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Sermon
Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – January 20, 2019
Centenary United Methodist Church This morning we are going to discuss the role that we play in
influencing other people's behavior and attitudes.
The Apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthians has a number of
valuable insights into how equipped people are to thrive in life once
they become acquainted with their
built-in talents. For many of
us, the process of defining ourselves begins early during our adolescent
years. As our bodies
begin changing, our personalities develop an urge to stand out in our
attractiveness. This need
to be noticed by other students in school is one of the out-growths of
our nature as social beings. This is the time when young boys' voices change and girls begin to develop curves. It is an awkward time in our lives as all of us begin taking notice of who we are physically becoming. What happens ever so slowly is that we begin taking our cues from the external world. Quite naturally, there were several people during
our teen years that really stand out in our memories.
They were
the stars of the student
body. We find it very difficult to remain a wallflower even if we were a
girl that did not make the cheerleader squad or a boy who was last
standing when two teams were choosing sides during our physical
education class. We want to fit in.
Many crave positive feedback that they are likeable.
This is the time when our inner world is speaking
to us without our knowing that anything is directing our feelings.
We have no idea where our needs,
wants, and desires are coming from.
Young people need guidance to help them understand the barriers
and hurdles of peer pressure.
This is the time when training needs to happen that teach young
people how to access and develop their skills of spirit.
If there is one thing that I would lobby for in our world it would be
that classes in Spirituality be taught at all levels of our education.
Such classes could be taught by people who know
passionately the need to develop this silent, invisible world that will
wind up controlling people's lives anyway. Since this is what happens to
everyone, people should begin understanding the controlling power of
this silent, invisible dynamo. Such a course would not help people to secure a
job, however, the course would help them to develop life-skills that
would enable them to fit into almost any vocational culture until they
find a career that really inspires them.
Societies often mistakenly confuse spirituality with religious
beliefs. Each has
a number of similarities but they are not
identical twins. In fact,
they are both located in a completely different
universe of thought.
Finding this silent, invisible world is among our greatest discoveries.
Many people do find it, while others have no clue of its
existence. Even if people claw their way to the top of the ladder in
their career and become successful, they may learn when it is too late,
that their ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.
So many people grow anxious about their lives.
They dread getting out of bed each morning.
They look at the clock continuously during the day waiting for
the magic hour when they can go home. They anticipate intensely the
arrival of the weekend. They may have the skill-set to do what they do,
but they never learned what the development of their inner world would
have given them. Living with high anxiety destroys our physical
bodies. If we only knew
what anxiety was trying to teach us.
Anxiety screams at us
to make a change. It tries to communicate that what we are doing is not
working for us. We must
choose a career that causes our energies to soar.
Most people do not know how to
decode what their bodies are telling them. Many years ago, I performed a wedding for a couple.
Months later, the bride called me and told me about all
the dead-ends she had
encountered while trying to find employment.
I asked her what job was at the top of her wish list.
She said, "I would give anything to work for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration."
I asked her if she could work without being paid.
She was mystified by the question but said that she could because
her husband made a decent salary.
I told her to go to Human Resources at NASA and apply.
I said, when they tell you that they are not hiring, tell them
that you would like a six-month Internship and are willing to work
without compensation just to gain work-experience. She called me several weeks later and told me that she had her Internship. Next, I told her to employ her skills-of-spirit and I gave her several examples: Show up to work early and stay late. Network with
everyone you meet. Ask others if they need help with anything.
Get to know all your supervisors.
Make yourself indispensable and become a highly energized
personality in your office. I knew that she had the skills within her to become
a success by doing whatever she wanted to do.
Long before the six months
ended, she was offered a job and was thrilled.
The Apostle Paul discovered that our Creator has
equipped everyone of us with the potential to pursue tasks that
cause us to rise each morning with an eager smile on our faces.
Paul called our inborn
potential, gifts of the Holy
Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:1) Even though Paul used such a label, there is
nothing particularly Holy
about being a chef, a maintenance person, a nurse, a teacher, an artist,
and a plumber. Our potential
remains unknown to us, but nevertheless it is a vital part of us as is
our intellect, our emotions, and the spirit by which we live. After giving his readers a list of things people
can feel inspired to do, Paul wrote: It is God who implants all of these different urges
within people. Each one of us has some qualities to develop that will
give our lives a sense of purpose and fulfillment."
(1 Corinthians 12:11)
A vital part of living is to pursue
our dreams
without caring what anyone else thinks.
In other words, we are doing what we most enjoy while being
content to remain invisible
to the rest of the world. This is exactly what God does.
God chooses to remain invisible. All we can see from God's
activity are results. The
seeds from our tasks are flung into the air and it
is the silent, invisible hands of our Creator that knows the gardens
that will gladly welcome those seeds. Try to imagine how the three-year ministry of Jesus
in one of the most obscure parts of the world has influenced billions of
people for the last two thousand years. He was invisible to the entire
world even centuries after his life ended.
Today, more books have been written about Jesus than any other
personality in history. How
did that happen? Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the
United States, once said, "Rather than striving to become known, it is
better to live a life that would have made you worthy of being known."
This is what it means to remain
invisible, to choose to fly under everyone's
radar, and to do your best in
spite of who may or may not be watching.
Jesus was such a person. What Susan did at NASA was to become
the leaven for the loaf in
her office and among her colleagues.
Her spirit nourished everyone in the office without their really
noticing what was happening to them. Her inner spirit was so contagious
that everyone in her division wanted her to stay.
Everything that she
accomplished was being spread from her invisible world by nourishing the
invisible world of others. People can exhaust themselves trying to get
noticed, trying to be the first, hoping to be recognized by society as
being the best at what they do.
The person who does not care about any of that, is the one who
understands the power of Jesus' comment, "She who is last shall
be first." (Matthew 20:16) Most of us find the prayer of Giovanni di Pietro
Bernardone wonderful to read again and again. This is the prayer that
begins. "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace . . . " How did a
prayer written in the 13th century make it to the 21st
Century? St. Francis did not
write his prayer believing that it would influence people living in the
future. This
is how Jesus influenced generations not yet born.
It
happened because of
a wave of invisible energy that he set in
motion that continued to spread long after he
graduated
from this life. Others became influenced because within
them existed an invisible hunger to have their spirits nourished by what
they are receiving. What Paul was illustrating in his letter was how
each of us enters the world equipped to do just about anything when our
spiritual development is maturing along with the rest of us.
He wrote; There are different abilities to perform service,
but the same God gives the ability to everyone to influence others
through what they do. The
Spirit's presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of
all. (I Corinthians 12:6f) It is not what
we do, but the spirit of our doing that influences the world.
We do not need to assert ourselves or strive to do anything to
move the needle of our influence.
When we enjoy our invisibility,
we become a part of the paint
that our Creator uses to continue creating
the portrait of humanity's future.
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER We are eternally grateful, O God, for your loving presence.
You know that most of us are attached to our daily routines.
We prefer routine to the inconvenience of change.
We prefer
a smooth ride
to the disruption that unscheduled surprises bring. We recognize how
often frustration clouds our vision.
Lead us, O God, to rediscover the boundless source of energy that
comes the moment we pause to speak to a child, to help an elderly person
to climb stairs, or to open the door for someone on crutches.
Cause us to remember that we are always growing in our
thoughtfulness, just as you designed us to do.
Amen. THE
PASTORAL PRAYER Loving God,
sometimes our worship experience appears routine. There are times when
we come to church out of habit.
Yet, even during our routines, we never know what insight might
come to us, or what alternative might become clearer for a decision that
we soon have to make, all because we set aside this morning to feed our
spirits. When we have exhausted ourselves with
worry and we have thought through every possible aspect of our
circumstances, there is nothing more soothing for our spirits and more
calming to our emotions than to realize that you are as close as our
nearest thought.
How
refreshing it is to hear Jesus saying, "Come unto me all of you who are
weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest."
We thank you for nurturing our spirits. Your invisible nature has always been our guardian in spite of how distracted our lives have become. How often have we surrendered to you our consuming preoccupations and found peace? How often have we experienced your presence because we paused long enough to listen? How often have we felt our cares melt away when we gain perspective on how small our problems are when we consider the magnitude of what others face? Thank you for meeting us where we are and for allowing us to remember that we have never been abandoned or left alone. We pray these thoughts through the loving spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray. |