us he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death.” We are called to be a community that trusts one another with how we really are. Jesus modeled that community for us. And we know we are supposed to be there for each other – that’s why we have frozen casseroles ready to go at a moment’s notice. But, once the casserole has been delivered, what else do we do? Ask “How are you?” and mean it. Be ready to listen. Each member of the community is the responsibility of every one of us. If you think about someone, and think, “I haven’t heard from them in awhile,” or “I wonder how they are?” CALL THEM. If you know someone has had a tough time, tell them you are sorry...reach out to them. When I was in seminary, our next door neighbor and his wife were expecting a baby in November. He was a first-year doctoral student, so we didn’t know each other well. Because of insurance purposes, his wife had to stay where they had lived before to have the baby. Three days before her due date, the baby was born by emergency c-section and did not live. The day the father came back alone to campus, I ran into him at the intersection we had to cross to get to and from campus from our apartments. His head was down as he was returning to the apartments. I considered heading on to class. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable out in public, and we really didn’t know each other very well. But, I waited on the other side, rather than crossing with the light, and I said, “I am so sorry.” He looked at me and had such an expression of relief. “You’re the first person to say anything to me; thank you so much.” In a community of ministers and would-be ministers, we had been too scared to reveal ourselves. We had donned our fig leaves and hidden like Adam and Eve in the garden. The Kingdom of God is not a place to play hide and seek. It’s a place to be found...to be revealed. When we are tenderly honest and loving with each other, that’s the Kingdom of God. When you reach out...when you call...don’t worry about what you are going to say...just listen. Don’t try to fix the problem or correct their beliefs...just listen. Be there, and be natural. Don’t be afraid to cry or to laugh. Don’t be afraid to invite them to all the things that you would have invited them to before. When a crisis strikes, one of the hardest things is that everyone leaves you to mourn…alone. Whether it is the loss of a job, or illness, or death, your social card seems to get revoked. Friends don’t invite you to dinner, no one asks you to that hilarious movie that they all know would be just your kind of flick, the phone stops ringing with the exception of a few “check-in” calls, and the house seems quieter than ever. Weeping with those who weep does not mean that those in the weeping group can’t join the rejoicing group. We are called to live in harmony – like the sour cream and cheese blended together in our casseroles – our rejoicing and mourning intermingle in the life of the church. A lot of the time, when I’m preparing a sermon, a song will join my thoughts and play in my mind as I prepare. I don’t usually know all the words, so I have to look them up to see if they are appropriate to share…or if it is just the chorus that’s applicable. As I worked on this text from John, I kept thinking of the song, “Lean on Me.” When I looked up the words, they were even better than I remembered them… “Lean on me, when you're not strong And I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on For it won't be long 'Til I'm gonna need Somebody to lean on Please swallow your pride If I have things you need to borrow For no one can fill those of your needs That you won't let show You just call on me brother when you need a hand We all need somebody to lean on I just might have a problem that you'd understand We all need somebody to lean on.” “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you;” says Jesus, “abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” The repetition of the word “abide” stood out to me. Abide goes beyond acquaintance…abide connotes lingering, accepting, living with one another, and enduring living with one another, leaning on one another. Paul, in writing to the church at Galatia, says it this way, “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” We are called to hold one another accountable and to bring out the best in each other, as we lean on each other. No matter what behavior you are trying to correct or improve – whether it is a temptation you are trying to avoid or a lifestyle change you are trying to make, you need your friends to know about it and to encourage you…and remind you. When you are trying to give up a bad habit, how easy is it to go back to it, if nobody knows that you are trying to give it up? We all know it’s much easier! We need people to hold us accountable. The same is true when you start to watch what you eat or exercise. And when you are trying to study the Bible daily or pray or rely on God, the same is true. Do you know why diets advise that you eat several small, healthy meals throughout the day, rather than three big meals? What happens if you skip breakfast and lunch, you get home in the afternoon/early evening, and before supper is ready, what have you done? You’ve grabbed whatever looked good and was easy, right? We’ve all done it – the leftover birthday cake, some animal crackers or Girl Scout cookies, a Snickers bar (Afterall, you’re feeling a little shaky, probably need some protein from those peanuts!). And, before you know it, you’ve consumed as many or more calories than you would have if you had spaced out your meals…with less nutritional value, and your metabolism is slowed because your body had gone into starvation mode, so all that you just ate will be processed into fat in case you do the same thing tomorrow. We do the same thing at church. We become binge Christians if we don’t have a community of people around us, encouraging us, abiding with us. We know that God should be a part of our lives and that we should integrate our faith into our living with small, daily devotions and disciplines. We know we would be better to incorporate our Christianity into the fabric of our lives, but instead we come on Sunday and try to fill the whole void. Or we commit to read the Bible in a year and start reading with gusto – the first few days, we even read more than our assigned chapter per day. And we get to the middle of Genesis and give up. We all need accountability. We are all a little bit like chameleons…we start to be like the people we surround ourselves with. Who will you be the real you with? Who will you rejoice with, weep with, and abide with? We all need to be known, need to be loved, need to be able to be real. Jesus had crowds of people following him. But he chose twelve disciples to be his friends, to share his life with, to rejoice with and to weep with…and they grew together. Amen. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources: 1. Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service, “Gallup Poll Reveals Secret to Successful Churches ‘Culture of Friendship’” 2. Lisa Barnes Lampman, Helping a Neighbor in Crisis, 1997. 3. Gail R. O’Day and Susan E. Hylen, John (in the series Westminster Bible Companion, 2006). 4. John Ortberg, Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them, 2003. 5. Gayle Turner Watson, Guide for Covenant Discipleship Groups, Discipleship Resources, 2001. 6. Bill Withers, “Lean On Me” 2008-07-21T02:44:00-06:00 http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/how_is_it_with_your_soul/ http://www.germantownumc.org/index.php/sermons/how_is_it_with_your_soul/#When:13:15:00Z Reverend Rebecca LuterThis week and next, we’ll be looking at what it means to follow Jesus, looking at the crowds that followed him, and the disciples. This week, we will consider the movement from being a part of the crowds that follow him to being a disciple. (You could sub-title today’s message: “Get Real!”) Next week, we will look at what it means to live in a community of disciples (and you could sub-title that one: “Get Real with Each Other!”). We turn now to a story about a man in the crowd who has decided that Jesus can offer something more for his life. Listen now for the Word of the Lord from the Gospel of Mark. Mark 10:17-22 NRSV As he [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. May God bless the reading of His Word to our understanding. Let us pray. O God, by your Spirit, tell us what we need to hear. Your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Show us what we ought to do to obey Jesus Christ, our Savior. Give us grace to receive your truth in faith and love, that we may be obedient to your will and live always for your glory. For Christ’s sake, Amen. Here is this man and he has heard about Jesus…and he likes what he hears. Perhaps Jesus will provide just the thing that seems to be missing. If we’re honest, don’t a lot of us approach Jesus and his church with a “what will I get out of this” attitude? Reverend Rick Barger pastors a large Lutheran church in Littleton, Colorado. He tells about a couple and their children who came to visit his church. The Sunday that they were first-time visitors he had the opportunity to talk with them. And I think if we are honest, his discussion with them is not unlike a discussion that could happen here. He says, “They were both very talkative. I quickly learned that they both were well-educated, having attended prestigious undergraduate and graduate-level professional schools. They both held ‘great’ jobs and lived in an upscale development. They were not native to Colorado, but had moved from Minnesota a few years earlier. Their kids were enrolled in a private school and were involved in many activities. They told me that their lives were ‘great’ and that they were ‘happy.’ Their reason for coming on this Sunday morning, however, was because they were sensing that ‘something was missing’ and they were seeking a connection to a ‘spiritual community’ that would be the ‘icing on the cake’ for their otherwise wonderful lives.” (Barger) What does Jesus have to offer, anyway? Have you ever tried to introduce someone to Jesus? What is important about him? Why should a person want to know what he teaches? Who is he, in simple terms, and why would someone want to follow him? The time I have to be most simple in describing who Jesus is, is when I lead chapel for the preschool here at the church. Some of those children have never heard of Jesus. Some have never heard of God. How, in 10-15 minutes a week, do we introduce them to God and Jesus so that they want to learn more? When I was in seminary, the final exam in my second semester of Theology had one question: “Who Is Jesus Christ?” So I should have an answer for those preschoolers, right? The problem is, if you sit down and try to write an answer to the question, “Who is Jesus Christ?”, it’s hard! I spent days and weeks in conversations, starting to write, throwing it away, and starting over again. My answer doesn’t help me with preschoolers. When I begin to talk about Jesus’ ministry with the preschoolers, I always say, “Remember Jesus was a teacher, and he had disciples (his students), and they traveled from town to town…walking…and wherever they went, great crowds gathered to hear what Jesus would say. And then, I tell the story of the day... whether it is the story of a vertically and socially-challenged man in a tree whom Jesus orders to come down and then proceeds to go to the man’s house...or the story of mothers being shooed away with their children by some disciples who say, “Get back, he’s here to see important people…get out of the way…get these children out of here”...and Jesus saying, “They do matter! They matter the most! Let them come close to me!”...or the story of a blind beggar sitting by the roadside shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” and people saying, “Hush; be quiet!” and Jesus stopping to heal him. Why was there a crowd everywhere he went? Certainly, he drew attention at first with the healing that some received from him. But, in that day there was not a sense of healing as being out-of-the-natural-order in the way that we think of it today. If we can’t explain a healing through modern medicine, then we see it as a miracle – a suspension of the natural order. Their thought was not so based in cause and effect as ours is today. And so, all healing (through any means) was a wonder, a mighty work, and the same word that we translate as “miracle.” And in Jesus’ day, there were many who worked wonders. “In Greece, the god Asclepius was credited with endless feats of healing, and the inscriptions discovered in the ruins …of the temple of Epidaurus in Arolis give long lists of marvelous cures….[in] Palestine, both the Talmud and Midrash describe typical miracles performed by Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai and his disciple, Rabbie Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, contemporaries of Jesus.” (Fosdick, 56) So, the healings did not make him unique. They did draw the crowd, but what was it about him that made people follow him…even after they were healed? Why did they stay? What kept them there? Jesus wasn’t primarily a healer. And he did not want to be known as a healer. In fact, he asked some people that he healed not to tell anyone he had healed them. Jesus was a teacher. His disciples called him Rabbi -- the word for teacher -- and he told stories that were accessible. He used examples they understood: one man built his house on rock and another built his house on sand and the rain came; a woman lost one of her ten coins and she turned the house upside down looking for it; a man was going down that dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho and was robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. They could identify with these people. Each story had more to it...there was a depth that kept you thinking about what he really meant when he told that story, and so the crowds gathered. Matthew records in his Gospel that the crowd following Jesus was building as large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan came together, and when Jesus saw the amassed crowd, he went up on a mountainside and sat down…and began to teach. Here, Matthew records what we know as the Sermon on the Mount, and at the close, he comments, “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” There were other rabbis who taught using story and parable…but there was a difference in Jesus’ teaching. It was more than they had expected. What was that quality? Harry Emerson Fosdick, in The Man from Nazareth, describes Jesus’ s