A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

IN JESUS' EYES

John 1:35-51, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, January 20, 2008

A Nebraska rancher got in his Bronco and drove to a neighboring ranch and knocked at the door. A young boy, about nine, opened the door. “Is your papa home?” the rancher asked. “Sorry, sir, he isn't,” the boy replied. “He went into town.” “Well,” said the rancher “Is your mama here?” “No, sir, she went into town with pop.” “How about your brother, Greg? Is he here?” “He went with mama and papa.” The man stood there for a few minutes, shifting from one foot to the other and mumbling to himself. “Is there anything I can do for you? I know where all the tools are if you want to borrow one. Or maybe, I could take a message for pop.” “Well,” said the rancher uncomfortably, “I really wanted to talk to him. It's about your brother Greg getting my daughter pregnant.” The boy considered for a moment. “You'd have to talk to pop about that,” he finally conceded. “If it helps you any though, I know that pop charges $200 for the bull and $150 for the pig, but I really don't know how much he gets for Greg.” We all need to live up to our potential, but I don’t think this is Greg’s.

Our text this morning is about fulfilling your potential. There are different kinds of potential and in fact we may do well at one kind and not do so well at some other. Put in 70 to 80 hours a week at work for years, think about it all the time, do whatever the boss asks you to do or be the boss and put your blood, sweat and tears into your business, and some other aspects of your life may get a little rusty. Then there are people who excel at entertaining themselves. If you know all the actor’s names and the fictitious names of soap opera stars, you’ve got to try to get out of the house more and do something else. There are women here who became wonderful moms and made their family the centerpiece of their energy and interest, fulfilling their God-given potential. Some kids make the most of their intellectual potential by doing their homework, studying a lot and putting in quality effort toward learning. The desire to improve oneself and the willingness to set a high bar for one’s life count for more than just about anything else. As scripture says, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” The fact is we all have some qualities of body, soul, and mind that when mixed in with willpower and desire will formulate a powerful potential fulfilling person. But a person can be as gifted as anything yet if he or she doesn’t have the get-up-and-go to go along with it, the gift will be wasted. And this is not how it should be. As scripture says, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you.” 1 Timothy4:14 Take what you have seriously. Even if you don’t believe that God hands out gifts personally and plugs them into us, fulfilling your potential at whatever stage in your life is what God asks of us. The issue isn’t whether you or I will be Michael Jordan, George Bush, or Bill Gates. They did what they were supposed to do. You and I are supposed to be the best you and I we can.

What we want to see this morning is that the first thing to realize is not whether the glass is half empty or half full, but that it is your glass.

You’ve got what you’ve got. It is what it is. But realizing that, then you make the most of what it is and what you’ve got. What I mean is that I can’t just complain about how I don’t have the right person in my life, the right amount of money in my life, the right address, the right job, the right church, the right parents, the right health, the right education. We have what we have. It is what it is. You have to work with what you have. Don’t create troubles because someone else isn’t living up to your expectations. You’ve got to work with what you’ve got. Find the joy where God has put it. There is always a silver-lining.  Let me tell you something: People will even complain about things when they are good, even great, simply because it’s not how they see things should be, even when it is good. Doesn’t sound right? Ask Theda Lockwood. Many years ago, at the church she was attending, they had a great preschool going, and George Lockwood was president of its board. One day, the new minister asked George what he saw as the school’s future and George said it was going to be the biggest and best in the city. As the minister walked away, he replied, “We’ll see about that.” Look, someone who complains too much when things are not going so well may not be able to handle it when things actually do go well either. So be careful about seeing how bad things are because that is usually only a matter of perspective, since you can bet that someone else has it worse. To make the most of what we have first takes accepting what we have to work with and who we have to live with. This is a great strength to have, and scripture tells us that we shall go from strength to strength.

When we look at these two stories from our reading, we see that Jesus has a habit of looking on the positive side of people. The fact is he could have called Simon son of John “Sandy” instead of “Rocky,” which is basically what Cephas translates to. Peter really wasn’t all that stable; he shifted his opinions on matters; he was up and down emotionally and with his faith, and in and out as far as understanding what Jesus was doing. But Christ saw the man who was to be in the man who stood in front of him, and he named Peter to his destiny. Christ calls us by our true name, by our gifts, and claims us for service. Others who are jealous or down on themselves or afraid of losing or whatever the case may be don’t see us in our goodness and our glory. We are those who can serve the living God and who can do the impossible. But we have to let go of what holds us back. We have to have faith to take us forward. Many times to take those forward steps, we must or someone must sacrifice. To make the seemingly impossible possible, someone must give.    

Back in the 15th century in a tiny village near Nuremberg, Germany there lived a family with eighteen children. That’s right… eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table for this large family, the father (who was a goldsmith by profession) worked almost eighteen hours a day at this trade and any other paying job he could find in the neighborhood. Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of the older children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Art Academy there. After much discussion, the two boys finally worked out a plan. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and with his earnings support his brother while he attended the Art Academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies in four years, he would in turn support the other brother at the academy either with sales of his art work, or, if necessary, also by working in the mines. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg to study art. His brother, Albert, went down into the dangerous mines and for the next four years financed his brother whose work at the Art Academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht Durer’s etchings, his woodworks, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.

When the young artist returned home to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht’s triumphant homecoming. After a delightful meal with lots of music and laughter, Albrecht Durer rose from his honored position at the head of the table to express his deep appreciation to his beloved brother, Albert, for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. His closing words were: “And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream and I will take care of you.” All heads turned to the far end of the table where Albert sat. Tears were streaming down his face. Slowly, Albert stood to his feet and softly he said, “Thank you, my brother, but no, I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look what four years in the mine have done to my hands. The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately, I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less, make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, my brother, for me it is too late.”

More than 450 years have passed. By now, Durer’s hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world but most people are really familiar with only one of Durer’s works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office. One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply “Hands,” but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to this great masterpiece and renamed his tribute, “The Praying Hands.”

In Albrecht’s eyes, his brother’s rough and broken hands expressed the sacrifice it took for him to become who he became. Consider all those who gave to you here. The seat you sit upon, the floor your feet rest on, the pulpit you look at, the walls that surround you, the window in front of you were all given to you by someone else, unless you have been here long enough to have shared in the cost and joy of those times. Someone else believed in Christ here and gave so that you might worship this morning freely. In their eyes, you were worth their sacrifice. Without them, we wouldn’t be here. Without us giving what we need to give, who will not be here who should be here, whom God counts on being here because first God counts on us? We have what we have and we are what we are, and Christ calls us to our destiny and to our service. It is for us to fulfill our faith potential.

There is a humorous story that isn’t exactly related but what the heck. An FBI agent was talking to a bank teller after the bank was robbed for the third time by the same thief. "Did you notice anything special about the man?" the agent asked. "Yes,” the teller replied. “He seems better dressed each time."

Now we don’t take from others but rather we have received from them. And we are much better for it. May we put our lives and our gifts in God’s service and thereby fulfill our true potential.

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