“Trusting What Comes Up for Us”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – August 11, 2019

Centenary United Methodist Church

Isaiah 1:10-20; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

    This morning we are going to discuss the mystery of how our lives evolve and unfold.  We have often heard the saying, "Life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans."  Certainly, most of us would have to agree with the accuracy of that statement because that has been our experience.

    For example, I never had a single thought of ever becoming a pastor until I was one.   It was nothing short of a miracle that I was allowed by the authority of the Ministerial Committee, to continue in the process.  I was not ordained a Methodist.  I belonged to a different denomination, the Evangelical United Brethren that merged with the Methodist Church to make the United Methodist Church in 1969. 

    The men of the Ministerial Committee knew and admired my Dad.  The questions they asked me were all about how my Dad was doing in Maryland. I became a certified candidate probably out of their friendship to him. They ended our session by telling me that my Dad must be proud that I was following in his footsteps.  I kept my mouth shut.

    My Dad's pastoral calling all but removed his presence from our family.  I did not want that for our children.  I became a drifter through life that never learned the art of setting goals.  I did not want anything from life at the time I had to make key decisions.  I was more impacted and responsive from the demands that were being made of me at Albright College and Wesley Theological Seminary.

    In our New Testament lesson today, the Book of Hebrews describes how Abraham became restless with his posh life-style in the city of Ur.  He gathered his family, their herds, and belongings and headed southward, unsure of where they would eventually settle.  He experienced an urge from God to do so. (Genesis 12:1) 

    The author of the Book of Hebrews used Abraham as an illustration of a person who personalized his opening verses of chapter 11, "To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for and to be certain of the things we cannot see."  As it turned out historically, Abraham had the right idea -- let go of planning and see what happens. 

    I had no idea what I intended to do with a college degree with a dual major in Classical History and the dead language of Greek.  Dead refers to the fact that what I studied was so ancient that it is no longer spoken.  I had no idea how handy this would be later on in my life because the New Testament was written in this form of Greek. I could do my own translating later on.

    Lois chose Home Economics and became a teacher for a while.  Sue and Steve have excelled in areas that they never studied during their college years.  What does all this mean when the debt of student-loans in the United States now stands at 1.5 trillion dollars?

    The list of people who made a large footprint on our culture has a number of individuals that never advanced beyond the 7th grade:  Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, Alfred E. Smith, Andrew Carnegie, Claude Monet, Charles Dickens, and John Philip Sousa. It makes one wonder if going to college is a must prerequisite for having a successful life or a cultural myth that a college degree is essential.

    Last Sunday I talked about the professor with two PhD degrees who gave up his tenured position as the department-head in a prestigious Ivy League University to collect trash in the streets of New York City.  Why? His new job was infinitely more satisfying than the one spent in an academic-atmosphere. Of course, there is far more to the story, but you can read more by reviewing last week's message on-line.

    Monday's Royal Gazette featured the drama of Gherdai Hassell who was born in Bermuda and graduated from Berkeley Institute. Her lifelong love was art.  After trying various vocational interests, nothing worked.  She recognized that she was not being true to herself.  She said, "I could no longer fight the urge to put my art at the forefront of my life.  I did so and I haven't looked back since."  Many of her pieces are currently on display at City Hall.

    Like Abraham's urge to leave Babylon, she followed her intuition and left Bermuda.  She accepted a job opportunity to teach English in China. In her own words this was her experience after arriving in China:

It was a rocky time -- the first day I got there, my bags had been lost.  I did not have a translation application on my cell phone and I had missed my flight.  When I got to my hotel, I sat on the floor and cried my eyes out.  I told myself that I had to get through the first week, then the first month, six months and a year.  Enduring was the best decision that I have ever made in my entire life.

    Perhaps we can better understand why Jesus emphasized so heavily getting to know the value of our invisible world, where our potential, dreams, urges, intuition, imagination, and instincts have their origin. 

    My experience has been that when we trust the unknown with our lives, remarkable events happen that would never have come from our planning.  My problem was letting go of the people and the settings of my various churches.  I was carried along in life completely out-of-control but supported by invisible hands.  I was controlled by the United Methodist Church.

    Life begins for many people when they follow what inspires them.  For me, that definitely was not Christianity.  This sounds very strange for a pastor to say, but it was absolutely true for me. I became consumed, however, by the spirituality that Jesus was teaching.  

    Christianity basically took its form from the writers and evangelists that came after Jesus' crucifixion.  They created something that became known to me as Christology during my seminary education, the study of who Christ was, what he was doing on the cross, and other points-of-view that never came from what Jesus taught during his ministry.

    Christianity has given people a scripturally-based infrastructure that breeds the idea that certain people have exclusive access to God, it provides beliefs in doctrines that clearly divide people since some are born-again while others are not, dogma that teaches the need for people to be saved, and teaches a clear path of core-beliefs that are absolutely essential for our salvation. 

    I was frightened beyond belief as a young teenager by the theology of the leaders of The Christian Youth Crusade. They came at me with my being lost and told me what I needed to believe to be saved.  THAT left an indelible ugly imprint on my life. I learned from my teenage experiences that I would have trouble with any Church if such a message remained something to which I had to give my life. As far as I was concerned, that was not happening.

    In our Old Testament lesson this morning, Isaiah wrote words that he felt came from God. In the 8th Century B.C. the prophet wrote:

Do you think I want animal sacrifices?  I am tired of the blood of bulls, sheep, and goats. I can no longer tolerate your new moon festivals, your Sabbaths, and your religious gatherings. When you lift up your hands in prayer, I do not look at you or even listen to what you are saying.  (Isaiah 1-11f)

             Basically, what religion had become for Isaiah was a formula being managed by the priests of what obedience to God looked like.  When Jesus awakened spiritually at his baptism, he began to teach a radically different message from what his ancestors had been taught.  In fact, his first sermon almost got him killed. (Luke 4:24f) Jesus did not criticize the religion of his heritage; he simply began teaching a different message.

    Jesus abandoned the war-god Yahweh, he set aside many rules and replaced them with expressions and acts of love, he broke through racial barriers to embrace the idea that God loved everyone, and abandoned the separation that had been created by the Covenant between God and God's chosen people. Jesus verbally walked away from obedience to the Laws of Moses in favor of various versions of only one -- The Golden Rule that became active in a person's life from their desire rather than from their obedience to please God.

    Like Abraham, Jesus trusted the unseen world for what eventually happened to his life and his message.  He said, "Foxes have their burrows and birds have their nests, but the Son of Man has no place that he can call home."  (Matthew 8:20) When he faced the possibility of the curtain coming down on his three years of ministry, he said, "I am not seeking what will make me happy; I only want to teach what I know until I no longer can."  (Luke 22:42)

    Personally, my entire professional life has been out of control.  Only once in my life did I say "Yes" to being appointed to another church. That church was the one I am currently serving. I strongly resisted every appointment to a new church that the Cabinet wanted me to take.  I could not let go, but I was torn away anyway and was carried along by forces that I could not see or understand.  

    The toughest move was leaving West Virginia that actually split our family. I would have stayed in Arden for my entire career. But, an odd set of circumstances occurred, causing the church on Capitol Hill to be opened in November. Most appointments are in place in May and June. I was not even allowed to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with my people. Yes, we were in deep conflict and very resentful toward the Bishop and the Cabinet.  Steve wanted to finish the last two years of his high school experience in West Virginia.

    We tried to bring Steve to Washington D.C., however, two episodes made that decision for us.  Four students were shot in front of Woodrow Wilson High School the week we had planned to visit the facility.  We had an interview with Robert Steptoe, the Principal of Banneker High School.  Two days later, he was found beaten and strangled to death in his home.  Steve said, "Dad and Mom, I think the handwriting is on the wall."   It was!  Steve stayed in West Virginia for his last two years.

    All four of us have been riding on the same train by responding, so far as possible, with positive attitudes to whatever showed up in our lives using the intuitive nature of our spiritual energy.  The unseen world within the four of us has taken us to places we could never have imagined or planned. 

    I have had to trust that what comes up for me was taking me to places that I needed to be.  Life was filled with uncertainty but thanks to God's presence being made known through angels, both in the flesh and beyond the earthly-realm, my life has been filled with the most remarkable events.  I have rarely talked about my life's experiences to my congregations and friends.

    I have conversations with my spirit-guides. I do mean conversations where I talk and then hear responses that do not come from my imagination. I have learned to have an unshakable faith from my experiences not from my beliefs.  No one can teach this strategy for living.  All that anyone can do is point to possibilities that will happen when we stop planning and begin living our potential that only becomes known when we look within ourselves.     

    It does not matter what we do in life to earn a living; what matters is the spirit we bring to our living.  THIS quality of energy is what opens doors, helps us to choose the higher ground in our responses, as we seek to serve other people by bringing a cheerful enthusiasm accompanied by a childlike trust. (Mathew 13:8)

    Every day we need to allow what is inside of us to show up.  We need to trust that we can and will make a difference even though we may not live long enough to enjoy the fruits from the seeds we have sown.  God always takes care of such details.

     

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

We thank you, God, for revealing your will for us in the life and teachings of Jesus.  Even though he called us to follow him, we still manage to stand in our own shadows.  We interpret closed doors as a sign of failure. We often greet new experiences with uncertainty rather than confidence. Help us to remember that all challenges are designed to refine our emotional and spiritual growth.  Barriers are opportunities to practice creativity rather than evoking our frustration. Enable us to walk into each new day eager to practice what we know while remaining willing students for the lessons we have yet to learn.  Amen.

 

PASTORAL PRAYER

Loving God, we are so thankful for our lives and the beautiful tapestry that can be created when we allow you to weave the threads of our bittersweet moments into a work of art.  So many times, we become caught on the edges of an experience that we feel is so unjust or unfair, without ever knowing how that experience might be preparing us for a more fulfilling future.  We are quick to judge our circumstances without knowing how one piece of the puzzle fits so perfectly into another, a process that we only recognize through hindsight.  We marvel at how failure can lead to an open door, how a fractured relationship can lead to one that heals, or how the loss of a job can lead to a remarkable opportunity. 

Help us, O God, to trust your guidance in how to interpret the unfolding of our lives.  Only when we doubt your presence do we find ourselves blind and lost.  Only when we fail to place our trust in your leading us, do we find ourselves seeking fulfillment in places that cannot provide it. 

Lord, help us to pay more attention to the urge to follow our dreams.  Help us to remember that if others are to learn what Jesus taught, it may be up to us to let them see by our lives what he was teaching.  We pray these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . .