“Attitudes Reveal Our Identity”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – September 13, 2020

Centenary United Methodist Church

Psalm 82; Romans 14:1-12

    

    Every four years, the U.S. news channels provide the viewing audience with a barrage of political ads for particular candidates running for various positions including the Presidency of the United States. The ads begin in earnest on the first Tuesday following Labor Day. Viewers are treated to highly exaggerated claims of what each political party intends to do for Americans if they remain or come into power.   These informercials continue unabated until Election Day, November 3. 

    Many people who would provide very competent leadership would never run for political office because of the process.  When someone declares their candidacy, the opposition immediately begins researching everything they can find to place their opponent in a less than favorable light. 

    Today, societies tend to judge people by what they are accused of doing in their past. Even though people are not who they were fifteen years ago, politics gives no one a free pass for embarrassing moments that occurred earlier in their lives.

    The Apostle Paul's understanding in our lesson this morning is as relevant today as it was then.  Paul wrote:  "Who are you to judge anyone?" (Romans 14:4f) He then launched into a discussion about numerous conflicts that were present in Rome's congregation.  People were quite opinionated on which day should be the Sabbath.  He also chided the people who sensed their superiority because they were vegetarians or they chose to eat meat. 

    There is no escaping the reality that our critical, judgmental nature has changed in our human nature during the last two thousand years.  It has not! What is clear is that our attitudes reflect what is going on inside of us. 

    When we realize that there are approximately 7.8 billion people in our world, each with his or her own opinions, we may have a better understanding of why there is so much unhappiness and unrest among people world-wide. Everyone is on a different level of spiritual maturity. Absolutely nothing is perfect in a manner that satisfies everyone. 

    Equally, there is no one in the world who grew up never having made a decision by using poor judgement.  We do not live our lives as though one day we will be held accountable for every prior decision that we made or words that we may have spoken without thinking.  Yet, the perceived weaknesses in the character of various candidates find their way into the public domain.

    How should we view the opinions of others when they differ widely from our own?  Paul began our lesson with sound advice:  "Welcome those who are weak in faith.  Do not argue with those whose opinions differ from yours." (Romans 14:1)

    Before his death, Charles Schultz had a marvelous way of weaving life’s wisdom into the fabric of his Peanuts comic strip.  Charlie Brown was up at bat during one of the baseball games his group played.  His self-esteem wilted when he heard the umpire call a third strike.  Dejected by yet another failure, Charlie slumped down on the players' bench and exclaimed:

Rats!  I'll never make it to the majors.  I just don't have what it takes. All my life I've dreamed of playing in the big leagues, but I know I'll never make it. 

    Lucy responded, "Charlie Brown, you're thinking too far ahead.  What you need to do is set for yourself smaller goals that can easily be reached."  Charlie Brown asked, "What kind of smaller goals?"  Lucy said, "Start with this next inning when you go out to pitch.  See if you can walk to the mound without falling down." 

    Charles Shultz had such an ability to hold a mirror in front of us. We need to remember that we can never skip the basics on our way to the big leagues of living. We may fall down repeatedly but eventually we will see results.  We crawled as infants before we learned to run in the marathons.  It is the same with practicing the teachings of Jesus every day.   Doing so may not make sense until we first learn a basic lesson.  What is that first lesson?

    A very clear answer to understanding all the opinions that others express is to know that all of them are in response to what is happening in the world.  When we examine the quality of life that Jesus verbally pointed to, the attitudes he encouraged people to develop had nothing to do with anything happening in the world.  They had to do with our response to worldly events.

    Jesus gave us a compass, a road map that would allow us to live our eternal inheritance while we are still living. We considered this last Sunday. We have often heard the saying, "Evil will only triumph when good people sit by idly and do nothing." 

    That sounds wonderful and a proverb that all of us could claim as truth.  However, that is not what Jesus was teaching.  He said, "What good is it to gain control over the entire world, if in the process, we give up the quality of spirit by which we live?"  (Matthew 16:26)

    When we look at the unhappiness of people, we can easily understand that they have allowed conflict to sabotage their spirits. This is precisely the reason why a coming messiah will never work.  When people place their hope in such a messiah who announces all that he or she intends to do for us, we will consistently miss the mark. The same hope is true if we place our trust and confidence in Jesus or even in God.  What are we trusting that they will do for us?

    Jesus came to teach people how to live in the material world. The world with all its seductive politics is a perfect environment to experiment by developing attitudes that are not of this world.  By being faithful to this school of learning, our opinions will reflect the level of creativity going on inside of us.  

    People in our past have literally made a religion out of Jesus' teachings. However, a particular religion will never be able to offer a safety-net that favors a particular religion. Being able to express compassion, forgiveness, generosity, patience, kindness, humility, and self-control totally come from individual decisions and not because of a particular label they wear.  Claiming our discipleship to Jesus Christ, will not do much for our spiritual maturity. Why?  Claims are just words.  Behavior and attitudes communicate authentic spirit.

    Back in the 18th century, there was a man who stood no taller than 5 feet 3 inches tall.  He weighed 128 pounds.  He was not particularly handsome or attractive in other ways.  During his early adult life, he engaged in all kinds of behavior that repeatedly sabotaged his ability to grow up.  During most of his early life, he continued to stumble on the way to the mound. He was an incarnation of Charles Shultz' Charlie Brown.  Yet, he turned out to be a man who eventually influenced millions of people.  No one today holds him accountable for what he was earlier in this life.

    On the fateful day of May 24, he turned to a Scripture where he read the following words:

God's divine power has given us everything we need to live a spiritual life through our knowledge of the one who called us to share in his ministry.  For this very reason do your best to add goodness to your faith; to your goodness add knowledge; to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add endurance; to your endurance add godliness; to your godliness add affection and to your affection add compassion.  These are the qualities you need, and if you have them in abundance, they will make you active and effective in your knowledge of what Jesus came to give us.  (2nd Peter 1:3f)

    Suddenly his life was totally transformed by these words.  It was as though someone had thrown a switch. His self-absorption vanished. His authentic identity awakened.  He must have reached an emotional bottom causing him to turn to the Scriptures.  Happiness and self-worth were escaping him with nearly every decision he made.  He made an effort every morning to walk to the mound without falling down. 

    He began an amazing journey that spanned over 250,000 miles on horseback, averaging 18 miles a day for 40 years.  He preached 40,000 sermons.  Many days he preached three times and he did this for 40 years.  He wrote 400 books.  He was fluent in 10 languages.  He discovered many cures for diseases and wrote a book on medicine.  He started many medical clinics for the poor. 

    When he was 83, he became annoyed that he could not write more than 15 hours a day without hurting his eyes.  At 86, he complained in his diary that he had to reduce his preaching schedule to twice a day and how he remained frustrated with his increasing tendency to stay in bed until 5:30 a.m.

    When he had spare time, he and his brother wrote thousands of hymns for the church.  When he died in 1791, he had over 120,000 followers.  Today his movement has 35 million participants all over the world.  The man's name is John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.

    Lucy said to Charlie Brown, "See if you can walk to the mound without falling down."  John Wesley walked to that mound and soon graduated to the big leagues.  He understood the words of 2nd Peter. 

     All of us can take that same walk when we realize that we cannot rely on any messiah to do our inner homework for us.  That discovery happens when we realize the difference between placing our hope in a promised utopia happening in the material world and the hope that comes from polishing our own stone that governs the spirit by which we live.  One world will always remain temporary and the other world provides us with an evolving spirit that will give us happiness and peace everywhere.  

     

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

We thank you, God, for your mercy and patience.  As we come together, having lived through another week, we recognize our limitations of faith.  We had flashes of thoughtfulness alongside moments of insensitivity.  We have experienced areas of growth alongside moments where we were vulnerable to the tyranny of little things.  We have used our sense of humor and smiles alongside moments when we engaged in fault-finding and blame.  Heal us from thoughts that we are incomplete.  Enable us to understand that all life forms are complete just as we find them.  Thank you for calling us my children.  Amen.

                                                   

PASTORAL PRAYER 

Loving God, help us to choose every day to live together peacefully in the world that you have fashioned for us. Living on an island is a very unique experience where generations of people know and love each other. All of us face life-issues that others experience while living in other lands. We are thankful that you created all people with the ability to have dreams, to learn from their experiences, and to have the courage to make visible those ideas and beliefs that fuel our unity with each other. 

This week we face hurricane Paulette. We are grateful that we have advanced warning so we can prepare. Such storms provide us with opportunities to check on our neighbors, to be patient during possible power failures, and to help others if a crisis occurs. Help each of us to model what it means to invest our energy in what produces compassion. 

Help us to remember that the problems found in our world will only be remedied when we learn to make visible the three words of Jesus' message – "Love one another." We pray these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . .