A Time for Everything

What gifts has God given you throughout your life? At every stage of our lives, God offers us gifts; and I believe that they are more valuable than all the physical comforts on which we frequently focus when we count our blessings. I list 5 of them in this sermon. Curious? Read it and find out which 5 I have identified!

Has anybody here ever said, “I wish that I were younger,” or “I wish that I were older”? I’ll confess that I have! When I was a child, I couldn’t wait to get older so that I could do the things that my parents said I would be able to do “when I was older.” Then I became a teenager, and I couldn’t wait to grow into an adult so that I would have the freedom to do what I wanted to do. When I was a young adult, I wanted to be older so that I would have the money to do all those things that I wanted to do, but couldn’t afford yet. Now that I’m a – well, let’s call it a “mature adult” – I’m looking forward to retiring so that I have the time to do all those things that I still want to do. And I imagine that when I’m an older adult, I will yearn for the carefree days of youth when I had the energy to do all those things that I want to do! Does this sound familiar to any of you? I imagine that it does. But if we spend our lives yearning for a time in the future or a time in the past, we risk missing what we have right now! The text from Ecclesiastes that you just heard (3:1-8) can be a wake-up call when we start yearning for what was or for what might be. God in God’s wisdom, says Ecclesiastes, has appointed a time for everything. But what happens, I think, is that we start to focus on what we don’t have – freedom, money, time, or energy – and we miss the gifts that God offers us in each period of our lives. And there are gifts that come to us as we move through our lives. For a moment, let’s focus not on the limitations of our lives, but on the blessings.

For starters, God gives to each child the gift of enthusiasm. Have you ever watched a child running towards a playground to swing or slide or climb on the monkey bars? Sure, you have; we all have! I have yet to see a child at a playground exclaiming, “Bor-ring!” No, they head for the slide like we head for the bank when we deposit our income tax refund! And if children are doing something that they enjoy, they are enthusiastic no matter how many times they have done it! My grandson Tanner loves to go to the Newport Aquarium. We have yearly passes to the Aquarium, so we go frequently. Each time we go, he exclaims, “I can’t wait to walk through the tunnel and see the sharks!” What a gift that enthusiasm is, not only to him, but to all of us who are with him.

To young adults, God has given the gift of optimism. Most young people see the world as their oyster; and they can’t wait to get at life! They are convinced that they can change the world for the better if they only work hard enough; and thank God for that! We need those young adults to remind us that we have the power to affect things! I’ll bet that you’ve never heard a pessimistic college graduation speech! Why, as you look out over the sea of mortar boards, the optimism is so deep that you can practically swim in it! In his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, Steve Jobs told the graduates this: “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” That’s optimism in a nutshell. You can do it; and you will do it!

Of course, we don’t stay young forever. But as we age, we perfect a set of skills. We learn how to do all kinds of things well! Let’s call it the gift of proficiency. Some of us learn how to craft wood, while others learn how to craft words into books or sermons. Some of us learn how to manage a household, while others learn how to manage an office. Some of us learn how to tame kindergarteners, while others learn how to tame columns of figures. And every single one of those skills, as well as all the others in our skill set, is a gift of God! Although it may take us years to perfect them (and let’s not compare ourselves to Mozart, who was composing music at the age of 5), they are gifts that we can use for the good of others and for our own satisfaction.

As we move through adulthood, we come to what I call the “slow-down years.” I’m there now. We’re still using our skills – and by now, we have quite a few – but we’re not moving quite as quickly as we once were. Some folks are looking towards retirement and the slower pace that it can bring. We start to notice aches and pains that we didn’t seem to have last week; and we can’t get as much accomplished in a day as we used to. But a gift comes with all that – the gift of courage. Oh, it’s not the kind of courage that we see on TV, where people face criminals or even zombies! No, this is the courage to live day in and day out in the face of difficulties. And by the slow-down years, we’ve all had quite a few! We’ve said goodbye to friends or family members. We’ve dealt with financial problems, or with jobs that are less than ideal. We may be living with continuing health problems – our own or that of a family member. But through it all, we have learned how to stand up to a life that is frequently unfair, to look it in the eye, and to say to its face, “I will not give up!” Do you remember the movie Rocky? Do you remember what Rocky looked like after he had fought with Apollo Creed? He was battered and bloodied, eyes blackened, with bruises everywhere – and he refused to give up. That’s the kind of courage that I’m talking about – the courage that refuses to give up no matter what happens.

Finally, we come to the “golden years” (although I’m not so sure that they are always golden). It’s the time when we’re called “elderly,” or sometimes simply “older.” I choose to call them “the culmination years,” because they are the result of all that has happened to us during the rest of our lives. What gift could those years possibly bring? While society’s gifts to older adults come in the form of hearing aids and bifocals and Meals on Wheels; God offers a much more valuable gift. God offers wisdom. Now, anyone can accumulate knowledge. But wisdom is not only having knowledge; it is understanding how to apply that knowledge. Wisdom is only acquired by living many years and experiencing all kinds of different things. Wisdom listens patiently and lovingly to a distraught teenager who has just been rejected from her college of choice and who thinks the world is about to end. Wisdom mentors a young man who is just getting his feet wet in his new job, and isn’t quite sure how to get along with his co-workers. Wisdom not only knows what to say; wisdom knows when and how to say it. And the wisest among us are the older adults who have lived and learned and listened: to others, to their own inner voices, and to God.

Now, life isn’t the same for all of us, of course; and so, not all of us will live out these stages quite in the same way. We are all unique individuals. We were all brought up in different ways; we have all had different life experiences; and we all live in different environments. But we all face the same quandary: how to progress through our lives not only accepting the new gifts that God offers us, but also holding on to the gifts that we have already been given! We all know people who have lost their childlike enthusiasm for life. Their life drags on with terrible sameness, one grim, grey day after another. Nothing, for them, is exciting enough to care about. And certainly we know people who have lost the optimism of their youth! The world is beyond redemption; it’s going to hell in a handbasket. Just ask them; they’ll tell you! The fullness of life that God offers us is the integration of all the gifts that we receive during our lives: enthusiasm, optimism, proficiency, courage, and wisdom.

But how in the world can we do that? The answer is that we have to help one another. When older and younger come together in community, they offer one another their gifts. The enthusiasm of childhood is contagious, and those of us who are older can reclaim it. The optimism of youth reminds us that God has promised to work with us in making the world a better place; and that Jesus has already redeemed it. The courage and wisdom of older adults can a model for younger folks who are facing new experiences in their lives. And all of us can use our skills to make the world a more peaceful and fulfilling place.

God gives us amazing gifts during our lives; far more than the physical comforts that we so often focus on. Jesus has redeemed us and continues to redeem us from all the traps that would keep us from being less than what God created us to be. And the Spirit fills us and guides us and empowers us to live life joyfully, creatively, and lovingly. Yes, there is a time for everything. May we accept God’s gifts with gratitude, and move ahead into the future with anticipation. The best may, indeed, be yet to come!

Shoo!

Since this was Pentecost Sunday, my sermon focused on that story in Acts 2. But it also focused on the story of Babel in Genesis 11. Do the two stories have anything in common? Oh, my, yes! Read my sermon and find out how!

We don’t usually think of God as scattering people apart. In fact, most of the stories that we know show God bringing them together! God brought a group of slaves out of Egypt and formed them into a people who would all live together in one place, the Promised Land. When Judah was conquered and its people dragged off to exile in Babylon, God brought them back home to live together again. And Jesus called his disciples to live together with him during his public ministry so that they could learn from his teaching and his example. But in these two stories, God does something very different. God arranges for people to be scattered, first away from the city of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), and then from Jerusalem after Pentecost (Acts 2:1-12). These two stories are like bookends. The first is a very ancient story; while the second, from several thousand years later, reflects the first one.

Most people know the story of the tower of Babel. In ancient times, people settled in a green, fertile plain between the Tigress and the Euphrates Rivers. Genesis calls that place Shinar, an old name for the area that is now southern Iraq. They put their heads together, and they figured out how to make bricks and mortar – a new technology for that age. They decided that they would use their new technology to make a great situation even better. With those bricks, they planned to build a tower that went all the way to heaven, so that they would be like gods and be able to control their own destiny. But in God’s opinion, that was a very bad idea. They were like toddlers playing with power tools! Nothing good can come of that! So one morning when Isaac said, “Good morning”, his friend Jacques heard “Shalom! Boker tov.” (That’s Hebrew, by the way.) When Jacques replied, “How are you today?” Isaac heard “Comment allez-vous aujourd'hui?” (And that’s French!) And when Jacques sneezed, Hans responded, “Gesundheit!” (I hope you know that’s German.) Nobody could understand anybody else; and things went quickly downhill from there. Fights broke out and fists went flying. In the end, the people took their new languages and scattered all over the face of the earth; which was exactly what God wanted them to do. They had become too comfortable in that green, fertile plain; and they simply got too big for their britches. So God said, “Shoo!” and sent them packing.

Now compare the story of Babel with the story of Pentecost. Pentecost is Babel held up to a mirror and reversed. Instead of beginning with a group of people who all speak the same language, it starts with a Jews who have gathered from “every nation under heaven… Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Libya, visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs.” If we looked on an ancient map, we would see that those places comprise the majority of the Roman Empire – the entire known world at that time! Pentecost picks up where the story of Babel left off. Although all those Jews are gathered to celebrate one religious festival, they speak in a variety of languages. And what does God do with the coming of the Spirit? God enables the apostles to speak in every one of those languages so that all those foreigners can hear the story of Jesus Christ. When they return to their own homes, the story will go with them! Eventually, the apostles were scattered, too, to tell the story of Jesus Christ wherever they went. Paul started churches in Greece; Peter travelled to Rome; and Thomas – “Doubting Thomas” – went all the way to India spreading the Gospel. All that traveling – all that scattering – begun by the Holy Spirit who was poured out on Pentecost.

Now, we don’t much like being scattered. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather stay in a green, fertile plain where life is easy than move to a strange place where I’ll have to learn a new language and new ways of doing things.  I like to rub elbows with folks who look and sound and act just like I do; and most people feel the same way. (Why do you think that the idea of building a wall between our country and Mexico is so popular?) We want things to stay the way they are now, and live with people who are just like we are. But I assume that God is pretty much of the same opinion as God was at Babel and at Pentecost. God doesn’t want us to stick together in safe little clusters where everybody thinks alike and talks alike. God wants us to go out and mix it up with people who DON’T think just like we do! God says, “Shoo!” and sends us to Mobile, Alabama, and Oklahoma City, and Brazil, and Nairobi. God scatters us to tell the story of Jesus Christ so that, in the end, all humanity will be brought together worshiping one God through the power of the Holy Spirit. So, when our worship this morning is finished, shoo! Go out and meet other folks. Hear their stories and listen to their concerns. And the power of the Spirit will give you the words to tell them the good news of the gospel. Shoo! Go celebrate Pentecost!

Do You See This Woman?

On Sunday, we celebrated Gifts of Women Sunday in my congregation. All the liturgy was written by women, all the hymns were written by women, and this sermon lifted up women who are stereotyped, misunderstood or ignored. Do you see these women?

It sounds like a rhetorical question when Jesus asks it of Simon, the Pharisee. “Do you see this woman?” (Luke 7:36-50) Of course, Simon sees her. Everybody sees her! She has crashed the dinner party that Simon threw in Jesus’ honor; and now she is kneeling in front of Jesus, weeping and wiping his feet with her hair. She has even broken open a bottle of expensive perfume, and the whole house is filled with its intoxicating fragrance. Everybody sees her; and everybody knows that she’s the town floozy. She is as out of place among these people as cheap plastic earrings are next to a diamond necklace. Of course, Simon sees her. How could he miss her?

But Jesus isn’t asking a rhetorical question when he asks “Do you see this woman?” He’s asking a real question. And in fact, the truth is that Simon doesn’t see her at all. All he sees is the stereotype of the cheap woman. He looks at her short skirt, her low-cut blouse, her fishnet stockings, and her stiletto heels. He looks at her cheap jewelry and her layers of make-up; and all he sees is a commodity – a woman who can be bought for the right amount of money. But Jesus sees something very different. Jesus sees a woman who has no way to make a living other than selling herself; and who hates herself for doing it. Jesus sees a generous, compassionate woman who has been used and abused. Jesus sees the gifts that she has to give that are hidden by the stereotype. So when Jesus asks Simon, “Do you see this woman?” the question is real. “Do you see this woman, Simon” or do you only see what you want to see?”

Jesus asks the very same question to all of us. “Do you see this woman?” The reality is that we are surrounded by all kinds of women; and while we may look at them, many times we don’t really see them. We never get past the labels that people put on them or underneath the stereotypes. What would happen if we did that? Join me on a busy city street. Pick up your camera, point it at random down the street, and click a snapshot. Who did we catch in our photo? Three women claim our attention. One of them, young and shabby, is carrying a bag of groceries from the food pantry down the block. Next to her is a woman dressed in a business suit and carrying a leather briefcase. And across the street, an elderly woman is steadying herself on the arm of a younger man. What do we assume when we take a look at each of them; and what do we find when we really see them?

Let’s begin with the young woman. She looks like she doesn’t have much going for her. Her jeans are ripped and her tee shirt has seen better days. Her hair is unkempt and the soles of her shoes have been worn thin. She appears to be very familiar with the food pantry. We might assume that she is a “welfare mom,” someone who works the system because she is too lazy to work or not smart enough to hold down a job. But when we look beyond the stereotype, we find something unexpected. This young woman is an Army veteran. She is intelligent and organized. During her deployment in the Middle East, she rose rapidly through the ranks, and was an invaluable asset to her company. She has returned with a Purple Heart and an honorable discharge – and with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She has been employed several times since then, but the PTSD has made it difficult to hold down a job. She is still waiting to begin treatment at the VA. Do you see this woman?

Now let’s move to the well-dressed woman with the briefcase. She looks like she has her life in order! Everything about her screams “professional.” She wears a Rolex watch on the arm that carries the leather briefcase, and she is glancing at it as she walks. She must have a business appointment to keep. Perhaps she is a corporate lawyer with clients in Hong Kong or Geneva! We can’t help envying her life; she looks like she could do anything that she wants. We’re right about some things. She is indeed a well-paid lawyer. What we don’t see, though, is the reason she keeps glancing at her watch. She has an appointment with a fertility specialist. Our lawyer wants a child more than anything else in the world; and all her money can’t buy her that. And she would make a wonderful mother! She has the gifts of patience and creativity, and a real love for children. But so far, none of the medical procedures that she has tried have worked. And so she avoids places where she will be forced to mingle with mothers like family restaurants and amusement parks. On Mother’s Day, she will hide herself away until the painful day is over. Do you see this woman?

And what about the elderly woman on the arm of the younger man? What do we see when we look at her? Some people will see nothing but an outdated burden. She has just come out of the doctor’s office on one of her many regular visits. At least she is able to be out and about. Many of the women at the assisted living facility where she lives can’t even do that. She is comfortable there; and her family visits her at least once a week, sometimes more. But she feels useless. She was an art teacher during her long life, and she loved interacting with children as they worked on their own creations. She was a great listener; enthusiastic about what the children said, and always ready to suggest how they could make their art more fully their own. But there are no children where she lives now. She isn’t needed to help other residents create art; there is an activities director who does that. And there is no place for finger paints or modeling clay or watercolors at her residence. She would love to share her gifts, but it doesn’t seem likely that she will ever be able to do that again. Do you see this woman?

All women – indeed, all people – have gifts that they want to be able to use. Those gifts are a part of us, a part of our identity as children of God. But all too often, those gifts never come to light; because other people can’t get past appearances and stereotypes. We as the church are called to use our gifts in order to be fulfilled as the unique creations that we are; and to help others use their gifts, too. We are called to look past appearances. Jesus is asking each one of us right now, “Do you see this woman” – this one and that one and all the others? Will you look beyond appearances to see their reality? My prayer is that today your answer will be “Yes!”

I am indebted to Martin B. Copenhaver for the idea for this sermon, which was sparked by a sermon that he preached at the General Synod of the United Church of Christ in Long Beach, California in 2013. It is also considered in a chapter of his book "Jesus Is the Question" (Abingdon Press, 2014).