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“Once Heaven Gets Our
Attention” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – February
18, 2018 Centenary United Methodist Church
Psalm 25:1-10; Mark 1:9-13
Last Sunday's sermon discussed what happened once
Heaven reached out to a
number of people and got their attention. As you may recall, Mark's
Gospel described the events that took place on We discussed what happens to people in our generation when their
experiences reflect those of the disciples.
The physical evidence that life continues awakens them.
The only way that we have developed such an understanding is from
centuries of storytelling, a tradition that has largely been lost to
many of today's young people. Once experienced, however, a person's life
is impacted enormously. You may recall the thoughts of our first Scripture lesson last
week from Paul's second letter to the followers of Jesus living in If our message is
obscure to anyone, it is not because we are holding back on what
we are teaching. No, it is
because many of our listeners are looking at the
wrong things and are going in
the wrong direction. They are
taking their cues for living by what they find in the external world.
They believe that the world offers them everything they want and need.
Thus, they are not giving our message any serious consideration. As a
result, they remain as blind as stones to
matters of
spirit. (II Corinthians 4:3f) Paul was accurately describing what happens to people in every
generation. Fewer and fewer people even know about the necessity of
nourishing their spiritual search
engine. Such neglect is a
natural response to living in our world because in most cases, people
only experience what their senses are telling them. Today,
countless people are devoted to their cell phones. They
cannot stop looking at them with a sense of urgency in spite of where
they are. Lois and I attended a worship service here in Cell phone usage had become so addictive among his employees that
the CEO of a major company last week told several news-anchors that he
has banned all cell phones from coming into the company's building.
He ruled that employees will use
the telephones on their desks for all communication. There are other deities
dominating our lives i.e., medications for pain, new high-tech gadgets,
streaming movie-content into our homes, and cars that effortlessly park
themselves. You would think
that people today enjoy one
mesmerizing narcotic after another. They call these
deities the
next big thing.
Is there anything that can rescue people from worshipping at
the idols that such objects
and experiences represent? In our lesson this morning, we have Mark's version of what
happened to Jesus at his baptism.
Like everyone else in his day, Jesus was highly attentive to his
duties as a carpenter and attending to the needs of his family.
He was not anticipating any encounter with God.
Heaven, however, had
other plans. A voice spoke to him that caused many life-changes. Mark told his readers that Jesus was driven to go into the wilderness where an entire parallel universe began to reveal itself. (Mark 1:12) He became transformed during that period by a complete change of his mind. (Romans 12:2) What happened to Jesus is what happens to people once Heaven gets their attention. There is a curious
verse at the end of our lesson that is often overlooked by readers. We
have no description of what was happening. Here is that verse:
"Wild animals were there also, but
angels came and helped him."
(Mark 9:13b) There was another occasion when Jesus was guided by an
angel as he prayed in the Many of the wild animals
that surround us have already been discussed earlier in my message.
The cell phone today is
the lead-player in the drama of our many distractions.
Why do we need constant
entertainment? Why do we
need instant and constant contact with others?
We are also aware of how we are slowly being
brain washed by the news
media, politicians, our future financial needs, flu epidemics,
immigration issues, racism, and women who are finally learning to say
"no" when dealing with aggressive men.
However, when it comes to
matters of the spirit there
is little or no hunger by countless people eager to learn more.
Once
Heaven
gets our attention, however,
the angels
can enter our lives and provide guidance when we recognize their
presence.
It is almost like when
the student is ready, the teacher will come.
How do these angels
work with us? Once
Heaven has gotten our
attention, a door opens
showing us the existence of a
parallel universe. Many years ago, when Lois and I had a church in Once seated at my desk, I said out loud, "Okay, what do
you guys want me to do?"
I had to make a commitment to tear up the sermon that I had
worked on all week. I tore
my message into little pieces and tossed it into the trash can. At that
point I was totally committed to wherever this experience was taking me. Next, I turned toward my typewriter and said, "Okay, what do you guys think I need to say tomorrow?" You heard correctly, my typewriter. Computers had not yet entered my life. There was no retrieving my sermon if what I was experiencing did not work out. A flood of thoughts began forming in my head as I began typing.
A new sermon poured through my fingers and I was back in bed by
1:00 a.m. Never in my life
had I created a sermon in such a short period of time.
I had to trust completely what I could not see or understand. The next morning happened to be Easter Sunday when the church
would be packed with people.
To this day, I have no idea why writing a new sermon was such a
necessity. Perhaps it was a
test of my trust in what I could not understand. To my knowledge,
nothing miraculously happened during that Easter service as a result of
the message I delivered. BUT, as
has happened on other occasions,
Heaven had gotten my attention. One of my seminary professors was Dr. L. Harold DeWolf who
referred to such experiences as
special revelation. Dr.
DeWolf had become the Dean of Wesley Seminary where I was attending.
He came from Boston University School of Theology, where Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. had been one of his students. Special
revelation is when guidance comes that is highly
personalized and
finely tuned to our awareness.
Others who have had similar experiences will attest to
the presence of unseen hands
from this universe of spirit
that parallels the one in which we live and know all too well. Where do we
think Jesus got his courage and inspiration
to walk away
from the religion of his heritage, from
the war-god
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and from living solely by remaining
obedient to the teachings of the Torah?
His desert experience opened the door to this
parallel universe of
spiritual symbols. This is
what angels used to guide him
to live in both worlds radiating his loving energy. Realizing this, we can understand why Jesus described this change
as being born a second time.
This was the change that Jesus experienced in his own life.
He was a carpenter in the material world, engaged in the role of
the eldest son by providing for his family. After the forty-day period
in the wilderness, Jesus became a
spirit-being who had chosen to live in
the From his awakened state-of-mind, Jesus gave to humanity a new
interpretation concerning the loving nature of God's spirit.
Jesus taught a new understanding of loving energy that featured
instant forgiveness to
everyone that has hurt us. He taught compassion for those who walk in
darkness because they are
spiritually blind.
His listeners were directed to love
their enemies. Most of humanity has never learned how to understand or navigate
in a world that glitters because of the presence of the most intriguing
objects. A
learning curve for all people
is that we do not know what it is that we do not know. Most of us effortlessly succumb to the world's bidding.
Jesus came to teach people how to live in our world.
One of the realities is that
God cannot hold a candle to the
importance that people have given to their cell phones.
Nothing has any
meaning to our lives until we assign one. We do so by choice as well as
the amount of energy that we give to the object of our desire.
Most people make the claim that they believe in God, but to what end? There are far more satisfying distractions that are instantly gratifying to look at, use or to own, This is the way it is with all material objects. Through a slow process our world incrementally causes
our blindness to see concepts
that lack visibility. However, we have learned to respect a number of
energies that we cannot see such as gravity, wind, magnetism, and
electricity because we understand what they can do. Our
spirit-guides (our
guardian angels) remain invisible to us,
but they will make a remarkable difference in our lives once
Heaven
gets our attention. Once
the parallel universe of spirit opens to us, we are guided
through the maze of living in the material world with symbols that only
we can recognize. We cannot
teach what works for us. We can only respect what the energy provided by
our guides can do with and
for us. Historically, most people that write or speak in these terms are
called mystics.
However, there is nothing mystical or mysterious at all about
what happens to us once Heaven
gets our attention. Our
understanding of life is turned upside down because we learn to
understand everything our senses tell us in symbolic terms rather than
matters of concrete facts.
Jesus told his listeners that he had overcome the world. This
means that external influences no longer controlled his emotions,
judgments, and the spirit by which he lived. (John 16:33) The
truth is that we can do the
same thing once Heaven gets
our complete and undivided attention. This is not another
concept that needs to be studied, nor is it to be thought of as
something that lies beyond our reach.
Jesus would never have taught us
to live in the While they remain invisible to our senses,
our spirit guides remain
poised to lead us into the future unafraid and confident.
Try
talking to your spirit guides
during Lent. Get to know
and trust them. We do not
need to ask them for what we want.
The best results come from trusting them completely to help us to
discover our own inner resources. To recognize what I am talking about this morning, we first have
to experience the presence of our
angels. They will show
us doors that were present
all the time but were never visible to us. These openings to our future
were filtered by our neediness
to feel secure in the material world by relying on the props of wealth,
physical attractiveness, and our enthusiastic personality.
We might get a fresh start on how to interpret our
life-experiences. This
can easily happen once Heaven
gets our attention. Once we
are tuned into this remarkable support system, our fears leave us and
our confidence soars because we, too, have learned how to overcome the
world. CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Merciful God, we cannot experience the Lenten season without reflecting
on the number of times we take for granted what comes to us without our
asking.
When we are eager
to learn, understanding comes.
When we extend ourselves in love, we are never without receiving
it.
Yet, we are also
mindful of our mistakes, our hasty judgments, and our need to cast
blame. Kindle in us, O God, our desire to stretch in the areas of our
weaknesses.
Help us to
learn that our finest moments are when we find ourselves walking on the
road less- traveled because we are following the Master.
Amen. PASTORAL
PRAYER Loving
God, we thank you this morning that Jesus came into our midst so that we
might learn how to become more loving, patient, and peaceful men and
women. There is no message more needed than this one.
It seems that every week, more news comes to us of the results
created by people who still walk in darkness. They are angry about so
many things in their lives and they have no idea how to fix their pain
other than through violence.
In spite of
the truth
that Jesus taught, it was you, O God, who granted us free-will to choose
how each of us wishes to order our lives.
In
the drama that life represents, you have allowed distractions to enter
our lives with the potential to block the path set by your son. As
many tantalizing alternatives parade in front of us, it is we who must
choose between the pearl of great price from among the countless,
useless idols. It is we who must select between what will enhance our
skills of spirit and the temptations that encourage us to imagine how
life has failed us. Thank you, God,
for remaining confident in us. We do have awkward moments.
There are times when our regrets and our lack of using good
judgment take the spotlight away from the moments when we truly love our
neighbors. Help us during these days of Lent to construct our lives on
the rock of our loving
attitudes and desires. Help us to learn that most other responses are
dead-end streets.
With
grateful hearts for all that you have given us, we pray these thoughts
through the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we
pray . . . |