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"Life Is A Series Of Leaps" Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – June 17, 2012 Centenary United Proverbs
4:1-13; Mark 4:26-34 Last Sunday we discussed one of the major causes of stress during Jesus’ ministry as he tried to guide his listeners to expand their spiritual awareness. As you may recall, the Jews were entrenched in their need to be obedient to a lengthy and complicated legal system that was believed to be given to Moses by God. These Laws were more than the Ten Commandments. The book of Leviticus provides interested readers with an overview of how tedious and cumbersome the Hebrew Laws had become. Jesus wanted to
liberate people from obedience to the Laws of Moses by encouraging them
to honor God with their deeds and attitudes because they wanted to. This transition would mean that
deeds-of-will are more authentic and important than having the same
deeds performed from a discipline of obedience.
Last week, Jesus quoted the prophet Hosea, “God said, ‘It is
kindness that I want not more animal sacrifices.”
(Hosea 6:6) Very few of us
realize how impossible it was
for Jesus to change the spiritual orientation of his listeners.
Prior to Jesus, the Jews had very little understanding about the
coming Jesus was so
enthusiastic to teach his message that his listeners and members of his
family actually thought he had taken leave of his senses.
(Mark 3:20-21). There
were moments when Jesus’ message became so difficult to grasp that many
of his disciples refused to follow him anymore.
(John 6:66) He found
sharing his message extremely difficult.
People simply could not understand.
How could the There once was a
large colony of water bugs that lived at the bottom of a pond.
They crawled amongst the decaying leaves, twigs and seed pods
grubbing for food. Every
once in a while, however, some of their friends became inattentive to
their responsibilities. They
wandered off and climbed stalks that rose as far as they could see.
Then, they would disappear. The strange thing was that none of
them ever returned. A group of them came
together to discuss this great mystery.
They asked each other, “What is up there that attracts us?
We have lost so many. What keeps them from coming home? All we
know is that there is something we cannot see that consistently lights
our world and then fades into darkness.”
While they had no answers, they all agreed that if any of them
got the urge to climb the stalks, they would return and tell the others
what they found. A time came when two
of them left the group. All
eyes of the rest watched as the two climbed the stems that reached
beyond the top of their world. “Surely,” they said, “our friends will
honor our pact and return to tell us what they found.” Their friends,
however, never returned. After a while, the
two climbers awakened on a large flat surface.
They froze with fright as they stared at each other. They asked,
“What has happened to us?” Suddenly, another of their kind approached
and hovered above them, flapping its wings while remaining suspended in
the air. They recognized its
voice as coming from a former member of their colony.
It said, “We are more than creatures living at the bottom of a
pond. We have grown beyond
our need for that world. We
are the same but our abilities have changed.
We can fly anywhere we want to go. Our new awareness has changed
our purpose for living. We
are now dragonflies.” Just then, they
remembered their promise to tell the others what they had found.
They tried desperately to go back but all they could do was slap
against the surface of the pond. They
realized why it was that none of their friends had returned.
One of them said, “Look at us.
If our friends saw us, they would hide in terror before we could
tell them who we are.” This is how
different the material world is from the world of spirit. The author of John’s Gospel
recorded a description of the same
separation while reporting on a conversation Jesus had with one of
the brightest teachers in
We are born of
physical parents in the material world.
We are trained by them on how to live in this world. When we
awaken to the existence of our inner world of spirit, every point of
reference, every orientation we have toward the physical world becomes
so different that it is like being born again. (John 3:6f) When Jesus realized
that Nicodemus did not understand, he said, “I am only sharing with you
what I know. If you cannot
understand how our knowledge of spirit changes how we respond in our
physical lives, how could you possibly understand if I told you about
heaven?” (John 3:11f) Jesus changed his method of teaching.
He began to weave his lessons into stories with which people
would readily identify.
Today, we call these stories parables.
His storytelling provided his listeners with useful
memory-vehicles that allowed
them to remember his description of what life is like when living in
the Our lesson today
contains two such stories that describe this adventure. Life in the
Kingdom is a growth process.
The best way to re-tell the first parable is by repeating the
substance of it in yet another parable found in Tim Gallway’s book,
The Inner Game of Tennis.”
When we plant a rose
seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize
it as “rootless and stem-less.”
We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment
required of a seed.
When the seed first
sprouts from the earth, we do not condemn it as immature and
underdeveloped; nor do we criticize the buds from not being open when
they first appear. We stand
in wonder at the process taking place, and give the plant the care it
needs at each stage of its development.
The rose is a rose
from the time it is born until the time it dies.
Within it, at all times, is contained its whole potential.
It is constantly in the process of change; yet at each stage, at
each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is. The second parable
describes the same process of growth. The tiny mustard seed awakens.
As it sprouts and its growth continues, the shrub eventually
develops large branches that are strong enough to support the nests of
birds. In other words, the inner world of spirit begins very small, but once it is awakened, we begin to change our priorities and how we use our abilities. When we nurture and feed it, our spirits expand the power and strength of our life force. Our energy becomes like the leaven for the loaf. Jesus once told his listeners that their energy is like salt and light causing them to become change agents wherever they find themselves. (Matthew 5:13a & 14a) Lois and I have been
watching a very busy Kiskadee couple rear their two male babies. They
built their nest at the intersection of electrical wires near the top of
a telephone pole, giving us a clear view of their activities from our
kitchen window. At the end
of the weaning process, we watched the babies walk out on one of the
electrical wires and begin to exercise their wings.
Eventually one baby bird spread its wings and glided to the
ground. The second baby refused to take the leap. Both mom and
dad sat on either side of him squawking their
encouraging wisdom. Mom and Dad flew from the wire to the ground and
back to the wire several times, as though demonstrating the potential
their little guy had to do the same.
Perhaps the distance from the wire to the ground created a crisis
of confidence. He did not
take their cues. Both parents tried
to push him off the wire by using their beaks and bodies, but he would
not surrender his grip on the wire. Finally, the parents flew away and
watched from an adjoining wire.
The little bird squawked and squawked, but both parents were
content to watch their stranded
toddler sort out one of life’s lessons for himself.
Somewhere between dusk and daybreak the next morning, he found
his courage. The nest is now
empty. It was interesting
to witness how the wisdom of
mom and
dad was being passed to the next generation by coaching them, just
as it was recorded in our lesson from Proverbs this morning.
If wisdom is so remarkably
valuable, why is it that quite often the disciples could not understand
the lessons even when Jesus used parables?
When the disciples
came and asked Jesus to explain his parables, he answered with a comment
that has troubled followers of Jesus ever since.
He said: The secrets of God’s Kingdom have been given to you but not to them. The reason I tell stories is that our listeners look but cannot see, they listen but are unable to understand. To the people who wish to learn the ways of the spirit, they will understand. To them, more insight will come. To the people who choose to remain attached to the material world, they will find that even the spiritual awareness they have will become increasingly dormant from lack of use. (Matthew 13:10f) Why did Jesus say
this? He said it because it was
the truth. What he was
teaching them could not be learned from a sermon.
His message could not be understood even when his
truth was embedded in a story or a proverb that they could easily
remember. Jesus’ knowledge of the human spirit had
to be studied and applied under the tutelage of an instructor.
Jesus taught his disciples
himself. He covered his spiritual insights over and over again, a
training that lasted throughout his ministry. The disciples used their
training with others once Jesus was no longer with them. We pastors do not
kid ourselves about the effectiveness of our preaching.
Most of us listen to a message on Sunday morning and retain about
four percent of what we hear.
About midway on Sunday afternoon, particularly if we are watching
football, even that memory leaves us.
Understanding the realm of spirit takes study and training. Many medical schools are including courses on Spirituality in their curriculum. One day Spirituality will be taught in colleges and universities everywhere. The human spirit is what drives every person’s decision-making even if he or she has no religious background. The human spirit is the dynamo of all genius and creativity. When Saul of Tarsus
ceased being a water bug and
became a dragonfly, leaping
from the consciousness of one world into the other, he declared, “Do not
conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform
you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able
to know the will of God –
what is good, pleasing and
perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
Remember, Jesus and the Apostle Paul taught these things before
there was a Bible. Knowledge of spiritual growth and
religion are two separate bodies of information.
The power of spiritual energy
rarely has anything to do with a particular theology.
Many Christians do not understand this.
Spiritual energy gives us the confidence that we can overcome the
countless distractions the world offers.
We begin when our seed awakens and we learn how to polish our
emerging skills of spirit by recognizing and using all the illusions and
abrasives found in the material world as assets for discovering our
wholeness.
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