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"Want A Savior Or A Coach?" Sermon Preached By Rev. Richard E. Stetler - November 30, 2003 Psalm 25:1-10; Jeremiah 33:14-16
In this morning's lesson
Jeremiah wrote,
The time is coming when I will fulfill
the promise that I made to the people of Israel and Judah. At that
time I will choose as king a righteous descendant of David. That
king will do what is right and just throughout the land. Isaiah is most vivid in his
numerous descriptions of the coming hope. In one passage his words
painted a mixed portrait of destroyed enemies, confiscated wealth
and an established rule by none other than God.
The Lord will show us his glory. We will
live beside broad rivers and streams, but hostile ships will not
sail on them. We will seize all the wealth of enemy armies and
there will be so much that even the lame will get a share. The Lord
himself will be our king; he will rule over us and protect us. No
one who lives in our land will ever again complain of being sick,
and all sins will be forgiven. (Is. 33:21-24) It would be a challenge for
any student of the Hebrew Scriptures to find a precise understanding
that describes exactly what the Jews hoped would come. They
certainly had their share of saviors. In spite of how wonderful
they were, none of them produced cultural or economic stability that
lasted more than two or three generations. For example, Joseph was a
true savior of Jacob's entire household. He brought them into Egypt
to escape the seven years of famine and gave them the land of Goshen
as a place to live. However, eventually there arose a Pharaoh who
did not know Joseph. The Hebrew population had grown so rapidly
that the new ruler of Egypt enslaved them in fear they would become
too powerful to manage. Moses saved his people by leading
them out of Egypt and by giving them their law code. Later, with the
Ark of the Covenant going before them, Joshua lead the Jews across the
Jordan into Canaan. Even though the "Promised Land" was God's gift to
the Hebrews, they had first to cleanse it of its current inhabitants,
e.g., the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites,
Amorites and Jebusites. (Josh. 3:10) While this was the land
"flowing with milk and honey," it nevertheless became the stage where
the drama of war became a constant theme. When their dream of restoring
Zion was never realized, the Jews began to look forward to the coming of
a Messiah. This leader would embody every quality that would provide
leadership for establishing an ideal world for them. Is eagerly waiting the arrival
of a Messiah a hope that has value? Can there ever be an ideal
world, particularly since every generation must learn to build on the
wisdom of those who have gone before them. As we are painfully aware,
each newborn to planet earth must learn life's lessons in a time they
choose. The "perfect world" may always be in the eye of the
beholder. Over the last six months I have
grown intrigued by the message underlying the television commercials for
the automobile industry. Their producers have created a concept of an
ideal world. It is a world where no one else exists but the person
behind the wheel of their car. Have you noticed this? The cars are generally traveling
on open, winding roads at high rates of speed. No other cars can be seen
anywhere. One commercial even has the car being "guarded and guided" by
four small angelic creatures. While driving in the city, the
driver in one commercial finds himself in a major metropolitan area
where the streets are completely empty. How they ever filmed this
remains a mystery. There are no pedestrians in sight. Another
advertisement features a gridlocked traffic pattern that freezes
allowing one driver to maneuver through the stilled traffic as though he
were totally in control of his world. The reality is that most of us go
from 0 to 60 in about 30 minutes or about the time it takes us to get to
Route 50 between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on a "good day."
In our tradition, Christians look
forward each year to the birth of Jesus, whom we believe is the Savior
of humanity. Are we clear what it is we are looking forward to in the
birth of this child? What do we honestly expect from our Savior -- that
our sins are forgiven and our slates are wiped clean? Is it that our
lives can be made new? Do we expect Jesus to bring into existence a new
world order? What are we hoping for with all our celebrations, rituals,
decorated homes and sanctuaries?
Collectively humanity has not
appreciably changed spiritually since the birth of Jesus. Many
centuries before Jesus' birth, Isaiah captured with his words a major
tendency found in human behavior. His findings are still accurate
today. While addressing Israel he wrote,
Listen you deaf people! Look closely, you
who are blind! Israel, you have seen so much, but what has it meant to
you? You have ears to hear but what have you really heard? The Lord is
a God who is eager to save, so he exalted his laws and teachings. He
wanted his people to understand them and apply them to their lives. But
we would not live as he wanted us to live or obey the teachings he gave
us. Throughout our history, we have lived very tortured lives. We
never knew what was happening; we lived as though we had learned nothing
from our heritage, traditions and faith. (Isaiah 42:18f) Perhaps the perception of a
savior is as mythological as the commercials being offered by the
automotive industry. Can anyone save us? Yes, they can, but not in the
way we commonly associate with our faith tradition. There is a young woman whom I
will call Cindy. She is a stunning, shapely beauty who is 33 years
old. She is single. She was referred to as being "high maintenance" by
the person telling me about her. In every relationship she has
financially drained her male companions until eventually each had to
draw a line in the sand and walk away. She is a woman who needed the
clothing, jewelry, dining at the finest restaurants, Broadway shows,
etc. The storyteller said, "She's finally hit the lottery. She
has met a man who is 54. He has put her up in a condo that costs $2,000
a month and he has given her a VISA card that has no credit limit. She
is in heaven!" Cindy has been saved, for the
moment, from having to grow up, from having to assume responsibility for
her life and from having to develop marketable skills. She is free to
indulge herself any way she wants. Her newly found economic power will
allow her to deepen the illusion that she is worth it. What will happen
to her when the means for meeting her neediness ends and she is left
with masks that will no longer hide her true identity? We either
grow or engage in delay. Today we are not preparing
ourselves for a savior who can wave a magic wand and give us everything
we fear we lack. That is not the kind of Savior Jesus grew up to
be. We experience our lives exactly as Isaiah indicated how the Jews
were experiencing theirs. We may have the rules from God
memorized, but we prefer to follow the often whimsical responses to our
own desires. Regardless of what Jesus
taught and what he did during the last several years of his life, until
we resonate with his message, we will not be among those who hear his
voice. Not everyone is ready to hear. Not everyone wants to
understand life the way Jesus did. The physical trappings of our
earthly environment are simply too tempting, too desirable, too
attractive and too compelling. After all, why search for a deeper
meaning and purpose for our lives when we already have found happiness,
have lots of friends and are successful in our vocational field? What
more could we possibly want? The Jews had placed their hope
in material symbols, too, symbols such as "the Promised Land," an
idealized ruler of David's bloodline or a time when the Son of Man will
come in the clouds and give to them a restored Zion.
We Christians
may find ourselves preparing for the arrival of a savior who we perceive
with an equal number of fuzzy, abstract definitions that communicate
very little of substance. Perhaps a better metaphor for us
is a coach who entered our world embodying the rules of
God. He taught his followers how to radiate thoughtful, loving energy
patterns and he became an inspired cheerleader for anyone who had the
courage to follow him. He knew that for humanity to
be saved from the disastrous, cyclical, earth-binding themes of our
collective consciousness, there would have to be a group of pioneers
willing to take risks by following him. He called them his
disciples. Eventually they began to teach what has inspired followers in
every generation -- there is more to our lives than what we perceive
through our five senses. It is this understanding that
allows us to love someone who will not or cannot return it. Having this
understanding helps us to move beyond being held an emotional captive of
our hurt feelings. This allows us to permit others to be whoever they
are while we love them just as we find them. This allows us to be in
the midst of chaotic power struggles at the office while we remain
detached as though we were watching a drama unfold at the theater. This
orientation helps us to be an authentic support for others as we
literally become the wind beneath their wings. We become saved not by
being given a new external world but by being coached on how better to
live in the one we have. We cannot pattern ourselves
after Jesus' likeness without him remaining the coach who encourages us.
Our Shepherd's voice comes through many channels. Our faith community
inspires such teachable moments. We can receive course corrections from
a friend while being a part of a Church School class discussion, from a
sermon on Sunday morning, from a book, from a listener whose presence in
our lives means everything, through prayer or while in the midst of our
quiet times. It is we who must remain
open, willing and attentive. Nothing that produces spiritual maturity
is ever automatic. There must be a willingness to accept course
corrections-a choice that saves us from the countless blind alleys and
human struggles that beckon us to enter. When we go there, we become
entangled in a web and our lives suddenly become complicated.
During his ministry Jesus invited his followers to become a different
kind of being. Advent is not a time to look
forward to some divine transfer from God to us of all the skills we
never took the time to develop. Advent is looking forward to this
truth: "God so loved the world's people that He gave them His Son.
Whosoever believes what he taught will reveal their eternal nature. God
did not send His Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its
savior. (John 3:16-17) The new world will come not by
what we hope God will establish for us. If that had been the plan, it
would have already happened. The new world will come because we had the
courage to listen to our coach who brought part of his world into ours.
This is our hope. This is what we eagerly look forward to with the
coming of a baby in Bethlehem. THE PASTORAL PRAYER
For so many years, O God, a number of us have
settled for recycling our habits and rituals of Advent. Our days come
and go and the years drift into decades. Without realizing it, we can
grow complacent with our traditions. We may find ourselves more busy
with the details of the season than we are with stretching toward the
horizons of spirit.
Help us remember that for which we prepare --
the coming into our world of a truth that was so strangely packaged, few
recognized your finger prints. Humanity grows suspicious when
new insights challenge what many believe was divinely inspired. The
dictates of Hebrew Law gave way to the inspired quality of the spirit by
which we live.
Heal us of complaining about long shopping
lines, the price of products, the need to eat every time we turn around
or who to drop from our Christmas card list. Help us learn to ignore
the inconveniences and frustrations that come with being among lots of
people as we work on our skills of kindness, patience and
understanding. Perhaps the greatest gifts we can give this season will
come from the way we display courtesy, smiles and joy that is both
consistent and gentle. We pray these thoughts through the spirit of
Jesus, who taught us to say when we pray . . . |