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“Learning
The Rules For The Game Of Living” Sermon Delivered By
Rev. Dick Stetler – November 15, 2015 Centenary United
Psalm 113; Mark 13:1-8
When Lois and I came to When the time arrived for our first annual Cup Match, we
got the impression that the real
game was not Cricket at all.
The real game appeared
to be what happens during a two-day holiday, when the supporters of
either St. George or As far fetched as it may sound, living in the material world is
almost identical to any game we play. When we practice
the art of living, there are
a few who take the time to discover the rules. There are those that know
about the game of life and
establish their own rules.
There are others that do not care about the rules or about the game or
about those who play it or about those who win because they would much
rather socialize, eat and drink.
For countless people, this is where they choose to stay for most
of their lives. When we turn to our lesson today, it is interesting that Jesus
understood what happens in the lives of people.
He knew that very few people understood
the rules of how to live
creatively and remain at peace. They were busy making up their own rules
based on the self-interest of their group.
They have not yet graduated to
the
second grade because, if they
had done so, they would have been taught how to share with each other.
Knowing that there were as many opinions about how to live as
there are people, Jesus said: Do not trouble
yourselves when you hear the noise of battles both near and far away.
Countries will fight each other and kingdoms will attack one
another. There will be
earthquakes and famines. These things have nothing to do with your fear
that the world is about to end.
Look at these experiences as being more like the first pains of
childbirth. (Mark
13:7f) Jesus was associating our human experience to the pains
associated with childbirth. He
knew that the evolution of humankind is right where it needs to be.
He knew that people would clash
on every level of their experience, i.e., their ideologies, economic
issues, ethnic diversity, class-warfare and religious differences and
personal preferences. The
list is endless. People are
not playing by the same rules. This morning we are going to give a new meaning to all the
disagreeable behavior that we encounter from each other.
Why would Jesus teach that all our conflicts play a key role in
helping people to sort out how to live in peace?
He said that all our chaos is nothing more than
the green shoots of new
growth. Let us bring this
understanding into a sharper focus. One of the reasons why I enjoy our Christmas Tea and There can be no negative judgment by anyone about others because
every one of us is living in a very different place on the learning
curve of the game of living.
Jesus knew this and
that is why he said that our experiences are like the early pains of
childbirth. At our Tea, we had the
generals who were exercising their leadership over the group of
volunteers. We had some people that were unhappy the minute they showed
up. They arrived at 1:00
p.m. thinking they could beat the crowd and get an early start on buying
the baked goods on the stage.
Clearly our starting time was 2:00 p.m. There were people who were deceptive, going though the line with
heaping plates of food, indicating that they were helping some elderly
person who could not stand in line.
Of course, they fooled no one because they did the same thing
four additional times and could be seen eating from both plates.
In the midst of all of this, there had to be
a village clown that moved
through the crowd with a message of "Lighten up, enjoy yourselves, this
is not the end of the world, but merely growing pains associated with
perfecting the skills at being patient, kind, helpful and enthusiastic."
I do not think you have to go too far in your thinking to recognize who
played that role. He was the one
with the microphone. Jesus was teaching that the world will remain just as it is until
people learn that winning the
game can happen for anyone who wants to learn the rules. The world
during Jesus' ministry and the world that we experience today have a lot
in common. Only a few people
take the time to learn the rules of creativity that all of us
have stored within us.
Rules developed by
common sense that apply to
fixing things in the external world will fail one hundred percent of the
time.
Why?
Common sense is a point-of-view that can be different for each of
us. Think about this radical
thought. All of us
are infinite spirit-beings that clamored for God to allow us to
incarnate into these limited, solid forms.
We wanted to experience what it is like to touch, look, hear,
taste and smell. God said, "That
is fine with me. I will
create an illusionary world
for you where you can play." We are all very powerful beings when we
enter this world through the birth canal of our mothers.
We are born with all our abilities in tact from the world where
we are pure energy.
However, for the first time in our limited physical forms, we experience
fear, we learn insecurities and we have to face uncertainty.
We encounter people who announce, "God is great!" before they
open fire with their AK-47 assault rifles on our friends in France or
install a bomb on an aircraft that detonated at 33,000 feet killing all
224 people on that flight. Such activities are aspects of the rules they
created for their group.
The rule they missed was that we are not the vehicles in which
our spirits reside. If everyone
understood that we were infinite spirit beings that no one can actually
hurt,
we would have no problem accepting the ignorant behavior of others.
Our reality is that we have no memory of our
true identity.
To have such knowledge would change the quality of our
adventure that we came here to experience.
Amnesia is a must for all who enter our world. If you think that this is fantasy, think again.
Where do we think our unique powers of perception, our skills of
spirit, and our creative abilities come from?
Where were these assets prior to our discovering them?
How is it that when we learn to access them, our lives soar to
heights we never thought possible? How
is it that our creativity knows no limits? One Hindu holy man
taught his followers, "In my world nothing ever goes
wrong."
How could he teach such a thing
when we know that living that way is impossible? The answer is simple.
It is possible. He taught
that every experience men and women encounter has something to teach
them. He looked at every
experience as coming from divine
order just for his growth.
He was teaching this centuries before Jesus was born.
The Hindu master concentrated on the quality of his responses
rather than the source of his inspiration for deepening his abilities to
have patience, forgiveness, self-respect and numerous other skills of
spirit. He also learned to bless
the source that caused him to polish his own stone. He had discovered
a rule that would serve his
growth for the rest of his life.
Jesus taught the same thing when he said, "Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you."
(Matthew 5:44) Think about
how our lives would become transformed if we mastered just this one
rule. What the
Hindu master was doing was to allow all people to be who they were and
where they were on the learning
curve of the game.
No, they were not like he was.
They were merely playing
the game of life by different rules. Life ceases to become complicated when we stop elevating the opinions of others above our own. When others are rude and unkind to us, this is our moment to reveal the rules by which we play the game. Most of us have experienced people who have toxic personalities. When we turn these people into our personal trainers we can bow to them in gratitude as did the Hindu master. Toxic personalities inspire us to reach into our vast treasure
trove to access the tools of understanding, compassion, patience and
tolerance. We would never
respond this way if we did not already possess the rule of knowing that
we already have those skills within us. This is why Jesus was teaching
that the chaos we experience in life is more like the early pains of
childbirth than the end of the world.
Confusion, frustration and anger motivate us to become
transformed into a new person of peace.
This transformation only occurs to those who have learned the
rules. Any response other
than peace would sabotage and compromise our inner world. The reason Jesus was so powerful was that he learned his identity
as being God's Son. All
of us are God's sons and daughters, whether we believe so or not.
We can make up lots of reasons why this is not true, but our
reasoning cannot change what God created for us.
Every lesson Jesus taught was
designed to stimulate our true identities that we chose to give up when
we entered into the body of a baby to enjoy the adventure we are having.
We are living in a
moment of time that is very exciting and loaded with possibilities.
Since all of us are destined to blossom with joy, peace and
prosperity when we eventually learn more of the rules for living, why
not live that way now?
All of us are on the same
journey but not one of us is at the same place on the learning curve of
the game of living.
Our joy is that God loves
all of us in spite of the fact that most of us do not know the rules. When we come here to
play
the game of living in our limited
physical forms, we struggle until we learn the rules for molding our
habits, attitudes and abilities around serving one another.
Once we understand that we are extensions of God's creative
energy, we also realize that nothing can ever happen to us but our
continued growth. Indeed, everything in our experience has the ability to teach us lessons we need to learn. When we realize this, the lights come on during one of those Aha! moments and we become transformed. Finally, after experiencing all the early pains associated with childbirth, we become the beings that we were designed to be. |