"All Of Us Are Miniature Factories"

Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – September 2, 2012

Centenary United Methodist Church

James 1:17-25, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

 

    Our Gospel lesson for this morning lends itself to the theme that we celebrate on Labor Day weekend.  This episode features religious leaders asking Jesus why his disciples were eating food without washing their hands.  The disciples were also eating fruit that they had not washed.  This was a perfectly logical question.  The Jews were among the most advanced societies on the earth when it came to the practice of personal hygiene.

    They knew nothing about the existence of microscopic organisms that were carried on their hands or food that had not been washed.  What their religious heritage gave them, however, was the wisdom of washing everything before eating a meal.  This practice became a daily ritual for the Jews and they did not get sick as often as others who did not practice this ritual.  

    This was one occasion when the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law were correct, and it was Jesus that gave them no direct response to their question.  Instead, Jesus used the occasion to broaden the point of view of everyone witnessing this event.  He warned his critics not to concentrate on the small issues that govern the quality of life but on the larger issue of maintaining the quality of the spirit by which they lived.  He quoted from the prophet Isaiah:

The Lord said, “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else.  Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized. They recite these rules and traditions as though they are my laws.  Such rules and traditions did not come from me.”  (Isaiah 29:13)

    Jesus used this public exchange between himself and the authorities as a teachable moment. He said, “There is nothing that goes into you from the outside which can make you ritually unclean.  Rather it is what comes out of you that makes you unclean.”  (Mark 7:15)  Once again Jesus set aside a centuries-old Hebrew teaching so that he could focus on a reality that had substance.   He declared that it is the spirit by which people live that makes them healthy and wholesome or self-destructive and irresponsible.

    In essence, Jesus was teaching that we are miniature factories that create and produce as the spirit of our desires and goals directs us to do.  We produce a lot of decisions, a lot of attitudes and a lot of creative ideas.  These creations influence the lives of countless people. We can make the burdens that others carry much lighter by supporting and affirming them during their struggles, or we can make them heavier by blame, criticism and rebuke. 

    Many of us do not think of our vocations as being intimately connected to our spirits, but the two cannot be separated.  Four days ago I read a troubling statistic.  The claim was made that sixty percent of Americans do not like their jobs.  I have not seen a recent poll that checked on the attitudes of Bermudians.   What many people miss in their understanding of life is that there are no bad jobs.  Job satisfaction has more to do with attitude than the tasks we perform.  The quality of our attitudes can be maintained by our choice to do so. Every job is absolutely crucial for the healthy functioning of our society.

    Try to imagine what visionaries and creators have given the world.  Those visions came from the same place within each person as did Jesus’ teachings.   As those visions became realities, think of how information now flows instantly all over the world.  Think of how the Internet has given people access to maps, tourist attractions they may not have the opportunity to visit and medical information that gives volumes of information to people before they see a physician. 

    These were not small leaps for humankind.  All of these things have come from our imaginations, our intuition and the merging of technologies that now allow the deaf to hear, amputees to walk, the replacement of knees, hips and shoulders and the treatment of disabling diseases that have helped people to live relatively normal lives. These advances created by inspired people have made our travels to the future exciting and filled with limitless possibilities for ourselves and future generations.

    What Jesus stressed, however, were the choices people made that caused them to be unclean.  He mentioned many of humankind’s shortcomings. We know them all and we also know that they never produce anything that advances a person’s life or the quality of any society. 

    Examples of each are in the news every day, from suicide bombers to con artists who prey on the elderly.  Jesus said, “From the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead people to engage in activities that cause them to become self-destructive and irresponsible.”  (Mark 7:21)

    Jesus was attempting to coach people not miss the mark with their choices. We were not wired by God to be self-absorbed.  This morning we are going to celebrate the ripple effect that comes from each of us when we serve one another.  To some of us, this may sound like church-speak and being overly-religious but the idea is not.  In fact, it is a universal practice. 

    Everyone who has ever held a job or volunteered, regardless of what they believe, has participated in what Jesus taught.  He said, “Serve one another” and that is exactly what each person does when they work.  Labor Day can be a celebration of what people do from the most humble to the most exalted tasks.

    I recall the day I spoke to a man who worked on an automobile assembly line in Detroit, Michigan.  I asked, “Does your foreman ever switch you to something else other than attaching doors to the frames of cars?  Doesn’t your job become boring?”  He said, “Yes, the line manager gave me the option to do that but I love attaching doors.  I know that when I put a door on a car, there is no one in the world who could come in behind me and do a better job.”  He loved what he did and it showed.  Every automaker in the world would hire that man because of his dedication to the quality of what he does. His words to me made him smile with satisfaction.  His spirit made everyone in my group smile too.

    What makes a job an incredibly wonderful experience is when we allow it to become a vehicle to express who lives inside of our skin.  Wages do not define our worth.  The number of responsibilities we have does not define our worth.  The power and prestige we have do not define our worth.  When work becomes one more venue to make our love of life visible, that is what defines us.

    One day I was driving on fumes and I pulled into a gasoline station to fill up my tank.  In an earlier and gentler time, gas stations used to be called “service stations.” They were called that because of the routine tasks station attendants did for their customers.  On this day a man came out of one of the station’s bays to pump my gas.  As he was washing my windshield and checking the level of my engine oil, I asked him how long he had been working on cars and pumping gas.  His response gave me one of those encounters I will never forget.  He said,

I have worked on engines all my life.  I guess I can thank my dad for giving me a passion for working on engines. However, up until six months ago, I wore a suit to work.  I retired from Riggs National Bank.   I was a mess around the house and my wife said, ‘Honey, go work on car engines.  You’re being home with nothing to do is driving me nuts.’  Working at the bank was very satisfying but this work is a passion of mine.  I really enjoy diagnosing and fixing car problems but more than that, I enjoy working with the people.

    He was clearly motivated by the desire to serve others and it showed.  He presented himself as down to earth, unpretentious and had a remarkable skill of building rapport with people of all types. I later learned that he had been the Executive Vice President of that bank.  His spirit spoke volumes. A person like that could be placed anywhere and produce results all because of what his life-force motivated him to be.  The spirit by which we live tells our story for us.

    I have met grounds-keepers and elevator-operators who were philosophers, custodians who were wise and careful listeners and two multi-millionaires who never advanced beyond the seventh grade.  It was not luck that made them happy, fulfilled and at peace.  They had real wealth that cannot be measured by the number of figures on their paychecks, but rather by their contagious appetite to be of service to others.

    We live in a world where the acceleration of change is without parallel in history.  Each of us is called upon to be a problem-solver, to build stronger relationships and to put back into the coffers of life more than what we have taken.  Some of the best jobs are held by volunteers whose only wage is their ability to make their desire to be of service more visible.  Sometimes, for some people, that is enough to brighten any environment. 

    Jesus taught that what comes out of us is what is within us.  Who we are always shows up in every twist and turn during our life’s journey.  On Labor Day – it is wonderful to realize that all of us can be a blessing to the world just by showing up with an authentic willingness to serve.