“Our Struggle to Find Meaning”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – October 27, 2019

Centenary United Methodist Church

Joel 2:23-29; Luke 18:9-14

 

    Countless people find their motivation to face each new day, to bring their best qualities to their work place, and to improve the relationships with others. This morning we are going to discuss what happens to those of us who search and discover a meaning that provides the purpose for being born.      

    Once a person finds their pearl of great price, they want to share their insights with others.  One of the goals for a good-number of people is their desire to publish a book.  There are between 600,000 and one million books published every year.  Half of them are self-published.  The authors who print their own material pay for the minimum of 250 books in order to add their thoughts to the mainstream of readers. Properly marketing their material with a must-read invitation is yet another expense. 

    A musician friend of ours put this experience into a song.  While he was visiting a pastor in Washington, D.C., the two discussed the quality of the sermons being delivered to congregations during these rapidly changing times. Tom’s friend said:

Many sermons today are missing the mark of teaching people with the same spirit that Jesus taught.  His lessons applied to everyone. Jesus' words were largely based on variations of The Golden Rule.

    He completely avoided political points-of-view. Jesus never mentioned that God intended everyone to be financially independent.

    Tom and his wife call themselves Dust & Ashes. They have taken their message to countless churches all over the United States.  Their message is clear. This husband and wife team have discovered their meaning by the results they have encountered from their efforts. Knowing this, Tom's friend inspired him to write a song that summarized why many sermons today fail to deliver a life-changing message. Here is the chorus of that song:

No one wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus.  Everyone wants to be the lead singer of the band.  It’s hard to get a bead on what's divine when everyone is pushing for the head of the line. I don't think it's working out at all the way he planned.

    Jesus' words were spoken to very temporary audiences who mostly showed up to have their imaginations stimulated by seeing the blind regain their sight or the withered hands and the crippled bodies suddenly made whole from the touch of the Master’s hand.  While Jesus was not the only healer in the ancient world, he was the only one who is remembered because he demonstrated through his life what he was teaching.

    Jesus was then crucified in one of the most obscure places in the world.  Jesus found meaning for his life and shared his findings with audiences who, for the most part, could not read or write.  In spite of what anyone believes about him, one has to wonder how anything about Jesus' life and teachings survived for thousands of years. 

    The parable that Jesus told in our lesson today featured a tax collector, who was despised by most people, and a proud Pharisee, who knew he had impeccable credentials that made him the lead singer of the band. Both men had gone to the Temple to pray. The words that each spoke provide us with a mirror to examine ourselves.

    What attitudes are we displaying in our daily lives that help others to find their way in life?   Even when others may not be seeking any new truth for themselves or knocking on anyone's door, or paying attention to how they are performing, how may our attitudes influence them to examine their lives more closely?

The Apostle Paul wrote,

 

Live in such a way as to cause no trouble for people anywhere in the world.  Imitate me!  Just as Jesus did, I try to point with my attitudes to a lifestyle that will encourage people to grow their confidence as they enter their future. (I Corinthians 10:32f)

    How many of us can remember those classes years ago that were teaching people how to assert themselves, how to build their self-esteem, and how to stand out by creatively drawing attention to ourselves?  People were urged to find meaning by marketing themselves.   

    Women found a new purpose and meaning for their lives.  No longer did they need to stay at home locked in a role of mother and wife. Preschools began to flourish as women entered the workforce in jobs that once were off limits to them. Women have grown comfortable in taking leadership roles in global companies.  Currently women are the chief executive officers of IBM, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics. This was unheard of in our past.  Clearly, women have arrived but now they face the same challenges as men. 

    So many people have been lured away from the values of spirit that are rooted in humility, kindness, compassion, generosity, peacefulness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22) Sometimes when people push to get to the head of the line, they misplace their peace-of-mind while climbing the ladder of success.  The culture of our societies has pushed people to excel by running faster.

    There is a professional baseball player who is performing brilliantly with his skills in the current World Series games.  He was offered thirty-eight million dollars a year for eight years to stay with his current team.  This young man turned down the offer because it was not enough. One has to wonder what amount of money is enough to give his life meaning?

    People are finding their meaning in life by being highly skilled at playing a game, being involved as a research specialist, or becoming outstanding in a field of the arts.  However, if a person becomes a superstar in one of these specialties without also developing qualities of spirit, what have they gained?  Again, how influential have they been in helping others glow in the darkness where so many people dwell today. The lesson Jesus taught in his story-telling of the Pharisee and tax collector was that consequences for each are built into life.

    It is not surprising that today people are taking more and more medications. In the not too distant past, we never heard of peanut allergies, fibromyalgia, pancreatic cancer, and depression at the pandemic levels we experience today. Could these diseases be due to people's race to become the lead singer of the band?   

    We find ourselves searching for the shortest line in the grocery store, we become impatient in slow traffic patterns, and we sometimes find ourselves bending the rules as though someone is holding a stop watch on how quickly we can accomplish our tasks.

    What are we accomplishing by our rush to become first?  What are we feeling that causes us not to value the moment in which we find ourselves? Jesus walked everywhere he traveled.  He did not have a consistent residence where he could sleep at night. He walked away from his need for financial security when he left his job as a carpenter.  His first attempt at teaching almost got him killed. (Luke 4:28f)

    If we consider Jesus as an ideal role model, why is it that a lot of people only give lip service to the spirit by which he lived?  We love Jesus but our spontaneous attitudes may communicate to everyone another message. Why is it that peaceful living no longer guides our daily activities?

    Many people measure their meaning and purpose in life by the number of books that they have written, the size of their investment portfolio, their doctoral degrees, the size of their congregations, or that they have completely surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ. Perhaps what really matters in life has nothing to do with any of these mile stones.

    What gives life meaning is when we allow our true identity to bleed through the façade that we have created to feel secure and successful in the material world.  We are only an integral part of the created order when the Creator decides that we are a piece of the puzzle that can influence the evolutionary process of our species.        

    Those who want and need more power over the lives of others, are those who want to be the lead singers in the band.  In terms of what is real, that lead singer has always been in place since the beginning of time. (John 1:1-5) Have we been paying attention to what really gives life its meaning? 

    When we willingly and humbly share who we are with others, our meaning will surface every day. Those of us who first cultivate and develop a loving, energized spirit will have everything that we could possibly need both now and throughout eternity.  (Matthew 6:33)

    We do not need to struggle to find meaning. Why search for a unique meaning to our lives when expressing God's spirit is what we do?  While expressing the qualities that we can use when we leave this life, our physical lives on earth will give us all the meaning we need to discover our purpose for being born.

     

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

Loving and always present God, if we visualized the number of life-changes we have experienced since birth, we would cease to see all else.  We have grown wiser.   We have learned that we reap what we sow.  We have learned not to define ourselves by what evokes our fears. Many of our experiences have taught us to value the beauty we find in others and the joy we find in having a mission-oriented life. Our discoveries have led each of us to higher ground. Help us to accept the invitation of Jesus to let our inner light shine as we try to make visible what it is like to live in your Kingdom.  Amen.

     

PASTORAL PRAYER

Loving God, as we gather this morning, we are humbled by our remembrance of all that Jesus invited us to become.   We recognize that even though we have not always risen to the level Jesus knew we could reach; we are loved just as we are. We thank you for the vast number of opportunities that you place before us the moment we awaken in the morning.  As we look at each new day, we can choose patience over frustration. We can engage in random acts of kindness without seeking recognition or approval. We can offer a lifestyle that is framed around forgiveness rather than seeking apologies or our form of justice.

How grateful we are for your guidance. We are grateful that Jesus not only called us to follow him, but he also invited us to make disciples of those who have fallen in love with the gods of this world.  Inspire and motivate us to stand forth in our desire to give expression to our faith.   Help us to make visible the truth we have learned so that we can continue to guide others to live inspired lives.

Today as we consider the health of our connection to you, kindle in us our memories of our own spiritual journey.  Help us to recall the Sunday school teachers who focused our thinking on matters of substance when we wanted to be elsewhere. Help us to recall the prayers that were offered for us when we felt vulnerable. Help us to recall the miracle of your forgiving presence when we were convinced that we had lost our way. We pray these thoughts through the loving, patient spirit of Jesus the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . .