It has been a couple of years since I have had to work on sermons on a weekly basis. This last week brought with it some challenges so while I attempted to create a meaningful sermon I kept deleting them and trying again. I think this one was my third or fourth attempt.
Even when I was doing this full time this was not a totally unusual event. Sometimes I would like to say something new and inspiring. I know, wouldn’t we all. And so the Holy Spirit patiently lets me type all of these things in my head until finally I listen. I am so thankful for word processing programs! And a patient Holy Spirit.
Anyway, while something new and inspiring seems like a good idea, sometimes the old tried and true is better.
Today’s reading, for any of us who have been around the church for a while, is not new. Jesus is walking and talking with disciples. He is pouring his heart out to them. Maybe to give himself some relief and find some support from his closest friends or maybe to just pre warn them.
What the Messiah is, is not what they thought it would be. It is going to be very different. And Jesus hopes that in the warning of what is about to occur they will not lose faith when it does. It will be hard for all of them, Jesus and the disciples.
And of course, as we know, Jesus overhears their argument. They, instead of hearing what Jesus is saying, are arguing who is going to be the greatest. Because of their own upbringing, they just can’t see or understand that Jesus has come to turn everything upside down. The Messiah was not going to take over the Roman seat and rule. He was going to be crucified and take up a seat in the greatest kingdom of all. God’s kingdom, the universe, all of creation.
Now, I confess, I find in myself the self satisfaction that I know this and the disciples didn’t. It is easy to be smug on this side of the story.
And then I wonder how Jesus would see my life. My comfort. My desire to come up with new and better ideas to preach. My desire to be considered profound. Not that I shouldn’t strive to do my best, but for whose glory?
And I wonder what Jesus would say about the church. Our comfort. Our desire to become the best and newest thing in Christendom. And for whose glory?
I guess it’s no wonder I didn’t want to write this sermon. Ah well, here it is.
St Francis of Assisi had a different point of view. He didn’t look to belong or to build some great monastery. His followers were called to be poor. To rely on the generosity of others. They were called to live in poverty with the poor, not live in comfort and feel holy for walking down the hill occasionally to care for the poor.
I will not tell you that I have been called to such a life. At least not for today. But I think it is important for us to stop and realize what Jesus has called us to be. Pomp and circumstance are not it. Being the greatest and best is not it.
We are to be like children. There was a young man, maybe 3 or 4, at the church in the Sabula I loved to play with. He loved hiding under the pews. So one day, his mother was there preparing something for Sunday School that week, I followed him under the pews. We had such fun! We were both laughing and screaming. His mother told him he shouldn’t be screaming in church. Well that sure dampened that afternoon’s delight.
I wonder what that child was doing just before Jesus picked him or her up. I love that Mark doesn’t specify. Was the child sitting listening to Jesus? (Probably not.) Was the child playing with toys? Was the child hiding under the table? Whatever it was, the child was near Jesus and Jesus was pleased.
I want to be that child. I want to be the one Jesus picks up and holds on his lap. Maybe it is more about living life, enjoying the moment, and accepting things as they come. What else can a child do?
Is it possible that we are worried about the wrong things? Is it possible we take things too seriously? They say Francis died young because of his rigorous spiritual practices. Luther was a generous man, too generous sometimes, but he also knew how to laugh and enjoy his children. And Katy made a good beer. It was when Luther began taking things too seriously, perhaps himself too seriously, that he wrote some terrible words against our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Jesus knew that things were going to get tough. But he also knew that unless the disciples took love more seriously than themselves they would never make it. When I made my first visit to family in what was once East Germany, they told me how the churches of different denominations worked together to help one another rebuild their buildings. We could learn a lot.
Permit me to end with a lengthy poem from Ann Weems.
Holding a bright blue string to which was attached
his much loved orange balloon with pink stripes...
Certainly a thing of beauty
And if not forever, at least a joy for a very important now.
When later he met me at the door
Clutching blue string, orange and pink bobbing behind him,
He didn't have to tell me something had gone wrong.
"What's the matter?"
He wouldn't tell me.
"I bet they loved your balloon..."
Then that little four-year old, his lip a little trembly, asked:
"Why aren't balloons allowed in church? I thought God would like balloons."
I celebrate balloons, parades and chocolate chip cookies.
I celebrate seashells and elephants and lions that roar.
I celebrate roasted marshmallows and chocolate cake and fresh fish.
I celebrate aromas: bread baking, mincemeat, lemons...
I celebrate seeing: bright colors, wheat in a field, tiny wild flowers...
I celebrate hearing: waves pounding, the rain's rhythm, soft voices...
I celebrate touching: toes in the sand, a kitten's soft fur, another person...
I celebrate the sun that shines slab dab in our faces...
I celebrate the crashing thunder and the brazen lightning...
And I celebrate the green of the world...the life-giving green...the hope-giving green...
I celebrate birth: the wonder...the miracle...of that tiny life already asserting its selfhood.
I celebrate children
who laugh out loud
who walk in the mud and dawdle in the puddles
who put chocolate fingers anywhere
who scribble in church
who whisper in loud voices
who sing in louder voices
who run...and laugh when they fall
who cry at the top of their lungs
who cover themselves with bandaids
who squeeze the toothpaste all over the bathroom
who slurp their soup
who chew coughdrops
who ask questions
who give us sticky, paste-covered creations
who want their picture taken
who won't use their napkins
who bury goldfish, sleep with the dog, scream at their best friend
I celebrate children
who are so busy living they don't have time for our hang-ups.
And I celebrate adults who are as little children.
I celebrate the man who breaks up the meaningless routines of his life.
The man who stops to reflect, to question, to doubt.
-- The man who isn't afraid to feel....
The man who refuses to play the game.
I celebrate anger at injustice
I celebrate tears for the mistreated, the hurt, the lonely...
I celebrate the community that cares... the church...
I celebrate the church.
I celebrate the times when we in the church made it...
When we answered a cry
When we held to our warm and well-fed bodies a lonely world.
I celebrate the times when we let God get through to our hiding places
Our pleasant facade...deep down to our selfhood
Deep down to where we really are.
Call it heart, soul, naked self
It's where we hide
Deep down away from God
And away from each other.
When we are Christians
When we are living, loving, contributing God's children...
I celebrate that He calls us His children even when we are in hiding.
I celebrate love...the moments when the You is more important than the I
I celebrate the perfect love...the cross...the Christ
loving in spite of...
giving without reward
I celebrate life...that we may live more abundantly...
Where did we get the idea that balloons don't belong in the church?
Where did we get the idea that God loves gray and Sh-h-h-h-h
And drab and anything will do?
I think it's blasphemy not to appreciate the joy in God's world.
I think it's blasphemy not to bring our joy into His church.
For God so loved the world
That He hung there
What beautiful gift cannot be offered unto the Lord?
Whether it's a balloon or a song or some joy that sits within you waiting to
have the lid taken off.
The Scriptures say there's a time to laugh and a time to weep.
It's not hard to see the reasons for crying in a world where man's hatred for
man is so manifest.
So celebrate!
Bring the torches and hold them high!
Dance your dances, paint your feelings, sing your songs, whistle, laugh.
Life is a celebration, an affirmation of God's love.
Life is distributing more balloons.
For God so loved the world...
Surely that's a cause for Joy.
Surely we should celebrate!
Where did we ever get the idea that balloons don't belong in the church?
I so want to be the child Jesus picks up and holds.
Let’s take a moment of silence to sense the Spirit around us, within us, amongst us.
No comments:
Post a Comment