Sermon For September 26, 1999
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
HEBREW TESTAMENT: “Water in an Unexpected Place” ~ Exodus 17:1-7
CHRISTIAN GOSPEL: “Uncomfortable Questions” ~ Matthew 21:23-32
How many of you are tired of all of the advertising on television? Ads over and over and over again? I think that the people creating the ads know something that we don’t know. In order for something to sink in, we have to hear it over and over again. I came face to face with this issue with the last congregation that I served. We were trying to get more people to come to the church. We had a huge building debt and a relatively small congregation. People were getting worn out financially, physically, emotionally and every which way. We were trying to spread the word about our church, to let the people in the community know about what we were doing, to encourage them to show up and join us in our efforts. One of the guys on the Board worked for an office supply store. He said, “Advertisers will tell you, before a message finally hits home, people have to hear it at least seven times.” And maybe much more than that. To put up one billboard, to sent out one mass mailed postcard, to give one phone call to someone, to make one invitation, probably is not going to work. It won’t register. They will be watching a bird fly by. Their ears won’t be working well that day. They will have some worry that’s taking up all of their energy. That one message that you hoped would hit home, goes right on by. The advertisers know that if they want you to buy their product, you need to hear about it again and again and again. You might not enjoy it but they enjoy it when you go into the store and put your money down on the counter and buy the product they wanted you to buy. I have to personally confess that I don’t watch a whole lot of television any more. But when I do watch television I usually enjoy the commercials more than the programs. The commercials are often done much better, some of you might say it’s just my short attention span, than the programs because the advertisers don’t want to entertain you. They want you to buy. They will do everything in their power to create an image for their product to convince you to go out and buy.
The stories that are passed down from our Israelite brothers and sisters demonstrate that Moses needed to know a little bit more about advertising. It is very clear that the message about God’s love for all people, the dependability of God, is not sinking in. Here we have a group of people who have lived in bondage for over 400 years in Egypt. Moses and Aaron come down and challenge the Pharaoh. God helps them carry out a string of ten plagues. After the plagues, Pharaoh finally lets them go, now they are coming to that Sea of Reeds, the Red Sea. Pharaoh’s army is coming up behind them and the people say, “What are we gonna do now? We’re all by ourselves.” Well they haven’t been by themselves for the ten plagues. They weren’t by themselves for the night of the Passover. Yet they believe that they are by themselves. Moses checks in with God, raises the staff, the waters part, the people cross safely. The waters crash down of Pharaoh’s army. You’d think that the message would have gotten through by that time. Last week we read that they were out in the wilderness complaining, “Moses, we’re all by ourselves! We’re gonna starve out here!” Moses says, “Let me pick up the red phone and check with God again.” And God sends manna raining down from heaven. Bread and quail falling from the sky. They have food to eat. This week again, what do we have? “We’re all alone here. We have nothing to drink. What are we going to do! Did you bring us here out into the desert so that we would die of thirst and our children and our livestock? What kind of a crazy guy are you?” Moses says, “You are not supposed to test God, but let me check things out here.” Moses received the natural survival techniques from God. He goes and strikes the limestone with his staff and it breaks open revealing the water that had been stored in side. The people had water to drink.
How many times to these folks have to hear the message before they decide that somehow God will be with them no matter where they find themselves. They will never be alone. It is our tendency to doubt. It is our tendency to go our own way. We can jump way ahead and find Jesus twelve hundred years later. The people now have their rules set up, so that when they start to worry they can follow their rules and say, “Well things are going to be OK now because we are following our rules.” They don’t like Jesus because Jesus says, “You’ve got your rules, but you are still not putting your trust in God. You’re rules aren’t going to carry you through. You need to repent, you need to turn again. You need to be oriented toward God, because if you try to do God’s will things will work out just fine, but if you insist on structuring things in your own way, if you insist on trying to guarantee your future, you are going to find out that your efforts have been wasted.”
He tested them with that question about John the Baptist and they are at least smart enough to know that there is no right answer to that one. They are going to be in trouble one way or another. Then He tells them a story. It is not a story for entertainment. It is a story to drive home a point. A story to sell an idea. There are these two sons. Which of the sons represents the Pharisees, the faithful Jews? The son that says, “Sure, Dad. Right away. I will.” But for the “I will” son - it’s only words. “I will, Dad. I’ll say the prayer. I’ll spend the day fasting. I’ll do the things that are in our law book. I’ll make sure it’s all taken care of.” Jesus says, “You say “I will”, but you don’t do what God expects you to do.” The prostitutes and the tax collectors are not living their lives according to the law, but they hear the words. They hear Jesus’ words. They change their lives. They begin to live according to the way they believe God wants them to live. Not according to the expectations that society has set up. Jesus says some very pointed things. The prostitutes and tax collectors will be in heaven far before you will. For you say you will, but your actions say you won’t.
When we listen to that story across the years, which little pig are we? (reference to Children’s Sermon ~ “Pig Will and Pig Won’t by Richard Scarry) Because we are here every Sunday morning we might think to ourselves that we’re the doing the right things. Those on the outside who are out sailing their boat this morning; or those who are still sleeping in the gutter from last night; those who can’t hold down a job; those who don’t take good care of their children; those are probably the folks that are the outside away from God. We know that we are doing our best to be on the inside. To be on the right side of God. We’re the ones who have to listen to the challenge. What does God expect of us? Are we doing the right things, or just the things that we want to do? It is not an easy question to answer. There are differences of opinion about what God wants us to do. What that does suggest is that we can never be comfortable with our belief that we are following God’s path. We have to always ask questions. We have to always pray for guidance. We always have to try to determine as best as we can what it is that God wants us to be doing.
In the Adult Sunday School class this morning we watched the third of a series of six videos about the Book of Revelation. I was reminded of an image that I had heard about some seven years ago, but had forgotten. A scholar by the name of Walter Wink looks at the Book of Revelation and sees how messages come through an Angel belonging to each of the churches. He says we can understand churches today to each have an Angel. That Angel is not just to take care of us when we are going to step on a nail, but instead it represents who we are as a group of people. Not who we are individually. Not how faithful we are as single persons, but who we are as a congregation. There is good to that and bad to that. What have we done historically? How do we treat people who are on the fringes of our community? What do we do to reach out to people? How do we support each other? How much do we follow God’s way and how much do we follow our own way?
A couple of years back when I was developing an alternative script for William Bradford on Thanksgiving Eve. I did some research into the politics of the Pilgrims and the Puritans. We understand our New England ancestors made decisions by gathering together in a congregational meeting. A town hall sort of thing. We can reach out from that and believe that they were the ones that established the idea of a democratic vote in our country, of a majority rule. Everybody talks, everybody discusses, everybody argues then we all raise our hands and vote. What the majority of the people want is what we do. But the Pilgrims were not into majority rule. The Pilgrims were into Christ rule, God rule. Who are we as Christians? What does it mean to do what God wants us to do? Every time they gathered together it was not to fight out personal preferences. It was not to argue opinions. It is to jointly decide what God wanted us to do, in our place and in our time. If you talk about things from that direction you get an entirely different result. No longer is it what I want or what you want, or you, or you, or you, but what God wants for all of us. The direction that God wants us to go. To put our efforts. To put our financial resources. That’s a high standard for a congregation. But it is the right standard for a congregation. What does God want us to do?
So we have important issues to look at in our future years together. We have been spending a lot of time over the last 5 years fixing up this building. We have done an excellent job of supporting the budget of the congregation. We have been in the black now for six years, after a number of years ending the year at a deficit, year after year, after year. All of you are to be commended for you efforts. Preserving this building and improving it. Underwriting the budget. We also have to look at how we act in the community. What we do for people. Financially we don’t do a whole lot beyond our congregation. In fact there is only about $450 in our budget for outreach to the community. Beyond that any outreach that we do to the wider church is a volunteer outreach. In other words, when people make their pledges they commit a certain amount to the budget and another amount to the mission of our state conference, our national church and the ministry overseas. Over the last number of years that total has been about five or six thousand dollars, and it’s only paid if the people who pledge it pay it. If those pledges don’t come in for mission, we give less money. We give some money through the food pantry. The Women’s Fellowship has a variety of causes that they give money to each year. But in general, as a congregation, the majority of our money is spent here for this building. One of the ways that we make the building work for mission and outreach is to make it available to many groups. There are not very many congregations that can say that they have 4 different congregations worshiping in the building, or well over two dozen self-help and fellowship groups. That is an important contribution to our community. But in the years ahead I want to challenge all of us to figure out more ways that we can reach out to the community. To spend money to help those who are in need. To spend less on ourselves, and concern about our building and our congregation. Right now we have three special offerings a year. One offering for Thanksgiving, for Easter and for Christmas. Those three special offerings are necessary for us to cover our operating budget. For the last five years I have said that the day needs to come when we no longer take special offerings to make our budget. We should cover our whole budget with our pledges and our rental money and use those special offerings each year for needs beyond our congregational doors.
There is one other way that I want to talk about our tendency to see that we are in the right and somebody else is in the wrong. This is a part of my growing as a pastor and as a Christian. It is a newsletter article that I wrote in the first congregation that I served in March of 1983. I had been a minister for four years at that point. Here’s what I said:
In our Adult Sunday School Class we have been studying world religions. A few weeks ago, our focus was Hinduism, the main religion of India and one of the oldest in the world. First we viewed an introductory filmstrip. Then we discussed what we had seen, trying to make sense of it all.
During the discussion, one of the class members asked me whether or not Christianity would accept Hinduism as a religion worshiping the one true God. Out of ignorance I answered, “I guess that since the Hindu have a very individual faith, and worship many gods, that we would not find it an acceptable religion.”
Friday I saw the movie “Gandhi” at a local theater.
I ate my words.
Gandhi was a Hindu man who believed that all humans are children of the one God. He lived and taught live, compassion, and non-violence. He “fought” the forces of evil and hatred, not with guns and swords, but with truth, patience, and determination.
Gandhi lived the Christian values that most of us can only claim to believe in.
I was ashamed and humbled to think that only weeks before, I had been foolish enough to think that my religious life was more valid that that of millions of Hindu.
Oh God, forgive my pride. Help me to live the life that I reach for as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Teach me to hold back my judgments and to share your love with all my brothers and sisters on this earth.
May God’s spirit be with us. Amen