Sermons

"One for All"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church

of Anchorage by The Reverend Mark E. Long

on January 3, 2010

Lections:  II Chronicles 31.11-12a, 20-21

                  I Cor. 15.55-58

                  Lk. 19.45-47

Happy New Year!  There is much I find annoying about Oprah Winfrey, Inc. but I ran across this quote from her a week ago and have to admit that she got the truth of New Years about right.  "Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right."

Her wisdom breaks down into two relevant confessions for most of us.  First, we seem to perpetually be in a place seeking a "do over," and second we are certain that this will be the year that we "get it right."

So we will make our resolutions from A to Z and move forward unreasonably hopeful of keeping them.  We start out something like this; I will do something to improve myself.  (We are always game for self-improvement; it is the real economy starter).  I will do something to improve myself each week.  We make it a couple of weeks and even keep a little book nearby to record our progress.  But then, well, life intervenes and we miss a week . . . or two . . . so adjust our benchmark from weekly to monthly.  But a month is a long time between  "somethings" and "where is that diary" anyway, the final unconscious admission that, oh well, at least there is next year to "get it right." 

So we try, year after year, to make the "do over" the relic of a life that no longer needs the grace; thank you very much, only to affirm that it is precisely what we do need.

Let's quit the pretense here.  This year let's admit it; we are not going to keep our resolutions.  So let's quit trying to pretend that we will.  We are just confusing ourselves.  We are like the Attention Deficit Disordered at the Peanut Farm Restaurant[1] on a Saturday afternoon - dizzy from the demands for our attention.

Too many resolutions, too many diaries to try to keep up with - honestly, for me, by February I don't even try anymore to keep track of my waning interest in my resolutions.

Some of you may protest - "I don't make resolutions."  My guess is even if you don't, you do.  If there is something that you hope to do better this year than last, nice try, but that is a resolution.  And for the love of God . . . .

Wait a minute . . . there may be something to learn here.  Maybe our problem with resolutions is that we are seeking something to improve ourselves rather than to trust the "love of God" to motivate our improvement.

If so, we should know better.  The Scripture is very clear; "seek first the Kingdom of God" and then, as a second move, all other things will come to us.  Do we do this?  My observation is not many of us.  We make resolutions to put everything else in order in our lives first or at best God is thrown into the mix.  A prescription to fail if I have ever heard of one; we can be a rather self-destructive lot can't we?

Let's just for the heck of it do something radical this year.  Let's forget all the resolutions about our self-improvement and make one resolution that actually has a chance to be carried through the year faithfully because it relies on a Spirit beyond our human capacity.

If we will seek to "love the Lord God." as the shema says, with all our heart, soul, and might then we might actually not need a "do over" next year.  All the other things might really be added to our lives.  Come on, be honest, how well is the other approach working?

Some of you will shrug that this is too simplistic an answer for the complexity that is life; and besides preacher can you just stop talking about this shema business and move onto something else?  As response, in my mind pops the advertising slogan for a popular beer; tastes great, less filling.  It may be a good thing for beer; it is a bad thing for your soul.  What leaves you satisfied may not be what fills your soul.

When I was dragged into this business, I swore to tell the truth as I see it and this is as straight as I can tell it.  If you will begin to practice the pursuit of the one command above which all others are subordinate - including loving one another - life next year at this time may look a whole lot more promising than what you look into at this moment.

The path to lessen the need for a "do over" next year is easy to identify, but how to actually go about it is a bit more problematic.  It is a bit dicey because it takes out of my hands a good deal of the personal effort to make it happen.  I can't give it to you.  I can not spout a doctrinal incantation before you and pronounce you devout.  It takes effort, your effort, and a lot of it - obedience and practices; this is what it takes to align your experiences with the influence of the inner voice more so than with the voice outside of you.  The more you will give, the more that will come to you.  Another of those annoying spiritual principles which challenge our efforts and prove themselves daily in our lives - reap as you sow.

The nature of the practice of religion - and it is practice not belief foundationally - requires participation.  It is not that gawkers are unwelcome in the Church, everyone is welcome.  Gawkers just won't get much out of it.  It is rather like watching Texas Hold'em Tournaments; you can watch from the outside but you won't get the thrill of the insider, holding the prize in your hands, unless you enter the tournament.  You have to play the game to reap the rewards.

The collective corollary to this line of thought is, of course, that this Church will reap as its members sow.  Its members do not sow to the account of any one other than God.  This Church is God's.  So anything that is given to or not given to it goes to the account of God.  Whatever you give or do not give to this Church, of which you claim to be a part, is given or not given to God.  This is something that you should consider very carefully in deciding at this time where you will or will not spend what you have.

Our Scripture from II Chronicles assures us that if we will spend what we have in the pursuit of the "love of the Lord God" with our whole heart, soul, and mind then blessings will come to us.  Hezekiah, King of Judah, required "all Judah" to do what is "good and right and faithful before the Lord his God" to not only turn the pagan shrines into shrines to God but then to "faithfully [bring] in [their] contribution, the tithes and the dedicated things . . . [to God]."  His every work was to lead the people of Judah "to seek his God" in the way of his devotion so that prosperity followed for all.  The more that you give, the more that will come to you.

Paul in his letter to the Corinthian churches encourages them to excel in their work for their churches because their churches will reap in the measure of what they will give.  The more that you give, the more that will come to you.

Luke tells a brief story about Jesus' cleaning house in the temple.  "My house shall be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers," says Jesus.  As I stand here today and think on where this Church has been, where it stands and where it may be heading, I wonder about this verse and the spiritual principle that the more you give, the more that will come to you.

Will this be the year for you and the Church that makes the "do over" a relic of flawed spirituality or is this a year for you and the Church when you continue to pay for the sins of a failed resolve? 

This is how I see it; another year, another "do over."  What's next?   Amen.