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“There
Is No Slick Formula” Sermon Delivered
By Rev. Dick Stetler – July 16, 2017 Centenary United
Methodist Church
Psalm 25:1-10; Matthew 13:1-9 Many pastors
find the lesson this morning in Matthew's Gospel one that provides a
near perfect
formula for a multipoint
sermon. Our lesson is
greeted with the same enthusiasm by pastors as is Micah 6:8 that says,
"The Lord has told us what is good.
What God requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show
constant love and to live in humble fellowship with our God."
This verse yields three wonderful points. These lessons
appear clear on what could be said from the pulpit.
However, when we take a closer look at either of these
Scriptures, we may come away with a different understanding that there
really is no slick formula for developing our evolving spiritual
identities. If life were filled
with one, two, three formulas
for experiencing a delightful, enthusiastic life, we would all be there.
We are not there because life
isn't like that. Five hundred
years before Jesus was born, Siddhartha's first teaching to his
disciples was this: "All life is sorrowful."
Today, with what we know about
the power of our attitudes, any of us could easily counter his teaching
by saying: Siddhartha, your
conclusion about life all depends on the attitudes created by each
individual. For some people
life is wonderful, exciting and every day is greeted with anticipation
of what is coming up for them.
If all life is sorrowful, how do you account for those who are
learning skills of spirit from every experience? In Jesus'
parable of a farmer sowing his seed, he was attempting to teach why many
people are not ready to make his teaching a part of their lives. Jesus
chose to use these metaphors of different qualities of soil because his
listeners had experienced what happened to seed when it was being sown.
1.
Seed can fall on the hard soil of a path.
The birds easily see it and eat it.
2. Seed can fall on
rocky soil where the soil is shallow.
The sun can easily scorch the plants as soon as they sprout.
3. Seed can also fall among thorn bushes that choke the new
plants. 4. Finally, some
seed lands on the prepared soil of the garden patch where all the
conditions are well-suited for its growth. These seeds produced a crop.
Jesus concluded, "Listen, then, if you have ears." Obviously, the disciples did not have ears that were sharp enough to understand what Jesus was saying. They had to ask him to explain what he was trying to illustrate. Perhaps if we had been among that group of listeners, we might have had the same response, "What is he talking about? For hundreds of
years, obedience to the Laws of Moses was the training that the Jews
received. People had one choice.
They could either obey the Laws or endure the wrath and judgment
of God if they failed to do so.
Jesus' message was communicating an idea that none of them had
ever heard. I did not give
to Erika the second half of our Gospel lesson to read today where Jesus
explained the meaning of his parable.
Jesus' explanation would not have applied to our lives.
How could this be? Most pastors
are aware that by the time the members of their congregations get to
their cars to go home, what they heard in a sermon has already left
their consciousness. This may not be due to a lack of
understanding, but rather because people's minds today are totally
over-stimulated. If people
cannot remember the name of someone seconds after they have been
introduced to them, how could they possibly remember a sermon?
When I was a
teenager, there came a time when I begged my parents to allow me to skip
attending church from time to time.
I had no particular reason for making the request other than that
I was bored out of my mind by my father's sermons.
I felt little impact from my dad's messages.
His words appeared to address the issues experienced by mature
adults not teens. One Sunday, the
six of us were sitting around the table eating our dinner when I made my
request. As I fully
expected, my request was unequivocally denied. When I heard my dad's
answer, I asked my mother if she would tell us one thing that dad had
said in his sermon that he had just delivered two hours before.
She hesitated for quite some time and then admitted that she
could not recall anything. I was so
excited that my mother came through for me with the evidence that I
needed. I exclaimed, "I rest
my case." My dad said, "Your
case has been heard, your evidence has been considered and your case has
been denied and dismissed.
Nice try!" However, he was
noticeably bothered by my mom's response. With my parents
making church attendance a requirement for me, something interesting
occurred. If my dad ever
repeated a sermon or an illustration that he had previously used, I knew
that he had done so. I am
sure that this has happened to you when I repeat something. What and why
does that happen? This does not
say anything about the quality of
soil for any of us. There is something within each of us that never
sleeps. Our spirits do not
require sleep. They remain
alert to life's numerous lessons, particularly when we hear them
repeatedly or when we see them being demonstrated by attitudes or
behaviors of those living around us.
We seldom choose our
values.
We absorb them from our environment.
Think about what may be lost when spiritual nourishment is no
longer a part of our week.
Think about absorbing all kinds of beliefs, philosophies and ideas that
come from living in our world.
It happens. Remember,
we often absorb values that we did not choose. Initially our
values form in our families by observing the attitudes and decisions of
our parents. When other people express their values through their
rudeness or callous nature, these are not
bad people, they are
merely individuals who have not been exposed to values that promote
happy, optimistic and enthusiastic attitudes. The reason that
Jesus' metaphors of soil qualities do not resonate with us is that they
do not work. Even after
Jesus' explained his parable to the disciples, what became clear to them
was a concept. They could exclaim, "Oh, is that what you meant?"
However, concepts do not work
toward forming the basis of our
life-patterns or providing the substance of our evolving spiritual
nature. We all know
that honesty is a great virtue.
Honesty, however, is a concept.
Even though we know this and admire it, most of us can
stretch accuracy to the
breaking point with ease and
we feel no guilt about doing so. It is easy for us to allow a phone to
go unanswered when we recognize who the caller is. The disciples
had been handpicked by Jesus. Not
only did they have the farmer that sowed the seed,
they also had the seed that was
sown in their lives on a daily basis. Their lives, however,
demonstrated loud and clear that no matter how many of Jesus' lessons
they heard, none of the disciples were able to live them. After three
years of daily training, Peter not only brought a sword to the Here is a
question for you. How would
you judge the quality of the
soil of Jesus' own disciples? With their numerous failures, how
would you answer? If you absorbed
anything from my sermon of last Sunday, your answer might sound like
this: I no longer judge
people. I am trying to be a
Neutral Angel. I first have to
take the log out of my own eye before I can remove the speck from the
eyes of my neighbor. If that is your
answer, I give you an A+ and will send you to the head of the class. Of course, many
of us cannot remember sermons from week to week and it remains a
challenge to a make concept like instant forgiveness to become a part of our lives.
We have spent the majority
of our lives building the spirit by which we live one response at a
time. Instant forgiveness
has not been a priority in our training.
What dominates our lives is our need for
instant justice.
While we do not want to admit this, it nevertheless is true.
Instant forgiveness is
a concept that we often discuss in a Bible study group. It is not a
standard attitude-of-being that we are exposed to or even desire to
want. Most of us
drift along in life governed by our routines until we find ourselves
in new territory.
Are we ready with a response when our spouse dies, when one of
our children is tragically killed in an accident or when we learn that
we have terminal cancer? It
could be that this new territory
arrives when we are looking forward to
our own retirement from all the tasks that once defined our identity
for decades. In last Sunday's Royal Gazette, there was a comic strip that captured my attention. There was a line of pigs running together as they headed over a cliff to their deaths. One of the pigs that was already airborne shouted, "Wait! Honey, do you remember if I turned off the stove?" We
do not want to be in the midst of a life-changing event without the
trust that our future has already been totally scripted by loving
responses that we practiced for most of our lives. This
is what Jesus was teaching.
When we trust our learned loving responses for the quality of our
destiny, we can let go of all our fears. Mastering life on this level is not due to following some slick formula of concepts or the quality of our soil. Our survival from this life is a sure thing for everyone. Jesus' death communicated that absolutely nothing can injure our spirits. Further, Jesus' resurrection communicated that we never lose consciousness when we leave our bodies. Everyone survives. Belief in this understanding is not necessary for it to remain a fact. Those of us who
know this realize that we are free from fear, anxiety and worry.
(Matthew 6:25-34)
Each of us has the power and ability to love, to create, to have
patience, to forgive and to be generous to a fault. Loving energy has no
boundaries whatsoever. We
are totally free.
Making these qualities
an intimate part of our identity is what Jesus was attempting to teach
his disciples. However, a
truth
that few of us recognize is this:
Regardless of what anyone does or says, including Jesus,
the evolution of our own spirits is always a matter of individual
choice. CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Eternal God, we thank you for the refining and defining aspects of life.
We have learned that habits are nothing more than our making the
same choices over and over again.
We have discovered that attitudes and values have developed by
repetition as well.
We are
thankful that Jesus taught us how to change the way we think.
He invited us to live in Heaven now.
Help us to seek peace amid all that frustrates and disappoints
us.
The world is filled with
people whose beliefs, values and loyalties lie in a different universe
from our own.
In spite of
our differences, grant that we may live in peace as we remain faithful
to the guidance offered by Jesus.
Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER Loving God, as
our faith continues to be refined within each day’s events, we thank you
for constantly being in relationship with us.
We are not completely sure what it means to be created in your
image, but we trust that you have given us the ability to walk with you
through the fog generated by our responses to so many
distractions within our world.
Right now, the world is over-stimulated by what is happening with
people all over the world who have forgotten to count their blessings. We do experience
peace when we authentically allow our cares and concerns to dissolve in
the sands of your unconditional love.
Equally, we experience the instant judgment the moment we choose
to swim against the currents of life, when we place our faith in
worrying, as though fretting will deliver for us the outcome we would
prefer, or when we use the threat of withholding our love as leverage
for motivating others to conform to our wishes.
There are moments when we forget who you created us to be and
what living in your Kingdom looks like.
Guide and teach
us, O God, to look beyond the headlines.
On Tuesday, many of us will cast our vote for who will govern
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