A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .
H. L. Mencken once said that some people are so pessimistic that when they smell flowers, they immediately look for a coffin. Hear about the man who was so bashful that he couldn’t even lead in silent prayer? In the southern U.S. people use the expression, “playing possum.” It means that people are immobile, feigning death. It might remind you of some Christians, and the old joke about the man who died in church. Paramedics carried out six people before they got to the right one.
Our lives too often lack spiritual vitality. At times, they lack joy, they lack life. I believe the reason is fear—fear of real commitment to Christ and a refusal to hear and believe his wonderful words of life.
When we are younger we think life can go on forever. But as we get older, we see it is not so. Some humorous soul has compiled a list of hymns for the crowd that’s getting on in years—not that anyone in this congregation qualifies! Anyway, here is her list: (http://www.preaching.com.)
1. Precious Lord, Take My Hand,
and Help Me Up
2. Nobody knows the Trouble I Have Seeing
3. Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, I’ve Forgotten Where I Parked
As we get older we start seeing changes in the world around us, and sometimes these changes are unwelcome. Friends die. Neighborhoods die. Even an entire way of life can die. Ezekiel’s imagery of the valley of bones is frightful. It is a vision of death and the grave. We want to look away, but there are dry bones all around us: skeletons in our closet and bones in our basement. Marriages fail. Relationships are broken. Violence and death saturate the nightly news.
There is dryness down in our bones–a dryness that won’t go
away–a thirst that cannot be quenched. Some try sipping from false streams: the
polluted rivers of power, possessions, sex, drugs, alcohol, music, religion,
hobbies. Nothing we reach for, nothing within our grasp can touch this eternal
thirst. Who will give us the wonderful words of life that can quench our deepest
thirst? Can these dry, dead, lifeless bones of ours rise to life? The answer is
“yes, these bones will live!” In the power of Jesus who died and rose, our bones
can live! We must come to Christ, hear his words, live them, and share them.
Matt Weinstein, in his book, Managing to Have Fun, tells an interesting story. He said he was running through the streets of Berkeley with his friend Dale Larsen. Dale is a clinical psychologist, and although they had been friends for a long time, they had never gone running together before. After stretching, they began to run and had only gone a few blocks when Matt noticed that Dale reached into the pocket of his shorts, took out a handful of coins, and threw them over his shoulder. The first couple of times this happened, Matt pretended not to notice. But after a while it began to drive him crazy, so he finally asked Dale, “Dale, what is the story with the money? Why are you throwing coins into the street?” Dale laughed and proceeded to tell him about an amazing psychology experiment nicknamed, interestingly enough, “The Good Samaritan Study.”
“In the study, researchers positioned themselves across from a pay phone and studied the people who made phone calls. One of the first things they discovered was that almost everyone who makes a call looks in the coin return after hanging up to see if any coins happen to be there. The urge is irresistible: you just have to look in the coin return to see if the machine has mistakenly returned your money! This behavior gave the researchers an idea. The next day, they randomly put coins in the coin return slot, so that some of the people who used the phone actually did discover money. The researchers then hired a young woman to walk by the phone at the exact moment that the subjects were hanging it up. When the young woman walked by with her arms full of books, she pretended to stumble and drop them on the ground. Astonishingly, the researchers observed that the people who found money in the coin return were four times as likely to stop and help the woman pick up her books as were the people who found no money in the coin return. They concluded,” writes Matt Weinstein, “that when we feel good, we tend to do good, which also means that the helping impulse is transferable. In other words, if you do something good for another person, he or she is much more likely to do something nice for someone else, causing one small gesture to result in a giant ripple effect.” (Simon & Schuster, 1997)
Notice those words: “when we feel good, we tend to do good.” Many people identify themselves with Christ’s ministry, but they never reach out to others. Why? It’s because Christ’s spirit, Christ’s acceptance, Christ’s empowerment have never penetrated their hearts. There is a difference between hearing something and listening to it. When it comes to spiritual matters, we have to listen deeper, fuller. It’s like radiation therapy; something have to go down deep in order to help.
Now for the original disciples, things were different. They knew they could never leave Jesus. Oh, they had the freedom to do so, but they didn’t have the desire to do so. With Jesus, the disciples found what they had been looking for. Next to him, they felt good about themselves, so they could feel good about others. They felt pure in his presence, so they could have pure motives in relating to others. They felt his love and so they could love. In one of my favorite scripture passages, Jesus asks them if they want to leave him, and Simon Peter answered for the rest, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Wonderful words of life! What Jesus said to others, he meant for you. What he did for others, he can do for you. Believe in Christ.
Kenneth Wellman of
One day he comes around the circle drive with his dog. His feet are hardly touching the pavement. He isn’t slowly walking along with his head bent down. Now it is thrown back with great pride. His face is aglow. He is walking fast to tell me something. He comes not to tell me but to show me. Around his neck he wears three special Olympic medals. He is so proud and talking so fast that I still don’t know what he won them in.
What changed Buddie? Someone told him by way of medals and hand shakes that he was a winner, that he was a somebody, that he counted. Those medals changed Buddie for about a week. He wore his medals for a week, but now the memory of winning has slipped away from him. Next year if he makes it to the special Olympic, he again will walk with great pride and face aglow. For one brief period of time, Buddie is a winner! Buddie is important!
Christ is our medal that reminds us who we are! In the press of time and work it is easy to forget that we are “a somebody,” and we are “a winner.” You are a child of God. Christ will not let us forget.
The greatest heresy of which you and I can be guilty of is not necessarily a lack of faith in God. The greatest heresy may just be a lack of faith in ourselves and what God can do through us. Even the smallest person in the kingdom of God is of infinite value. Even the person with the most severe limitations can impact others. This is why the words of Jesus are so refreshing and life-giving. He tells us that our lives matter.
I mention this because how we feel about ourselves will determine the effectiveness of our witness to Christ. There are many people who latch onto Christ because they have come to feel bad about themselves. Some people are like the man who had an inferiority complex that was so bad that whenever he entered an elevator and gave the attendant his floor number, he always included, “If it isn’t out of your way.” But Christ has too many followers who feel helpless and defeated. We need to reach out to Christ when our self-esteem is dragging the floor. Let Christ deliver you from your feelings of low self-esteem. Let him speak to you words of life about who you are and what he has done in your behalf. Wonderful words of life make a difference in how we live.
We all want to be a success in what we do, when it comes to being Christian, success means being faithful. Now this is not true for everyone, because for many, things are more basic; in fact, an insightful sums it up like this (I hope you can take this slightly straightforward and humorous look at life): At age 4 success is.....not peeing in your pants. At age 12 success is...having friends. At age 16 success is...having a driver's license. At age 20 success is...having sex. At age 35 success is ...having money. At age 50 success is ...having money. At age 60 success is....having sex. At age 70 success is....having a driver's license. At age 75 success is....having friends. At age 80 success is....not peeing in your pants.
There is something more we need to do with Christ’s words. We shouldn’t just keep them to ourselves. If we really hear them, and when they raise us up, we share them with others. Try to be more positive. Believe in the power of good words. Rebuild your spirit by building up others. Be free with compliments and commendations. If Christ can believe in his disciples, we ought to believe in our family, the people we meet and know.
On a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo in
No literal portrait of Jesus exists either. But the likeness of the Son who makes us free can be seen in the lives of His true followers.
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