“Use Your Spiritual Software


Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – October 30, 2016

Centenary United Methodist Church

Psalm 119:137-144; Luke 19:1-10

 

    One of the insights that comes to me almost monthly is how uninformed I am about the accelerated pace of technology. I know enough to get by with my personal computer but I do not know how to use the machine to its fullest potential. 

    Several sermons ago some of you may recall my episode in the airport when I needed to call our son.  Pay phones are almost non-existent so I borrowed a cell phone from another passenger.  Not only did I not know how to turn it on, but I needed to be taught how to dial the telephone number.  The man's wife shot me a look that communicated, "Under what rock do you live?" 

    There is a television commercial that featured a junior high boy and girl that had come to visit their grandparents.  As soon as the children were greeted on the front porch, the grandmother handed her lap top to her granddaughter and said, "None of this works.  Come on inside."  

    This brief encounter can be duplicated over and over again in most of our lives.  Computers frustrate many of us and the odd thing is that young people know more about these things than we do. Most of us have our own stories of how computers have become an invasive species intruding themselves into our lives to stay.

    Knowledge, however, is power.  We are seeing people that have their airline boarding passes on their cell phones. We are watching people pay for a cup of coffee by holding their cell phone near the cashier's device.  In a number of churches, some people never put anything into the offering plate because once a month their offering is electronically transferred. 

    Some of us can remember pulling our car onto the shoulder and opening up large road maps because we had missed a turn off. Today, when people click on an application, their cell phone becomes a global positioning system.  Our daughter has chosen to listen to a male voice with an Australian accent as he gives her instructions for driving to an unfamiliar destination.  Life is becoming far less complicated for a lot of people because they have acquired knowledge on how to use these devices.

    This morning, I would like to suggest that using applications from our spiritual software can equally make our lives less complicated.  What spirituality and computer-technology have in common is that both of them are completely impersonal.  Neither one of them cares whether we learn about them or not. 

    What we do know from being around people is that some of them are very skillful in using their knowledge while others have little or no skills.  Their activities, moods and attitudes reveal what side of the ledger they are on. 

    Why are children so eager to get their hands on a cell phone and learn as many applications as they can but not so eager to learn what has the power to propel them toward success everywhere they go?  Perhaps no one is teaching them. Think of how the world would change if mastering spiritual software was a requirement for moving beyond grade school.

    The family was the primary classroom for teaching how to use spiritual software. Even to casual observers, many children today are growing up in families that are very different from the ones of their grandparents.  In many cases both parents are working. Children have nannies and preschool. The picture of a family eating around the table together each evening is a vanishing reality.  

    Many children have no memory of the values or training that was available to their grandparents. In many instances receiving an education about self-discipline, boundaries and common courtesies never happens within a loving environment where such characteristics were modeled.

    When the Church had a powerful influence in the lives of people, individuals never questioned the existence of their spiritual software.  Today, the values expressed by people are all over the spectrum of human behavior.  People engage in behavior today that was unthinkable years ago.

    Luke's Gospel this morning may provide an answer for what is needed everywhere. This episode began when Jesus stood at the base of a sycamore tree.  He looked up and saw the chief tax collector, Zacchaeus, sitting among the branches.  He said, "Hurry down, Zacchaeus, I want to visit with you today."  (Luke 19:5)

    We can only imagine what happened during their time together.  Here was a man that was a product of his society.   Because of his profession, others had labeled him as an outcast.  More than likely he never attended services at the Temple. No one would have made him feel welcome. He may have known nothing about his spiritual software because well-trained Hebrews were trained to be obedient to the Laws of Moses.

    Let us speculate about what Jesus could have said that would abruptly change the direction of Zacchaeus' life.  Upon entering his home, Jesus might have said:

You have a remarkably beautiful home.  Just look at these one-of-a-kind marble pieces from Rome, Athens and Alexandria. You have excellent taste in art, Zacchaeus.   These things must mean a lot to you.

 

Your gardens . . .  they are beautiful!  God has freely given to you many talents and abilities, Zacchaeus, yet you have built a wall around your home preventing your neighbors from sharing in your passion for things of beauty. Tell me, are you happy?  What is it that you do to give back to God's children?

    What Jesus taught throughout his ministry was helping people to develop a spiritual identity that is free from attachments to the things of this world.  He could have reminded Zacchaeus that King Solomon had one thousand wives and mistresses.  (I Kings 11:3)  Jesus could have reminded him that Solomon had more wealth than anyone in the ancient world.  (I Kings 10:11f)

    Jesus could have gone on to say:  

Have you ever found it strange that our former King, as great as he was, had everything that this world has to offer and yet he was sad for most of his life?  He once wrote: 'You work and worry your way through life, and what do you have to show for it?  As long as you live, everything you do brings nothing but worry and heartache.  Even at night your mind cannot rest.  Life is useless.'  (Ecclesiastes 2:22f)  Do you ever feel like that, Zacchaeus?

    Jesus knew that spiritual software with all its many applications was missing from the lives of most people.  He knew that spirit controls the major components of life that have to do with peace, happiness, gentleness, empathy, generosity and sharing.  These are some of the applications.  Each time we use one, our spirits come alive with magnetism that others find hard to resist liking.   

    All Jesus needed to say is that these life-qualities work for everyone while they are alive.  Then Jesus went on to say:

They will also work for you when it comes to the time when you leave this life.  All of them are rooted in loving energies that are identical to the qualities of God. 

Wealth, fame, prestige and even wisdom only work in this world.  Such things will be of no use to you when you return to the Creator in whose image you were formed. Why not learn to use now what makes life a compelling adventure anywhere you go throughout eternity?

    Zacchaeus was so touched and inspired by what Jesus was teaching that he responded, "Listen to me, Jesus.  After hearing what you have told me, I will give half of my wealth to the poor and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much as I collected." (Luke 19:8)   

    What Zacchaeus had just committed to doing was reversing his energy flow from me, me, me to we. This reversal caused Jesus to say, "As a result of your choice, Zacchaeus, salvation has come to you."  (Luke 19:9)

    This was the theme that unfolded for Charles Dickens when he wrote his famous Christmas Carol in just six weeks.  Ebenezer Scrooge reversed his energy flow from me to we after which the world of this miserly old man was never the same. Ebenezer could laugh again.  He could be generous, helpful and kind again.  Isn't this what salvation really looks like?   

    We become spiritually free from fear, worry, anxiety, stress, brooding over hurt feelings and always feeling victimized. Such feelings fade when we begin using our spiritual software along with all its rich and fruit-bearing applications. 

    Zacchaeus had become united to the often silent, invisible part of himself that he never knew existed. Jesus was teaching how salvation from this world's woes can work for anyone.  He came to teach people how to live abundantly.  He was teaching salvation just as he had done with Nicodemus long before he died on a cross. (John 3:3)

    All that Zacchaeus needed for his life to be redirected was to spend one afternoon with a teacher that understood the power of spiritual software that was capable of totally transforming his life.

    The reality is that there are not many technicians available to people. With the voice of the Church no longer dominant in western cultures as it once was and with the rapid changes happening within the family structure, the responsibility of finding and using our spiritual software is often ours alone to discover. 

    The world appears to be out of control.  Any student of history knows that the world has always been this way. Jesus engaged in the ministry of teaching people how to live in it. This is why he asked his followers to go into the world and teach others how to be at peace while living in the midst of chaos.

    By accessing the many applications of your spiritual software, you can be that teacher in every environment where you find yourself.