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“Mixed Signals From The
World” Sermon
Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – January 12, 2020
Centenary United Methodist Church Psalm
34:11-20; Isaiah 42:1-9 This morning I would like all of us to
consider a theme that I talk about quite often from this pulpit. That
theme is that we are players in a movie that is taking place all
around us. Every
generation has had to deal with the movie that is playing when
they are born. Our movie could have had us aboard a ship as we were
approaching the west coast of Italy to our home in Pompeii.
Suddenly, Mt. Vesuvius explodes and we wept as the volcanic flow
destroyed our home, family, seaport, and everything that we cherished in
79 CE. Our ship rapidly changed its course.
Maybe our movie took place during the Crusades, the Salem Witch
Trials, or the Industrial Revolution when the miracles from an array of
new products consumed our attention.
When we
think about it, we have to acknowledge that most of our delights and
conflicts have their origin with how our movie affects us and the
responses that the movie generates from us. Our willingness to
get involved in the material world has risks.
The more we allow our movie to
affect us, the more willing we are to pull up our
anchor and sail
into the fantasy. We can actually become so involved
emotionally and mentally by sailing into the story-line of our
movie that, with the passage of time, the reality of what our
senses are telling us may cause our spiritual identity to get
away from us. In our
lesson this morning, Isaiah must have sensed how mesmerizing and
distracting the world can be that he described the salvation from
this world that God was going to provide.
He has God say: Here is the servant whom I will strengthen.
I will fill him with my Spirit so that he can bring sensibility
back into the thinking and feeling of everyone in every nation.
He will not shout or raise his voice.
He will not make loud speeches in the streets. He will not
attempt to judge harshly anyone who is unable to understand the meaning
of life's experiences. He
will not put out the light that appears to be flickering
due to the conflicting world views that have been influencing their
lives. He will not lose hope nor will he set aside his courage until his
patterns of loving energy are eagerly embraced by everyone on earth.
(Isaiah 42:1f) These words were written around 740 B.C.
Isaiah's words describe the role that Jesus would eventually play
in the movies that have been playing since his birth. The world
has always needed someone who rescues people when their choices that
inspire passions have become mean-spirited.
Their own emotions compromise
their joy and happiness. The gigantic political split in the United States
at this moment of the current movie is a prime example of what these
movies can do to friendships, marriages, the news-media, and the
entire society as a whole. The Apostle Paul described the dramatic entrance
into our world of the one who brought an alternative experience to
replace what is happening in our movies: The attitude you should have is the one that Jesus
brought into our world. Of his own free will, Jesus gave up his identity
in the land of his origin and took on the nature of a servant and
became a human being.
(Philippians 2:6f) This is precisely the same land from which each of us has
come, but we remain asleep, completely mesmerized by the
surrounding fantasies of the material world.
These dramatic episodes seduce us repeatedly as their tentacles
hold us tight to one truth after another, truths that can
completely sabotage the attitudes that Jesus taught and were mentioned
by the Apostle Paul.
(Galatians 5:22) As soon as our senses tell us that "this is true, global warming is causing us to destroy our planet", another source will tell us, "No, that is nonsense. The true cause of global warming are volcanic eruptions, the fires in Australia, and in California." If the various truths available to our senses are repeated over and over again, we begin to sink into the quicksand of the movie that may bring out our animal-spirits. It has been this way for every generation since the beginning of recorded history. Recently, there was a young woman who described
this process according to her observation and analysis.
She described how people are molded and shaped by the beliefs and
attitudes of those who report the news of the day.
Her age group has been labeled
as the millennials because they were born between the
years of 1981-1996. This is
her opinion: One afternoon while sitting in a Starbucks, I was
checking the current headlines by scrolling through the newsfeeds on my
phone. Article after article were proclaiming the vast economic
inequities of our society affecting her age group.
I began to look around at my surroundings.
I saw people texting freely, doing homework on
their I-pads, ordering coffee and snack foods as they waited a few
minutes for their number to be called, seeing cars go by with young
drivers behind the wheel, lots of students sitting with earbuds
listening to their favorite music, and wearing clothing that they could
have easily ordered on-line from Amazon and delivered the next day. It dawned on me that my generation is the most
privileged one on earth, with a greater economic level than any
generation that ever lived. Our poverty line begins 31 times above the
global average, yet the news is telling us a radically different
reality.
We need to wake up. We are told that we are
depressed and unhappy when the truth is that we have never known
what it is like to live without the Internet, without our highly
computerized cars, and without smartphones.
What is really missing from our
lives is gratitude for our receiving so much that has been made
available to us by the creativity of those who lived before us.
Now it is our turn to contribute. Humanity has always needed a savior who could offer an
alternative to the movie that is playing. Actually, no savior
will ever come in a form that we may expect.
Jesus came, but personally he could not install his
truth into anyone. What Jesus did, was teach his
listeners and disciples lessons that helped them to choose better ways
of interpreting and understanding their lives.
He was teaching us how to live
in this world in spite of the story-line of our movie. One day Jesus was telling a well-respected teacher
in Israel about an alternative to what Nicodemus' movie was
teaching him. Jesus said: I am telling you the truth, no one can be
saved from this world's swirling realities without completely
changing their orientation toward life.
This process is so dynamic that it is like being born all over
again. (John 3:3)
People are born into this world through their
mothers, but until they get in touch with their inner world, their
attitudes and orientation toward life will not change.
(John 3:6) Each one of us only talks about our understanding
of life from what our senses tell us. This is why you will not
believe what I am telling you. If you will not accept my thoughts about
the invisible world within each of us, how will you ever believe
anything that I tell you about the land from which we came. (John
3:11f) Someone who was born and raised in Bermuda asked me if I were
ever offended by the political cartoons and the scathing editorials that
appear in the Royal Gazette describing the politics in the United
States. He was surprised
when I told him that I have never been offended by what Bermudians think
about American politics. I told
him that what their criticisms communicate to me is how preoccupied the
writers of the editorials and cartoonists have become in the story-line
of another nation's politics. All the noise coming from the world is from the movie that
is playing, a movie that will be very different fifty years from
now. This is why Jesus
never once condemned the Romans for their harsh taxes or the way their
military treated Jewish woman.
He knew that he was not going to allow the current movie
to influence his attitudes.
He chose instead to stay with teaching variations of The Golden Rule.
Today, Rome's government no longer controls the world.
Rome is a 496 square mile city that remains a tourist attraction
and the home of the Vatican where the Pope lives. When Jesus was once asked by a Teacher of the Law
what he considered his greatest lessons, Jesus responded with, "Love God
with all your heart, spirit, and mind and love your neighbor as much as
you love yourself."
(Matthew22:34f) This is the anchor that needs to remain in place so
that instead of sailing into the fantasies of the material world,
we can bring to our movie attitudes and lessons that are within
us from the land of our origin. In this way, we could become the
leaven for the batch of dough that will cause it to rise. (Matthew
13:33) In plain English, we can allow the angel within us
to become visible instead of allowing our movie to determine the
truths that we hold on to. In reality, such truths
found in our world are nothing more than fleeting moments in the history
of our species, moments that may be appealing to our animal-spirits
and passions that will not matter one hundred years from now.
During Jesus' crucifixion, he demonstrated an
attitude that he brought from the land of our origin.
With nails in his wrists and feet, he could still forgive those
who did this to him. Salvation comes to
us because, like Jesus, we have the ability to wake
up spiritually and live according to the spirit
that came with us when we were born.
Doing so will bring greater clarity to understanding our role
in the world that will influence the future just as Jesus' life and
teachings have done. Are we doing that, or are we still mesmerized and
responsive to what is happening in our movie?
We cannot fix our movie, however, God can by what we have
become. Jesus influenced the future of every generation ever since he
was born. If one man could do this, what can God do with us?
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Loving God, how often our spirits can lose their focus from the array of
circumstances that impact our lives.
For thousands of years, the storyline of human history has varied
little. Jesus invited us to
view every experience as an opportunity to be in mission.
We confess that our wills are more interested in justice,
fairness, and equality. Our temptation is to become warriors for
great causes. Empower us to recognize that one of our strengths lies in
patience, that guidance comes from displaying loving responses, and that
our influence will come from the values we choose.
Amen.
We enjoy these moments, O God, because of what
they allow us to do. Most of us realize that we do not take enough time
for healing and nurturing our spirits.
There are so many unrecognized needs that inflame our passions,
siphon away our patience, and cloud our vision of tomorrow.
For this one-hour there are no demands being made of us. There
are no vital decisions we need to make. We do not need to vent our
opinions about anything. We can doze if our bodies need that. We can
attempt to participate even though our minds occasionally drift to the
world we have briefly left outside. Today we pray for people passing through fragile moments, for people facing challenging decisions, for those whose bodies are broken by disease, for neighbors who find loving each other difficult and for nations who cannot move beyond their violent power struggles. We call upon you, O God, for your patient guidance toward a tomorrow that is filled with hope and peace. We pray these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, who taught us to say when we pray . . . |