June 6, 2004
Psalm 8
1 O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in
all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou
ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still
the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and
the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works
of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the
field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and
whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all
the earth!
Romans 5:1-5
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this
grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto
us.
Cosmic Wisdom
A woman once went into the marketplace, looked
around, and saw a sign that read, “God’s Fruit
Stand.” “Thank goodness! It’s about time!” the
woman said to herself. She went inside and she said, “I would
like a perfect banana, a perfect cantaloupe, a perfect strawberry, and
a perfect peach.” God, who was behind the counter, shrugged and
said, “I’m sorry. I only sell seeds.”
In our own life, our mistake, like the woman
looking for “perfect fruit,” is that too often we are
looking for something finished -- a completed project. But God is not
about perfection and creation is far from being complete.
There is a divine energy at the heart of life that
pushes us beyond our current status, that urges us to push the
envelope, be creative, to seek new adventures, or as I have often
borrowed from Star Trek, to boldly go where we have never been before.
However, this urge to grow, and to participate in God’s work does
not mean we should wait around until we have it all together. That
popular slogan of a few year’s back, “Be Patient! God
isn’t finished with me yet!,” really is true, truer than
any of us know. For it means that life (including our lives in
particular) is not limited by failure, nor by our illusions of
success. There is always a call forward. None of us is there yet.
Romans (5.1-5) -- As we turn to the scripture from
Romans, we find the same creative, death-defying, renewing energy of
God is the focus of Paul’s remarks. We are
“rightwised” not because of something we are doing but
because of what God is doing for us. We do not have to attain peace,
we already have it by virtue of what the Spirit is doing in us and on
our behalf. In spite of the ordeals, heartache and pain of our
obedience, God is moving us forward, providing us with strengths.
One way to think of this process is imagining that
our souls are hungry for the truth of God. What do we do when we are
hungry? We go to the pantry, or refrigerator to see what is available.
In our spiritual lives, we may find ourselves searching to find an
answer to a dilemma, or strength to face a crisis. We need to be fed
with compassion and unconditional love. There are times when we are
able through any number of ways to find this, through our families, our
friends, a favorite hymn or scripture. But there are times like when we
look in the cupboard, and there is absolutely nothing there for a meal,
like ol’ Mother Hubbard, our cupboard is bare, and so we have two
options, we can eat out or we go grocery shopping. When we eat out,
everything is prepared for us, served to us, and even cleaned up after
we have gone. There are times when we need this sort of special
attention, but none of us can afford to always eat out, eventually we
do have to shop.
When we are going through a time of trial in our
lives, we cannot let someone else work it out for us. We have to find a
way of healing the hurt, finding direction in our lives. So I would
like you to consider your need like a shopping cart, and going to the
God, as Creator, Son and Holy Spirit, like going to a giant warehouse,
sort of a Heavenly Costco! But instead of paying for membership, God
through our baptism has made us members. Instead of paying for what we
need, Jesus has already paid the price, and instead of a list of what
we need, the Holy Spirit provides exactly what we need. All we have to
do is to approach God, and our shopping cart, our soul, is filled to
overflowing with whatever we need to help fill our soul, our minds, our
bodies, so that we might see our path.
William James, the great philosopher-psychologist,
at his sixtieth birthday party announced that he had finally come to
believe in life after death. When people asked him what had changed
his mind, he said,”Because I am only now becoming fit to
live.”
Sometimes we have to have lived a while to see that
life has not come to a full stop, in our times of crisis, that there is
something more waiting for us.
So in order to make room for this new possibility
for our lives, we need to do a little house cleaning, finding out what
we need, and what has sat in our cupboards, and our refrigerators too
long. Someone said to me recently that as a pastor you must be used to
moving. Well, I do not know if I will ever get used to it, but there is
one advantage of having the experience of having to move frequently, it
forces you to purge all those things that have accumulated. You have a
built in excuse. But, I must admit we did not learn this lesson easily,
rather, we have been known to move food, in cans of course, from one
house to another. Never using it, but feeling as though we would.
So the first thing we need to throw out of our
spiritual lives is all our good intentions, that we will never have
time to follow through on. This may be books you haven’t gotten
around to reading, projects that are half finished, a ‘to
do’ list that couldn’t be done by Superman or Wonderwoman.
Be more realistic, do fewer things well, then trying to do too many
things not so well. Our worthiness is not earned, we are worthy in
God’s sight who calls us “good and faithful
servant.”
Second, we must let loose of those things we are
emotionally attached to. Recently my closet became too full of clothes,
and I had to decide what to keep and what to throw away, or give away.
I made three piles, one for those items that I definitely liked wearing
and were in good shape. Another pile, those clothes I no longer needed
or fit into, and third, all those I was somehow emotionally connected
to, but were grungy or too small, or two big. I was able to cut out
nearly half of the clothes in my closet by only keeping the good stuff,
but I had the hardest time letting go of stuff I had gotten on
vacations, or were a gift, etc. But I realized, these items were not
what I treasured about that place or person, and even if I didn’t
have the item, I would always have the memory. Some of us hang on to
hurt, and fear, and guilt and shame because it has served us in some
way, pain reminds us to keep vigilant for those who might try to hurt
us again. Sometimes, these negative emotions are all we have to remind
us of significant events of our lives, but isn’t life painful
enough without us having to relive the pain over and over again? We
need to let God heal those wounds so we can embrace life again. Lastly,
we need to trust that God is not finished with us yet. God has so much
more in store for us, You, my friends, may be twenty-two or
eighty-three; but today you have the opportunity to leave an
encumbrance behind, to say “good-bye” to failure, “so
long” to despair and to strike out on a new path of love. For
you, too, are a seed swelling toward ripe. A ripeness never achieved,
but still in the process of becoming, a product of God’s fruit
stand. For now are you just “becoming fit to live.”
Amen
