Faith on the Go

We all take time daily to pray and meditate, right? Hmmm.... maybe not. I'm not even able to do that, and I'm a "professional" Christian! This sermon is for those of you who, like me, don't always have time to stop and pray. I hope that it helps you connect with God more often!

Before I share my thoughts with you this morning, I want you to think about a couple of questions. Do you have a busy life right now? If you don’t have a busy life right now, have you had a busy life sometime in the past? Finally, have you ever experienced a time when life seemed absolutely out of control, even if it was only for a few days? I imagine that all of us can say “yes” to at least one of those questions! We all try to live lives that are manageable most of the time; but the reality is that many of us are very busy people. And if we’re not busy right now, we probably have been at one time or another. We all know what it feels like to be overwhelmed with too much to do, and not enough time to do it. One of my friends calls it “trying to stuff 10 pounds of bologna into a 5 pound bag.” It’s just not very much fun! And when we have too much to handle, some well-meaning friend usually says, “You need to take some time for yourself. Relax a little bit!” Yeah, right. That advice sounds good; but we all know that there are times when we have to run as fast as we can just to stay in the same place. Sometimes relaxation is a luxury that we just can’t afford.

My life is frequently like that. I remember when I was finishing my seminary studies and serving a congregation as their student pastor at the same time. “Free time,” as far as I was concerned, was just an entry in the dictionary! I was also seeking ordination as clergy in the United Church of Christ. One of the requirements for ordination is to participate in an “ecclesiastical council.” That’s a fancy name for an oral exam. Anyone and everyone who is a church member or a pastor in our area are invited to attend and to ask the candidate questions about anything and everything! At my ecclesiastical council, I presented a short worship service, complete with a sermon; and then the questions began. Some of them pertained to subjects that I had encountered in seminary. Others asked about my understanding of the Christian church in general, or of the UCC in particular. I had no problem with any of them, and I started to think that I was home free. But then, one of my colleagues asked me, “How much quiet time to you take for prayer each day?” I imagine that I looked like a deer in the headlights. Quiet time? My only quiet time was when I was in the shower and it drowned out the noise of my daughters yelling for me! I remember stammering that most of my quiet time was when I was by myself – while driving in my car or enjoying a walk outside. That varied from day to day. Much of my prayer was done on the go. My colleague didn’t like that answer. Obviously, it was important for her to find time every single day to sit down somewhere quiet for prayer and meditation. Now, I certainly respect that! But it reminded me of Martin Luther’s comment that he prayed for an hour every day; and that when he was really busy, he prayed for two hours. Good for you, Martin Luther, but get real!

That ecclesiastical council took place almost 10 years ago; and as I have lived in ministry for those 10 years, I have become more and more comfortable with both her question and with my answer. Is it important to take time for prayer and meditation? Of course, it is! But can we do that on a schedule at the same time every day, with nothing ever interfering with it? Probably not. I know that I can’t do it. So, today, I’m not going to offer tips about how to make time to pray and meditate. That’s another sermon. No, today I’m going to think about how we can connect with God when we can’t make that time. If any of you have your lives under control, and nothing unexpected ever comes up, you can take a nap right now. The rest of you might want to listen in.

First of all, it’s important to remember that Jesus knows exactly what our lives are like. Other people may judge us for not having time to sit down and meditate; but Jesus doesn’t. The scripture reading that we just heard (Mark 6:30-34, 53-56) reassures us of that. Twice in that reading, Jesus is overwhelmed with needy folks who want to hear what he has to say and to be healed of diseases. Twice Jesus tries to escape with his disciples; and both times, the crowds follow him. He couldn’t get away, either! I can just imagine Peter saying to Jesus, “Lord, we’ve been at this all day, and my stomach is growling. I know of this great little falafel stand just on the other side of the lake. Their pita bread is to die for; and they serve all-you-can-eat fresh caught fish and chips! Why don’t we go over there for dinner and toss back a couple of brewskis?” But they never enjoyed that great food. When they arrived, there were so many people waiting for them that they couldn’t even get to the drive-up window! We know that Jesus took care of all their needs; but do you suppose that he secretly rolled his eyes, heaved a huge sigh, and said, “Can’t I even get a bite to eat?” Oh, yes, Jesus knows how we feel very well.

Remember, too, that as we run through our busy lives, Jesus runs right along with us. Some folks seem to think that Jesus sits in a heavenly recliner waiting for us to find the time to sit down next to him. But the Jesus that I know wears track shoes and running shorts! Oh, we’re always encouraged to find time to join Jesus in that recliner. But on the days that we don’t have the time, Jesus runs right along with us. Some of you may have heard the name Malcom Boyd. He wrote a book of prayers in 1965 with the title, “Are You Running with Me, Jesus?” That book was full of prayers for people on the go – conversational prayers that talked with Jesus like a friend. It was way ahead of its time. Back in 1965, “prayer” meant sitting down quietly, bowing your head, and folding your hands. Boyd was one of the first to realize that sometimes, we just can’t do that.

Here is the very first prayer in the book.

“It’s morning, Jesus. It’s morning, and here’s that light and sound all over again. I’ve got to move fast… get into the bathroom, wash up, grab a bite to eat, and run some more. I just don’t feel like it. What I really want to do is to get back into bed, pull up the covers, and sleep. All I seem to want today is to sleep, and here I’ve got to run all over again. Where am I running? You know these things I can’t understand. It’s not that I need to have you tell me. What counts most is just that somebody knows, and it’s you. That helps a lot. So I’ll follow along, OK? But lead, please. Now I’ve got to run. Are you running with me, Jesus?”

Malcom Boyd was on to something! We don’t always have to pray like we pray here in church. Oh, I know – the prayers of the people that I offer are always carefully written in churchy language. But prayers don’t have to be that at all! If you’re stuck in traffic and some nitwit is honking at your back bumper, you can pray, “Help me keep my cool, Jesus!” If you’re waiting in a doctor’s office, you can pray for your own health, or for someone else. And certainly the evening news will bring up all kinds of things to pray about. Sometimes when I’m especially troubled by the news, I simply pray, “Lord, have mercy!” God knows what I mean.

The easiest prayer of all doesn’t even use words. It’s simply being aware of your breath as it first fills your lungs, and then mingles again with the air around you. After all, the Hebrew word ruach that means “breath” also means “wind” and “spirit”! Feel the ruach as it fills you; and then feel it as it goes out of your body into the world. Your breath… the Spirit of God… is filling you over and over and over again. Just being aware of the presence of God in you and around you is a powerful prayer in itself; and no words are even necessary!

Connecting with God shouldn’t be something reserved for Sunday morning or for midweek Bible study. Being aware of the presence of Jesus with us and responding to that presence is something that we can do no matter how busy our days are. I’m going to end my sermon today is with another prayer by Malcom Boyd, this one for the end of an especially busy, worrisome day:

“I’m exhausted, Jesus, but sleep won’t come. My brain keeps whirring with thoughts, and it won’t turn off. I have to get up early in the morning, and I’m desperate for a good night’s sleep. I keep telling myself to quiet down and drop off, but it just won’t work. The night is going to slip away and pretty soon the light will come and I’ll be dead tired. I’m worried, and I can’t let go. So many things are on my mind. What’s going to happen, Jesus? What’s going to happen? Help me to stop asking. Bless my sleep. Let me sleep. Help me to sleep. And then wake me up when the light comes, will you; and let me be refreshed in your strength.”

Amen to that.

Building Projects

Have you ever thought of yourself as a construction project? This sermon, which was written for Graduation Sunday, considers all of us as just that. If you choose to read it, maybe you'll decide the comparison isn't so far-fetched after all!

I invite you to take a journey with me this morning to the land of Israel – a land rich with history that has been inhabited for thousands of years. As we stand in the countryside, we see that the landscape is dotted with small, flat-topped hills. Each one is silent evidence that a city once flourished at that location. We’re going to explore the interior of one such hill, a large one that sits where two ancient trade routes crossed. During the four thousand years of its existence, that hill has watched civilizations rise and fall.

On the very top, a Roman structure tells us that a garrison of troops was once quartered there. Its remains are businesslike, constructed of sturdy masonry blocks, typical of Roman efficiency. But its military days are long past. Beneath the Roman ruins lies a city from the Iron Age, perhaps one from the glorious days of Solomon. The city is well-planned, and its buildings are large for their day. In the far corner of one such building, we find storage jars, still intact after almost three thousand years. Someone was careful to make sure that provisions were stored well. Deeper still is a layer that yields very little. We find only a grinding stone, a small oven, some pottery fragments, and a circle of stones that may have braced a tent support. Perhaps this was once the home of wandering nomads like Abraham. By the time that we reach the lowest level, we have travelled more than four thousand years into the past. We are all the way back in the Bronze Age, before the technology needed to produce iron had been discovered. But even here we find evidence of habitation! We uncover a massive building, at least two stories tall, that might have been a palace or a temple. Built of mud brick on a stone foundation, it was built to last for generations.

But now, that building lies in ruins. All of it has been destroyed: intentionally leveled and then burned. The building blocks of mud brick have been toppled from their foundations. They rest at odd angles that no builder ever intended for them. Even the foundations have been torn apart. The building stones that once were carefully arranged to support the structure are now in disarray, scattered over the whole area like huge grey marbles. Over in that corner, we find lumps of charcoal among the foundation stones. Was it once furniture that was burned up in the destruction; or maybe even wooden beams that formed the skeleton of the building? And over here we uncover a bowl. Delicate and white with amber decoration, it was once a thing of beauty; but now it lies shattered and useless. It’s a bit of a surprise to find a disorganized ruin at the bottom of such a big hill! How can a place that has been occupied for such a long time sit on a foundation like this? And yet, here it is. This place that has lasted for over four thousand years is built on ruins.

Nowadays, we don’t much build on ruins. We aren’t like the people of ancient civilizations who rebuilt on the foundation of what existed before them. We would much rather erase the remains of the past. We might take a few mementoes, but then we get out the bulldozer and tear everything down. We get rid of all the mess and smooth out the ground so that we can build on a clean site. We like to think that we are getting rid of all the old stuff and starting all over again from scratch. But we never really start over again from scratch, do we? Our ruins may be physically gone, but the past is always a part of us. We can demolish old buildings and cart away the waste, but we can never get rid of the effect that the past has left on us. It has been stamped on us like the imprint of a cookie cutter in a sheet of dough. After all, we’ve experienced the past. We’ve worked in it and played in it; we’ve laughed in it and cried in it. For better or for worse, the past has made us who we are. We may get rid of our ruins, but we can’t erase our experiences from our lives. That’s a good thing to remember on this Sunday that we celebrate our graduates.

Now, graduates, I want to talk to you for just a minute. You are making a new start in your life, in bigger or smaller ways. You’re getting ready to go off to college; or you’re looking for a job. (Maybe you’re doing both!) Pretty soon you’ll be participating in new activities, and learning all kinds of new things! I’m willing to bet that somewhere along the way, somebody will tell you that you’re starting all over from scratch. But you’re not; not really. You’re carrying with you all the experiences that you’ve ever had in your life – the bad ones as well as the good ones. Whether you like it or not, that’s your foundation. And it can be a good foundation if you build on it properly! But that’s the question, isn’t it? How can you build on it properly?

Maybe we can start to answer that question by taking another journey. This time, though, we’re not going to Israel. We’re just going down the road. And we’re not going back into the past; we’re travelling into the future. Let’s travel to a cornfield about three months from now. I want you to imagine that you’re standing right in the middle of that field of corn. Look around you. The cornstalks are tall and green, each one bursting with fat ears of corn. As the wind blows through the field, the leaves rustle like music. The sun is warm on your head, and the earth is moist beneath your feet from a recent rain. The corn seeds that were planted in the spring have had everything that they needed to grow into tall and productive plants. They have been protected from weeds and insects and fertilized with care. But how did that corn grow? Oh, sure, someone planted it and took good care of it. But it grew all by itself. Well… it didn’t really grow all by itself. It grew with God’s help. We all know that once we plant a seed, we can’t make it grow. Only God can do that. The seeds sprout, and the seedlings break through the soil, the stalks grow tall, and the ears appear without any action on our part! We can help the corn to grow better; but we can’t make it grow in the first place. That’s God’s business.

God builds on the foundations of our lives in just the same way. God doesn’t tear us down and start all over again. God uses what we have experienced as a foundation to build us into strong buildings that can be used for all kinds of things! God slowly, carefully, and lovingly adjusts us, one brick at a time – a wall here, a window there, and maybe even a patio outside – so that our lives are well built. And that’s true whether we’re recent graduates, middle-agers, or seasoned oldsters. Whether our past lives have been easy or difficult, God builds on those foundations to help make us better. Even if our lives have been a mess, God can build on that! But just like the growing corn, it’s a slow process. God doesn’t have any deadlines for finishing our lives! God never hangs a sign on us that says, “Completion date is expected to be…” In fact, we’re never really finished, are we? God takes all the time that he needs to build us into people who reflect the image of Christ, and are a part of the Kingdom of God.

Parents, now I want to talk to you for just a minute. In just a little while, you’re going to let go of your graduate. Your job as a parent is about to change. You’ve helped to build a foundation, and you’ve done your best to make sure that it’s solid and strong. You’ve steered and guided and admonished and cajoled and encouraged. Now it’s time to let God take over. Oh, you’ll still be watching over that graduate as best you can! But the construction is in God’s hands now. Don’t be impatient if you don’t see results right away. Remember how slowly the corn grows? And the final product – what your child grows up to be, the vocation that he or she chooses, and what his or her life eventually produces – that’s up to God. And we know that God never gives up on us, regardless of what happens to us during our lives.

So, rejoice, graduates! You’re beginning a new chapter in your lives! Rejoice, parents! You’ve done a good job, and now it’s time to celebrate that fact! And rejoice, everyone here this morning! We’re all still under construction, building projects that God has begun and will surely complete one day! What wonderful reasons to celebrate!

But Wait... There's More!

This past Sunday was Trinity Sunday, the day when we emphasize the three persons of God. But what does that mean, anyway? I have tried to explain the Trinity in a creative way in this sermon. I hope that it is helpful to you!

I get a lot of laughter out of the sales pitches on TV. All the products are “must have” items: air purifiers to help us sleep better, gadgets that fix flat tires, and scissors that will cut through a penny. Our lives would be incomplete without them! Besides, they’re such a good deal – only a modest price (plus a small shipping and handling fee). And as those ads go along, the deals get better and better! Why, along with that food processor that already slices and dices, they’ll throw in a shredding blade at no additional charge! But wait… there’s more! If we call in the next 15 minutes, we’ll get a cookbook that’s guaranteed to help us make meals that our families will rave about! No, there’s nothing like TV ads for some amusement.

Now, what might a pastor do if she decided to preach a sermon in the style of those TV ads? What might that preacher say that would get the listeners interested in connecting with God? It’s an interesting idea, isn’t it? I think that it might sound something like this. “Is your life was going nowhere? Do you feel lost and alone? Do you feel like nobody cares about you? Ouch! That’s a terrible feeling! Well, I want to tell you how you can avoid that feeling. The one who can do it is God – yes, God: the very One who created everything in the universe, and who created you, too! God is interested in you, whoever you are! God wants you to know him better, too! Just bow your head and say a prayer! That’s all it takes. And there’s no cost or obligation to this offer. But wait… there’s more! If you pray right now, you’ll get a relationship with Jesus absolutely free! God came to us as a human being in Jesus. With him at your side, God isn’t just Big Daddy; God is your brother, too! And that’s not all! If you pray in the next 15 minutes, you’ll receive the Holy Spirit, and you’ll be filled with joy and love! We’ll even give you, at no additional cost, prayers for all occasions, from thanksgiving on the mornings that you wake up feeling great, to prayers for peace on the nights that you’re having trouble sleeping. Why, with God on your side, Jesus as your friend, and the Holy Spirit as your power source, you’ll be ready for anything! Why not bow your head and pray right now?”

So, what do you think? Will it make it onto the USA network sometime between 2 and 4 in the morning? Probably not. I don’t think that this is really the best way to get people interested in hearing about God. But I do think that these TV salespeople are on to something when they say, “But wait… there’s more!” In the case of the TV ads, it’s a gimmick to sell products that aren’t really as useful as they claim to be. But in the case of God, it’s the truth. There is always more to God than we realize! And no day in the church year is more appropriate for considering that reality than today, Trinity Sunday. Trinity Sunday follows Pentecost; and it’s one of the few days in the Christian year that celebrates something other than an event in the life of Jesus. Trinity Sunday shines the spotlight on an aspect of God that we don’t much think about – the fact that God works in different ways at different times. The early church was so struck by this fact that it came up with the doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity says that God the Creator, Jesus the human being, and the Holy Spirit are different forms of the same essence, like steam and water and ice. Those three things are all H2O, but they are in different forms, and they do different things. I hope that you never try to cool down your lemonade with steam! Ice cubes are much better at doing that. But swimming in ice isn’t such a good idea, even you’re a member of the Polar Bear Club. Liquid water is much better for that. Steam, water, and ice are different forms of H2O, just like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are different forms of God’s essence.

The Trinity is a tough idea to live with, though. All of us are more comfortable with one person of the Trinity than with the others. Many Christians love Jesus with a passion and think of him as a brother; but they tend to forget about the sovereignty and majesty of God the Creator. Others get stuck on the grandeur of God the Creator as seen in the heavens; and forget about the intimacy of the Spirit that fills us like our breath. And Pentecostals emphasize the Spirit, sometimes to the point of forgetting that there even is God the Creator!

That’s what happened to Nicodemus in the reading from the gospel of John that we heard this morning (John 3:1-17). It is so familiar that it’s easy to concentrate on Jesus in that text and entirely miss God and the Spirit! But they’re all in there. Nicodemus is a highly educated Jewish rabbi; and he’s completely stuck on God. He can’t see Jesus as more than a young man who might offer him a good theological conversation. And he certainly doesn’t get it when Jesus tells him that he must be born “from above” (an equally good translation of the phrase that we usually translate as “born again”). Of course, Jesus is referring to the workings of the Holy Spirit; and Nicodemus misses the point entirely. We’re not all that different from Nicodemus. We are all set in the way that we imagine God: powerful Creator, loving Friend, or empowering Spirit. We all have one that we like better than the others. But wait… there’s more! God is always more than we imagine him to be! We can see that if we look through the Bible for the images that are used for God. There are a lot more than you probably imagine in both the Old and New Testaments. Here are just a few that pop up in the pages of scripture.

The Creator God is like a father. We’re all familiar with that image. But God is also like a mother hen who protects her chicks under her wings. God is like a solid, dependable rock; but God is also like a cloud that wafts silently overhead. And God is sometimes like a fire, a mighty wind, a storm, and even like a still, small voice. What about Jesus? He described himself in all kinds of ways! Jesus said that he is like a shepherd who cares for his sheep. But he’s also the gate to the sheepfold, the way to a place of safety. He’s the bread of life, living water, and the vine that connects us to God. He’s certainly the sacrificed lamb, but he’s also the victorious conqueror on a white horse. And when we talk about the Spirit, the images really challenge us! The Spirit is a fire that motivates us, a wind that blows away the old and unusable, and the breath that fills us. The Spirit is the one who comforts us, like a close friend; the one who reminds us of what Jesus has said, like a string around our finger; and the source of our power, like an Energizer battery.

How do you suppose that the Bible would describe the persons of the Trinity in today’s world? Well, we could compare the Spirit to the internet. After all, Jesus said that the Spirit would reveal all things to his followers at the right time. That’s why I often wear a stole that says “God is still speaking.” (Fortunately, though, the Spirit is a lot more trustworthy than the internet!) Jesus might be like an antibiotic: he can help to heal us of whatever is hurting us. The kind of antibiotic and the dose is customized to each person, of course; but he’s got all our ailments covered! And God the creator might be compared to a Hazmat suit! A Hazmat suit protects the one who wears it from all the toxic materials that are around, like God can keep us safe from the poisons in our modern culture.

God is so much more than we expect or even imagine! But then, God is… God. We can’t put God in a box and say that God is only this or that or something else. Where God is concerned, we humans are like the blind men who tried to describe an elephant. God can be like a wall, a spear, a rope, or a fan; and it all depends on which part of God you encounter.

On this Trinity Sunday, I invite you to let your mind and your heart out of the box. Encounter the God who comes to us in many forms. God is not one, but three; and each of those three is something beyond our wildest dreams! If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, just wait… there’s more! There’s always more where God is concerned.