|
"God Never Loses Our Files” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – March 22, 2015 Centenary United
Psalm 51:1-12; Jeremiah 31:31-34 Through the years I have had former acquaintances reach out to me
because I was their pastor in another day.
Either they belonged to one of my youth groups or were members in
a former church.
Quite often when people connect with me, they want to tell me
what has happened during their lives since the time when we were
together. Many of them are
eager to discuss how they have emerged from some very challenging
experiences. They had gotten married and divorced.
Their children are into their own lives and families.
They settled for jobs that they did not like.
Others found jobs that paid very
well, but their skills at handling a lot of disposal income were still
in the early stages of development. Somewhere during their journey
a light came on.
Their sleeping spirit
awakened and they were excited to share how that moment changed their
lives. Their stories, while
different, featured the same theme -- one of wandering and searching for
meaning.
While wandering in a
wasteland almost identical to
that of the Prodigal Son, they discovered that God had not lost
their file.
During one particularly moment in each of their lives, they found
themselves praying. In most
instances, this was their first prayer in decades. They were seeking
direction because of something they remembered in a distant memory when
they were connected to our church family.
Their responses to this new awareness were quite similar, i.e.,
"I think that God was waiting for me to ask why my life was such a mess
before letting me know that He was still there." One of the toughest things for God to do is to break into our
lives when we are self-absorbed with feelings of being alone and we are
not seeking for a meaningful solution.
While all things are
possible for God, the point of our being here is to figure out what
we need to do to give our lives a purpose. Some time ago a news report featured a pod of whales that had
charged the shoreline in order to beach themselves.
Once the news went out, people for miles around descended on the
beach to try to get these large mammals back into the water.
It was a very touching scene to see armies of people trying to
save the lives of these sea creatures. One camera crew approached a woman sitting on a whale that was
near death. They captured a
fragile moment between this woman and the whale.
She was talking to it, "Why do you do this?
Why do you do this to yourselves?
How I wish I could become one of you so I could understand your
thinking. I would lead all
of you back into the ocean where you belong."
The Apostle Paul envisioned that Jesus did this very thing when he entered into our world so that he could lead humanity away from becoming beached on the shores of the material world where we run the risk of becoming stuck. (Philippians 2:6f). This is why Jesus called his followers to become a light in darkness. I remember a young man in a former church that had been labeled
by several authorities as
hyper-active. He was having a
very difficult time in school.
His teachers had also labeled him as having Attention Deficit
Disorder (ADD). This meant
that he could not concentrate on anything for very long.
The young man had very few
friends. When I mentioned to his mother that she should encourage him to
attend my summer course on Spirituality, she shook her head and looked
at me in disbelief. She said, "What he needs, a class on Spirituality
cannot give to him. Come on Dick, get real! What he needs is a different
medication that will work on keeping him focused on what is in front of
him!"
So many people
today have a difficult time connecting their spirit to what is happening
in their lives.
Perhaps this is why people walk away from any consciousness of
God's presence as their lives become filled with other pursuits.
Sometimes a renewed hunger, a lack of fulfillment, or even
desperation can become the mother
of creativity and transformation. God becomes like that woman sitting on top of that dying whale.
We cannot experience a greater
truth because we have already
made up our minds what that truth
is. We have convince
ourselves that our happiness and peace will
come through a particular outcome, so we beach ourselves on something
that cannot deliver what we want.
However,
if we become a
careful listener, we might hear God say, "I am not
out there in the ether as you suppose; I am inside of you.
If you want me to make myself known to you,
you have to change how you
think. During this fifth Sunday of Lent, we find Jesus preparing to let
go of everything -- his ministry, his disciples, his family and his
friends, knowing that no matter what was going to happen next, God had
not lost his file. He also knew
that God was not out there in the ether.
God was inside of him.
(John 14:10) Our Jeremiah passage this morning reflects this same
understanding 530 years before Jesus was born.
He wrote words that he felt were coming from God.
His understanding was the same message that Jesus was delivering
to his followers. In making a new
covenant with my people, I will put within them
the laws that govern my
spirit by inscribing them on their hearts.
The day is coming when no one will have to teach anyone who I am.
Everyone will know me from the least to the greatest.
(Jeremiah 33:33f) This insightful passage
reveals that there is an aspect of God's essence in each of us even
though that presence may not be recognized or acknowledged.
What triggers our spiritual awakening?
The answer comes form a
realization that the energetic qualities of spirit do not come from
having material assets like fabulous jobs, sizeable financial assets,
highly creative minds and strikingly attractive bodies.
Such things rusts and
decay over time and they lose their meaning.
Our skills of spirit come from a developed
inner world.
When we allow this invisible
dynamo of power to remain undiscovered, uneducated and undernourished,
it cannot guide us back into the greater
sea of understanding where we
belong.
However, when we awaken, we
pleasantly discover that even
though we have wandered, God has not lost
our file.
We are reassured that it is never too late to change our
orientation toward life.
A
ship runs aground on a sand bar because it was off course. The
sand bar is not the enemy. When we burn our hands, we do not blame
the stove. When we back our car into a telephone pole we did not
see, we do not blame the "stupid pole" for being there.
Such experiences offer guidance
by giving us pain.
When we change how we think, we can reach
the high road of
understanding while leaving behind
the low road of
self-interest. Once Lois and I were visiting friends.
As we were talking, there was considerable noise coming from the
kitchen. Their son was
trying to bring his tricycle into the house.
The storm door had closed on it and he was trying to use
brut-force to accomplish his goal.
He came into the room where we were seated and said, "Mother,
will you please help me bring my bike into the house?"
She said, "No." He
said, "But I said, "Please."
She said, "I know you did, but your bike is an outside toy." He disappeared and the noise in the kitchen resumed.
He returned and declared, "You are not my friend!"
She said, "You are correct, I am not.
I am your mother and there is a difference."
The little guy persevered and upon his third failure, he came
back with one more comment. He said, "I do not love you anymore."
His mother responded, "That's fine.
Loving me is not a requirement for living here.
What is a requirement is that outside toys do not come
into our house." Her
comment was the final word that ended the episode. This is exactly what happens in life to everyone
regardless of what people believe, think or feel.
Outside toys do not work in
the realm of spirit.
When life no longer produces happiness, fulfillment and peace, God will
not intervene to make those experiences happen.
We have to change our attitudes.
We have to change how we think and feel.
We have to change our priorities.
When we experience the
transformation that comes from such changes, we give life's events a
much different interpretation.
The best way
to understand this transformation is to put it into terms of how we
feel. We struggled to pass
the bar examination but we become transformed the moment we put on our
wig. We become transformed
the moment we put on the robes of a judge.
We become transformed the moment we put on the white coat with
our monogrammed name followed by the letters MD.
We wear the stethoscope around
our necks as a symbol of our authority.
We become transformed when we can put on a collar advertising
that we are a pastor. We
become transformed when we realize that God is within us and has not
lost our file. Jesus faced being betrayed by one of his friends.
He faced being abandoned by his disciples. He faced a court where
justice never showed up. He
faced being accused of a capital crime against When we let go of ourselves, the light of God's presence comes on. With confidence, we understand that all through life, God was with us during every step of our journey. We just could not see it until that understanding came into view. Happiness results from realizing that God had not lost our file. |