“The Spirit of Living Energy”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – December 6, 2020

Centenary United Methodist Church

Isaiah 25:1-5; Mark 1:1-8

 

Second Sunday Of Advent

    This morning we are going to examine the concept of Love, a topic that people have thoroughly discussed for thousands of years. However, this morning we are going to put loving energy under the microscope and examine why this quality is such a challenge to incorporate into our lives.

    Years ago, in one of my early Spirituality classes, I asked each student to list the reasons why people were finding it easier and easier to neglect coming to church services.  Why is it that people become like an old, worn out car? The engine begins missing before it quits.   Many of their responses could have easily been anticipated.  Here are several of them:

1.  There are increasing opportunities on Sunday mornings that are in competition with going to church.  Businesses are open on Sundays and people have to go to work. There are excellent worship services on television at more convenient times. Sundays are also good for coaches of children's athletic practices.

2.  I have to dress up for five days in preparation to going to work.  I don't feel like dressing up on Sundays.  Don't kid yourself -- people notice what we women are wearing.

3.  Church no longer connects me to God.  The hymns feature beliefs that I no longer have. However, songs like "Pass It On" and "Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore" are wonderful.  The new praise music is too repetitious, too loud, and the words are unknown to me.  I don't like ritualistic prayers, particularly the ones where we have to repeat, "Hear our prayer, O Lord" after each statement of the pastor.  Why does God need to be reminded to listen to us?

4.  In good weather, you will find me on the golf course as early as my foursome can get a tee-time.  If God wants to punish me because I am not in church, God will just have to punish me. 

5.  I strive to be kind and compassionate as much as I can be. Also, I am not hung up on whether or not I will go to Heaven when I die. Some things are left up to God.  

6.  I do not attend church to experience what is being debated in our newspapers. This is why I am coming to St. Matthews. The entire atmosphere is different from every church I have attended. Now, when I leave, I feel like I am prepared to face whatever happens in the coming week.

    The students had a lot of fun discussing these reasons.  My goal was to get people to tell each other where they find inspiration to feed their spirits. The issue was not church attendance.  The issue was an attempt to deal with spiritual complacency that can easily settle into our lives.  The attitude is one that is more akin to buying a membership in a fitness center and lacking the motivation to get in the car and drive to it.

    People enjoy living quiet, normal lives, minding their own business and are looking forward to the next football game with a platter of nachos. People want to get through life safely, meet all their obligations and responsibilities, rear highly motivated, well-adjusted children, and die in their sleep after holding on to their mental faculties for as long as they can.

    This statement does not miss the mark by much. Included in such a life there has to be a lot of loving energy that was seldom if ever disturbed by issues going on in the world. We can hardly dissect such a life to see where love was present and where love was withheld.  Why is that?  The people we have known like this represent a presence rather than a fountain of opinions that they firmly believe are based in truth.

    In our Gospel lesson this morning, Mark is describing John the Baptist as a man with a purpose who carried himself with a spirit of humility.  He wrote:

The man who will come after me is much greater than I am.  I am not worthy enough even to bend down and untie his sandals.  I baptize you with water but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. (Mark 1:7f)

    As we look at love under the microscope, we begin to notice that not everyone has achieved such a presence. Few people understand the meaning of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Is being kind and forgiving Holy or is displaying such qualities common sense? Anyone who holds unloving attitudes and grudges has never left the starting gates to develop their potential.

    Recently, I talked to an old friend of mine who called me after my sister's husband died recently. According to my phone, we talked for an hour and ten minutes. It was wonderful to talk to him. There is no room in his life for God, but he has embraced just about everything that Jesus taught.  I have numerous friends that have never had much time for church or religious beliefs but they are decent human beings just the same. Jesus made room in his life for such people. He taught:

People who are well do not need a doctor.  Doctors are needed when people have become ill.  I have not come to help respectable people, but to those who have lost their way in life or have been marginalized by society.  (Mark 2:17) 

    If you recall the reasons why people were finding it easier to skip attending church, every reason had to do with the quality of their experiences.  Jesus taught, "Treat others the way you want to be treated." (Matthew 7:12) What we present to others reveals what is going on inside of us.  Jesus was teaching people how to bring a sense of presence to others that communicates being supportive, kind, gentle, and filled with understanding and compassion.  (Matthew 7:5)

    For a number of people, this response is what makes expressing loving energy a challenge for them.  Jesus extended a presence of forgiveness instead of judgments. He wanted his followers to have patience with the behavior of others.  (Matthew 18:21f) Jesus was allowing people to reveal who they are while he was bringing a presence of who he had become.   

    Loving others just as we find them will remain a challenge for many people until they learn not to personalize what others are revealing.  In other words, loving others is a presence that initially takes enormous energy to become a skill. Jesus taught:

How can you deliver a loving presence to everyone if you only love those who love you?  Even tax collectors know how to do that.  If you surround yourselves only with supporters, have you done anything out of the ordinary?  Even social outcasts do that! When you are able to love people, who are least like you, that is when you are expressing the potential that is within you. (Luke 32f)

    The people who are well-adjusted and are a delight to encounter, have learned how to reverse their energy flow so that life is about others.  Such a presence teaches, whereas defensiveness, anger, and judgements only communicate a response to what someone is experiencing. 

    I remember when I was in junior high school, I smoked a half a pack of cigarettes with a friend who had swiped a pack of cigarettes from his mother.  When I came home, I told my mother what I had done. All she said was, "Did you enjoy smoking?"  That was it.  Nothing more was ever said.  I never tried it again.  Why?  There were role models in my family that desired only to bring an accepting presence to me.   Their presence was pointing to what I might one day achieve in my own life.

    Where is God in this discussion?  Loving energy is present every moment of our lives, but it remains one alternative among hundreds. Our Creator's energy can only pass through us when we become a conduit through which such energy can flow.  Very few people cultivate such an attitude and spirit. (Matthew 7:13f) At best, many people wear masks that can be quite convincing.

    In my first church, I was the Associate Pastor.  The Senior Pastor was my father.  I was opening up our nursery in preparation for the children of families who would later be attending an evening service during Lent.  I heard a loud voice swearing at someone he was talking to on our pay phone in the hallway. As ventilating his intense anger continued unabated, I cautiously looked to see who this was.  I did not recognize the man. 

    Later, Lois and I were sitting in the congregation, when my father introduced our speaker for the evening.  It was the man who had been on the phone.  His message was marvelous.  I recall that he ended his message by quoting words from the hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, "love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." 

    It is easy to make judgments about others until each of us remembers that our feet are also made of clay.  We are human. We can wear masks that suit the occasion.  Jesus was human.  As perfect as many people believe that he was, many of them have given Jesus a pass when he used a whip and kicked over the tables of the money-changers. (John 2:14f) Or, when Jesus ventilated his frustration by saying:

How unbelieving and wrong you people are!  How long must I stay with you? How long do I have to put up with you? (Matthew 17:17)

    No one is perfect, not even Jesus. Perfection is a definition that people give to what pleases them beyond measure.  Not everyone perceives the same way. Knowing this, Jesus said, "You must forgive seventy-times-seven." (Matthew 18:21f) Loving energy coming toward us is always received with joy. This is why it is so important to remember what Jesus was teaching. Loving energy always flows away from its source. (Matthew 5:45b) This reminder of such a presence is why we have lighted our Candle of Love this morning. Our role in this life is to express it.

     

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

Thank you, God, for these moments of reflection. Amidst all the rich pageantry of our traditions, gatherings, and remembrances of a stable in Bethlehem, we realize that the gift of your Son is above all others.  Yet, how isolated he becomes among all of our expectations. For centuries humankind hungered for your presence and guidance.  They looked for you to send another King David.  When our Savior came, he was humble, he carried no sword, and he invited people to seek, knock, and the door to his Kingdom would be opened. Thank you for your faithfulness and your all-encompassing love.  Amen.

     

PASTORAL PRAYER

Loving God, how quickly our week has gone by, and we find ourselves having lighted a Second Advent candle, reminding us that we are closer to Jesus' birth.  The words of the Prophet Isaiah, remind us that we have to prepare our minds, hearts, and spirits to what love enables us to become.  Sometimes we are more attentive to the sale prices in our department stores than to the coming of love into our world in a form we can understand. 

During the days that lie ahead, inspire us to desire less of what this world offers and more of what would teach us understanding.  Inspire us to be less judgmental of what people believe and more into helping others to use their skills in the service of others. May we dwell less on the headlines of our troubled world and spend more quality time on brightening the corner of the world where we live.  Inspire us to remember that worry is expending energy on what we cannot control or change.  Inner peace comes by trusting that your will is unfolding according to your design.  

As our Advent season continues, enable us to be less absorbed with our wants and needs so that we can truly represent the men and women your Son invited us to become.  Thank you, God, for offering us a fresh opportunity to change our futures every day that we live.  We come to you with these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . .