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“The Power Of Being Anchored”
Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – September 20, 2015
Centenary United
Psalm 1; James 3:1-12 Our Scripture
lesson this morning from the
Letter of James lifts up a theme that is familiar to all of us.
There is a saying that most of us
have heard that summarizes the point James was making:
"People learn who we are as soon as we open our mouths and say
something." Our words reveal
what is inside of us. Since James
was writing about this characteristic in our common humanity, the issue
had to be around for thousands of years. There was a
time earlier in my ministry when I would take a week's vacation and go
fishing with a colleague in the State of The first
morning, we took his power boat to a spot where large schools of perch
always congregate during that time of the year.
As we drew near to the location,
we saw one other boat on the lake.
We yelled over to the man, "Good morning.
How's the fishing?"
He was silent for quite a while and then we got a dose of something that
we could not have anticipated that early in the morning.
He yelled out, "Because of people
like you, one day there will be no fish in this lake for future
generations to enjoy." Bill and I
looked at each other and laughed.
Ouch! After catching
a mess of nice perch, we went back to the lodge.
One of the owners of the fishing camp had known this particular
man for years. He told us
that he had been seething with anger for as long as he could remember.
No one seemed to know the source of his hostile personality. That was
just his way. Most people
either understood him by considering the source or they kept their
distance. We are surrounded by people that are on every level of
language skill. We have to
understand that this is the way the world’s people are. Contrast this
with another experience I had while performing a mixed marriage.
A Jewish bride with a contagious personality was being married to
a young man who was sometimes a Methodist and sometimes a Presbyterian.
He was more loyal to geographical convenience than to any
denomination. The church had
to be close to where he lived. During the
rehearsal there was an awkward tension in the air that was difficult
to read.
It was as if the two families were wearing masks of tolerance and
acceptance that were disguising feelings for which no
scripts had been written.
The families knew that their children loved each other, but they
remained uncertain about the direction of the couple's spiritual
orientation. I do not know
how many of you have ever come into contact with a very aggressive
Jewish mother, but the mother of the bride was a real
piece of work.
After the rehearsal, she charged at me and said, We are breaking
traditions that were centuries in the making! However, you and Lois are coming
over to our home for the rehearsal dinner.
I will not accept a "no" for an answer.
If you have never eaten quality Jewish food, my cooking is to die
for. I will not allow you to
miss eating some of it. Who could turn down
an invitation coming from such a humble, modest woman? At her home, she had
created a banquet of everything imaginable this side of This incredible
woman pulled out all the stops in her spirit and personality.
She tore down the invisible walls of political politeness between
races and faiths. She became
a magical conduit through which energy passed that created
a family from a group of near
total strangers. The members from each family began to socialize as
though they had known each other for most of their lives.
I felt like one of the actors in the movie,
My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In his letter,
James wrote the following:
The tongue is like a
fire. It is a world of
wrong, occupying its place in our bodies and spreading evil throughout
our whole being. We humans
are able to tame and have tamed all other creatures, but no one has ever
been able to tame the tongue. It is evil and uncontrollable, full of
deadly poison. (James 3:5f) All of us would
vehemently disagree with James.
While the tongue is not as deadly as he described, we have all
heard words spoken that were similar to what came out of the mouth of
the other fisherman on the lake.
The tongue is nothing more
than a facilitator for
communicating what is within each of us during any given moment in time.
James wrote, "Words of
thanksgiving and cursing pour from the same mouth." (James 3:10)
On this point, all of us might agree. Currently,
western societies are dealing with the use of language in a way that has
never happened in history.
Today, we are still wrestling with words and how to deal with people who
are less careful with what they say. This issue has
been in Currently, Mark
Zuckerberg, one of the founders of Facebook, admitted recently that he
had mixed feelings about his company's creation of a
thumbs-down icon that allows
users to communicate their dislike of what someone has announced to the
world on their Facebook page. Mark
would prefer to keep communication positive between users, but Facebook
patrons are clamoring for some way to provide feedback when someone
posts something that is in poor taste. James was reminding
new believers that human attitudes cannot be kept a secret.
Everything about us, particularly our attitudes, surfaces in our
body-language as well as in our words.
Even our facial expressions can instantly reveal what we are
thinking and feeling. The
people that surround us already know a lot about us even if we believe
that they do not. We have all
heard comments like: "She is such a sweet person." "He is so fragile
that being around him is like walking on egg shells."
"She is a control freak!" "He is one of the nicest guys you will
ever want to meet. He has such a marvelous way of making everyone very
comfortable with him." "She
is a walking encyclopedia.
She never forgets nor is she able to let go of anything.
If you offended her thirty years ago, she can cite chapter and
verse." James is
telling his readers that each of them will find it very difficult to
communicate their faithfulness to Jesus' teachings without first
transforming how they order their lives.
A truth that very few people are willing to hear is that each of us
is one hundred percent responsible for what our spirits and
personalities communicate.
People can coach us on how best to respond to others, but if our
words do not come from a loving, wholesome spirit, we have only mastered
how to wear another mask. A colleague of
mine really has the key to success when it comes to remaining at peace even during
heated Council meetings at his church when equally valid points-of-view
differ. He told me that he
had developed an invisible defense
shield that prevented other people's attitudes and opinions from
penetrating his inner world.
His defense shield was a loving energy flow that he constantly beams
toward others. He claimed
that it works during every challenging exchange.
His
congregation had a very opinionated President of the United Methodist
Women who also had a razor sharp
tongue. She came unannounced
into his office one morning and demanded to see him right then and
there. He got up from his
desk and closed the door that separated his office from the office of
his secretary. That door,
however, had a window in it.
His secretary, who had heard her burst of emotion, got up to peek at how
he would handle her. The unhappy
woman said, The men of this
church continue to leave water in the bottom of the coffee pots after
they use them. I have
repeatedly told them that if they plan on using our pots and leave them
in this condition, we are going lock them up in one of our cabinets. We
do not need mold and other crud growing in the bottom of our coffee
pots! He put his arms
around her and said, "Now, now, I will personally attend to this
matter." He hugged her for a
moment as he patted her on the back. She
calmed down after getting the answer that she wanted and left his
office. The secretary came
into my friend's office and said, "I saw what you did to her.
She had a lot of gas in her tummy and you burped her." My colleague was teaching the power that people can develop when they use this same invisible defense shield. Jesus was always in control of his inner world. Actually, this is the only world any of us can control every day. Jesus never had control over others in his outer world. When we are
positively anchored in love and use this loving energy flow that we
continue beaming toward others, we will never need to be careful about
what we say. Hostile responses and words simply do not come into our
minds. Eventually this ability
gets easier the more we practice it.
An added bonus is that
God's light is also shining through us each time we show up
anywhere. All we have to do to make God more visible is to get out of
the way and let it happen. |