"I will require a reckoning of every human life," says God. (Genesis 9:5)
God requires a
reckoning of every human life - those lives we take, which, thank God, I
don't, as well as our own life. Those lives we take... I feel like I
watch a lot of killing on TV - NCIS, NCIS:LA, South Park, Alias, Castle,
the last movie I saw in the theater, "The Family,"... practically every
non-reality TV show I watch (and the only reality shows I watch are on
The Food Network). Yet the closest I've been to someone taken
unexpectedly from me was Uncle Bob, my godfather. He was probably in
his 50's, if I had to guess, and it was a surprise. Yet it's not a
surprise that it's September and I'm thinking of him. Seems to happen
every September. September was the month he died, in 1994. Almost 20
years. We had just seen him in June that year, he came down to North Carolina for
my confirmation. I'm pretty sure my sister and I made fun of him, he
was a little socially awkward. But his death was a surprise. A phone
call at 7 a.m. as we were getting ready for work and school one day. His maid found him unconscious and he'd been that way for 2-3 days, alone in his house,
ethanol alcohol poisoning from which he never recovered. Suicide. How does God reckon that? Does he
balance it with all the good things Uncle Bob did? Setting up college
trust funds for my sisters and me and seven others? The charity and
good works and generosity? My sisters and I were the only kids at his
funeral. Or was miserable depression the last word on his life? What's
the reckoning? He bought us an encyclopedia set, and nice dresses, and
educational toys and books, a globe, and jean jackets when they were in
style in the 1980s. What's the last word? Two divorces? Haunted by
his parents? No living relative closer than a second cousin who lived
in England? For my confirmation (in the Episcopal Church) he gave me The Book of Common Prayer in Spanish. How'd he know??? I'd only had three years
of middle school Spanish at that point. He must've been inspired by the Holy
Spirit. And yet three months later he OD'd on alcohol. What's the
reckoning? Is he in heaven? Did God have the last word on his life?
"We pray for those who have died." (Prayers of the People, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 386)
Monday, September 30, 2013
Monday, September 9, 2013
Look Kids, Big Ben!
16th Sunday after Pentecost
September 8, 2013
Isaiah 40:28-31; Philemon 1-7
Look Kids, Big Ben!
We have finished our Heroic Faith superhero
sermon series and are returning to our regularly scheduled programming, which
means back to the lectionary. Today’s
epistle selection was actually the whole book of Philemon. Don’t worry, it’s only 21 verses. I shortened the reading to stop with the
verse that caught my attention: “the hearts of the saints have been refreshed
through you.” What, or who, has refreshed
your heart? Or perhaps your heart is in
need of refreshing. Good news, you’re in
church and we’re in the refreshing and restoration business.
I know five weeks of superheroes
wasn’t for everyone, but I can tell you, the superhero sermon series refreshed
us preachers and worship leaders. It was
a nice break from the usual, it gave us a structure and a theme for a month, a
different way of approaching the Scriptures and preaching and worship planning,
and if our purpose in using superheroes was to reach those we don’t usually
reach, it worked. There are at least two
families who came specifically for that sermon series. The series reached out to others and gave us
a change of pace with movie nights and t-shirts and popcorn. Now that it is September and school is back
in session, we’re returning to our usual fall routine. I don’t know about you, but the sermon series
refreshed me. It was a welcome
change.
What refreshes and renews you? Exercise?
Time with good friends? Time
spent in a good book? Vacation? Researchers from the Netherlands released a study a few
years ago about the benefits of vacation.
It concluded that the most benefit people actually get out of vacation
in terms of happiness isn’t the vacation itself.[1] It’s the anticipation of the vacation. It’s looking forward to the time away, not
the time away itself. Planning the
sermon series was as refreshing as the five weeks it lasted. You should have heard some of our staff
meetings!
How
about renewal at church? I love that the
8:00 service allows me to start my Sunday by
celebrating communion and inviting everyone to the Lord’s table. Sustenance.
FOOD. Eating restores the
nutrients to your body. The bread and
the cup restore nutrients to your soul. Today
at the 9:00 service a new family joined. I don’t know about you, but new church members always refresh me. Witnessing someone else join the Body of
Christ is exciting. It lifts your
spirits. Or perhaps you’ve come to the
sanctuary when it’s empty. There is
something about sitting in there when it’s quiet and still that will calm and
refresh your soul. Worship is for God,
not for us, but a common side effect is that it renews us.
I heard Adam Hamilton speak at a seminar last
year and one analogy he shared was about horse manure.[2] He had researched it for a sermon and learned
that there are three basic things you can do to dispose of horse manure. You can bury it. You can add chemicals to it to dissolve it. Or you can compost it and transform it from
waste into something beneficial. If you
compost it, do you know how often you’re supposed to turn it over? Once a week.
Now imagine all the problems in your life, all the stress, all of the
stuff going on in your life that you’re trying to figure out how to deal with…
are horse manure. You can bury it, but
if you do that, it’s going to take a very long time for it to go away, if it
ever does. You can add chemicals –
drugs, alcohol – but they bring on a whole host of other problems for you to
deal with. Or you can compost it, and
turn that pile of horse manure in your life into something beneficial. And the best way to keep your compost moving
in the right direction, towards something beneficial? Come to worship… once a week.
And
how about the rest of our Three Hour Challenge?
One hour in worship; got it, you’re here. One hour in the study of God’s Word, whether
it’s Sunday school or one of our other bible studies. If you’re not already part of one, all of our
Sunday school classes would love to have you and we’re starting three new bible
studies next week. I’m leading the
Disciple II bible study, which I’ve done before. On the one hand, I’m wondering why I’ve
agreed to do it again because I know it will change my morning routine. The daily reading is longer than my current
morning devotional. But on the other
hand, I’m looking forward to the intentional time studying God’s Word in
depth. I have been blessed each of the
four years that I’ve spent using the Disciple bible study curriculum and I’m
anticipating another year full of blessings I can’t imagine yet. Bible study is refreshing.
The
third part of our Three Hour Challenge is service. Serving others takes the focus off yourself,
which is sometimes just what you need.
I’ve been reading some critiques of “selfies” this week on Facebook;
“selfies” being pictures you take of yourself, and the concern is that it is a
symptom of how self-obsessed our culture is becoming. It used to be that other people took your
picture. Now, you take your own picture,
and it ups your own self-importance. To
become less obsessed with yourself, the prescription is to focus on others and
serve. We offer many opportunities to do
that here at Orange, locally, nationally,
and internationally. Service is
refreshing.
Sometimes, when you’re tired and in
need of renewal, you just need a nap.
You need rest. You need
downtime. And that’s why God created the
Sabbath. God worked for six days and on
the seventh day he rested. God knows the
importance of taking regular breaks; it’s what we were created to do as well. How many of you take a Sabbath day? Do you regularly take a day to rest and not
run errands, clean the house, do laundry, take out the trash, or the work you
brought home from the office? When I was
a schoolteacher, that was Sunday for me.
That day doesn’t work anymore, as you may imagine. Who here can name Pastor Ken’s, Brad’s (the
youth pastor), and my days off in lieu of Sundays? Pastor Ken’s day off is… Friday. Brad’s day off is… Monday. And since I’m three-quarter time, I get two
days off… Monday and Friday I stay home with Isabel. Taking your time off, using your vacation
days, taking a sabbatical when appropriate, is important.
Now, funny story about rest. There was one day this past week where I was
just exhausted and so I went home a little earlier than usual. Isabel was napping when I got home, so I lay
down, too. You know, sleep when the baby
sleeps. Only I couldn’t fall
asleep. And pretty soon, Isabel was
awake. So I got her up and decided that I
was taking her and the dog on a walk. We
went for a long walk, further down the trail near our house than I’ve ever gone
before. It was a solid 45 minutes
through the woods, near a stream, uphill and downhill. By the time we got to the last half mile
home, the dog’s tongue was hanging sideways and I was really having to push
myself, and Isabel’s stroller, uphill,
to get home. Back at home, our dog laid
out on the floor and didn’t move for an hour.
Isabel, of course, had tons of energy, since all she’d done was ride in
a stroller. I turned on the ceiling fan,
sat under it, and drank two glasses of water.
Afterward, though, you know what?
I felt great! I no longer felt
tired. I no longer felt down. I thought I needed rest, when that exercise
and movement was actually really good for me!
It refreshed me and I felt back to my usual self.
Sometimes you need to move, and sometimes you
need to stop. That study from the Netherlands? It said that if you claimed your vacation to
be “neutral” or “stressful,” then there were no lasting happiness effects from
it. Now, remember those National
Lampoon’s Vacation movies from the ‘80’s?
Those vacations were anything but restful. In European Vacation, the Griswald family is
driving to see some landmark in London, and gets stuck going
around and around the traffic circle in front of Big Ben.[3] For hours.
It’s a change of scenery and a change of pace from their “normal”
routine, but it’s certainly not refreshing.
Change for the sake of change is not restorative. You need a better “so that.” Change in worship or prayer so that we might experience God’s
presence in a new way. Change in bible
study so that we might be more
disciplined in our daily reading and study and grow in our faith. If you’re not being affected by your bible
study, then something needs to change, either you and your effort and
attention, or the study. Change in
service, so that others are reached,
so that others might know the saving love of Jesus Christ our Lord.
That
verse from Philemon was about Philemon refreshing the hearts of the
saints. We’ve talked about how you are refreshed; what do you do to
refresh and renew others? Do you cook
for them? Do you clean their house? Do you keep their children? Do you pray for them? Do you help them navigate stressful
situations? Who, or what, has refreshed
your heart, and how do you help others refresh their hearts? True restoration comes from God alone, as he
is the author and sustainer of our faith and of us.[4] It’s been a rough week for a lot of us. Thank God that there is a balm in Gilead.[5] Thank God that he provides a variety of means
to renew us. We don’t have to keep
driving in circles looking at Big Ben. A
little planning goes a long ways, and we can plan times of rest and renewal for
ourselves and help others to do so as well.
You can’t take a day off without planning to make sure you get
everything done in the previous six days.
So if you don’t already, I encourage you to put some down time in your
schedule. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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