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"Discouragement Is Like A Passing Cloud" Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler
– October 6, 2013 Centenary United
Isaiah 35:1-10; John 6:60-69 A number of years ago I was sitting in my office with a friend
whom I had not seen for a long time.
He came to talk about recent events in his life.
His litany of woes was extraordinary.
If there was ever a time for a person’s fledgling faith to be
tested, it was this time in Tim’s life. He began by telling me that his Dad had just finished building a
boat that he had been working on for years.
As he was putting the finishing touches on his boat, it caught on
fire. The fire got started
because of carelessness. He
had started the barbecue grill that was dangerously close to the boat’s
fuel tank. The day was
windy. While the tank had
only a small amount of fuel in it, the fumes ignited and there was an
explosion. His dad had neglected to replace the fuel cap.
While he was struggling with the resulting fire, he did not
notice that sparks from the explosion had reached his garage.
Soon the side portion of the house was on fire.
When he finally saw it, he
rushed into the house to alert his wife and to call the fire company.
The firemen came immediately and the flames were quickly extinguished.
The house was saved but the water and smoke damage destroyed the
home’s interior and furnishings.
His boat was a total loss.
Tim’s father became
inconsolable. A couple of months passed when Tim received more bad news.
His father’s wife, Tim’s mother, had experienced a massive
cerebral hemorrhage and died on the way to the hospital.
Shortly after the memorial service for his mother, Tim’s wife
told him that she wanted a divorce.
She had fallen love with her tennis instructor.
In fact, the two were in the
process of getting a divorce when Tim came to see me. What made this conversation so memorable for me was Tim’s ability
to share all these events in his life with such a beautiful spirit of
understanding. I learned
that what brought Tim to my office was his desire to encourage me
to keep telling people about God’s presence in all our daily lives.
Tim went on with his story.
During a moment of acute desperation, he turned to God with whom
he had never communicated.
In fact, Tim told me that his belief in God was more an intellectual
concept rather than a personal relationship.
He was one of those that would have checked “I believe in God”
during one of those public surveys designed to take society’s pulse. Tim told me that several weeks earlier he had a most remarkable
experience with God. I
asked him to write about this episode in his life and he did.
This is the way he characterized those moments: I was standing in a river facing some of the
strongest riptide currents
imaginable. After pouring my heart out to God, I felt myself being
surrounded by an invisible energy field that completely overwhelmed me.
I knew that I was not alone. Inside my head I
heard these words, ‘Tim, I
have not left you. Let go
of all that has happened and let me love you.’
I stood there stunned at
hearing those words.
I let go of all of it and cried.
Dick, I am not the same person. I
had to tell you about this.
What you told me years ago when we were backpacking together is
absolutely true. It is
true. When I think of all the
energy I have wasted in feeling sorry for myself and how cruel life is .
. . . I raised my hand and stopped him from talking.
I said, “Tim, none of your energy was wasted because it enabled
you to open the door for you to find God.” Tim was never the same after
his experience. He has
remarried and is doing well.
In fact, his spirit reflected the passage from Isaiah, “Tell
everyone who is discouraged, ‘be strong and don’t be afraid!
God is coming to your rescue.
God will banish the enemies of discouragement, frustration and
hopelessness.’” (Isaiah 35:4) Why this long illustration? What did Tim stumble into that might
be of help to all of us?
When we look at our small congregation and the age of many of us, we can
easily become discouraged that Centenary’s demise is near, that we are
running out of money, that we have few children in our midst and that
people are not flocking into our sanctuary to hear up-beat praise music.
Jesus had similar thoughts of discouragement flood his mind as
well. He watched people get
up from their pews and leave
church because they could not
stand what he was preaching.
They said, “This teaching is too hard.
Who can listen to this stuff?”
(John 6:60) The
Scriptures tell us that many of his followers turned back and would not
follow him any more. Jesus
turned to his disciples and said, “What about you?
Are you also going to leave me?”
(John 6:66f) Simply by living in this world, a number of us can become
discouraged. Jesus was not
immune to frustration. His
listeners had been taught that obedience was
the way to reverence God
rather than living from a spirit of love.
It was hard to hear that
the A United Methodist Annual Conference in Try to imagine this happening in One picture that was entered in the contest was taken near the
ruins where one community’s church once stood.
Amidst the rubble was a children’s Sunday school chair.
The sign that was propped up on that chair communicated a lot of
theology. The sign read, “I
am still here.” Obviously someone had conquered being discouraged by replacing it
with faith and trust in what people can do when they look at the rubble
of their church and say with confidence, “We have faith much bigger than
a grain of mustard seed and we command this rubble to be cast into the
sea because we intend to build again!” Centenary may be small but so were Jesus and his band of
disciples. The other day
Lois and I took eleven bags of canned and dry goods to If we look again at the scriptures that tell us of a very
discouraged Jesus, we have to realize that the only reason we know about
his life and teaching is because of what he asked his disciples to do
during their last meal together.
His small congregation
cast a giant shadow that eventually reached us with its message.
When we recognize that God is
with us, there is no mountain we cannot climb.
There are no barriers.
We are living no-limit lives.
We need to celebrate this every day.
God creates through what we do. In April of this year, Rev. Gordon Cosby died at the age of 95.
When I was attending Wesley Seminary, the Church of the Savior in The people that wished to join were asked to work as volunteers
in shelters, soup kitchens and hospice units.
Everyone became a missionary whose mission field was the people
in their sphere of influence.
The church in those days had only 87 full-members.
It was among the first churches in One day a member of the church came to my seminary class to talk
about his church from a layperson's perspective. During his
sharing he was telling us what happens to people once God becomes very
real. He told us that his
salary was over $150,000. He said that amount was way too much to
pay him for a job he loved to do.
He indicated that he could live on one third that amount and have
all his needs met. Every
year he gave $100,000 to the Church of the Savior.
He was not alone with such generosity.
The entire congregation was that
way because they each experienced God just as Tim did. Not all the gifts people gave were monetary.
As I mentioned, they had each become missionaries whose mission
was to transform the lives of others while giving themselves away.
They each lived their message and asked nothing from others.
Before he left our classroom that day, he said, There is no amount
of money I could have given to have my spirit open to God the way it is
for me today. The miracle is that what I experience is available to
everyone simply by opening themselves to God and letting go of all the
things that prevent that.
And, believe me, there are plenty of doubts, fears and a lack of trust
that provide the excuses that stop our total transformation from
happening. I look on all
you future pastors as colleagues because as an engineer, I am also a
pastor without United Methodist credentials. I challenge you!
Learn to give away what you
know, love your people and you will see that there are no barriers to
being the church in this
world. This is who we are at Centenary.
I want to thank all of you for what you do.
Now let us come to the
Table and remember what it
was Jesus asked us to be.
We were asked to say, “Yes,” not “How.”
God will always remain the creator. |