Manger

from my message on 12/23/12 from Luke 2:8-20

Transformed.  That's the word that came to me.  We are going to transform these scraps of cloth into swaddling cloths as you pass them around and then tie them together.  This will give your hands something to do while I talk a little while.

We have been on a journey to the manger, to the birth of the Messiah, this Advent.  We have gone on this journey with the characters in the birth story.  I have given you hand motions to help you remember.  We saw Mary be transformed from a scared girl into the mother of the Christ, as she let go control, and unclenched her hands, saying, "I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be to me according to your word."  We encounter Joseph, whose rough, calloused hands, were transformed into hands of mercy, going way beyond what the law required to do what love is, by accepting Mary as his wife, and her child as his.  We met Elizabeth who was transformed from being a relative into a friend, as she open her hands and her heart to welcome Mary.  The hand motion is that of cradling a baby.  Today, we have the manger.   Seems pretty cold, compared to these persons.  It will take a few minutes to get to transformation.

We start at Manger Square today in Bethlehem.  You see the outside of the Church of the Nativity.  You see how the doorway has been filled in over the centuries.  This close up shows just how small the door is today.  Military people will tell you it was done for a defensive purpose.  Everyone is slowed down, trying to enter.  The army could hold its postion much more easily inside.  Today, it is called the door of humility.  Everyone must bow to enter into the sanctuary.  It is a good posture to be in as we approach the manger. Here is a picture of the traditional site of the manger.  It is at the back of the sanctuary and underneath it.  You see the 14 point gold star in the marble floor and all of the canles hanging nearby.  It doesn't do much for my soul.  Especially when you are rushed through like a herd of cattle.  The last time I was here in 2007, I was  a bus captain, responsible for some 41 persons.  Our guide had me read the passage from Luke I just read for you.  The whole time, he was going, "This is taking too long.  Speed it up!"  Real worshipful, huh?

Most of the time we think of a manger like the one we have on the altar table here.  A wooden box, filled with hay, all clean and pretty, is our picture.  Most likely, it was more like this picture of a stone trough.  It was feeding trough, cold, hard.

Here's my point.  God takes a feeding trough and makes it into the entry point of salvation.  If God can transform a manger into the birth place of the Messiah, then God can  transform just about anything.  Here, we take some water, just ordinary water.  I say a prayer over it, and it becomes the water of baptism.  We say that sins are washed away, that we are claimed by God as God's own chidren, that our identity is sure. Here, we take some bread and some grape juice, and I say  a prayer over it and it becomes the body and blood of Christ.  We take his very self into ourselves.  We are what we eat.  Here, in the story, the shepherds, modern day equivalents would be parking lot attendants, become evangelists.  They return home shouting good news.  Here, in the story, ordinary people, like us, become the actors in a holy drama.  God is about transformation.

I was transformed this past Monday.  I started the day early, arriving at the office about 7:15.  I had a memorial service that afternoon.  Trust me on this:  you don't want any surprises at such a service.  People are in enough grief and pain already.  You don't want to further hurt them.  So we had 3 musicians to coordinate, a video element to work in, 5 members of the family to speak, a worship bullet to get printed with no administrative assistant, a caterer to welcome.  I also did my emails, blog, and my twitter account ( I am up to 49 followers on Twitter!).  I had some other appointments and phone calls.  The memorial service went well.  The reception was lovely.  I went downton at 5 p.m. to First Baptist Church to help with the Mobile Loaves and Fishes dinner for the homeless.  I was assigned table 15.  The people, our neighbors, our family who live on the street started coming in at 5:30.  They expected to line up to get their food, but we greeted them and seated them at tables of 8.  I used my line, "Help me with your name."  I met Aubrey, and Tony and Rabbit.  We served them salad with 2 choices of dressing.  They got turkey with green beans and a baked potato with all the fixin's.  Well, one gentleman chided me by saying, "What, no chives!"  They got their choice of dessert:  pumpkin, or pecan, or apple pie.  You could get whipped cream topping.  We served them their drinks:  water, tea, coffee, or hot chocolate.  You know the poor man's fancy drink?  One half coffee and one half hot chocolate.  After  2 hours of serving, I left to go home at the end of a long day....and you know I wasn't tired at all.  I wasn't hungry at all.  I had been transformed.

What does this have to do with the hand motion of cradling a baby?  Isn't it wonderful to hold a child in your arms?  Some of you have children, or now grandchildren, or nieces or nephews.  It is precious.  One woman who joined our church a few years ago took our spiritual gifts inventory.  She found that she wanted to work with children.  We tried to find her a place with our Sunday School or Vacation Bible School, but it wasn't the right fit.  We finally found it at the NNICU at St. David's hospital.  She would hold the little babies, the preemies, in her arms.  She was in heaven. 

Today, as we come to the manger, I want you to imagine that you are the one who is being held.  The manger is the place where you are being held in the arms of God.  We bring those swaddling cloths to the manger now.  You are the one who is being covered by God's grace, secure and safe.  You are covered, forgiven, welcomed, blessed, protected. 

This is the good news I have to share with you today:  you are held in the arms of God, and you will never be let go!

Whose birthday is it?

from my message on Christmas Eve, 2012, from Luke 2:1-20

We are celebrating a birthday tonight?  Is is the birthday of Santa Claus? (NOO!!)  Is it the birthday of Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer?  (NOOOO!!)  Is it the birthday of Frosty the Snowman?  (NOOOOO!!)  Well, who's birthday is it?  (It's Jesus' birthday!!)

Ok, then let's sing that "Happy Birthday" song.  (Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Jesus, Happy Birthday to you)

Thanksgiving holiday was coming up.  The teacher of the pre-school Sunday School class was trying to teach about this holiday.  She wanted to be playful in her style, so she said, "Let's see Thanksgiving.  That's the day when we think about all the stuff we have and how we want more than anyone else has and how we don't care about anyone else but ourselves and..."
"No!" the kids started to yell.  "NOOO!!!"
Then one little boy announced, "That's not Thanksgiving, Miss Michelle.  That's Christmas!"

I know we think that Christmas is our birthday, but whose is it?  (It's Jesus' birthday.) 

What else do you have at a birthday party?  You have presents, right?  Well, tonight we are going to offer gifts to Jesus.  How do we do that today?  We are going to take an offering for our mission home in San Antonio that works with mothers and young babies and families that want to adopt these babies.  Because whose birthday is it?  (It's Jesus' birthday)

What else do you have at a birthday party?  You have cake, right?  Well, tonight we are going to have the sacrament of communion, some bread and grape juice.  And because it is Jesus birthday, everyone is welcome, even little children.

A group of first graders got together and decided to write their own version of the nativity.  It was more modern than the traditional dama.  Oh, there was the familiar cast members:  Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, the star, the angel.  But Mary was nowhere to be seen.  Suddenly, some loud moans could be heard from behind the bales of hay. Evidently, Mary was about to give birth.  Soon, the doctor arrived, complete with white coat and stethoscope.  Joseph, with a look of relief on his face, took the doctor straight to Mary.  Then he started pacing.  After a few moments, the "doctor" came out with a big smile upon his face.  "Congratulations, Joseph," he said, "It's a God."

Whose birthday is it?  It's Jesus' birthday.  A God born a human being like us.

What else do you have at a birthday party?  You have candles, right?  Well, we are going to have candles too.  We are going to watch as this whole room fills with the light of Christ. When we blow them out, we are going to be the light of Christ in the world.  It's Jesus' birthday, and we are going to keep telling the world that until He comes again.

Whose birthday is it?  (It's Jesus' birthday)

pastoral prayer

12/16/12 We had our annual Lessons and Carols service, so I did not preach on Sunday.  I did pray the following:

Gracious God, Merciful Savior, Ever Present Spirit,
Today along with the Christmas carols we sing, we also sing a song of lament.  We cry, we weep with the people Newtown, Connecticut.  Their tears are ours.  Their children are ours.

We weep with all of the innocent ones who get caught between the fighting sides of civil war, who get ground down by poverty, disease, famine, loneliness.  We join our voices with Adam and Eve, who from the very beginning wept when Cain took his brother Abel's life.

Today, our only hope, God is that the Christmas carols are true.  That you have come and are coming in Jesus, that you took on our flesh, that you join us in our vulnerability.  We sing and believe that you came as a baby--like us, a wondering child--like us, a suffering human being--like us.

Today, we hold our children, and all children near us, near you.  We weep....and we hope.  May the Christmas carols be true.

Amen.

Mary's Visit to Elizabeth

from my message on 12/9/12, from Luke 1:39-45

You've got a friend.  I can almost hear James Taylor singing it.  You've got a friend.

Today is the third message in the Journey series.  We are going with the characters in the Christmas story towards the birth of the Messiah.  We looked at Mary, whose hands were open, as she said, "let it be unto me as you have spoken.  I am the servant of the Lord."  Last week we encountered Joseph whose rough and calloused hands were full of mercy as he went beyond the law to do what love is in taking Mary as his wife and the child she was carrying as his own.  Each week, there has been a memory device with the hands.  Today, we encounter Elizabeth whose hands, whose arms are open wide in welcoming Mary.  Elizabeth is a friend to Mary in her time of need.

If you were in trouble, scared, didn't know what to do, whom would you call?  Especially, if you were a pregnant teenager, no husband, confused, lots of questions, to whom would you go?  Mary went to Elizabeth.

Today, we have with us Sarah Reiter from the Methodist Mission Home in San Antonio.  She happens to be an Aggie, class of '12.  The MMH deals with people like Mary, pregnant teenagers.

(Sarah then tells the story of how MMH got started as a madam at a brothel in San Antonio had a conversion experience at a revival meeting.  With the help of Travis Park UMC, she transformed her brothel into a home for wayward girls.  This was in 1895.  More recently a young woman was pregnant, in desperate need.  She had no mother, no spouse.  Her father didn't know what to do.  The young woman came to MMH where she got medical care, counseling, education, job training, and support.  The MMH found a family that was eager to adopt the child.  The mother had only one request and that was that she could name the child.  "I can't give this child anything else in this life, but I can give a name."

Then Sarah told a story of other services that the MMH provides.  A young man was about to graduate from high school.  At at pool party, he had an accident, and nearly drowned.  However, he went without oxygen long enough to severely impair him.  He was sent to the MMH.  Not much chance was given him to function well or even to speak.  He wrote, "I will walk across the stage at my graduation and I will give the speech."  Four years later, he did!  Not only that he gave glory to God. "This has been a blessing to me.  I was headed in the wrong direction, going with the wrong crowd, getting into drugs.  Now I have my life back.")

Do you feel the open arms that welcome and accept?  We will be taking an offering on Christmas Eve for the MMH.  Now you know how it will be helping real people.

Sometimes, we are Mary.  We are the ones who need help.  We need a friend.

Mary visited Elizabeth.  Elizabeth didn't judge or ask questions.  She simply welcomed her with open arms.  She was a friend.  She blessed her.

She blessed in loud speech.  The word in Greek is really "yelled."  She shouted out loud the word that Mary needed to hear.  Sometimes that's what we do as Elizabeth.  We yell our blessing.  A few week ago, Erin had an episode.  It was at our Wed. night supper.  Something wasn't right.  Erin couldn't speak.  Rich saw the problem.  He shouted, "Shannon!"  Shannon is Rich's wife.  They started getting Erin to the hospital.  Linda was there talking to her physician husband on the phone getting counsel as they drove Erin to the hospital.  I am happy to report Erin is with us in worship today.  She is fine.

Sometimes our word of blessing is quieter.  Many years ago I read a short story in a devotional magazine for youth the UMC did, called "Alive Now!"  The story was written by a chaplain who worked at a youth shelter.  Ruby had come in all tough, trash-talking, chain-smoking.  She had her walls up.  No one could come close to her.  One night Ruby came to the chaplain.  "I heard that Jesus loved sinners.  I heard that he even forgave prostitutes.  Is that right?"  The chaplain said, "I started to give her my sermon.  You know the one about how God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.  But this time I kept my mouth shut, and simple said, 'Yes.'"  Ruby cried.  Sometimes all we need is one quiet word.

Sometimes our inspired speech is actually silence.  You may remember I did my work in spiritual direction at Boston College, a great Catholic Jesuit university.  One of my teachers was  a world renowned spiritual director, having written books and given lectures around the world.  In class one day, she confessed the following:

I was giving spiritual direction to a man.  He was sitting beside me.  Maybe I was tired.  Maybe his story wasn't all that interesting, but I must have fallen asleep.  All I know is that I woke up as he was saying, "that what I needed to share today."  I felt so guilty, falling asleep on him.  I muttered some, "oh yes," or something.  Then he said, "Thanks for being so quiet today.  I really just needed to get that out uninterrupted.  Thanks for just listening."

We think it is about us, but the primary actor here is the Holy Spirit.  Elizabeth has inspired speech as she welcomes and blesses Mary.  But even the baby in Elizabeth's womb recognized the baby in Mary's womb and leaps for joy without a word!  May we be open to others and to the leading of the Spirit.

We can learn how to be more welcoming.  We can learn how to listen and to care.  We can learn how to bless.  We can learn how to become Elizabeth.  Stephen Ministers get training in exactly this arena.  Hear Stuart's witness.

Video segment of Stuart, who was an efficient, effective officer in an energy company for 35 years, who through Stephen Ministry training has had a sea change in learning not to give answers or counsel, but to simply listening and caring for another person, letting God set the tempo and letting Jesus be the cure-giver.

It is true what that old hymn says, "What a friend we have in Jesus."  But it is also true, "What a Jesus we have in a friend."  That's the good news I have to share today.

Joseph of Bethlehem

from my sermon on Dec. 2, 2012, from Matthew 1:18-24

(I have my Austin Habitat for Humanity tee shirt on.  I walk up to a plain wooden bench with some wood on it.  I start sanding a board.)

Do the right thing.  That's my creed.  Those are the words that I live by.  My name is Joseph.  How many words do I say in the Christmas story?.....not one, nada, zip, zero!  That's just fine by me.  Actions speak louder than words.  I need to use a few words to tell you my story.

Look at my hands.  They are rough, calloused.  They are working man's hands.  They are used to holding tools as I shape wood and stone.  People expect me to do the right thing.  When they have a leaky roof, I fix it right the first time.  When they need a door hung, I fix it right the first time.  When they have a farm implement that needs repair, I fix it right the first time.  People depend upon me to do the right thing.

So our families contraced together for Mary and me to become engaged.  That's how it was done.  My mom and dad talked to her mom and dad, and it was done.  I hardly knew her.  But it was the way things had been done forever.  It was the right thing to do.  She was in Nazareth.  I was in Bethlehem.  After a year or two, we would become married. 

But when she visited her kinswoman Elizabeth in a nearby town, I went to see Mary.  Something was different about her.  You could tell just by looking at her.  She told me that she had wonderful news.  She blurted it right out. She said, "I'm pregnant."  I was crushed....hurt, disappointed...angry.  I felt betrayed.  I knew it wasn't my baby.  I hadn't known Mary in that way.  Mary tried to calm me down, "It's alright.  I am carrying a child because the Holy Spirit came upon me and caused me to become pregnant."  I replied, "Right, I am sure that happens all the time."

I was so mad I wanted to hit something.  I wanted to hit Mary.  But I looked at my hands.  They are not cruel hands. 

But what is the right thing to do?  The law clearly says, I have taken my hand over the Torah, reading it many times, in Deuteronomy 22:23-24, "If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married and a man meets here in town and lies with her, you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death."  By law, it is the right thing to do.

But I looked at my hands.  They are not hands that could kill Mary.  And then it hit me, they are certainly not hands that could kill a baby.  To kill Mary would mean that the child she was carrying would be killed also.

What is the right thing to do?  My hands  had held the holy scriptures which talked of a God who loved.  Even when Adam and Eve did the unthinkable, God did not destroy them.  He cast them out of the garden, but he also let them live, and even made for them clothes.  When Cain killed his brother Abel, God did not kill him Cain, but gave him a mark, so that others would not kill Cain.  God destroyed the earth by a flood, but saved a remnant, Noah and family on the ark.  It seems that God kept finding a way to show love and bring new life to God's people.  I remember what the prophet Micah said, "What does the LORD require?  But to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."

The scriptures call me a righteous man.  You may think that righteousness means keeping the law, but what it really means is "right relationships."  Righteousness means goes beyond keeping the law to showing love.

I resolved to divorce Mary quietly.  That way she and the child would live.  All of the blame, all of the shame would be upon me.  People would see me as one who had gotten her pregnant and then deserted her.  I would be known as the one who did not keep promises.  No longer would I be known for doing the right thing.  Although before God, I knew it to be the right thing.  I had peace about it... shalom.  I was settled.  I could live with my decision.

It's funny.  I have always had dreams.  You would think that a practical person like myself who could look at wood and see the grain of it and fashion just the right implement would have nothing to do with dreams, but no.  I am like my namesake, Joseph of Genesis, who saved our people like ago, because he had dreams and could interpret dreams.  God spoke to me through an angel in my dreams.  God essentially said that I should take Mary as my wife, and that I should take the child as my own.  I was to name him Jesus, which means "the Lord saves."  That this child would be known as "Emmanuel," "God with us."  I knew that I had done the right thing.  I got confirmation from God.  I lived into the meaning of my name, Joseph, which means "Increaser."  I was increasing God's presence, God's love in the world.

Look at your hands.  I imagine that they are not rough and calloused like mine.  May they always be soft.  May they always go beyond the law demands to do what love is.    Who are the ones you hold in your hands?  May your hands always do the right thing.

Mary of Nazareth

from my message on Nov. 25, 2012 from Luke 1:26-38

The Journey.  Today we start a 5 week series that includes small group study and messages in worship using a book by Adam Hamilton entitled The Journey.  This fits in well with our emphasis on a path of discipleship where this church is trying to help people fall in love with Jesus, grow deeper in relationship with Him, until that love spills over into the lives of others.  Now, I know today is not Black Friday, or Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday.  It is not even the first Sunday of Advent, which starts next week, but there are 5 lessons in the book, so we need to start the journey today.

Each week, we will be looking at one of the characters in the Christmas story.  We are going with them towards the coming of the Messiah Jesus.  Today, we start with Mary.  Today, I have 2 questions for you  and 1 memeory device which involves your hands.

The first questions is Where are you from?  Say the answer out loud.  Is it the place where you were born?  The hometown where you grew up?  Is it the military?  Sometimes people tell me they are from the Air Force, because they moved around so much.  Is it a business?  Sometimes people tell me they grew up in the oil patch.  Is it your family?  Or your place in the family?  Is it the place where you went to college? 

Mary grew up in Nazareth.  Adam Hamiliton in his book captures very well just how small and insignificant Nazareth was.  Today it is a thriving city, but back then it may have had 100-400 people in it.  They may have lived in caves that they dug out of the soft limestone.  Mary may have been 12 or 13 years old.  She was a nobody in nowheresville.  She was a hick from the sticks.

The start of the memory device involves you tightening your hands into fists.  It will get tiring very fast.  Try it.  Sometimes we hold onto where we are from as the most important thing about us.  We hold onto our education, our place in the family, what somebody said about us, the past, a diagnosis....as if that determined who we are.  You can relax your clenched fists.  Where you are from is not the most important thing about you.

The second question is Where are you going?  Mary of Nazareth was visited by an angel.  This young, unmarried girl was greeted with Hail O Favored One, the Lord is with you.  You are going to bear a son who will be the Savior of the world.  He will be great, the Son of God, and holy.  Mary raises her hands and asks How can this be since I am a virgin?  The angel replies Nothing is impossible with God.  Mary does not have clenched fists, she relaxes her hands in a downward pose and says, I am the servant of the Lord.  May it be to me according to your word. 

Can you let go with your hands?  This is the hardest thing to do for American Christians...to release, to submit, to give up control.  We think we are so competent, so powerful.  We say, We got this Jesus.  If we need you, we will call you.  Can you let go with your hands?

This was a good message.  The clenching of fists to illustrate our trying to hold on and the letting go as a sign of humility, of trusting in God.  On Wednesday, we went to Houston to celebrate Thanksgiving with Cathy's family.  M.D. Anderson is only 17 miles from my in-laws' home.  We have 2 persons from this congregation at M.D. Anderson now.  How often does that happen?  So I went to see them on Wednesday.  The complex is massive.  Even though I am a male, I asked for directions, and found helpful people.  I went to elevator E, tehe 10th floor in the main bldg. to visit Adam, a young man, student at TCU.  We have had many prayers for him.  Phil and Laura, his parents were there.  I have some good news to share.  Adam's rare cancer is responding to his treatments.  He has some tests and scans scheduled for this next week.  If all goes well, he could come back to Austin this next week!

Then I found Michelle.  She happened to be in the same main bldg., down on the first floor.  When I got there, she was just coming out of her appt.  Not so good news, her cancer has not responded to any of the chemo's.  She had just that moment signed the papers to enter some new drug protocol.  Over her lunch of broccoli cheese soup she told me that she was not ready to give up or give in.  She has her parents there in the Houston area.  Her son has transferred to a school there.  Her employer has found work for her there.  Michelle is part of a cancer support group.  She told me the people were at all different stages of coping.  She told me of cancer humor in the example of sometimes playing the "cancer card."  She would be in a line with a crowd, and say, I feel so bad because of my chemo treatments.  Instantly, she would find herself at the head of the line.

When the subject gets touchy, Michelle could change topics.  By the way, she has given me permission to tell her story.  So she asked me how things were at church.  I told her about the start of this new series, the Journey, and how this first week was about Mary.  Mary, who did not clench her fists, but let go, and said, I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be to me.  How Mary offered herself in submission and carried the child who was to be the Savior of the world.  Michelle offered how easy pregnancy was for her, how her body took over, how she knew just what to do.  I said that I hoped that would be the case as she faced this cancer now, that her body, her soul, her mind, her spirit would know just what to do.  That she could let go.  She said that Mary's story was not such a happy one.  She was there at the cross, watching her son die.  I said, You're right.  The journey is not just to Bethlehem, but also to Golgotha, to the cross.  But that is not the end of the story either, because on the third day, Jesus was raised from the dead.  Mary's letting go was not just for her; it was for all of humanity.  The only way for salvation to come into the world was for her to let go of her son, for life, for death, for eternal life.  I prayed that Michelle could let go also. 

Where are you from?  What are you holding onto today?  Can you clench your fists?  I wonder can you control your child?  your anger?  the fiscal cliff?  that old hurt?  the unfairness?  the diagnosis?  the civil war in Syria? 

Where are you going?  Can you open your hands?  Can you say Let it be?  It is interesting that Mary never identifies herself as Mary of Nazareth.  She says about herself, I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be.  She has given us an example as followers of Jesus of letting go of our agendas and timelines to do what God has in store for us.  Let it be so.

The God Particle: F1 Race

From my message on Nov. 18, 2012, the Formula 1 Race weekend in Austin, from Ecclesiaste 9:11 and Hebrews 12:1-2

Early in the service, at the announcement time, Diane asks if anyone has seen Pastor Lynn.  Jonathan answers from the sound board that we have a live video feed of my getting ready for the F1 Race.  There is a scene of me getting in to a real race suit and putting on my helmet.   A little later before the offering, there is another video clip of me getting into my Prius, and taking laps around the track.  Right after the reading of the scripture, there is a third video clip of me pulling into the parking lot, finding a parking place, and running toward the door of the sanctuary.  Then I actually run inside the back door of our sanctuary dressed in the racing suit, carrying my helmet, and wearing my gloves.  I wave at the people, set my helmet and gloves on the altar table.

I feel the need....the need for speed.  You know me.  You know I am all about speed.  Faster is better.  Getting points, winning, isn't faster better?

We update our computers all the time, because we want the fastest microprocessor.  Connecting to the internet, we want the fastest connection.  Our smart phones, now 3G is no longer good enough.  We demand 4G.  When it comes to eating, we want fast food.  Speed limits in Texas, you gotta love Texas State Highway Toll 130.  Legal speed limit is now 85 miles per hour.

That's why I got this suit. I borrowed this from Hector Ruiz.  It is the real deal.  It is built for speed.  I first tried it on in my office to see if it would fit.  I had my wife Cathy there to get her opinion.  When I put it on, she went,  "oooooh," and started running her hands over the fabric.  I said, "Not so fast honey.  Not here,  Not now." 

Is faster always better?  I heard a piece on National Public Radio about an internet cafe that only had dial up connections.  The article said that our high speeds were overstimulating our brains, causing sleep deprivation and anxiety.  This internet cafe with its slow speeds and waiting actually gave time for the brain to process what was going on.  It was relaxing and healing.

Is fast food good for you?  In America, we have problems with obesity, many times associated with our rapid consumption of empty calories.  Heart disease, high blood pressure, and other ailments may be linked to our fast food culture.

And driving fast is not always the best.  On state toll road 130, you can drive 85 mph until you hit a feral hog.  Talk about thinning the herd, you can do that in two ways in one accident on Texas SH 130.

Is faster always better?  The book of wisdom we know as Ecclesiastes says the race is not always to the swift.  What is the point of going faster?  This leads me to slow down and tell you a story.  It is called  A Pointless Story.

A POINTLESS STORY


In the beginning God created not one or two but a whole bunch of us. Lots
of us. Because God knows that we love to play.
So we played - all day and into the night. We splashed in the rivers. We
rolled down the hillsides. We ran with the wind.

Until the day the snake came. At least they told us it was a snake. It might
not have been a snake. It might have been someone in a three-piece suit
with a cellular phone. Or it could have been a theologian with a very fat
book. But what they told us was that it was a snake.

And the snake came to us, to all of us who were playing on the hillside and
splashing in the water, rolling and playing and tumbling, and said, "This is
foolish! You are wasting time. None of this makes any sense unless you
learn to keep score."

We had no idea what the snake meant. But then the snake said something
really interesting. The snake said, "Whoever gets the most points will get
this apple!" But we had no idea what points were. So the snake said, "I will
teach you."

The snake taught us how to keep points with our running and our jumping
and our climbing, so that whoever climbed highest got points, and whoever
ran fastest got points, and whoever could roll down the hill fastest got
points. Some things however, like frolicking, were too hard to score. So we
gave them up all together.

Soon we were keeping score for everything we did. We chalked up the points
for everything. We kept track so that we would know who had the most
points because, surely, all of us wanted to get the apple.

Soon we were spending so much time keeping score that we didn't have
time to play.

Then God came into the garden. And God was wroth. God was very, very
wroth. And God told us that we would have to leave the garden. Not only
that - God told us that we were not going to live for ever, like we thought we
would.

Well, it doesn't matter to me. It's God who didn't understand things! My
cumulative lifetime score is now 12,263. By the time I die, it will probably be
even more! We were like God's slaves in the garden. We had to do
everything that God told us to do. It was the snake who taught us to keep
score, and now I'm teaching the children to keep score. I think they could
reach 15,000. Maybe 20,000. Now we are free to make as many points as
we can, to keep making points till the day we die, and to teach all our
children and our grandchildren how to make points.

I'm really grateful to the snake.

God kept trying to find us and to slow us down. God kept saying things like
"Remember; remember the strangers. Remember the widows and orphans.
Remember when you cut your fields to leave some at the edges, to leave
some for the sojourner in your land." That was no way to get ahead.
And so we perfected our score-keeping with a vengeance. God told us there
were only two things we really needed to remember. God said, "Love me
and love your neighbour." But we said, who on earth can play a game with
only two rules? So we wrote pages and pages and pages and pages of rules,
and pages more!

"Remember the Sabbath," God said. We didn't have time to rest. We had to
keep score. We had to keep racking up the points. I want our children to get
far better than my cumulative lifetime score of 12,263. God didn't
understand that kind of game at all.

God gave us such tiny little words. "A shoot will form from the stump of
Jesse." What sort of word is that - a "shoot"? "A little child shall lead them,"
God said. Is that any help?

And then an ordinary fellow appeared from Nazareth - we said to ourselves,
did any winner ever come from Nazareth? God breathed on him in some
particular way so that when he stood up in his hometown synagogue, he
read the word from Isaiah as though it was about him! "The Spirit of God
has anointed me," he said. And then do you know what he did?

He went up to people like fishermen and whispered in their ear, "You don't
need points!" And he sat down beside a Samaritan woman at the well and
told her everything about her loser sort of life and said, "You don't need
points either!" Then he sat down with Nicodemus, a teacher of the Law, and
said to him, "You don't need points, Nicodemus." To Mary and Martha, to
Joanna who was married to a very high official, to Susannah, Mary
Magdalene,[to Zaccheus,] to all of them he said, "You don't need points!"

And those who gathered around him, listening to what he said about the
kingdom of God being in the midst of them, soon looked at each other and
him and said, "This kingdom is pointless!"

Well, he didn't say a thing except to smile. They had pointless banquets
where the guest lists were thrown away. They had pointless picnics on the
hillside where everyone got plenty to eat, and there was still some left over.
They even had a pointless parade into the city with children leading the way
and people waving palms instead of swords. How pointless can you get!

But the snake, or the one in the three piece suit, or the theologian with the
heavy book - I can't remember who it was, but it was someone with friends
in high places - said, "This will never do. This will never do."

And so shortly after that parade, they put him on trial. And they stopped him
good as dead.

And they sealed the place where they laid him to rest with a huge stone so
that not even a whisper could escape that would ever say to anybody "You
don't need points." And that was that.

Except that morning-- This is strange. That Easter morning some women came
running to us, breathless, yet somehow full of breath. And they said to us,
"You don't need points!"

It was enough to make us think that that word had never died. But we said,
"You've got to be crazy!" And we sent them away. And as they left, they
were frolicking. I am not kidding - they were frolicking!

Did you see where they went?

(This story / sermon was adapted from one written by Barbara Lundblad, Assistant Professor of
Preaching at Union Theological Seminary, New York It appeared in the December 1999 issue of the
President's Report of The Center for Progressive Christianity (TCPC). Barbara Lundblad had adapted
this tale from the 1998 TCPC Forum, from stories of "The Pointless People" told by Lutheran pastor
and theologian Dan Erlander, who in turn found his inspiration in Ann Herbert's retelling of the
creation story.)

Is faster always better?  I went to see my Spiritual Director recently.  She listened to my story.  She wove her hands round and round in front of her.  She said, "I dont' know what this means, but this is what I see going on in your life."  I laughed.  "That is too funny.  I am preaching about the F1 face this Sunday, where the cars go around and around, faster and faster, and never get anywhere, except to get points."  You need to know that I have taken the last 2 days off, to slow down, and get out of this going faster.

How does this connect to the God Particle?  The Higgs Boson was discovered because of particle accelerators that flung protons at each other on a circular track at near the speed of light.  The collision of these protons revealed the evidence that there might exist this God Particle, something that has mass and holds the universe together.

 I am afraid that much of our running around, faster and faster, results in collisions but without any positive results. I am praying that in our running around faster and faster, we might collide with Jesus, our God Particle, who holds us together.  I am praying that he might slow us down.  This time of worship might be the most important hour that you are spending this week.  That daily prayer time or reflection upon scripture might be the most important moments of the day.  Slow down.  Remember to take sabbath time.  Stop running in circles.  Stop trying to earn points.  Start running with Jesus.  Heb. 12:1-2, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

The good news I have to share is that faster is not always better.  Slow down.