Filling Our Mugs

 Every morning I get up and fill a mug with coffee without even thinking much about it. What else am I filling my life with, though? This sermon takes a closer look at that and offers a few suggestions.

OK, quiz time! What can cheer you up, inspire you, comfort you, and bring back all kinds of wonderful memories? The answer might be “a close friend” or “a favorite book,” but this morning, the answer I’m going for is “a mug”! Many of us have mugs that we use all the time. The mugs that we like the best fit into our hands like they were made for us. They’re just the right size to fit into the curve of our hand, whether it’s a man-sized mug or one that’s considerably smaller. Before we even pour a hot beverage into that mug, we have been cheered up or inspired by whatever is on the side of that mug. Then we all fill our mugs with our beverage of choice. I’m a coffee person, myself. I wouldn’t even think of starting the day without a cup of hot, freshly-brewed coffee.

We rarely think much about what we use to fill our mugs, though. We’ve got a routine that ticks along like a clock: morning coffee, afternoon tea, and evening cocoa. It’s just part of life that goes on without our thinking about it. But that’s part of the problem that we face today. Just as we fill our mugs without really thinking about it, we fill our lives, too, with all kinds of things without thinking about it. We watch the evening news because we want to keep up on what’s going on, and we hear about wildfires in California, filling us with fear. We scroll through Facebook to catch up on what our friends are doing; and as we do, we see disturbing images of clashes between protesters and armed militia in Portland, filling us with anger. And when we read the headlines on the front page of the Dayton Daily News, they say “Rise in Jobless Claims Reflects Grim Economy,” filling us with despair. I read a recent editorial suggesting that the reason our country is so polarized right now is that, during our time of isolation in this pandemic, we have sat alone, filling ourselves with a continual diet of bad news, disturbing images, political propaganda, and conspiracy theories. No wonder that so many of us are depressed! We’re filling ourselves with poison instead of hot tea with lemon!

But we could be filling ourselves with other things! In his letter to the Philippians, Paul advises, “whatever is true… noble… right… pure… lovely… admirable… if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.” (4:8) If Paul were here today, I’m sure that he wouldn’t tell us to shut our eyes to the situation around us, or to ignore all the injustices that cry out for our attention. But I’m also sure that he would tell us that a steady diet of bad news will corrode us from the inside as surely as acid will eventually destroy the mugs that we love so much; and I’m very sure Paul would tell us that we are far more valuable than our mugs! God tells us something even better. God promises to fill us with the Holy Spirit, who fills us with hope, and energizes and empowers us to meet whatever lies ahead of us. The book of Isaiah frequently uses water in the desert as an image for the living water for which we all yearn. (Isaiah 41:17-18 is a great example.) God assures us that, through Jesus Christ, we have a never-ending supply of that water, even when we are as dry as a bone. Just as we fill our mugs with hot beverages that comfort us physically, God fills our lives with the spiritual comfort of the Holy Spirit so that we can be faithful Christians in this challenging world.

What are you filling your life with right now? That’s a question that we all should be asking ourselves; because life is going to get more difficult before it gets easier. The political season has formally kicked off (although I’m not really sure whether it ever went away), and ads with unsettling images will soon be everywhere; late summer is bringing longer hours of darkness; and winter will soon drive us indoors, many of us into renewed isolation. We all need to care for ourselves with as much concern as we care for others. Instead of reading only the daily newspaper, pick up one of the many editions of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” and read one story a day. Instead of listening only to the evening news, find a sitcom that you like and make a promise to yourself to laugh at least once every day. Instead of randomly scrolling through Facebook, go directly to a page that you want to see – the page of a friend or one of your children – and skip all the unsettling stuff that you really don’t need to see.

Ecclesiastes, a text that is a complicated mix of cynicism, optimism, despair, and hope, says this: “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart” (9:7a). I am bold to say that if the author were alive today, he might well say, “Go, fill your mug – and your life – with joy, faith, and laughter.” It’s good advice for any time.