|
“Creatively
Dealing With Rejection”
Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – August 23, 2015
Centenary United
Psalm 88:1-13; John 6:56-60, 66-69 This morning the scripture lesson from John's Gospel slightly
overlaps last Sunday's reading because we needed to recall why many of
Jesus’ followers totally rejected what he said and stopped following
him. This teaching was
about eating Jesus' flesh and drinking his blood. This rejection of Jesus reminded me of an incident that happened
years ago to a popular and much-loved pastor.
He had been the shepherd of his congregation for 23 years when he decided to come out of
the closet during a Sunday
sermon and declare that he no longer believed in the Devil and in the
existence of Hell. He reasoned that God's love for lost sheep, prodigal sons and
sinners was so forgiving and understanding, that God could not possibly
surrender any of God's children to an eternity of suffering because they
made a mess of their lives.
He said, "It would be impossible
for love to do that." Within the week, the ruling council of the congregation charged
him with heresy when he chose to preach against what is clearly in
the Word of God.
They terminated their relationship with him by Wednesday, just
three days after he had delivered his sermon.
The council did not want to hear anymore of this
nonsense from their pulpit.
What was at risk of disappearing was his 23 years of pastoral and
administrative contributions.
Think of the marriages he performed, the funerals where he
compassionately officiated, the baptisms, the suicides he prevented and
the two successful building programs. Everything he did for his congregation was at risk of being
dismissed when he declared that God's love was more powerful than what
Jesus was asking his listeners to do by forgiving others seventy times
seven. (Matthew 18:22)
One wonders who was actually on
trial when that verdict was
handed down, the pastor or that ruling council. Jesus said the wrong thing
to many of his listeners. They did not want to stay around to hear any
deeper explanations of what Jesus had said.
They did not take the time to ask questions that might have
opened their minds to a deeper understanding of having a spirit within
them for expressing understanding and loving attitudes.
They just walked away.
Jesus became emotionally
withered in the face of such a massive exodus of those who once
believed in him. He said to
his disciples, "What about all of you?
Do you want to leave me as well?
Peter answered, "To whom would we go?
You are the one who offers guidance that gives eternal life."
(John 6:67f) What was
Jesus experiencing that caused him to ask that question? When we
personalize the behavior and attitudes of others, we can become
vulnerable to all forms of rejection.
We have waves of fear pour over
and through us like a hot knife in butter, leaving us bewildered and
defensive. Jesus responded
the way most people do. This morning we are going to remind ourselves that Jesus was a
student of life just like us.
He had been hurt by the actions of others.
The pain caused by
rejection taught Jesus that his self-worth had momentarily been attached
to a particular outcome.
It was Peter who held a
verbal mirror in front of him, reminding Jesus who he was, what he
offered and why his disciples chose to stay by his side. When we study the feelings associated with being rejected, we
either grow or wither. This
is the way it is with every important lesson in life that we have the
opportunity to learn.
Rejection can become a powerful
tool for growth when we understand why we have chosen to be devastated
when it happens. We
invested our self-esteem in a particular outcome.
In Jesus' circumstance, he was trying to change people’s lives
with his words and he failed.
It may have been this event that helped Jesus to acquire the
skill of peace when people chose to remain closed-minded.
This occasion may have been the moment when Jesus learned what he
later taught, "Do not cast your pearls of wisdom before those who will
not understand. They
will only attack you."
(Matthew 7:6) For most of his three-year ministry, Jesus graduated from
personalizing the responses of the Scribes, Pharisees and the Teachers
of the Law. He never again
surrendered the passion he had for his purpose for coming to the earth.
He came to speak about the
truth. (John 18:37) Eddie Houston was a
Social Studies teacher in a Eddie had a magnetism that drew students to him. One of his
purposes for choosing to be a teacher was to package his passion for
Social Studies in such a way that students would soak up every moment of
class-time like a dry sponge. A new supervisor for his district became interested in what Eddie
was doing. She did a computer analysis of his students over a 3-year
period and found that most of them scored off the charts not only in
Social Studies but in most subjects. She also learned that most of
his classes were well beyond the student-teacher ratio permitted by the
school system. Administrators disregarded the rule because of the
results that Eddie generated year after year. This district supervisor decided to audit one of his classes and
managed to isolate two hours each day for six weeks. She was
captivated by how he maintained order in a class of 48 students. Because
of Eddie's style and ability to present each topic in an exciting
manner, the students remained attentive to every word he said.
She never saw anything like it. What he taught during the early weeks of the semester had little
to do with Social Studies. His lessons had to do with helping
students develop a love of life.
He helped them to understand that having knowledge about life and
how life works put them light
years ahead of everyone else. He talked about the value of having a sense of humor, of
following-through in their responsibilities, of how to develop wholesome
relationships, of how to deal with sexual attraction, of developing
effective communication skills and how each of them could become a
person of substance. Eddie taught his students the importance of turning
a deaf ear to peer pressure and other teen distractions.
After he excited his students
about what they had the potential to become, he launched into Social
Studies and never looked back. That supervisor
found herself both delighted and frustrated. She sat in class and was
just as enthralled by Eddie as his students.
In fact, she was sorry she could not remain in his classroom for
the entire semester. Her
frustration came when she recognized that the abilities of a
purpose-driven teacher cannot be transferred from one teacher to
another. Jesus also had a passion for teaching, not only with his words
but also through the spirit by which he lived. Yes, there would be the
naysayers, the elders who knew everything, the pious, holier-than-thou
pretenders of the faith, but nothing caused Jesus to feel defeated or
rejected again. He remained single-minded about who he was and what he
offered. The way to use
rejection as a stepping stone to success is to never
personalize anything that comes to us from the external world.
I remember a close friend of mine whose boyfriend of many years
betrayed her trust. Unabashed she said, "Fine, get out of line, there
are a dozen people behind you that love me.
You had steak when you
were with me. If you want
to settle for fast food, have
at it." She went on with
her life because she had a firm grasp on who she was and what she had to
give. Her confidence was
not shaken by what someone said or did. What Jesus taught came from being anchored in his identity and in
the quality of the energy that he extended to others.
Those two seminal aspects of life are located in a part of us
that no one else can gain access to.
When we allow some rejection to take up residence in our minds,
we have chosen to separate ourselves from being one of God's sons or
daughters. In that
moment, we give up being a
spirit-being by becoming overly attached to an inner-need for
something in the material world.
In
the television program Sixty Minutes,
there was a fascinating report on the results
of stress on the bodies of women. Scott Pelley drew attention to a study
that chronicled the lives of thousands of women who lived enormously
stressful lives. The findings took the viewing audience into what
often happens to such women on a cellular level. The study demonstrated that women who are exposed to unmanageable
levels of stress experience changes in their DNA. Women’s cells
aged extremely rapidly so that the tissue samples of 35 year-olds
resembled those of women 45 or older. Pelley took a camera crew to visit a mother who had an autistic
teenager daughter. She had
stressors in her life that were constant and severe.
She defied the findings of the study.
He went to see her because her cells had not aged.
When he inquired about her lack
of stress, the woman had a remarkable answer: All stress comes
from our fearful thoughts about something in front of us. I make no
judgments about those things.
I cannot change anything that comes into my life by thoughts that
make something into a mountain.
I merely roll up my sleeves and begin dealing with what life is
asking of me. Making a difference has never given me stress.
I stopped whining about life 35 years ago when I was seven years
old. It never got me
anywhere then and will not help me now. Peter reminded the Master of something he may have forgotten, "To
whom shall we go? You
are the one who offers guidance that gives eternal life."
He helped Jesus to recall his core identity and his reason for
living. We must do this for each other from time to time, because all of us lose our way. Some of us are the teachers and others of us are the students. What is fascinating about life is that quite often we change places just like Jesus and Peter. That is very humbling but we also know that it happens. |