Make Time for the Good Stuff

Make Time for the Good Stuff 

• Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14 

Have you seen the illustration where there are containers of rocks, and stones and sand. The only way you can fit the big pieces in, is to get them in place first, before the smaller stuff takes up all the space in your life. 

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The story told in the gospel of Matthew is an allegory, not a real wedding feast. This is the first time that Matthew speaks of the eternal life at the end of the mortal age. 

Matthew’s gospel reflects a lot of the pain felt as the communities of the Jews and the followers of the Christ were pulling apart in the years after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70CE, and some of that pain is reflected in this parable. In those moments where we take stands that we cannot or will not let go of, there is pushing apart, and in the heat of the moment say hurtful words. 

This is a painful time to be the church of Jesus Christ. The world is flush full of temptations of the flesh, all available 24/7, from Amazon Prime with free delivery to your home. You can have exactly what you want, from the pseudo-god of consumerism. 

In the political world, the Justice Department and individual states are taking back the equal rights granted to women, gays and lesbians, and people of color - often under the banner of religious freedom. How religious freedom becomes defined as my right to limit another’s status, I do not understand. All around us we are glorifying the sin of separation, “us vs. them.” Where is a faithful Christian expected to draw the line? 

This congregation knows something about the pain of separation. I have not heard too many people express a continued sense of loss from the departure of the Sheltons as co-pastors of Community UCC, though I am sure that at the time, there were plenty of folks - who  did not understand why they had to leave. 

Several folks have confided that they feel awkward about the way Pastor Laurie Hill was released at the end of her contract. There was little warning given to Laurie, and her accomplishments were not well celebrated. It was not the congregation’s best display of gratitude. 

I have met more folks here who knew the good and pastoral side of Jeff Johnston and are still sorry to have experienced his leaving. I am sure that some who never experienced his difficult side, may have felt that his problems might have been exaggerated. 

When I was serving a congregation as a student pastor in seminary, a woman of the church took me aside to share some hard earned wisdom. She said, “When a woman in the church, tells you her marriage is in trouble, and her husband’s behavior is the cause, DO NOT interrupt her and tell her it is ‘not so bad.’ It is likely far worse than she has words for, and it took a long time before she was able to reach out to her pastor for support.” Her advice changed forever the way I listen to people in pain. 

There are times when being in a church complicates things. We try to say things in a nice way, even if they are not nice things. We will often bend over backwards to make room for some behaviors, even when they are inappropriate, especially if we like the person. It makes it hard to hear about the pain others have experienced.  

When we hear things we do not want to believe, we can sometimes hold those things in suspicion, waiting to see further evidence. I know when I look in the mirror, I will spend more time today arranging the remaining hair on my head, as a testimony to the full head of hair that was once in place, and I never fussed with my hair when I thought it would be thick forever. 

It is never hard to fool ourselves. Part of the shock of a funeral comes  when we consider that one day, it will be our death that folks will be talking about. There are no guarantees we will see another day. This mortal life is fragile. 

So Matthew says we are all invited to the wedding feast, the banquet of all banquets. But we act as though we have better things to do, our hands are full of distractions. When will we learn to do the first things first? When we learn to treat the relationship as more important than the task? 

I know a man who cannot bear to let his wife drive on their vacations because she will only drive at the speed limit and it will take forever to get there. I asked him if the drive was part of the vacation, part of the time together to be enjoyed. He looked at me as if I had a third eye growing on my face, so I knew he heard me. I also know that he would think about it, later. 

This is the challenge of trying to be responsible and live in a fast paced and complicated world. We need to have a business sense, we need to have a plan for our personal finances, we need to be attentive to the primary relationships in our lives. Still, under it all, we need to be in touch with the presence of God. 

While it should be the most natural thing, to see ourselves as a child of nature; and we might on our best days see ourselves as brother and sister to all living things; the larger part of our daily lives is spent evaluating, judging, and then acting, based on the criteria at hand. 

To be effective in sharing the love of God, followers of Christ need to be good at seeing and remembering that God is always present in their lives. When we are all business, or reflecting on investment choices, or trying to work with our spouses and children in times of high emotion, God is present. 

As a pastor I have visited some homes where the TV is on 24/7. It is true. If I ask them to turn it off during my visit, all they can manage is to mute the volume. One house had a separate TV for the family dog.  

I know many people, of a variety of ages, who are seldom without the cell phone in their hand. Slowly, I am learning not to judge and pretend I know what they are doing. People do a thousand things on their phones anymore.

I get it. Sometimes you will hear me say something, and automatically you will want to fact-check me. I get it. Go ahead. One of the pastors whose tweets I follow, says that when she was serving in Washington, DC, everybody fact checked everything. 

In the midst of available 24/7 media and social media, it can be hard to quiet your mind. It can be hard to believe, heck, it can even be hard to hear, when the pastor says your best approach to the presence of God - is not in your rational mind. You find God when you quiet your mind, and open your heart. Ugh. I know. What can that even mean? 

It means something like, God is not the result of some elaborate logic puzzle. Time after time, week after week, I see faithful people messaging each other, “God has a reason for everything that happens to you.” I hate that message. It makes me want to scream. 

Life is hard. Bad things happen. God is present and blesses us in the worst of situations, but God does not create hardships just to get your attention. 

We do get blessings from God in all situations, and we have reason to praise God even in our duress. I will tell you what I have seen. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, strained and broken relationships have been restored. Lost family members return. Broken hearts step forward for words of healing. Wholeness may be restored, even if health continues to be elusive. 

A week and a half ago, I went to a conference on the theology behind immigration and race relations. It got to be pretty muddy water for a white, middle age, middle class guy to navigate. Colonization is pretty much the mind set, based on the Doctrine of Discovery, that is still alive and is the common root of racial tension. And colonization is pretty much a white guy thing. 

The instructor, a pastor in the UCC Cleveland Office of racial justice summed it up in short hand for me. “Racial justice issues are rooted in the white community, exist in the hearts and minds of the white community, and will never be fixed until the white community recognizes that this is their problem to resolve.” This is hard to hear, and harder still to dodge. 

We bristle at black athletes protesting racial injustice at the hands of the justice system, and feel like they are being disrespectful. So we interpret the NFL protest to make us comfortable. Those athletes are:  disrespecting the flag, the national anthem, the veterans. We say that to make ourselves feel justified - when we do not want to listen. This is a classic case of institutional racism. We decide what their protest means. We decide it is out of place. We decide to stop listening. Racism steps into the light of day in the Metamora High School football team. This is our reality.  

We are all invited into the banquet. The presence of God will bless us when we are good, and bless us even more, when we stand in the need of prayer. We need prayer to try to stop rationalizing it is OK to stop listening.  We need God’s love to accept that racism is our problem. God help us to deal with our anxiety. God help us to put the “love one another” rock into the jar of our lives in a meaningful way. 

There is pain when people we love prove to be flawed and human. It is a tough challenge for a community of faith to decide when some behaviors are unacceptable, and some people have to move or be removed from the community. These are painful choices. 

There is pain when we as a culture realize that all the progress we thought we had made, has not taken place at all. The truth is, taking a knee during the National Anthem is a call to make us “One nation under God.” 

We have been called to share in God’s banquet. As people of faith, we know that our life in the faith community needs to be a big piece that we put in the glass jar early. And our faith begins with “Love God and love one another.” We know that others will see that faith, and see that we value it more than money, or popularity. 

We are imperfect people, living in difficult times, and God is present with us. God is not with us in our pride and indignation. God does not accept us when we refuse the wedding gown - asking God to bless our exceptionalism - so we can stand apart from our brothers and sisters. God is present in that part of our souls, made in God’s image, that make us one with all of our brothers and sisters. God is with us, beyond the control of our rationalizing minds, but within the reach of our heart of hearts. 

The love of God touches us where we feel the pain of separation; the losses we feel in the congregation. The love of God touches us where our racist upbringings challenges us to feel the pain in protests, asking for the justice system to protect all. The love of God needs to strengthen our resolve to live up to the promises we have made to our LGBTQ siblings, and reject the call from the nation’s capital to deny our diversity, and attack the weak, the poor, the minority populations, and even the health of our children and the planet. 

May God bless us as we wrestle with the implication of putting this non-rational faith, this faith that is so different from what we thought we shared with everyone in town 30 years ago, and put into our transparent jar. May we be blessed with the courage of our convictions, and the temerity to say Yes! to God, and question the values of the world. Amen.