Sermons

War! Crime! Terror! Disease! Famine! Poverty! Details at 11.

Sometimes it seems as if the whole world is crumbling around us. The only news is bad news and it just keeps getting worse. It is easy to become overwhelmed and end up feeling helpless and hopeless. We either want to bury our head in the sand and pretend everything is just fine, or run away so that we don't have to deal with it anymore. It is an easy trap to fall into. We lose perspective and start to believe that the circumstances right in front of us represent the whole picture. There is no other reality. We are small. We are alone. It has always been this way and it will always be this way.
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Lost! Alone! Desperate! Afraid! At one time or another, in one way or another, most of us have had experiences such as these. Or else we will. It seems to be a part of life. Jesus certainly understood this reality. Last Sunday we looked at his parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, with their message of hope for those of us who feel lost. It is comforting to know that even when we are wandering around in the cold and the dark, searching for something we cannot find, cannot secure, cannot even begin to describe, that God's response is first, last and always a response of tireless, compassionate seeking. And that, I suspect, is why the story of the father who had two sons provides such a powerful conclusion for Jesus' stories about being lost. How could we ever get tired of hearing about the gracious love of a parent who will, no matter what, welcome us in from the cold?
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We lose our socks. We lose our keys. Sometimes we even lose our car. And occasionally we lose our way. We wander off the path and can't find our way back. We think we know where we're going. We get distracted and stop paying attention. We get overwhelmed and confused and miss the landmark we need to guide us. We get unhelpful directions that send us off in the opposite direction from where we thought we were headed.
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As the Hebrew people stood at the threshold of the Promised Land, after 40 years in the wilderness, Moses urged them to "Choose Life!" Pay attention to what enhances your living. Pay attention to what enhances the living of those with whom you share life in this world. Pay attention to the presence of God in your life and the guidance which can be found in that presence. Choose life!
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Tomorrow is Labor Day, a holiday set aside to honor those who work for a living. We make this tribute by taking a break from our labors. And in so doing we join a very old tradition. In the opening chapters of Genesis we are told that at the end of the process of creating the world God took a day off to rest. This practice is enshrined in the religious tradition of Sabbath. We understand, at a very deep and basic level, that human beings cannot long survive on a steady diet of nothing but work. We need rest. We need play. We need recreation. There is a reason why the phrase "working ourselves to death" is a part of our cultural lexicon.

Unfortunately, we often seem to forget this important truth. We have inherited a "work ethic" in our culture which frequently leaves us feeling guilty about any time not spent in the pursuit of something "productive." I know a gifted, creative woman who feels guilty every time she spends time with her art. All too often we have taken to heart the message that if it isn't making money then it is of no value. And so we spend our lives in frantic pursuit of fulfillment, never quite recognizing that it remains elusive as long as the search is defined by our franticness. We are like Martha - so busy with our "important" work that we fail to notice that we have Jesus sitting in our living room.
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