"Church – A Healing Community"

Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – May 26, 2013

Centenary United Methodist Church

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Romans 5:1-5

 

    This year Centenary is experiencing its 174th year of being here.  The exact date for the laying of the foundation stone was 1839.  Our name comes from the centennial of when John Wesley established his Methodist Society, one hundred years before in 1739.  The new church was named Wesleyan Centenary Chapel during the first service in 1841.

    We cannot begin to imagine the numerous souls that have entered our building, found nourishment here and went on to sow their seeds among others.  Even as I walk among strangers in Bermuda and share with them where I work, they tell me, “My family was baptized in your church.”  “I was married in that church.”  “All our children went to Sunday school at Centenary for years.”  “Did you know that your Gothic-style glass windows came from my church?”  (St. Mark’s Anglican Church)  “If I remember correctly, your cedar pulpit was given to Centenary by Hilda Aitken, who seldom missed a Sunday.  Did you know that she was the first female elected to Bermuda’s Parliament?”

    It is quite possible that our church has sent forth people that have literally changed the landscape of Bermuda.  The ripple effect on the Centenary pond of people would be impossible to calculate. We know, for example, that among Hilda Aitken’s accomplishments as a Member of Parliament was her sponsoring a bill that set aside beaches in Bermuda for public use.  Corporate entities like hotels were purchasing beach real estate and her legislation prevented them from getting all of it.

    We are the oldest church in Smith’s Parish and we have enjoyed a continued witness to our faith in our community for these last 174 years.  People often say that success comes from location, location, location.  We have one of the best locations on the Island.

    In spite of our location, today, we find ourselves living in an era where church attendance is in competition with so many other activities, particularly sporting events for children and adults.  The attitudes of many people have changed, and loyalty to the church is not a value that is being handed down from one generation to the next.

    What will be interesting to watch as this pendulum continues its swing is what will happen to people when they become so busy with issues of life that oiling the parts and greasing the wheels of the invisible machine within them is no longer part of their routine maintenance.

    One of the readings I used during our last New Year’s Eve meditation service is called The Riddle.  Embedded in these words may be the result that will determine the quality of our lives. 

I am your constant companion.  I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden.  I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.  I am completely at your command.  Half the things that you do can be given to me.  I will do them quickly and correctly.  I am easily managed but you must be firm with me.  Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automatically.  I am the servant of all great people and also the servant of everyone that fails.  I am not a machine, although I work with all the precision of a machine.  I have the intellect of a meticulous genius.  You can use me for great financial gain or for total financial ruin.  It makes no difference to me.  Train me, be firm with me and I will place the world at your feet.  Be easy with me, ignore my importance and I will destroy you.  Who am I? 

    There is a lot to consider in this riddle. Can you answer the riddle?   We might think about it for a long time and not produce the correct answer.  The answer is among the most powerful elements of every human being’s life.  The answer: “I am your habits.”

    Many people grow up with little understanding of how the quirks in their personality developed.  When we were infants, we cried and became angry when we did not receive instant gratification for what we wanted.  What happens when people receive no intervention by some authority figure that provides firm guidance in how to respond creatively during the rough patches?   

    All of us need people that teach us, “When you become inconvenienced, this is when you practice patience.  When someone hurts your feelings, this is when you practice forgiveness.  When you fail, this is when you keep working at it until you succeed.”  These are all lessons that were taught by Jesus and the Apostle Paul.

    If anger becomes the primary, unbridled response to everything that conflicts with our wishes, we can understand how people develop fierce tempers.  We can understand why people pout over minor issues.  Someone once said, “Touchy people seldom get touched.”  If church attendance is taken out of our schedules, where does our spiritual training come from?

Listen to Paul’s words again,

 

Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus’ teachings have brought us into a unique awareness that allows us to experience God’s love in which we now live. (Romans 5:1-2b)

    If we do not have this awareness routinely reinforced in our lives, what happens to us?  All we have to do is look at a growing minority population throughout the world and observe how they behave to understand what happens to them when they lack this awareness.

    When angry people have access to weapons, they can make a highly visible statement about how unhappy they are. They might even place small explosive devices at the end of a marathon race so that their unhappiness makes the headlines in the morning paper.  In sharp contrast to this minority, look at the sense of community that developed after a category-5 tornado destroyed everything in sight.  They rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

    What mature people see in this minority of angry people are infants in adult bodies that never learned that their happiness is not the responsibility of other people.  When no one is reminding people of this unique awareness of God’s love that the Apostle Paul described, many of them become accustomed to believing that what is happening in life must conform to their values and desires.

    One day I went to visit a woman who had just had a baby.  She was nursing the child in another room and that gave me an opportunity to meet the new mother’s father.  He was babysitting his seven year-old granddaughter.  After awhile, I asked him where he attended church.  When he told me that he did not have a church, I extended the invitation to attend ours.  His response made it clear that church attendance was a hot button topic for him. He said:

I am an old, vile and angry man when it comes to church.  At least I admit who I am.  I am not like the hypocrites that go to church and pretend to be someone they are not on Sundays and then behave like perfect rascals the rest of the week. No sir, church is not where I want to spend any part of my Sundays.

    His granddaughter looked surprised and said, “Grandpa, maybe if you went to church, you might get happy again.  I learned from Jesus that we need to love each other.”  Grandpa lowered his gaze and became silent.  Just then his daughter appeared with the new baby in her arms.  What had suddenly become an awkward moment disappeared.   

    The seven year-old was right and to some extent so was the self-described old, vile and angry grandfather.  None of us live exemplary lives.  From time to time, we all need course corrections and attitude adjustments.  His granddaughter, however, had just held up a verbal mirror that caused him to become silent.   Sometimes sermons are that mirror.  Sometimes the words of a hymn are that mirror. Sometimes what is said in a prayer is that mirror.

    One of the renewing elements of life happens when we enter a church.  Here, we see the baptismal font that may bring back memories.  We see the stories depicted in our stained glass windows.  We are reminded that we are God’s creations.  We are also reminded that we continue to grow by giving visibility to our loving spirits.

    Don Wexler was brought up in a wonderful, loving Jewish home. His parents knew how to mirror faith that worked for them. The spirit of the home was light-hearted. Mutual cooperation insured that the family functioned with love at its center. The garden into which Don's seed had been planted was natural, warm, and supportive. The rules of the home were firm, clear, and understood.

    Don's college days were spent stretching his wings. He found that his good looks attracted the ladies in droves, yet he found it almost impossible to develop any substantive relationships. Don was an excellent student. His creative, self-initiating enthusiasm readily opened many doors. 

    He read constantly and found inspirational material very stimulating, yet he could not generate in his own life the sense of God’s presence that others claimed was a constant theme in theirs. He was stalled and God was nowhere to be found. He repeatedly asked himself, "Just where is this mysterious God whose presence my parents had found so compelling?"  To Don, God had become an unknowable abstraction.

    A sense of emptiness became an increasingly dominant theme in his life. He began to lose interest in his studies. His face no longer wore its glowing, contagious smile. His sense of humor was no longer present in his conversations with others. He felt lost. Sometimes it takes being lost for us to experience a wake up call to change.

    Fortunately for Don, his professor was Dr. Leo Buscaglia, that wonderful author and teacher from the University of Southern California. This gifted young man visited his favorite teacher and told him about his overwhelming sense that life had lost its meaning.  

    Leo said, "Go over to the senior-living facility near the campus and start visiting people." Don said, "I can't do that. I don't feel like it." Leo said, "I don't care whether you feel like doing it or not; just do it!  Start learning how to get involved in someone else's world. When you have learned how to do that, you will escape being trapped by your own."

    Time passed and Leo had not seen Don for months. And one day near the end of the second semester, he noticed Don getting ready to board a mini-van. Leo said, "Where are you going, Don?" He said, "I'm taking a group of people from the senior center to a baseball game.  Some of them have never been.  And, I’ve recruited some friends to help.  Thanks, Dr. Leo. I owe you one."

    What do an Italian professor and a Jewish boy have to do with our lesson today?  Leo gave Don a page from the teachings of both Jesus and the Apostle Paul.  The Jewish carpenter never taught anything that was not instantly applicable to the lives of all men and women.

    Without constant reminders of where the path to spiritual prosperity lies, we can easily find ourselves on a detour filled with far more familiar symbols.  That is how people get lost in our material world.  They look for fulfillment in places that cannot give it. 

    We learn quickly that the world is a cruel place when we have lost touch with God’s gift. Like the Prodigal Son, Don Wexler remembered his home and family.   Our lesson ends with these words, “God pours his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit.  This is God’s gift to us.” (Romans 5:5) 

    We enhance the growth of that gift when we give it away to others.  As each of us pass through the doors of Centenary, we will continue to influence others.  Without printing presses and internet technology, this is how Jesus and twelve disciples changed the world.  They did it one person at a time.  With God’s assistance, we can continue Jesus’ mission.