“Do
We Really Need Recognition?” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler –
August 28, 2016 Centenary United Methodist Church
Jeremiah 2:4-8; Luke 14:1, 7-14 This morning we are going to discuss one of the paradoxes
about ourselves. How do we feel when we do a good job and absolutely
no one says "Thank you"
or expresses any word of appreciation?
If we feel slighted or hurt, we need to understand that there
are others in our world that do not feel slighted when this happens.
Our Gospel lesson finds Jesus teaching his listeners how to
take the high road.
A Presbyterian colleague once told me about a person in his
church that had stopped attending the worship services for a long
time. A friend stopped
by this parishioner's home to see why he was missing-in-action.
Their discussion reveals what often happens in many large
congregations. "Did the pastor send you?
If he did, why didn't he come?"
The friend said, "No, the pastor didn't send me.
I came because of the empty pew in front of us where you and
your wife normally sit.
We have been missing you."
The man responded, "I have been in the hospital for six weeks
and never once did the pastor visit me." The friend said:
You were in the hospital? I had no idea. I don't think anyone in the church knew that you had been in the hospital. Someone would have said something during joys and concerns. Did you or your wife contact the church to let the secretary know? He said, "I
don't remember. The
pastor should know these things. If I am missing at the church, he
should have reached out to me to find out why." We can take this issue and go in numerous directions with it.
When pastors list the names of people for their involvement
in some activity and a name is inadvertently omitted, that person
may feel it. On the other hand, when pastors highlight other people
for their contributions, a number of them really prefer to remain
anonymous. What pastors
do in these conflicting circumstances is take a couple of aspirins
and try harder to anticipate the needs of their people. Our Scripture lessons today are very different in their
interpretation of our Creator's spirit. In Jeremiah, God appears to
be whining, even pouting, that his
chosen people have
abandoned him.
Apparently, the God that Jeremiah was referencing needed
attention and praise.
Jeremiah has God say, What caused my
people to turn away from me?
I led them to a new and fertile land and they ruined what I
gave them. My priests
never asked where I am.
In fact, they don't know me anymore. Rulers have rebelled against me
and my prophets worship worthless idols and speak in the name of
Baal. (Jeremiah 2:4f) When we contrast these
words from God with Jesus' teachings, we receive an entirely
different understanding of God's nature.
Jesus said, "For those who make themselves
great will be humbled,
and those that humble themselves will be made
great." (Luke 14:11)
Even God has to fall into one category or the other.
In this passage,
the word humble can be
translated as "Engaging in what we want to do without making
a show
of it."
In other words, we are making our contributions from a strong
desire to do so and not because we are seeking praise,
approval and congratulations for doing so.
This reflects the nature of God who sends the sunshine and
rain on everyone regardless of where people are in their journey.
(Matthew 5:45f) So
often we define being humble
as a person who is meek,
mild, reticent and shy. Jesus' story-telling in our Gospel lesson about where to sit
at some event is not one of his clearest illustrations; however, his
point is well-taken. "Don't become so confident in your
self-importance that you choose to sit at
the head table.
Choose instead the
cheap seats. If
your host wants you at the
head table, he will come and invite you to join him."
Numerous
psychological tests have proven beyond a shadow of doubt that
seventy-eight percent of
everyone living in the United States, Canada and European countries
are externally motivated.
This means that most of us have our emotions and self-esteem
anchored to external
experiences, e.g., our need to be satisfied in our marriages, our
need to have our children become
successful in their
lives, and our need for approval from others.
For most of us our peace of mind and happiness are
dynamically connected to what is happening in our external
environment.
There are two kinds of people in our society -- those who
need to feel they are valued by others and a much smaller
minority that do not need the approval or recognition by
anyone to continue their search for places to be of service. One of the earliest funerals in my career happened while I
was in seminary. In
fact, it might have been my first.
I was like a seed
that had sprouted its first green shoots.
The deceased's son was in my youth group so I was asked to
officiate. The family
gave me what I thought was adequate information.
He was a wonderful person who had been a Vice President of
the Marriott Corporation. Weeks later after the memorial service, his son, Bobby, told
me the most remarkable things about his dad.
Every year his father gave a full scholarship to any college
or university to a student that showed great promise but who had no
financial means to continue his or her education beyond high school.
He had made substantial donations to numerous charitable
organizations. He sat
on the Board of Directors of two major
Fortune 500 Companies.
And to top it off, the entire Marriott family had been
present at the service. I felt like I had been a complete and utter failure to the family and to the memory of this marvelous spirit whose quality of life I had all but ignored. What I said during the service did not cover even the tip of the iceberg. I said, "Bobby, why didn't you or your mother share this information with me during my visit?" Bobby was very gracious in answering my questions.
He said: Everyone at the funeral knew my dad. There would have been no point to reciting my dad's accomplishments. Dad would not have wanted that. You spoke to the living, Dick, and you gave to everyone what a number of us needed to hear. While Bobby was very kind in his recall of his father's
memorial service, I did not recover from that experience for
decades. For me, it was
a real faux pas.
As the years passed, however, I got more in touch with the
inner-directed spirit demonstrated by Bobby's dad.
I had been living in the category of being externally
motivated, i.e., I worked very hard in writing my prayers and
sermons rather than consulting books and what others had written. A
hidden motivation was the hope that I would receive something from
people that would tell me that my words mattered to them.
Bobby's dad was one of those angels-in-the-flesh who was
doing what he wanted to do. He
had no ego-investment
attached to his identity or the outcome of
the seeds he was sowing.
What he did was satisfying to him and that was his sole motivation
for helping. This was the main point that Jesus was making about why it
was wise to choose one of the
cheap seats in the back rather than moving directly to
the head table.
Being inner-directed himself, Jesus taught and healed from a
humble spirit, often telling people not to tell anyone how they were
helped. Jesus drew
attention to himself because of his revolutionary ideas.
Religious spies followed
him around. We seldom
think of Jesus as
a radical revolutionary, but he was.
He ignored traditional beliefs by teaching new
ideas. He spoke of
life-style changes that were unconventional by placing a person's
authentic desire above a disciplined life of obedience to the Law.
He also told his listeners that the clergy were more like a group of
blind guides leading
other blind people. (Matthew 15:14)
Obviously, Jesus was not a pleaser nor did he care about the
popularity of his message. If all of us could describe the spirit by which we live, how
would we characterize ourselves?
There can be no question that inner-directed people enjoy
approval, standing ovations, congratulations and awards.
The
difference is that such people do not need such recognition
to motivate them toward excellence in what they do. Voltaire, the French writer during the Age of Enlightenment,
published a book entitled,
Candide in 1759. He
ended this literary masterpiece with advice to his readers, "You
have to cultivate your own garden."
The spirit in which
we cultivate our garden
makes a remarkable difference in how we feel about ourselves and
what it is that we want to do to make a difference in our
community, nation and world.
It does not matter that three quarters of human beings are in
the other camp from those that are motivated by desire that is not
connected to recognition.
Jesus was leading people to live in
the Kingdom of God.
Countless people have
a lot of understanding about the characteristics of such a life, but
the quality of our lives has little to do with what we know; it
has to do with how we feel emotionally. Each one of us is a living miracle.
Our age does not matter.
We are always changing as we grow in spirit.
We will continue to do so forever.
Some people live for ninety-five years while others live one
year ninety-five times. When we leave the
cocoon of our caterpillar and learn
to fly, somehow the
opinions of others lack the influence they once had. This is growth.
This is being inner-directed. Jesus asked his listeners to follow
him. Are we doing that
with confidence and with the understanding that little else matters? |