2016_The Sky Is Always Blue

“The Sky Is Always Blue”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – February 14, 2016

Centenary United Methodist Church

Psalm 1; Jeremiah 17:5-10

While today is Valentine's Day, our Scripture lesson this morning will seem as though it has nothing to do with love that is expressed through the various themes of romance, candlelight dinners and heart shaped boxes of chocolate candies. In fact, our lesson at first glance appears to take readers in the opposite direction.

Our lesson from Jeremiah begins with these words, "The Lord says, 'I will condemn those who turn away from me and put their trust in the strength of mortal human beings.'" (Jeremiah 17:5) When we read such statements that reveal the condemning nature of God, they suggest that God is no more spiritually evolved than we are.

Perhaps a more fundamental question we need to ask ourselves is whether or not God has emotions like we do? Since we are created in God's image, some of us may believe this is the case. If so, how far should we go with such thinking? Can we actually cause God to feel pain, grief and disappointment? Is the creator of the universe that fragile? Can God experience dread, frustration, anxiety or unbridled euphoria? Perhaps each of us has our own answers.

There are literally scores of examples in the Bible where writers have painted a verbal portrait of God's emotions that are every bit as brutal as any human tyrant in history. One of the better examples of this image comes from a writer who has God ordering genocide. "Go and attack the Amalekites," God commanded, "and completely destroy everything that lives. Kill all the men, women, children and babies; the cattle, sheep, camels, and donkeys." (I Samuel 15:3)

Among the teachings of Jesus, we find numerous passages that discuss God's anger and judgment. We have images of people being thrown out into darkness where they will gnash their teeth. We have Jesus' very graphic discussion in Matthew 21 of a division between the sheep and the goats.

This theme of God's apparent moodiness and willingness to condemn people has helped to justify the thinking of countless Christians. Anyone driving through areas of the United States known as The Bible Belt will find cars with various bumper stickers that say all kinds of things. One said, "Jesus is coming soon and he is not happy." A large billboard along a road in Pennsylvania proclaims in big letters, "Get in shape now. At the end, you will be meeting God."

As some of you know, I enjoy saving cartoons that have theological themes. One featured a couple walking to their church. As they were approaching their house of worship, the couple noticed the sermon title posted on the outside bulletin board. Since it was Stewardship Sunday, the wife said to her husband, "I think we are really going to get it this morning!" The sermon title was "Tithe or Die!"

Given this background of thoughts that have influenced our understanding of God's nature, where do we place the teaching of Jesus' to forgive all people every moment of our lives regardless of the offense? Jesus said, "Forgive 70 times 7. Numerous Biblical passages seem to suggest that Jesus was asking his listeners to perform in a way that God apparently finds impossible to do with any consistency.

It should not take much effort on our part to understand what was happening when these passages referencing God's ruthlessness were being written. Countless times, the volatility of the authors' own emotions were being attributed to God's nature. A Biblical author might think, "If I feel such fierce hostility toward the behavior and attitudes of my enemies, how much more intense must God's wrath be toward these people?"

Jeremiah really captures the essence of what causes these references to appear. If there has ever been an anti-Valentine's Day theme, the one imbedded in our lesson today would rise to the top of the list. Jeremiah wrote, "Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else more deceitful, more despicable and more vile than the human heart. It is too evil and manipulative to be healed." (Jeremiah 17:9)

How did Jeremiah develop these thoughts about matters of the heart? What was he communicating? Was he reinforcing the Christian theme of original sin that was very late in its development? Not at all. Think about Jeremiah's words in a different way.

All of our lives are lived under a blue sky. The sky has remained blue every day since creation. However, when negativity enters our lives and we identify with that negativity, grey clouds move in and block the existence of the blue sky.

There is an aspect in our personality that warps our perception because we make judgments about everything through the lenses of good and evil, pleasure or pain, pleasant or unpleasant. Through this ability we interpret our experiences. As a result, we easily fall victim to this part of ourselves because many people create their responses based on a faulty interpretation of what is happening. Our negative judgments bring the clouds. Nothing else is capable of doing this.

In Biblical times, every event the Jews experienced was interpreted as an act of God. This is the way the Jews understood their history. Jeremiah realized how faulty conclusions can come from our emotions under certain circumstances where not enough information is known. In our world, "Will you be my Valentine?" can be very welcomed today and gone tomorrow. The romantic bubble bursts and couples abandon their marriages 42 percent of the time.

Jeremiah has an answer for keeping our skies blue all the time. He has God say:

People who trust that they will always be sustained by my love will be like a tree growing near a stream that sends its roots toward the water. The tree is not afraid when hot weather comes because its leaves will stay green. It has no worries when there is no rain because the tree will continue with its ability to bear fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7f)

In most respects, Jeremiah is saying that people who trust that God's love will always sustain them are those who realize that the clouds of negativity come and go. They know their sky will always remain blue because God's love will always sustain them. It is our feeling of being separated from God that causes the clouds of doubt, fear and negativity to appear. Life for everyone will always have its problems and challenges. How we deal with them will determine if our sky remains blue or cloudy.

Many years ago, our family made a vacation stop in Old Salem, North Carolina, where we stayed for a couple of days with some friends. We went to one of the shopping malls in the area that had over a hundred stores.

I am not fond of shopping when I have nothing in particular that I want to buy. It is like going to Gorham's and walking around to see if the store has any new and enticing appliances that I might like to buy. I chose, instead, to let the group go window-shopping while I walked around.

Soon I found myself engaged in conversation with a man who had a display of photographs in the middle of one of the mall's corridors. His pictures were ones he had taken personally. What was more interesting than the finished products he was selling was the man himself. He said things like, "I take pictures for the public who may be too busy to see the world that I see." Every picture was a statement of who he was. He was a gentle soul and he captured many remarkable scenes.

I violated my own value and purchased one of his pictures that showed a broken down paddlewheel that was halfway buried. At one time, the paddlewheel had turned the axle of a unit that ground wheat into flour. The mill was gone; only the paddlewheel remained. Under the picture were these words, "The destiny of all technology." He had successfully detached from the world while living in it.

That title and others got our conversation rolling into a higher gear. He began telling me the story of his life. After hearing stories that could have broken most people's desire to cling to happiness and joy, he was a person whose glass was always full of learned lessons his experiences had taught him. His wisdom was boundless and that skill focused his energies on photography. His sky was always blue. All he did to block negative clouds from appearing was to ask himself a simple question, "What is there in this experience that wants to teach me something I have not yet mastered?"

My experience was like talking to an angel-in-the-flesh who had found most of the magical ingredients for living a peaceful, stress-free life. He had become a creator. He was loving others through his medium of expression. He was earning enough money to meet his expenses. He was doing what filled his life with happiness. He did not need approval or applause from anyone. He appeared to be motivated by a desire to capture scenes that might invite others into a world they had all but forgotten.

He did not mention any particular faith. However, his orientation toward life and toward others did not need words to achieve visibility. He thanked me for taking the time to listen to his life-story. I thanked him for being the person he had become.

Jeremiah clearly had the answer for keeping our heart-felt emotions filled with blue skies rather than clouds. When we allow ourselves to experience it, our lives will be sustained by God's love. In essence, this recognition along with its application could be the greatest Valentine that we will ever receive. Jeremiah gave us a wonderful image that we can apply to our lives every day.

Let us remember that our skies are always blue. We were created with the ability to keep them that way. Let us press on so that we are successful in keeping them blue each day. All it takes is the memory that we are as God created us and we are sustained by God's love.