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“What Changes Our Mind?” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – October
1, 2017 Centenary United Methodist Church
Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16; Matthew 21:23-32
This morning we are going to discuss what happens when we change
our mind. We learn how to
do this by being a participant in a process that begins in our infancy. As we are growing up,
there is an emotional ladder that all of us begin to climb
instinctively. That climb
teaches us about the identity we are forming.
When we are children, we teach ourselves that the best way to
gain the attention of others is to become dramatic.
As infants, we teach ourselves that crying
trains
our parents to pick us up.
They often follow through and we are comforted. However, there comes a time when our
song and dance no longer
works. Our parents realize
that we are dry, well fed and it is nap time.
No matter how loudly we protest, they begin to ignore what once
worked for us. We quickly
adapt and begin to gain attention in other ways.
We teach ourselves that even strangers begin to fuss over us with
their body language and baby talk because of how cute we are.
This is the same baby-talk that we adults use when we to speak to
our pets. What is happening during this process?
What is it that makes us move from one strategy to another?
The answer is that we abandon what no longer works and graduate
to what helps us toward our goal.
We crawl, climb and walk before we run.
This is how our growth happens. Last Sunday, I was talking with Craig and Erika Thomas about
Lois' recent appendectomy and my bringing her home from the hospital.
Erika asked, "Do you cook?" I said, "Yes, I can cook."
She said, "It might be a good idea if you made soup for her when
you go home from church." Ironically, when I got home, Lois ordered from
my extensive menu, suggesting
that I make chicken noodle soup for her.
I said, "Coming right up."
I opened a couple of cans of I presented Lois with a lovely bowl of what she had requested.
Keep in mind that Lois' radar
never turns off. Upon tasting
it, she immediately asked, "Did you also open up a can of chicken to add
to this? I've never seen so
much chicken in this soup."
I told her that I had done so. Then as she began to eat her soup in
earnest, she asked, "Did you put salt in this soup?"
I said, "No." She
said, "Well, it really tastes salty this time."
Then I asked a very self-incriminating question, "When I opened
the first can, I noticed that it was hardly enough so I opened two cans.
Is this the kind of soup that requires adding a can of water?"
So, Erika, I do cook but I am still learning a better way to make
chicken soup -- add an additional can of water as it says on the can
or as you will suggest, "Make the soup from scratch, using a recipe."
In our lesson today, we find Jesus having a dialogue with a
number of chief priests and elders.
They were asking him by what authority was he teaching and
performing healings. Notice
that they were more interested in
the mechanics of his ministry rather than the impact his teaching
and healing were having on people's lives. When we find ourselves doing things the way we have always done
them, and they are not generating the results that we want, what do we
do? We change to something
that works better. Jesus offered the religious authorities something they probably
did not want to hear. He
said: Tax collectors and
prostitutes are going into the Why is it that some people become so stuck in their ways that they cannot see that there are better ways to achieve a much higher goal? I recently received an email from my sister, Jane. She responded
to my telling her that we were filing for a work permit that will extend
our stay in Why
come back to this screwed up country. Now we're wasting time, on both
sides, talking about kneeling versus standing for the National Anthem
when we have folks in the south without water and electricity as well as
the poor people in the neighboring islands. We have totally lost
perspective. When we think about everything that we are exposed to on a daily
basis, have we become like a ping pong ball caught between the paddles
of life's countless circumstances?
Is our faith-storyline
strong enough to resist being drawn to one cheering section over
another? Are we capable of
living a solution that keeps
our lives balanced, whole and emotionally stable in the midst of a host
of clashing values? Jesus
was reminding the Jewish authorities that by holding on to what they
felt was sacred they had
become blind to understanding a better way to live.
We are so easily blinded by emotionally-charged issues. Some years ago, a Roman Catholic Priest was recalled to His love for his people was so great that he could not sit idly
by and do nothing while his people's lives were being systematically
destroyed by a ruthless dictator.
He felt that he had to take sides and join the rebellion which
meant to fight fire with fire.
When we find
ourselves
fighting for a noble cause, what have we
allowed the
world's endless number of
noble causes
to create in us?
Have we gone from love
your enemy to believing that
the only good enemy is a dead enemy?
Most of us face this kind of tug-of-war choices every week. So
many elements in our society are polarizing.
There does not appear to be any middle ground anymore.
Are we eventually going to die with the fantasy of our hands
around the throat of someone whose name we may not know?
Think about this because the process begins when our thoughts
change into emotional attitudes.
Once in place, these attitudes can motivate us to take some form
of action on one side or the other. This
process is what caused Peter to take a sword into the garden where Jesus
and his followers had gone to pray. Jesus said to the
guardians of the only true faith, "Tax
collectors and prostitutes are going into the The miracle worker is really the one that appears to be like
anyone else who honors many of the values of the outside world.
However, inwardly, they are governed by
the mystical way.
This is the path that
guides people to understand that nothing real can ever be threatened and
nothing unreal exists. Another way to say this is to understand that the creative energy
of love never needs defending. Why is this true?
A greater understanding becomes recognized because all of the
images that horrify us with threatening energy will not exist in the
realm to which we graduate. When we
refuse to become aligned with any issue that
demands
that we take sides in our society, doors will open for us that our
former passions did not allow us to see. During the period of slavery in the Schindler's List was a
Spielberg movie that featured the deeds of Oskar Schindler who saved the
lives of many Jews in German-occupied One of the pastors that followed my Dad as the pastor of my home
church, told me one of his favorite things to do during the Second World
War. His task was to arm
manually the bombs that were dropped on Nazi Germany.
He told me that there were many days when they flew over targets
they could not see due to a thick cloud covering. When he was given the word by the pilot, he walked through the
aircraft and touched each of the bombs. After his mission was
accomplished, the bombs were released to fall on whatever was underneath
those clouds. In many
cases, they were civilian communities.
The mission he accomplished, however, was that he never armed
those bombs. He did this
many times. Who knows how many German civilians he saved without hurting
anyone from the explosion of those bombs? We have to
remember that what motivates us to change our minds is the discovery of
a better way to live, a better solution from the ones that beg us to
choose sides and thus conform to the standards of this world. We create from the judgments we bring to every experience. When love is all that we know, opportunities to love are all that we find and loving is all that we do. When we leave our physical bodies, our transition to the next
realm is effortless and filled with what we have been doing for most of
our lives -- making compassion visible.
In this way, the Spirit of God enables us to become a vital link
to making our world a more loving and peaceful place for men and women
to live. CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Thank you, God, for bringing opportunities into our lives where we can
express understanding, kindness and generosity.
When Jesus came among us, his message was simple – extend your
hope among the troubled, your compassion among the lonely and your
friendship among those who feel lost. Jesus did not mind washing the
feet of his followers.
He found value in the one leper among ten who returned to say,
"Thank you!"
He felt
compassion toward the widow who gave away everything that she had.
Inspire us to put into motion the teachings of your son.
Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER Loving God, we are so grateful that in
our blindness to some forms of truth, you still lead us. We
are grateful that during times when we do not understand life, you know
that there is nothing of which we ever need to be afraid. We are
grateful that when our minds are challenged by so many unanswered
questions, we understand that you never lose control over any aspect of
creation. As reports began
to come in this week from the islands to the south, we cannot begin to
imagine the damage and destruction caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria.
How would we manage with no electricity and no hope of getting it
for months? How would we manage the rebuilding of our nation's
infrastructure from scratch?
You created us
with such resilient spirits.
We know that the day will come when people will talk about the
damage caused with these two hurricanes in past tense.
When living in our world of such human vulnerabilities, we are
grateful that we become inspired to circle our wagons when others are in
trouble, and strangers make your spirit visible simply through their
loving presence. We do not need to know how the story
ends before we become loving-participants in life’s drama. We do
not need to make sense out of our experiences before we express the
truth that we know. We do not need to have clarity to any outcome
before we become a healer with our responses. As we come to the
table this morning with Christians around the world, help us to
understand that our combined strength is the leaven for the loaf that
humanity represents. We pray these thoughts through the loving spirit of
Jesus who taught us to say when we pray . . . |