“Failure, A Place To Start”
Sermon
Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – November 15, 2020
Centenary
United Methodist Church
Proverbs
3:1-10; Matthew 25:14-40 Most likely every one of you has heard numerous
sermons based on Jesus' parable about the three servants that were each
given a sum of money to manage. The wealthy man told them that he would
be absent for a considerable period of time.
This parable happened to be a favorite of my proof
reader while I was the pastor of Capitol Hill United Methodist Church in
Washington, D.C. She told me
that she had collected hundreds of sermons on this particular parable of
Jesus. She said, "What is
fascinating to me is that the themes chosen by pastors on which they
based their remarks are all very different." Think about that.
This should teach us that individual pastors can find different
themes to focus on in preparing their Sunday morning sermons.
This also tells us that quite often the spoken words will be
given a different interpretation. It is a miracle that communication
between people is as good as it is. One of the themes that can draw our attention is
the servant who buried his sum of money for fear that he might lose it.
When the wealthy land owner returned, he found that two of his
servants had invested his money wisely and had doubled what he had given
them. The third man
confessed to being overwhelmed with fear and he told the wealthy man how
he had protected the sum of money that he had received by burying it
underground. This information infuriated the wealthy man who
cursed the servant for his lack of creativity.
He said: You knew that I reap harvests where I did not
plant, and gather crops where I did not scatter seed.
You should have deposited my money in the bank where it would, at
least, have gained interest.
(Matthew 25:26f) He took this unworthy servant's sum of money
and gave it to the one who gained the most with what he had been given.
Then in his merciless tone of voice, he told the other two servants to
throw the worthless servant into the darkness where he will cry
and plunge into depression due to his failure. Last week, we discussed how consequences are built
into creation. Yet, who
among us would readily go out and put this man's money at risk by
investing it, particularly when we knew this man was ruthless?
Fear might have caused us to do exactly what this third servant
did. There are 16 basic personalities in the human race.
Some of us are wired to become accountants and managers of
wealth. Some are wired to
become teachers who may be clueless about investing money wisely.
Still others are wired with remarkable leadership skills as was
Sitting Bull, the Chief of the Native American Sioux Nation, that was
mentioned in last week's sermon. Some of us may have compassion and empathy for this
third servant who was severely punished for not having the skills of the
other two. We have all
failed at something during our lives. Many sports enthusiasts would never guess that the
famous professional basketball play, Michael Jordan, was cut from his
high school team. He was not
good enough. He was awkward
in his movements. He was tall but uncoordinated. He was useless at that
age and became despondent.
However, he was determined and he worked through his dilemma by
realizing that his hurt feelings would never produce better results. Sometimes failure and defeat can come from our
trying something new. If we
define it as a permanent reality, we will sabotage our future. For
some people, failure writes the storyline for the rest of their lives.
For other people, it is a time when they say to themselves,
"Well, let me try this again!" Thomas Edison's manufacturing plant burned to the
ground in 1914 destroying all kinds of one-of-a-kind prototypes.
The fire caused 23 million dollars in damages.
Everything he was working on was destroyed.
Edison knelt on the ground, picked up a handful of dust and said
to one of his engineers, "Thank goodness!
All our mistakes lie here in ashes.
We will start again.
We will rebuild." Edison
became even more energized and never once felt failure.
He did rebuild. Just think of the people who were thrown out into
the darkness where they cried and initially had to fight the temptation
of remaining depressed. Here
is a modest list of them: J. K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, Ludwig
van Beethoven, Steven King, Fred Astaire, Charles Darwin, and Steven
Spielberg. The list is quite
extensive of those who made something remarkable from their initial
failure. One afternoon I was present in a hall filled with
7,000 others listening to a riveting talk given by Maya Angelou.
After recounting portions of her past, she told us that following
a personal tragedy in her life, she had not spoken a word for the next
six years. She failed at
everything and was sent away to her grandmother who nursed her back to
health in the backwoods of Arkansas. Maya said in a deep spirit of humility: That day came when I spoke my first words in six
years and since then I have not been able to shut my mouth. I have 55
doctorates; I can teach Spanish and French. I sit on the Board of
Harvard University. I am on
the faculty of Yale University. My poetry has been read by millions of
people in countless nations. My best-selling books are: I Know Why
The Caged Bird Sings and Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey
Now. Listening to this marvelous woman was one of the
most unique and unforgettable experiences of my life.
Everyone left the arena feeling that nothing can interfere in
their path of success unless they are standing in their own shadows.
Maya's life had been inspired by a grandmother who had the
patience to love a young granddaughter who had misplaced her life's
treasure. The Gospel is about redemption not retribution and
condemnation. Back in 1536, Michelangelo was walking through a
marble quarry with his assistant.
As the great master spied a unique piece of marble he said, "Make
arrangements for this." The assistant replied, "Sir, this slab has
already been rejected by countless sculptures because of its numerous
flaws." Michelangelo
responded, "Just the same, take it back to the studio.
I see an angel in there."
Today that angel became the magnificent Pieta – Mary
cradling her crucified son that is located in St. Peter’s Basilica in
the Vatican. Before we begin to accept whatever reward might
result from being a disciple of Jesus Christ, we must keep a vigilant
eye on what it is we are doing to liberate the angels around us
who may still be imprisoned in their marble prisons.
Sometimes they have lost everything in the
aftermath of a hurricane.
Sometimes they are broken because of a failed marriage.
Sometimes death has silenced the voice of a familiar personality
in their midst. Sometimes
they remain the caged bird that refuses to sing because unknowingly they
have been bowing down to the gods of fear, guilt, and shame.
Some people are stuck in darkness and they need a light.
Jesus gave that task to his disciples. Consequences can both reward us and they
can teach us that we need to change how we think. We
should not be overly concerned with what has happened in our past.
What matters is how we use what happened in order to grow into
the future. Successful
discipleship is not determined by whether or not we have problems.
What matters is whether or not we have the same problems that we
had last year because of our unwillingness to change.
We must grow, which means we must always be
changing. Charles Darwin
once said, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor
the most intelligent; it is the one that is the most adaptable to
change." If we find ourselves feeling unhappy, distraught,
lacking in confidence, always playing it safe, unwilling to raise the
bar on our generosity, and remain unattractive to others – we need to
open our eyes, take charge of our lives, and let our songbird come out
of its cage. When we do, we
will learn that we are not alone and that consequences can become some
of our dearest friends. The role of these new friends can go
unrecognized for years. We have to understand what they were pointing
to. They are trying to teach
us that we need to change how we think and feel.
We need to experiment with
different responses that are not so focused on ourselves.
When anyone feels entitled to certain creature
comforts, they have misplaced their inner treasure. (Matthew 6:19f)
Jesus taught us a better way to live in this world.
As we sow, so shall we reap.
This is true with crops.
This is also true with our emotions, our spirits, and our
thinking. Attitude is
everything. CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Loving, ever present
God, too often we find ourselves struggling with the tension between our
faith and our fear. We come
to you with wishes and often your voice is silent.
We want our adventures and experiences to bring us joy and many
times they do not. How wonderful it is when hindsight brings
understanding and wisdom to why life unfolds as it does. Thank you for
helping us to discover that the bitter pills of life often become
the best medicine.
Thank you for guiding us to understand that our needs will be met when
we invest ourselves in helping to make our world a more wholesome place
for men and women to live.
Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER Eternal God, we are so
grateful for these moments together.
There are moments when our worship experience reminds us of our
identity as your sons and daughters.
The worship experience often reminds us of our need to reframe
our challenging experiences so that others are served by what we have
become. We thank you for how our faith changes the way
we interpret our lives.
Faith calls us to come home when we have strayed. Faith lifts us when
our insecurities influence our attitudes.
Even though many of us fall short of doing our best, we are
nevertheless confident that all of us can make a difference toward the
healing of our community and our world.
Help us to remember that you have the ability to work miracles
through our smallest deeds. We do not know how to assign a value when we
express kindness to someone.
We do not know the value of a smile effortlessly given to a stranger.
We do not know why it is that a sermon, a hymn, or a prayer on a
Sunday morning appears like a direct message from you to us, but it
happens. Teach us to be
attentive to the needs of your Kingdom here on earth so that one day
your Loving Will finds expression everywhere.
We pray these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, the Christ,
who taught us to say when we pray . . .
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