Signs Of The Times
Children's sermon
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In the Gospel lesson for this Sunday (Luke 12:49-56), Jesus chides the disciples for focusing on immediate concerns while missing the "signs of the times" that indicate God's larger plan -- and in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Scott Suskovic notes that there's plenty of evidence to suggest we suffer from a similar myopia. A number of recent media reports have highlighted growing frustration with airline travel delays. We stand in airports, obsessing over minutes on the flight-departure screens, when such comparatively small time intervals matter little in the big picture. Likewise, evidence is emerging that the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge was at least partially due to a short-term, "we'll muddle through" outlook, despite the warning flags inspectors had been raising about that bridge. Whoever in government was in charge of bridge-repair appropriations apparently missed the "signs of the times" when it came to that structure. Jesus' words remind us that while the minutiae of our lives may seem important to us now, they have much less significance when viewed from the vantage point of eternity. Team member Steve McCutchan offers additional thoughts on how we ought to, in the words of time-management gurus, be wary of "the tyranny of the urgent." Instead, our greatest concern should be on things that are both urgent and important -- and Steve notes that events have a way of rearranging our perspective on what those things really are.
Signs of the Times
by Scott Suskovic
THE WORLD
We can read the signs, can't we? Rising temperatures and holes in the ozone layer mean global warming. A drought means that corn prices will go up. A terrorist attack means that the stock market will go down. A computer failure means long lines at the airport. We even know that "red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning."
We know the signs, don't we? While we may not have a crystal ball into the future, there are some things that we can predict with certainty by watching the signs. Even Jesus said that when you see clouds forming in the west, you know it will rain. When you feel the wind from the south, you know it will be hot (Luke 12:54-55).
Why is it that we can be so astute in reading the signs of the times and yet so ignorant in those things that truly matter? What signs of the time are you looking for?
THE WORD
Begin by stretching a long rope across the length of your church for everyone to see. Have two people hold either side. Then find the middle, and with a Sharpie draw a single, narrow band. Step back for everyone to get a good perspective on the size of that line as compared to the length of that rope.
Your life is represented by this single line drawn on the rope. All 78.5 years of your life are contained in this one narrow line. Before your birth there is eternity. After your death there is eternity. Where will you spend most of your time -- in the small, narrow band, or in eternity? Let me ask that a different way. Where should you focus your energy -- in the small, narrow band, or in eternity?
When you see the larger picture, it changes your attitude and perspective. Suddenly, the minor irritations, the temporary setbacks, the silly goals all pale in comparison to the supreme goal of spending eternity with God and those we love. Such a perspective causes us to live differently. Long-term goals are no longer limited to a college fund or retirement or a vacation home or a cemetery plot. Long-term goals suddenly look beyond the single, narrow band, to where you would like to spend eternity.
In Luke 12, Jesus is trying to expand our vision from the immediate to eternity. It all begins with a question: "Where do you want to go?"
In Alice In Wonderland, Alice begins her journey lost. She asks the Cheshire Cat which direction she should go. The cat wisely responds, "That depends on where you would like to go." Alice replies, "I don't know." To which the cat says, "Then it doesn't matter which direction you go."
You first have to decide where you want to end up. If you want to spend your retirement on a beach, see the grandchildren twice a year, and spend your days sipping cocktails and playing gin rummy, your financial planner can get you there. You start with the end in sight. If you want to get your golf handicap down to single digits, your golf pro will work with you. You start with the end in sight. If you want to own your own business, your consultant will lay out a business plan. You start with the end in sight. If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter much which path you take.
We know how it works in real life. We can read the signs. You start first with where you want to end up, and then work backwards to determine a path on how to get there. This is what Jesus is saying in Luke 12. Jesus isn't telling us to ignore the signs of our daily life. They are very important. He is telling us to use the same wisdom, savvy, and perception that we use everyday for the things of this world -- and apply that to where you want ultimately want to go. The only question left is: "What is your long-term goal?" Do you want to end up on a beach or the 18th green, or do you want to end up in the place prepared for you in heaven?
That single, narrow band on the rope reminds us that life is temporary: "Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered and that my life is fleeing away" (Psalm 39:4). "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Here I think it would be interesting to explore what people mean by "long-term planning." For some it means saving for college or retirement. For others it means a vacation place or a burial plot. For some companies, their long-term plan reaches out five, ten, twenty years. You may be surprised to hear that some Japanese companies have a 100-year and sometimes a 200-year business plan.
For most people, a 200-year plan is nonsense because we won't be here to experience it. But for those who understand the single, narrow band on that long rope, we need to look beyond the next five or ten years and ask ourselves, "Where do I want to be 200 years from now?"
If life is, as Nietzsche thought, an empty existence and we are doomed to be born and die between the two poles of nothingness, then you might as well eat, drink, and be merry. That single, narrow band is all you get. Go for the gusto.
If life is, as Hamlet suggested, uncertain and there is a question whether to be or not to be, to live or not to live, then no plans can be made and life is at a perpetual standstill.
If life is, as the Hemingway thought, futile and life is the cruelest of all jokes, and the only thing you can really control is the time of your own death, then you might as well pull the trigger.
But if the overwhelming testimony of the New Testament is true, if Jesus opened up for us the gates of eternity, if he prepares a place for us, if we were created and designed for more than this life, then our faith pushes us to look beyond this world and into the next by asking the question: "Where do I want to spend eternity?"
It all comes back to that single, small band on the rope and the question: "Where do you want to end up?" Jesus reminded us that we are so savvy about reading the signs of the times when it comes to this world. Use that same wisdom to determine where you want to end up in the world to come.
It is with such long-term vision that the book of Hebrews refocuses our emphasis away from that small, narrow band and toward that promise that awaits us:
"By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets -- who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight....Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented -- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. 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" (Hebrews 11:29-34, 36--12:1).
Such conversation that draws our attention to eternity does run the risk of taking our attention away from the immediate needs here on earth while we focus on heaven. Jesus does not have that intention in Luke 12. It is just the opposite. Knowing where you will be 200 years from now makes this single, narrow band even more important, more vital, and more alive. C.S. Lewis once wrote that it was precisely when the church lost focus with the next world that we lost our effectiveness in this one.
That band on that rope may be small, but it is incredibly important. A mountain climber's rope may be quite long, but if there is one nick in the rope when you are dangling from a cliff, suddenly that small area is the most important section.
Your life on earth may be dwarfed by eternity before your birth and after your death -- but for you and for your eternal destiny, it is the most important part. In Luke 12, Jesus wants to focus our vision on eternity. But the only way to do that is to ground it in the present.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Stephen McCutchan
If you have ever listened to people's response in an airplane when it was announced that a landing or a departure would be delayed, you know how people see themselves pressured by any change in their perceived time schedule. When a flight has been canceled and people are madly rushing around trying to reschedule their flights, the pressure even seems greater. People seem almost obsessed with the artificial structures that we have created to mark the passage of time.
People who offer seminars in time management are always trying to help people recognize the tyranny of the urgent versus what is important. The urgent at the ticket counter is the irate customer who wants the schedule to meet his or her needs; the important may be airline safety in a time of bad weather or mechanical failures. It actually comes down to a matter of perspective, as the following story illustrates.
A man was about to leave for work. As he kissed his wife, she said to him, "Harry, don't forget that we have the Jamisons coming over for dinner tonight. Because I've been ill, I haven't been able to get everything ready."
He responded, "Karen, I promise that I will be home by 3 p.m. to help get things ready. I will also call that wonderful restaurant we love and have them deliver the food that we discussed last night. Don't worry. You are my top priority today, and I will take care of things. What's important to me is that you get some rest so you will enjoy the evening."
Upon arriving at the office, Harry was immediately called into his boss's office and told that an emergency had occurred in their Chicago office. The success of the company depended on resolving the problem there, and Harry was the only one who was able to fix it. A plane had been rented to immediately fly him to Chicago. If all went well, he would be back by early that evening. Harry immediately called his wife and explained the predicament, and she agreed to call and cancel with the Jamisons.
Harry flagged down a cab and headed to the airport to board his plane. On the way his cell phone rang. It was his wife Karen, telling him that their teenage son had been in a car accident and was being taken to the emergency room. Harry told her that he would meet her at the hospital, and quickly redirected the cab.
Harry had his priorities -- but they were altered as conditions changed his perspective on what was important.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus is saying some very uncomfortable things: "I came to bring fire to the earth.... Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" These are not the words that we would normally associate with the one who we speak of as the Prince of Peace. But for Jesus, the times merited such decisive action.
Try to picture the response in a church if the pastor called the officers together and said, "If I am faithful to my mission, the result is going to be division within the church: father against son, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, etc." At that moment the pastor is unlikely to be praised for his leadership. We don't like to have our comfortable life disrupted. Hasn't one of the major criticisms about mainline denominations been that they take positions that upset members and drive people away from the church?
Yet, isn't the real issue a matter of perspective? What if the pastor knew something that, while difficult to accept, would determine the future health of the congregation? What Jesus is talking about is our ability to read the signs of the times. Pastors are not called to poll the congregation and then preach a message that affirms what the majority of people already believe. While it is nice for all people to get along and feel comfortable with each other, there are also critical times when Christians have to take the "narrow path" and make the harder decisions. No one should take delight in causing division among believers or in upsetting those who hunger for the gospel, but one must also recognize the urgency of the time and not be afraid to speak the words or exercise the ministry that the gospels make plain.
As our passage in Isaiah makes clear, the focus of the community of faith is not to be directed by what is most popular with the populace. The focus of the community of faith is to be centered on meeting the expectations of God who formed them into a community. Isaiah was quite clear about God's expectation: "He expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!"
As with the story about Harry and Karen, what is important depends on the perspective from which you are viewing your decisions. From Isaiah's perspective, we are risking the destruction of the community of faith through our failure to pay attention to the justice and violence within our own communities. Look around you. What is happening in our society? Where do you believe that God wants us to be in ministering to those realities? If the church is on the way to the emergency room, that may cause us to want to change our minds about what is important and the direction that we should take.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In the little Georgia country church of my childhood, there was a story the older folks loved to tell again and again, laughing over it and savoring it and embellishing it. The tale involved a certain Sunday night in October 1938. Evening prayer services were in full swing when a man named Sam, a member of the congregation who lived down the road from the church, charged into the prayer meeting trembling with fear and excitement. Finally gaining the breath to speak, he shouted, "Martians are attacking the earth in spaceships! Some of 'em have already landed in New Jersey!" The preacher halted in midsentence; the congregation stared at Sam blankly. "I s-s-swear," he stammered, now a little unsure of his footing. "I h-h-heard it on the radio."
What Sam had heard, of course, was Orson Welles' now infamous Mercury Theater radio production of War of the Worlds, but no one in the congregation was aware of that at the moment. For all they knew, the world outside was coming to a flaming end. The little flock looked apprehensively at the preacher, but he was mute and indecisive, never having had a sermon disrupted by interplanetary invasion. Finally one of the oldest members of the congregation, a red-clay farmer of modest education, stood up, gripped the pew in front of him with his large, callused hands, and said, "I 'speck what Sam says ain't completely true, but if it is true, we're in the right place here in church. Let's go on with the meetin'." And so they did.
Spaceships landing in New Jersey? Signs of the end of the world? The old farmer sized it all up, measured it against his rough-hewn view of providence, and decided it was better to be in church praising God than running around the cow pasture shooting buckshot into the night sky.
-- Thomas Long, "Breaking And Entering," Christian Century, March 18, 2001
***
My parents... had a finely-tuned and theologically-correct sense of divine providence: They were farmers and, for them, like Abraham and Sarah of old, there were no accidents, only providence and the finger of God. If they had a good harvest, God was blessing them. If they had a poor one, well, they concluded that God wanted them to live on less for a while and for a good reason. And they would always in the end figure out that reason.
Jesus called this "reading the signs of the times." How do we do this? We do it by becoming meteorologists of soul who read the inner movements of the spirit in the outer weather of history.
In the conspiracy of accidents that make up the ordinary events of our everyday lives, the finger of God is writing and writing large. We are children of Israel, children of Jesus, and children of our mothers and fathers in the faith. We need therefore, like them, to look at each and every event in our lives and ask ourselves the question: "What is God saying to us in this?" The language of God is the experience that God writes inside our lives.
Reading that language is an important form of prayer, one that takes us beyond simply saying prayers to more healthily living out the words: "Pray always."
-- Ron Rolheiser, from "Providence and the Conspiracy of Accidents," an e-column of June 20, 2004 downloaded from http://www.ronrolheiser.com/arc062004.html
***
I had a conversation once with a former navy diver about diving deep, really deep. He told me that he had been in situations so deep and dark that it was almost impossible to keep from becoming disoriented and confused. What a terrifying feeling -- being under water, unable to see your hands in front of your face, not knowing which way is up, panic engulfing you. I immediately interrupted my friend, "So what did you do?"
"Feel the bubbles," he said.... "When it's pitch black and you have no idea which way to go, you reach up with your hand and feel the bubbles. The bubbles always drift to the surface. When you can't trust your feelings or judgment, you can always trust the bubbles to get you back to the top."
Apart from the experience of scuba diving, we need a way to determine what is real and true. Sometimes in life we get disoriented and desperate. At other times, we find ourselves drifting aimlessly. God knew that we would need advice and instructions about how to live. In the 66 books of the Bible we have a reality library.
-- Terry G. Carter, J. Scott Duvall, and J. Daniel Hays, Preaching God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Preparing, Developing, and Delivering the Sermon (Zondervan, 2005)
***
We all have a need for the basic things of life. We need enough food to eat and clean water to drink. We need sufficient clothing to protect us from the cold (and from the stares of others). And we need enough shelter to shield us from the wind and the rain, from the scorching sun of summer and the icy snows of winter. We also need education and health care and maybe a few other things. And it can consume quite a bit of our time and energy to provide all these things for ourselves and our families.
But all these things are actually just the props, they're just the stage setting for our life. The question is: What is the drama that our life is presenting? And if our life is a drama, what is happening on the stage, what is the plot? Are we just stagehands -- adjusting and readjusting the lights, rearranging the furniture, and making sure the proscenium curtains open and close smoothly? Is our life no more than just the mechanics of living?
Jesus says to us, "Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" If we look around us, we can see people who seem to be interested mainly in taking care of their own immediate physical wants, with little thought to the marvelous thing that Jesus is calling us to: a life as part of God's Kingdom, beginning now and lasting forever.
Jesus is calling us to follow him and be part of the greatest thing there is: the Kingdom of God.
Do we see how important this is?
***
When we become people of faith, when we begin to take Jesus' call to follow him seriously, it can lead to problems between us and those around us. Jesus tells us in this week's gospel that his coming to us brings division. Our parents, our children, our friends can have trouble understanding why we want to follow him. To them, being caught up in the times we're living in is enough.
Our Hebrews 11 passage reminds us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, people of faith all down through the ages -- people of faith who suffered mocking and flogging and chains and imprisonment, who were persecuted and tormented, who lived in caves and holes in the ground.
Yet these were people who looked to Jesus, who was keeping them in his loving care -- Jesus, who for the joy of achieving our salvation endured the cross for us.
We are not alone in our struggles to live lives of faith; we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and by our Lord himself.
***
In this week's alternate Old Testament lesson from Jeremiah 23, our Lord says to us: "Let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully" (v. 28). A sign of our times, as we listen to TV, radio, the internet, and anything else in the world around us, is that the world is speaking anything but the word of the Lord.
Jesus calls us, his followers, to live by his word and to share his word by our words and by our deeds -- by our lives.
***
This past May, a spearfisher discovered a mud volcano in the sea off Trinidad. At that time, the "island" created by the mud was 5 feet high. Now, it has grown to a height of some 40 feet. The waters around the volcano/island are so turbulent that the disaster folks in Trinidad are warning boaters to stay away, because it could slip back under the sea at any time. Though mud volcanoes are a common occurrence on and around the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and officials are quick to insist that the new mud volcano poses no threat to people on land, others see a bad omen. "It's a sign of the times, Revelation," says fisherman Bert Peter.
-- based on Associated Press article by Andrew O. Selsky, August 12, 2007
***
Hope in God and in the triumph of God's purpose is the central thrust of biblical eschatology. Concern with the ending of history (the time, the manner) is minimal in scripture; concern with the End of history is a dominant theme. The End is God's goal for the entire Enterprise; Jesus' term for the end was God's reign, the kingdom of heaven. To him that reign was at hand, as near as the readiness of women and men to receive it (Mark 1:15). Most people, of course, were not ready, and they sent him to a cross. But in preaching Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the church continues to point toward the coming of God's new age.
-- Seeking God's Peace in a Nuclear Age: A Call to Disciples of Christ (Chalice Press, 1985)
***
To believe in God is to believe in the salvation of the world. The paradox of our time is that those who believe in God do not believe in the salvation of the world, and those who believe in the future of the world do not believe in God.
Christians believe in "the end of the world," they expect the final catastrophe, the punishment of others.
Atheists in their turn invent doctrines of salvation, try to give a meaning to life, work, the future of humankind, and refuse to believe in God because Christians believe in him and take no interest in the world.
All ignore the true God: he who has so loved the world! But which is the more culpable ignorance?
To love God is to love the world. To love God passionately is to love the world passionately. To hope in God is to hope for the salvation of the world.
I often say to myself that, in our religion, God must feel very much alone: for is there anyone besides God who believes in the salvation of the world? God seeks among us sons and daughters who resemble him enough, who love the world enough that he could send them into the world to save it.
-- Louis Evely, In the Christian Spirit (Herder & Herder, 1969)
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: The One who commands the clouds calls us to be poured out for others.
People: We can, by faith, be the waters of peace which quench the fires of hatred.
Leader: The One who creates mercy and hope longs for a world of fair play and grace.
People: We can, by faith, let righteousness and justice be our constant companions.
Leader: The One who is with us in every moment composes a love song for our hearts.
People: We can, by faith, teach this song to everyone we meet.
Prayer of the Day (and Our Lord's Prayer)
Gracious God,
in the debris and litter of the world,
you clear a place where we can be planted:
your justice which can bring hope to the oppressed;
your righteousness which can receive even our enemies in peace.
Jesus Christ,
you break up the stony ground of our hearts,
so grace might be planted.
You take us by the hand to lead us through the waters of baptism,
so we can stand on the far shores of your kingdom.
Holy Spirit,
early every morning you are out ahead of us,
walking the paths of life,
clearing away all the temptations which would cause us to stumble and fall.
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us as we pray as Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, has taught us, saying,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
Being human, we never find it easy to ask for forgiveness.
But as God's children, called to live in relationship with one another,
we know we must speak of how we have hurt others,
so we might be forgiven and restored to new life.
Please join me as we pray to God, saying . . .
(Unison) Prayer of Confession
What more can we say, Expectant God, that you don't know already?
You long for justice for all people,
but it is washed away by the flood of violence in our world.
You hope the righteousness will walk with us,
but you hear the clear cries of those we mistreat.
You ask us to speak up for those in need,
but we shut our mouths and turn away.
Forgive us, Righteous God.
Have mercy when we do not bear the fruit we could.
Even though we have not lived our faith to the fullest,
may we receive the promises of hope and grace
you have given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: Shhh, listen! Can you hear them?
The saints of heaven -- those who have gone on before us --
are cheering us on as we run towards the finish line of our faith.
People: Thanks be to God!
The victory has already been won for us in Jesus Christ.
We are forgiven. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Be Alert to the Signs
He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens." (Luke 12:54-55)
Object: a weather map
How many of you watch the weather station on television? (let them answer) Isn't it amazing? They tell you when it is going to rain and when it is going to snow. They can even tell you if it is going to rain only on the other side of town. They can warn us of hurricanes and tornadoes so we can find safety. They tell us when it is too hot or too cold for us to be outside.
I brought a weather map with me showing the entire United States. Do you see the different colors? That tells us how warm or cold it is going to be. It also has a lot of words explaining the details. Some people get up in the morning, rush out, get the paper, bring it in, and turn to the weather page. They also have the television tuned to the weather station, and if the weather is really bad they listen to the radio to find out if there are school delays or other details. Farmers are always interested in the weather because they need days of sunshine, days of dry weather, and rainy days to grow good crops. People that fly airplanes depend upon the weatherman to tell them where it is safe to fly. The people that take care of our roads need to know how much snow is coming and if the wind will be blowing down lots of tree limbs. Weather is very interesting.
Jesus tells us in the Bible that when there are clouds in the west we will get rain, and when the wind is from the south we will have very hot sunshine. Jesus said there are other things that we should also be paying attention to.
Jesus wanted people to be in touch with God so that we will be able to understand what is needed and when Jesus is going to return to us. When we see sickness and hunger, we should share our medicine and food. When we see people without houses and jobs, we must care for them as well. When we see children without mothers and fathers, we need to be able to care for them.
There are a lot of signs besides the weather. We stand around when these things are happening and we forget all about them because they are not happening to us. If they happened to us we would want help, and we would want it very fast.
Jesus said to be very alert to the signs. Some of those signs are saying that Jesus is coming back to us and that we should get ready for him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 19, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
Signs of the Times
by Scott Suskovic
THE WORLD
We can read the signs, can't we? Rising temperatures and holes in the ozone layer mean global warming. A drought means that corn prices will go up. A terrorist attack means that the stock market will go down. A computer failure means long lines at the airport. We even know that "red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning."
We know the signs, don't we? While we may not have a crystal ball into the future, there are some things that we can predict with certainty by watching the signs. Even Jesus said that when you see clouds forming in the west, you know it will rain. When you feel the wind from the south, you know it will be hot (Luke 12:54-55).
Why is it that we can be so astute in reading the signs of the times and yet so ignorant in those things that truly matter? What signs of the time are you looking for?
THE WORD
Begin by stretching a long rope across the length of your church for everyone to see. Have two people hold either side. Then find the middle, and with a Sharpie draw a single, narrow band. Step back for everyone to get a good perspective on the size of that line as compared to the length of that rope.
Your life is represented by this single line drawn on the rope. All 78.5 years of your life are contained in this one narrow line. Before your birth there is eternity. After your death there is eternity. Where will you spend most of your time -- in the small, narrow band, or in eternity? Let me ask that a different way. Where should you focus your energy -- in the small, narrow band, or in eternity?
When you see the larger picture, it changes your attitude and perspective. Suddenly, the minor irritations, the temporary setbacks, the silly goals all pale in comparison to the supreme goal of spending eternity with God and those we love. Such a perspective causes us to live differently. Long-term goals are no longer limited to a college fund or retirement or a vacation home or a cemetery plot. Long-term goals suddenly look beyond the single, narrow band, to where you would like to spend eternity.
In Luke 12, Jesus is trying to expand our vision from the immediate to eternity. It all begins with a question: "Where do you want to go?"
In Alice In Wonderland, Alice begins her journey lost. She asks the Cheshire Cat which direction she should go. The cat wisely responds, "That depends on where you would like to go." Alice replies, "I don't know." To which the cat says, "Then it doesn't matter which direction you go."
You first have to decide where you want to end up. If you want to spend your retirement on a beach, see the grandchildren twice a year, and spend your days sipping cocktails and playing gin rummy, your financial planner can get you there. You start with the end in sight. If you want to get your golf handicap down to single digits, your golf pro will work with you. You start with the end in sight. If you want to own your own business, your consultant will lay out a business plan. You start with the end in sight. If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter much which path you take.
We know how it works in real life. We can read the signs. You start first with where you want to end up, and then work backwards to determine a path on how to get there. This is what Jesus is saying in Luke 12. Jesus isn't telling us to ignore the signs of our daily life. They are very important. He is telling us to use the same wisdom, savvy, and perception that we use everyday for the things of this world -- and apply that to where you want ultimately want to go. The only question left is: "What is your long-term goal?" Do you want to end up on a beach or the 18th green, or do you want to end up in the place prepared for you in heaven?
That single, narrow band on the rope reminds us that life is temporary: "Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered and that my life is fleeing away" (Psalm 39:4). "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Here I think it would be interesting to explore what people mean by "long-term planning." For some it means saving for college or retirement. For others it means a vacation place or a burial plot. For some companies, their long-term plan reaches out five, ten, twenty years. You may be surprised to hear that some Japanese companies have a 100-year and sometimes a 200-year business plan.
For most people, a 200-year plan is nonsense because we won't be here to experience it. But for those who understand the single, narrow band on that long rope, we need to look beyond the next five or ten years and ask ourselves, "Where do I want to be 200 years from now?"
If life is, as Nietzsche thought, an empty existence and we are doomed to be born and die between the two poles of nothingness, then you might as well eat, drink, and be merry. That single, narrow band is all you get. Go for the gusto.
If life is, as Hamlet suggested, uncertain and there is a question whether to be or not to be, to live or not to live, then no plans can be made and life is at a perpetual standstill.
If life is, as the Hemingway thought, futile and life is the cruelest of all jokes, and the only thing you can really control is the time of your own death, then you might as well pull the trigger.
But if the overwhelming testimony of the New Testament is true, if Jesus opened up for us the gates of eternity, if he prepares a place for us, if we were created and designed for more than this life, then our faith pushes us to look beyond this world and into the next by asking the question: "Where do I want to spend eternity?"
It all comes back to that single, small band on the rope and the question: "Where do you want to end up?" Jesus reminded us that we are so savvy about reading the signs of the times when it comes to this world. Use that same wisdom to determine where you want to end up in the world to come.
It is with such long-term vision that the book of Hebrews refocuses our emphasis away from that small, narrow band and toward that promise that awaits us:
"By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets -- who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight....Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented -- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. 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" (Hebrews 11:29-34, 36--12:1).
Such conversation that draws our attention to eternity does run the risk of taking our attention away from the immediate needs here on earth while we focus on heaven. Jesus does not have that intention in Luke 12. It is just the opposite. Knowing where you will be 200 years from now makes this single, narrow band even more important, more vital, and more alive. C.S. Lewis once wrote that it was precisely when the church lost focus with the next world that we lost our effectiveness in this one.
That band on that rope may be small, but it is incredibly important. A mountain climber's rope may be quite long, but if there is one nick in the rope when you are dangling from a cliff, suddenly that small area is the most important section.
Your life on earth may be dwarfed by eternity before your birth and after your death -- but for you and for your eternal destiny, it is the most important part. In Luke 12, Jesus wants to focus our vision on eternity. But the only way to do that is to ground it in the present.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Stephen McCutchan
If you have ever listened to people's response in an airplane when it was announced that a landing or a departure would be delayed, you know how people see themselves pressured by any change in their perceived time schedule. When a flight has been canceled and people are madly rushing around trying to reschedule their flights, the pressure even seems greater. People seem almost obsessed with the artificial structures that we have created to mark the passage of time.
People who offer seminars in time management are always trying to help people recognize the tyranny of the urgent versus what is important. The urgent at the ticket counter is the irate customer who wants the schedule to meet his or her needs; the important may be airline safety in a time of bad weather or mechanical failures. It actually comes down to a matter of perspective, as the following story illustrates.
A man was about to leave for work. As he kissed his wife, she said to him, "Harry, don't forget that we have the Jamisons coming over for dinner tonight. Because I've been ill, I haven't been able to get everything ready."
He responded, "Karen, I promise that I will be home by 3 p.m. to help get things ready. I will also call that wonderful restaurant we love and have them deliver the food that we discussed last night. Don't worry. You are my top priority today, and I will take care of things. What's important to me is that you get some rest so you will enjoy the evening."
Upon arriving at the office, Harry was immediately called into his boss's office and told that an emergency had occurred in their Chicago office. The success of the company depended on resolving the problem there, and Harry was the only one who was able to fix it. A plane had been rented to immediately fly him to Chicago. If all went well, he would be back by early that evening. Harry immediately called his wife and explained the predicament, and she agreed to call and cancel with the Jamisons.
Harry flagged down a cab and headed to the airport to board his plane. On the way his cell phone rang. It was his wife Karen, telling him that their teenage son had been in a car accident and was being taken to the emergency room. Harry told her that he would meet her at the hospital, and quickly redirected the cab.
Harry had his priorities -- but they were altered as conditions changed his perspective on what was important.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus is saying some very uncomfortable things: "I came to bring fire to the earth.... Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" These are not the words that we would normally associate with the one who we speak of as the Prince of Peace. But for Jesus, the times merited such decisive action.
Try to picture the response in a church if the pastor called the officers together and said, "If I am faithful to my mission, the result is going to be division within the church: father against son, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, etc." At that moment the pastor is unlikely to be praised for his leadership. We don't like to have our comfortable life disrupted. Hasn't one of the major criticisms about mainline denominations been that they take positions that upset members and drive people away from the church?
Yet, isn't the real issue a matter of perspective? What if the pastor knew something that, while difficult to accept, would determine the future health of the congregation? What Jesus is talking about is our ability to read the signs of the times. Pastors are not called to poll the congregation and then preach a message that affirms what the majority of people already believe. While it is nice for all people to get along and feel comfortable with each other, there are also critical times when Christians have to take the "narrow path" and make the harder decisions. No one should take delight in causing division among believers or in upsetting those who hunger for the gospel, but one must also recognize the urgency of the time and not be afraid to speak the words or exercise the ministry that the gospels make plain.
As our passage in Isaiah makes clear, the focus of the community of faith is not to be directed by what is most popular with the populace. The focus of the community of faith is to be centered on meeting the expectations of God who formed them into a community. Isaiah was quite clear about God's expectation: "He expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!"
As with the story about Harry and Karen, what is important depends on the perspective from which you are viewing your decisions. From Isaiah's perspective, we are risking the destruction of the community of faith through our failure to pay attention to the justice and violence within our own communities. Look around you. What is happening in our society? Where do you believe that God wants us to be in ministering to those realities? If the church is on the way to the emergency room, that may cause us to want to change our minds about what is important and the direction that we should take.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In the little Georgia country church of my childhood, there was a story the older folks loved to tell again and again, laughing over it and savoring it and embellishing it. The tale involved a certain Sunday night in October 1938. Evening prayer services were in full swing when a man named Sam, a member of the congregation who lived down the road from the church, charged into the prayer meeting trembling with fear and excitement. Finally gaining the breath to speak, he shouted, "Martians are attacking the earth in spaceships! Some of 'em have already landed in New Jersey!" The preacher halted in midsentence; the congregation stared at Sam blankly. "I s-s-swear," he stammered, now a little unsure of his footing. "I h-h-heard it on the radio."
What Sam had heard, of course, was Orson Welles' now infamous Mercury Theater radio production of War of the Worlds, but no one in the congregation was aware of that at the moment. For all they knew, the world outside was coming to a flaming end. The little flock looked apprehensively at the preacher, but he was mute and indecisive, never having had a sermon disrupted by interplanetary invasion. Finally one of the oldest members of the congregation, a red-clay farmer of modest education, stood up, gripped the pew in front of him with his large, callused hands, and said, "I 'speck what Sam says ain't completely true, but if it is true, we're in the right place here in church. Let's go on with the meetin'." And so they did.
Spaceships landing in New Jersey? Signs of the end of the world? The old farmer sized it all up, measured it against his rough-hewn view of providence, and decided it was better to be in church praising God than running around the cow pasture shooting buckshot into the night sky.
-- Thomas Long, "Breaking And Entering," Christian Century, March 18, 2001
***
My parents... had a finely-tuned and theologically-correct sense of divine providence: They were farmers and, for them, like Abraham and Sarah of old, there were no accidents, only providence and the finger of God. If they had a good harvest, God was blessing them. If they had a poor one, well, they concluded that God wanted them to live on less for a while and for a good reason. And they would always in the end figure out that reason.
Jesus called this "reading the signs of the times." How do we do this? We do it by becoming meteorologists of soul who read the inner movements of the spirit in the outer weather of history.
In the conspiracy of accidents that make up the ordinary events of our everyday lives, the finger of God is writing and writing large. We are children of Israel, children of Jesus, and children of our mothers and fathers in the faith. We need therefore, like them, to look at each and every event in our lives and ask ourselves the question: "What is God saying to us in this?" The language of God is the experience that God writes inside our lives.
Reading that language is an important form of prayer, one that takes us beyond simply saying prayers to more healthily living out the words: "Pray always."
-- Ron Rolheiser, from "Providence and the Conspiracy of Accidents," an e-column of June 20, 2004 downloaded from http://www.ronrolheiser.com/arc062004.html
***
I had a conversation once with a former navy diver about diving deep, really deep. He told me that he had been in situations so deep and dark that it was almost impossible to keep from becoming disoriented and confused. What a terrifying feeling -- being under water, unable to see your hands in front of your face, not knowing which way is up, panic engulfing you. I immediately interrupted my friend, "So what did you do?"
"Feel the bubbles," he said.... "When it's pitch black and you have no idea which way to go, you reach up with your hand and feel the bubbles. The bubbles always drift to the surface. When you can't trust your feelings or judgment, you can always trust the bubbles to get you back to the top."
Apart from the experience of scuba diving, we need a way to determine what is real and true. Sometimes in life we get disoriented and desperate. At other times, we find ourselves drifting aimlessly. God knew that we would need advice and instructions about how to live. In the 66 books of the Bible we have a reality library.
-- Terry G. Carter, J. Scott Duvall, and J. Daniel Hays, Preaching God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Preparing, Developing, and Delivering the Sermon (Zondervan, 2005)
***
We all have a need for the basic things of life. We need enough food to eat and clean water to drink. We need sufficient clothing to protect us from the cold (and from the stares of others). And we need enough shelter to shield us from the wind and the rain, from the scorching sun of summer and the icy snows of winter. We also need education and health care and maybe a few other things. And it can consume quite a bit of our time and energy to provide all these things for ourselves and our families.
But all these things are actually just the props, they're just the stage setting for our life. The question is: What is the drama that our life is presenting? And if our life is a drama, what is happening on the stage, what is the plot? Are we just stagehands -- adjusting and readjusting the lights, rearranging the furniture, and making sure the proscenium curtains open and close smoothly? Is our life no more than just the mechanics of living?
Jesus says to us, "Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" If we look around us, we can see people who seem to be interested mainly in taking care of their own immediate physical wants, with little thought to the marvelous thing that Jesus is calling us to: a life as part of God's Kingdom, beginning now and lasting forever.
Jesus is calling us to follow him and be part of the greatest thing there is: the Kingdom of God.
Do we see how important this is?
***
When we become people of faith, when we begin to take Jesus' call to follow him seriously, it can lead to problems between us and those around us. Jesus tells us in this week's gospel that his coming to us brings division. Our parents, our children, our friends can have trouble understanding why we want to follow him. To them, being caught up in the times we're living in is enough.
Our Hebrews 11 passage reminds us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, people of faith all down through the ages -- people of faith who suffered mocking and flogging and chains and imprisonment, who were persecuted and tormented, who lived in caves and holes in the ground.
Yet these were people who looked to Jesus, who was keeping them in his loving care -- Jesus, who for the joy of achieving our salvation endured the cross for us.
We are not alone in our struggles to live lives of faith; we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and by our Lord himself.
***
In this week's alternate Old Testament lesson from Jeremiah 23, our Lord says to us: "Let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully" (v. 28). A sign of our times, as we listen to TV, radio, the internet, and anything else in the world around us, is that the world is speaking anything but the word of the Lord.
Jesus calls us, his followers, to live by his word and to share his word by our words and by our deeds -- by our lives.
***
This past May, a spearfisher discovered a mud volcano in the sea off Trinidad. At that time, the "island" created by the mud was 5 feet high. Now, it has grown to a height of some 40 feet. The waters around the volcano/island are so turbulent that the disaster folks in Trinidad are warning boaters to stay away, because it could slip back under the sea at any time. Though mud volcanoes are a common occurrence on and around the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and officials are quick to insist that the new mud volcano poses no threat to people on land, others see a bad omen. "It's a sign of the times, Revelation," says fisherman Bert Peter.
-- based on Associated Press article by Andrew O. Selsky, August 12, 2007
***
Hope in God and in the triumph of God's purpose is the central thrust of biblical eschatology. Concern with the ending of history (the time, the manner) is minimal in scripture; concern with the End of history is a dominant theme. The End is God's goal for the entire Enterprise; Jesus' term for the end was God's reign, the kingdom of heaven. To him that reign was at hand, as near as the readiness of women and men to receive it (Mark 1:15). Most people, of course, were not ready, and they sent him to a cross. But in preaching Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the church continues to point toward the coming of God's new age.
-- Seeking God's Peace in a Nuclear Age: A Call to Disciples of Christ (Chalice Press, 1985)
***
To believe in God is to believe in the salvation of the world. The paradox of our time is that those who believe in God do not believe in the salvation of the world, and those who believe in the future of the world do not believe in God.
Christians believe in "the end of the world," they expect the final catastrophe, the punishment of others.
Atheists in their turn invent doctrines of salvation, try to give a meaning to life, work, the future of humankind, and refuse to believe in God because Christians believe in him and take no interest in the world.
All ignore the true God: he who has so loved the world! But which is the more culpable ignorance?
To love God is to love the world. To love God passionately is to love the world passionately. To hope in God is to hope for the salvation of the world.
I often say to myself that, in our religion, God must feel very much alone: for is there anyone besides God who believes in the salvation of the world? God seeks among us sons and daughters who resemble him enough, who love the world enough that he could send them into the world to save it.
-- Louis Evely, In the Christian Spirit (Herder & Herder, 1969)
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: The One who commands the clouds calls us to be poured out for others.
People: We can, by faith, be the waters of peace which quench the fires of hatred.
Leader: The One who creates mercy and hope longs for a world of fair play and grace.
People: We can, by faith, let righteousness and justice be our constant companions.
Leader: The One who is with us in every moment composes a love song for our hearts.
People: We can, by faith, teach this song to everyone we meet.
Prayer of the Day (and Our Lord's Prayer)
Gracious God,
in the debris and litter of the world,
you clear a place where we can be planted:
your justice which can bring hope to the oppressed;
your righteousness which can receive even our enemies in peace.
Jesus Christ,
you break up the stony ground of our hearts,
so grace might be planted.
You take us by the hand to lead us through the waters of baptism,
so we can stand on the far shores of your kingdom.
Holy Spirit,
early every morning you are out ahead of us,
walking the paths of life,
clearing away all the temptations which would cause us to stumble and fall.
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us as we pray as Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, has taught us, saying,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
Being human, we never find it easy to ask for forgiveness.
But as God's children, called to live in relationship with one another,
we know we must speak of how we have hurt others,
so we might be forgiven and restored to new life.
Please join me as we pray to God, saying . . .
(Unison) Prayer of Confession
What more can we say, Expectant God, that you don't know already?
You long for justice for all people,
but it is washed away by the flood of violence in our world.
You hope the righteousness will walk with us,
but you hear the clear cries of those we mistreat.
You ask us to speak up for those in need,
but we shut our mouths and turn away.
Forgive us, Righteous God.
Have mercy when we do not bear the fruit we could.
Even though we have not lived our faith to the fullest,
may we receive the promises of hope and grace
you have given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: Shhh, listen! Can you hear them?
The saints of heaven -- those who have gone on before us --
are cheering us on as we run towards the finish line of our faith.
People: Thanks be to God!
The victory has already been won for us in Jesus Christ.
We are forgiven. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Be Alert to the Signs
He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens." (Luke 12:54-55)
Object: a weather map
How many of you watch the weather station on television? (let them answer) Isn't it amazing? They tell you when it is going to rain and when it is going to snow. They can even tell you if it is going to rain only on the other side of town. They can warn us of hurricanes and tornadoes so we can find safety. They tell us when it is too hot or too cold for us to be outside.
I brought a weather map with me showing the entire United States. Do you see the different colors? That tells us how warm or cold it is going to be. It also has a lot of words explaining the details. Some people get up in the morning, rush out, get the paper, bring it in, and turn to the weather page. They also have the television tuned to the weather station, and if the weather is really bad they listen to the radio to find out if there are school delays or other details. Farmers are always interested in the weather because they need days of sunshine, days of dry weather, and rainy days to grow good crops. People that fly airplanes depend upon the weatherman to tell them where it is safe to fly. The people that take care of our roads need to know how much snow is coming and if the wind will be blowing down lots of tree limbs. Weather is very interesting.
Jesus tells us in the Bible that when there are clouds in the west we will get rain, and when the wind is from the south we will have very hot sunshine. Jesus said there are other things that we should also be paying attention to.
Jesus wanted people to be in touch with God so that we will be able to understand what is needed and when Jesus is going to return to us. When we see sickness and hunger, we should share our medicine and food. When we see people without houses and jobs, we must care for them as well. When we see children without mothers and fathers, we need to be able to care for them.
There are a lot of signs besides the weather. We stand around when these things are happening and we forget all about them because they are not happening to us. If they happened to us we would want help, and we would want it very fast.
Jesus said to be very alert to the signs. Some of those signs are saying that Jesus is coming back to us and that we should get ready for him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 19, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
