A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

THEY CAN ONLY SAY "NO"

Matthew 7:7-11, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, April 6, 2008

Nancy pulled out of the church parking lot only to remember that she had left her purse in the pew. She immediately turned around and went back to the church. But the purse was already gone. Just as she turned to leave, the minister held out her purse and asked, "Nancy, are you looking for this?" "Yes, I am" she replied, "thank you." "I thought I had better pick it up for safe keeping," the minister explained. "Why, pastor, surely my purse would have been safe in church. No one would steal from the church would they?" "No, no," said the minister. "I don’t believe anyone would steal. But knowing what prayer means to this congregation, somebody might just consider your purse a direct answer to prayer."

Our text is about making a request. Life is full of the need to request. This is why it is slightly unnerving to know someone who refuses, perhaps even fails, to request the help needed. It is unnerving because it is a break in the chain of giving and receiving. If we know someone or knew someone like this we often overlook our hurt at not being asked to “be there” for her or him by saying the person was just independent, which of course is mostly true. Yet our admiration for that character streak doesn’t totally hide the truth. The truth is we want to give something in return, not to even the score, but to return love and complete the circle. Because we have received from him or her, it is our inner hope that we could also give to her or him.

As scripture says, “We love because God first loved us.” What I mean is that we don’t have to create out of nothing the gift of giving; it is God’s gift—in fact it is God’s nature to give. But we do learn it. The only question is whether we will be able to apply the knowledge we have to the situation in which we live, which reminds me of the Paul Harvey story about a 3-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered she had certain instructions for the little tike: "Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask." She put him in the child's seat and off they went up and down the aisles. Then they came to the cookie section. Seeing the chocolate chip cookies he said, “Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you not even to ask. You’re not going to get any at all.” They continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items she had to back track and they ended up in the cookie aisle again. “Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you that you can’t have any. Now sit down and be quiet.” Finally, they arrived at the checkout. The little boy sensed that the end was in sight, that this might be his last chance. He stood up on the seat and shouted in his loudest voice, “In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?” Everyone in the checkout lanes laughed and applauded. Do you think the little boy got his cookies? You bet! The other shoppers moved by his daring pooled their resources. The little boy and his mother left with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies. The requester has to request and the giver ought to give. Recognize when it is your time for either. Look just as honestly at your need for help as at your need to give. There is no shame in asking and there is great honor in bestowing. As scripture says, “Everyone shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you.” Deut. 16:17 

What we want to see this morning is that sometimes you and I have to stoke up enough nerve to ask someone for a favor.

We find it tough to ask for something, heck, for anything. It can be as simple as asking for a ride when our own car is temporarily out of commission, or asking someone at a dinner table to pass us the potatoes. This is probably the case for at least two reasons. First, we tend to be fiercely independent. We want to do things on our own. In the second place, we fear that others might view us as being inadequate if we have to ask for something, even when the predicament is quite understandable. Along with these two reasons there is a general, vague feeling that we don't want to be a bother to someone else.

Sometimes prayer means asking for something. For that reason alone, people may hesitate to pray. When they consider that it is God they are addressing in their prayer, they may become doubly hesitant. I have found that people who aren’t into praying too much—asking God for something—will have a conversion to prayer if theirs or a loved one’s health has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. When it comes to what really matters, we are able to make the request of anyone. We should ask, search, and knock. Find your voice to raise your needs and hopes to God. Don’t be locked into a lone wolf syndrome, where it is you and only you doing battle. We do have it in us to ask, and so does God to give. Of course what God is offering may not be what we are seeking, at least not at first.

Rev. Robert L. Allen called for some time on a young man who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or ALS. I suppose that this is one of the most debilitating illnesses known. Over a period of time, all of the muscles of the body become useless. But the mind remains clear and sharp, trapped in a body that cannot move. Of course, this man reacted the way you or I would expect. He was bitter and angry at what was happening to him. When he did pray, his prayers were questions that asked, "Why me, God? Why is this happening to me?" Once, when I called on him, he cursed me ... He cursed God ... He cursed his illness. And who could blame him? He could no longer care for himself. He could no longer sit up without assistance. He required a plastic tube of oxygen attached to his nostrils just to breathe. After he finished his angry tirade about what had happened to him, he was embarrassed and he apologized. I looked at him and told him, "Don’t worry! You didn’t shock me or God." A serious look crossed his face and he said, "I’ve tried to pray. I’ve asked God to cure me, but I keep getting worse."

"Perhaps," I said, "you are praying the wrong prayer. The promise of God is not that he will magically remove our problems but that he will give us strength in the midst of our problems. Why don’t you start praying for strength to deal with your illness and strength to enjoy the life you have?"

 I would be lying if I said the change was immediate. But, gradually a change took place. The bitterness and anger he felt gave way to acceptance. But, the surprise was that he saw an avenue of ministry. With a pencil between his teeth, he began typing out notes to people who were going through problems. They were not long, just short, simple notes telling others that someone was thinking about them and praying for them. Shortly before his illness claimed his life, he told one of the members of his family, "I have enjoyed my life to the end."

Ultimately, the power of prayer is not that we succeed in changing God, but that God succeeds in changing us. As a very wise person once said, “The value of persistent prayer is not that (God) will hear us but that we will finally hear (God). William McGill So it would be dangerously false to see our God as a heavenly ATM machine. Not only does God have it in God’s self to give, but the Lord definitely has it in him to ask, to request, to call and even command. It’s just that the Lord seems to speak in a different language when asking and so it is not so easy for us to hear it. The people around Jesus were asking him all the time to give them a sign to show/prove that he was who he said he was. Otherwise it all seemed rather Greek to them, as it might at times to us. It would be nice if the good Lord would make things clear; even nicer, crystal clear, but that might be asking too much. Yeah, clear would be good—such as our church having so many children here that every Sunday morning would look like Easter and it would take two minutes for them to all file out to go down to Sunday school, where we would have run out of chairs and table space. That would be very helpful.

Perfect clarity is an extremely rare experience in life, especially church life. Our church is no different. The truth is this church is the spiritual home through which God comes to us, making requests and giving gifts. Not all of God’s gifts and requests occur through here of course, but we have dedicated ourselves to this house of God and here we make our stand. Here we make good on Christ’s call to minister in his name through the power of the Holy Spirit and to God’s glory. When our congregation requests of us, it is the same as God requesting of us. This may sound extreme, but each congregation in this denomination is the body of Christ, Christ alone being its head.

And so when I look at our capital campaign, I see that the wonderful  faith and process that is the working heart of Congregational Church of Boca Raton has been duly followed. The undeniable fact is that through all the hard work, prayers, and many, many hours of discussion, we have come to the point of making the request of each of us to give generously and fully. The truth is our church has never asked us to give when it was not needed, important, and ultimately very beneficial to our own lives. How important have the requests been in the past? Very! We would not be the church we are if God had not asked us to give and we had refused. But God did, and we did too. Look, the Leadership 2000 campaign back in 1999 is the reason we have reserve funds that we have used for the past eight years; it is the reason we were able to keep Rev. John Shaw and me together for so many years, and how we are able to meet a deficit budget this year. The organ fund brought us a beautiful organ; without it we would still have an instrument that would be much inferior to what our present music ministry, worship services, and congregation should expect and now does expect. Our driveway and parking lot resurfacing project was long past due, and having done it we all agree that it was well worth it. Can you imagine what the parking lot would look like now if we had not done the work then? So pledge and give after you have considered your wealth and not your lack. Pledge and give when you realize how important you are to your church and how important your church is to you. Pledge and give when you understand that God is asking us to be truly dedicated to doing something special here because of us. Pledge and give to our capital campaign so that when the day comes when we are past this project, having successfully completed it, and are observing it from “over there,” you are able to say to yourselves and God that you supported it lovingly, gave to it generously, and prayed for it mightily.

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