"It
Never Hurts To Ask" Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler
– July 28, 2013 Centenary United
Colossians 2:16-19; Luke 11:1-13
This morning I want to talk about our conversations with God.
There is a sense of awkwardness for a number of people when they
talk to God, particularly if they are asked to do so publicly.
When we use the words like “pray” or “praying,” they tend to
create images of church, grace before meals, something pastors do during
a worship experience. Why is talking to God any more unique or special than talking to
our friends, family members or newcomers?
What baggage do we
attach to discussing life issues with God that creates a sense of
uneasiness in a number of people? When I had my youth groups during the early days of my ministry,
I tried to help the teenagers experience their emotions in a number of
settings rather than sitting around and talking about spirit-enhancing
topics. During one such meeting I chose two of the more confident
teenagers and had them sit at a table in the middle of the group.
Then I gave them the assignment.
I told Brad and Audrey to pretend that this was their first date
and that the two had gone to dinner at a nice restaurant before going to
the theater. There was no
security blanket provided by a group of friends that often distract
couples from interacting with each other. Brad and Audrey did very well even though they were not dating,
because they had known each other for years.
It was the rest of the group that
hemorrhaged emotionally.
Several of them begged me, “Don’t you ever do that to me.
I would freak out.” Yes, there is awkwardness, shyness or
reticence. All sorts of
needs came to the surface of their personalities, e.g., “When I talk, I
don’t want to sound stupid! I
am nervous and self-conscious; I don’t know what to say.
I am struggling with being myself when I have so little
confidence. Dating is
painful!” We enjoy seeing the results of surveys that gather information
about where the society is with respect to certain topics.
We commonly hear that 80 percent of people believe in God.
Most of us would agree
that there is a BIG difference between believing in God and having a
relationship with God. People
often do not experience the dynamic of being in a relationship. There are a number of Christians that suggest that God has
spoken, and that all the words we need to govern our lives are in the
Bible. As I gained more
experience at living, I learned that Christians do not receive the same
message from reading the Bible.
Nor do they have the same understanding of God’s nature.
Since there were so many variations on the interpretation of God’s Word, I wondered why God would even use words to communicate. Then I thought, “Maybe God does not use words.” As all of us have realized by now, words can mean different things to different people. And there are billions of people on earth that have never heard of the Bible and even more people who have never read a word of it. We also know that many people find in the Bible exactly what they want to find, depending on whether they are reading from the spirit of love or fear. For example, in addition to
The Lord’s Prayer in our
lesson today, we find other
words that suggest that all we need to do is ask God and we will
receive. For example: Would any of you
give your children a snake when they asked for a fish?
Would you give them a scorpion when they ask you for an egg?
As misguided and ignorant as most of you are, you know how to
give good things to your children.
Think how much more kind, generous and loving God will be toward
those who ask. (Luke 11:11) On the surface, it
looks as though believers are being told that God is as generous as an
Automatic Teller Machine (ATM).
God loves everyone on the earth equally.
This is why God equipped each of us with accessible skills to
manage our lives during times of plenty and scarcity, during happy and
sad moments and during our successes and failures.
There is never a need to plunge into
an emotional spiral when our
world is not the way we want it.
Spiritual maturity means
that as we make adjustments and accept life’s changes, we become
stronger. (Romans 5:3) We tend to seek God’s help when our physical lives are being
challenged. In our lesson
today, Jesus provided his listeners with an entirely different framework
for understanding our conversations with God.
Since God is not a material
being, God tends to give responses to our requests that are not material
in nature. In the last verse of our lesson today Jesus said, “How
much more will God in heaven give
the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Seeing our
wants and needs through the eyes of spirit helps us to look for God to
communicate to us in a language we may be unaccustomed to experiencing.
Without this understanding, we may sense nothing coming from God
but just another unanswered prayer. For example, one of my seminary professors was experiencing a
very challenging chapter in his life.
To clear his mind, he went for a long walk to talk things over
with God. He was dealing
with one of those issues where a decision had to be made.
He was standing at a crossroad.
Either choice would represent a significant departure from the
current direction of his life.
His walk took him by a university stadium and to his surprise the
lock on the gate was not latched.
He entered and walked around the cinder track a couple of times
and then he climbed up midway and sat in the bleachers.
As he sat there he could not control his tears. He bowed his head
in his hands and stayed in that posture for a considerable time. He was not asking God to make the decision for him, but he needed
assurance that God was listening. He
was asking for some sign that God was there for him during that moment.
Clearly, his trust in God was wavering.
He raised his head and saw his answer. What he saw caused him to
leap to his feet, raise his hands and exclaim, “Thank You God!” as tears
continued to stream down his face. The image he saw was the result of the full moon coming out from
behind the clouds. The
moon’s rays were shinning through one of the poles and cross members of
the stadium’s lighting system, casting the shadow of a gigantic cross on
the field. God communicated
volumes without saying a word. To
experience God’s presence, however, he had to be searching with his eyes
of spirit that for years had been grounded in the symbols of his faith.
When Jesus was in the Garden sweating drops of blood, the answer
he was seeking never came.
He wanted the cup to pass from
him. When he
looked up and saw the line of torches winding serpentine up the path, he
instinctively knew where life was taking him.
Contrary to
the tyranny provided by some of our learned beliefs, God’s will is the
same for all of us.
If God used words to communicate to us personally, God might say: I want you to be
happy, fulfilled and eager to make contributions to your community.
I did not create you with countless possibilities and
opportunities only to secretly desire that you choose what you think I
want you to do with your life. This
is why I have given you free will.
Marry the person
you want to marry. See
how you do in your relationship.
As for the job, it does not matter what job you take.
What matters is the spirit that you bring to your
responsibilities.
You seek my will
but it is not for me to remove your habits.
If you want to get rid of them, make other choices and stay with
them.
It is not for me to
grant you patience. Patience is a learned value that comes from choosing
that state-of-mind rather than irritability and frustration.
It is not for me to
grant you happiness. I have
provided you with that potential.
Your happiness is a response to life that only you can make.
I want you to
understand that I am always with you during your adventure in physical
form. Often you feel separated
from me. That is a natural
state of your limitation.
That feeling, however, is only your response. Such a response
from me is impossible. The reality is
that God granted us life and what we do with it is totally up to us.
People might ask, “What good is prayer?”
That would be like saying, “Why should I communicate with my
children? Why should I talk
to my neighbors and friends?”
Prayers are fine that plead with phrases like, “I want, I need, I
deserve, or I want to do your will.” However,
what is far more satisfying during our daily conversations with God
is our relationship and not the gratification of some perceived need
or desire of the moment. For example, when I
retired from St. Matthew’s, I told my district superintendent that I was
not interested in taking another church anywhere in the conference.
I put many of my books in the church’s library and discarded
personal material that had been useful throughout my ministry.
We had lined up six months of traveling.
In fact, I had a fantasy of eventually becoming one of those
seniors that greets shoppers as they enter Wal-Mart. There was a problem.
We lived one mile from the church.
One of the requirements for United Methodist pastors is to sever
all ties with the members of the church from which they are
transitioning. Former
pastors must respectfully give the new pastor the unencumbered space to
build rapport with his or her new congregation.
I talked to God a lot about this issue.
We enjoy our home, our community and we did not want to move. We
also knew the pressure from people that would come and the pain of
turning down requests to perform marriages, baptisms and funerals for
people we have known for years.
I asked God for nothing during my conversations, but it was
comforting for me to share my thoughts and feelings. One evening another district superintendent called me and asked
if I would be interested in coming to Centenary in During my life, I have not asked God for very much.
Every unexpected turn produced its own unique adventure, every
loss was mine to negotiate and every
mistake was a learning curve
to enhance my experience that life can be trusted.
Of all the appointments to new churches that I was offered in my
career, Centenary is the only one to which I said, “Yes.”
I said “no” to every offer because I do not negotiate change very
well. This was true for my last
church where I served for over 14 years. My district superintendent did not take “no” for an answer.
In fact, after he took me to breakfast, we drove to the high
school parking lot that stands beside the church.
As we parted ways he said, “Oh, by the way, St. Matthew’s sold
its parsonage. When you
come here in July, you will have to buy a house.”
Lois and I never owned a house.
I grew pale as I drove back to our parsonage on Capitol Hill.
As happened throughout my life, most of the significant things
that have happened were beyond my control. What I have treasured so far in life is the journey.
Very little has happened that I could have predicted or
anticipated. God and my spirit
guides have been with me every step of the way.
I know this unequivocally because I have talked to them every
day. I have learned never to judge anything until I found where it was
leading. I hope that all of you
have this same experience. Even
though, I resisted many of the changes in my life, it has been a
remarkable adventure so far. Everyone
can have a similar experience by trusting God for the outcome of all
things. (John 3:8) |