Getting to Know God via Glee: Part 7 - God of Patience

A sermon preached at Journey United Church of Christ on Sunday, July 24.  

 

Glee Feature: Season 1, Episode 16 “Home”

Exodus 13:17-22; Romans 5:1-5

Without a doubt, we live in an impetuous, impulsive, fast-paced, microwave, computer-quick world, and the pace in always increasing. It’s not always a bad thing. There are parts of that I really enjoy.

The trouble is that our impatience often pushes into taking short-cuts - Short-cuts that only end up hurting us and sometimes others in the end Some of us take financial short cuts. We want to live at a high standard of living today instead of waiting for a salary to support it, so we bury ourselves in credit and debt. Debt consolidation and bankruptcy law have become a multi-million dollar business as more and more families and individuals find themselves in over their heads due to a following a get-rich-quick scheme or two. Some of us take relational short cuts. We microwave the relational process and when things don't work out with the people we're loosely connected with, we're often ready to quickly move on to the next person or group. We have this thing called “speed dating” now and it doesn’t slow down from there. Some of us take physical short cuts. We want to lose weight, but instead of adopting a healthy and balanced lifestyle for the long haul, we go on a crash diet that does more harm than good. Instead of addressing the causes of our physical ailments, it's easier to just pop a few pills and move along. Watch how it works in Glee as Mercedes and Curt find themselves as members of the Cheerios, but not slim enough to keep their place on Sue’s team…

Glee: Season 1, Episode 16 “Home”, 3:30- 4:20

I know I've attempted a short-cut here and there in life. How about you? But God is different from you and me. We always seem to be rushing, but God isn't in a hurry. God takes time. In fact, God invented time, and God enjoys making full use of it. While we’re prone to short-cuts, it seems like God often prefers the long way.

Like when God brought the people of Egypt. In Exodus, we read: God didn't lead them by the road through the land of the Philistines, which was the shortest route, for God thought, "If the people encounter war, they'll change their minds and go back to Egypt.” So God led the people on the wilderness road, looping around to the Red Sea (Exodus 13) I don't think that's the way the people of Israel would have necessarily planned the trip. They had been slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. And once they finally got their freedom, I'm sure they were ready to head directly to the promised land … the land flowing with milk and honey … following the direct route … the route that would have taken them a fraction of the time …

Instead of guiding the Israelites along a straight line from Point A to Point, God took them the long way around … on a journey they lasted them over 40 years … as they tromped through the dessert, sometimes going in circles, sometimes making progress but sometimes getting set back again… two steps forward, three steps back. Goes against our way of travelling. We like interstate highways, direct routes with rest stops that have easy access.

When Curt and I travel, I know I better hit the restroom before we head out and it would probably be best to take along reading material, beverages and a few meals along in the car … because we're not stopping. Often times we literally don't know what we're missing. However, on our recent trip to the southwest, we tried another way. Instead of having it all planned out and calculating the mileage out for each day and each rest stop, we decided to wander …. Slow down and actually stop when we saw something interesting. It was awesome! We found so many blessings in taking the time, slowing down the pace - we were more relaxed, we saw so many things we would have never seen, learned so much along the way, grew to appreciate sunsets, leisurely meals, sitting on a porch with a good book. That's not usually the way we do vacation. We usually over plan … and come back to work exhausted.

Which method do you think fits God's approach to life more fully? I have to admit that it seems pretty clear through scripture that God's style reflects more patience. And molding a life, forming a human beings, enabling them to be all God wants them to be is one of those things that doesn't happen over night.

Ever had the opportunity to see an old-fashioned potter at work? One of those with an actual potter’s wheel. The kind of takes the time to carefully form each piece of pottery. Sometimes we don’t appreciate that because most of our pots and cups and plates are mass-produced. They are uniform, they are in-expensive… they are fast and easy to make. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God described patience as the work of a potter forming a piece of clay into a unique creation. The prophet was having a difficult time understanding why his people seemed to be suffering so much hardship. In a dream God instructs him to the house of the potter where he sees him working at the wheel reshaping a piece of clay that had been deformed into a beautiful work of art.

Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. Jeremiah 18:6

I look back over the 40 plus years of my own live and see how God has formed me bit by bit, slowly, over time … teaching lessons that cannot be learned overnight, developing character that cannot be imparted in a 2 hour seminar, providing experiences that cannot be gained by quickly skimming a few self-help books. When I take the time to remember that, I have to thank God for that kind of patience. God's patience that sees the big picture, isn't it a rush, willing to do what it takes to mold my life exactly as it should be, detail by detail … the patience that encourages me to savor the moments as they come, and challenges me to be more patience as well – both with myself and others.

God sees things from a unique perspective. God sees the big picture of our lives. God takes the time to really think about what’s important. It’s a lesson Quinn helps Mercedes learn later in the same episode of Glee

Glee, Season 1, Episode 16, “Home” , 24:55 – 27:22

God's perfect sense of patience has implications for how God operates … and it has implications for we should live as well.That's a strong message for a society that has been told that faster is always better.

I share this story from John Maxwell "Fed Ex Society" (from One Hour with God, “Patience”)

We are in such a hurry that many of us cannot imagine our lives without Federal Express – when it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight. I don’t know what I would do without Federal Express. I probably average one or two late-night visits a week to my local FedEx office.


What would we FedEx addicts have done one hundred years ago? Back then they didn’t have FedEx; they had Pony Express. I can the commercials now: “Pony Express” – when it absolutely, positively has to be there in three months.” Can you imagine waiting three months for a package? We have trouble waiting three days!


The bad news is this: God rarely uses Federal Express to build character. God doesn’t overnight or fax character into us. It takes time to build character. Lots of time. That’s why God is taking so much time in your life. God isn’t in a hurry.


Consider this word of encouragement. You are right on schedule. Maybe not your schedule, but on God’s schedule. God knows precisely what God is doing. Every trial has a beginning, a middle and an end. You cannot determine where you are in your trial, but God knows exactly where you are. Someone once said that everything is in walking distance if you have enough time. We’ve got it …


Response Activity: We gave everyone a small container of play-dough and asked that they carry it with them this week and every time they got anxious or impatient, to take our their playdough and “form something” as a reminder that God, the potter, is forming them.

Getting to Know God via Glee: Part 6 - God of Commitment

A sermon preached at Journey United Church of Christ on Sunday, July 17, 2011. Based in part on “The God You’re Looking For” by Bill Hybels

Featured Glee Episode: Season 2, Episode 19 “Prom Queen”

Most of you know that I’m a Facebook addict. A crazy almost-starker-like presence. What started as a tool to help me stay connected with my students at UAlbany, has now become woven into the fabric of my life. It helps me keep in touch with family and friends from years ago. It helps manage so much of our life together as a faith community. In fact, it’s turned out to be a huge outreach tool for Journey. The list of things I love about Facebook is long.

But I must confess there is one thing I don’t like about Facebook. It’s the “MAYBE” button. I’ve created a bzillion Facebook events over the years – setting the day and the time, adding a picture and a description and choosing whom to invite. And then I sit back and wait. Usually within minutes I get the first responses “yes” I will attend; “no” I cannot attend … and then there are always the “maybes”. Maybe’s don’t bother me initially, but as the date and time gets closer, I think Facebook should force people to choose – make a commitment already. How can I plan for “maybes”

But alas, the “MAYBE” button is not only part of Facebook, it’s part of our lives, it’s part of our society; it’s part of our world. We live in a world where commitment is almost an anomaly. We want to keep our options open

We don’t wan to choose. Commitment has become the new “dreaded C word”. Employers trade employees, athletes leave one team as soon as another team promises a few more dollars, we frequent a business until a cheaper one comes along, one brand name until a new improved label appears, partners sometimes trade in their spouses, parents sometimes abandon their children…it’s startling just how uncommitted our society has become. 

Today, in contrast to all of that we’re going to re-open this topic of COMMITMEN - God’s commitment to us, our commitment to God, our commitment to other Christians, our commitment to the world around us. It’s kind of ironic that on the one hand we have a humanity created to depend on commitment, yet at the same time and we run from it as if it were the most deadly plaque imaginable

We need to have no such concerns about God. God is eager to make commitments and God delights in being faithful to them. The Bible tell us we have a God who knows faithfulness and who demonstrates commitment like no one else. All the way back in Genesis God started making promises.

God made a startling promise to a childless man named Abram. “I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3) If you read thru the Bible you’ll see how God carries that one out, generation after generation. Many times the people are not faithful in return; they don’t keep their promises to God. But that does not keep God from sticking with the commitment. God promised Noah that there would never be another worldwide flood. And God kept that one. God once made a promise to David saying “I’m going the life the nation of Israel to world significance” and under David’s leadership God kept that promise as David led the nation into its golden era. God also made a commitment to Mary and Joseph the parents of Jesus: They would have a supernatural child. God kept that one. God promised the early church in Jerusalem that they would be the launching pad for churches that would someday spread all about the world. And God kept that one.

Bound up in the very heart of God is the propensity to go on record with love, to turn good intentions into rock solid promises that you can bank your life on. Romans 8:39 puts this way … Nothing can separate us from the love of God

There some principles that we can glean from scripture about how God feels about the big “C” word. The first is this: God grieves over our broken commitment. As a pastor I am well aware of how many people have been severely wounded through the breaking of a commitment. Broken commitments from family members, from friends, from those they trusted most. Talking to such folks, I have become intimately familiar with the human pain and suffering that comes as a result of broken commitments; but what has surprised me even more is my growing understanding of how God’s heart breaks over our broken commitments. It goes back to the “sorrow of God” we talked about last week …

That is not to say that if we’ve broken a promise, we’re doomed for life. The second principle is this: God heals the hurt of shattered commitments. In the past few weeks,we’ve spoken of the God of grace, the God of 2nd chances….God offers forgiveness…God offers healing.  

And as much as God grieves over broken commitments, God rejoices in commitment keeping. I think of people who have really followed through on the commitments they’ve made in life. Couples who stick it out. Folks who have not only committed to their own children, but have adopted children, children with special needs. I think of people around this church who have made the commitment be part of this new baby… it’s not always easy.
 
That faithfulness not only honors God, excites God. In fact, it also is made possible through God. An interesting thing happens as we move along our spiritual journeys. As we rely more and more on God’s commitment to us, we often find that commitment flowing out of us as well…we will also become commitment-makers and commitment keepers
 
Response activity: Give everyone a small card with pearl attached and invite them to respond with their own commitments

You may want to think: Are there some commitments in your life that you have broken and need to restore? Are there some commitments that are sagging that you need to firm up? Are there some commitments that you need to renew and reemphasize because they have just gotten a little wishy-washy?

Let us look as some of the commitments that Jesus calls us to.  

Commitment to God: Jesus said “seek ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” Jesus is saying “When you discover the glorious news that I am committed to you, spend a while basking in that truth, but then make a commitment back to me. In fact, I want this to be the primary commitment in your life, the first and foremost commitment you made above everything else.  

Commitment to make a difference: Jesus also said, “You are the salt of the earth. Don’t lose your saltiness. If you lose it, how is it good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled.” Here Jesus is saying “You lived once without a commitment to making a difference with your life, but now you must agree to become my change agent in the world.  

Committed to others: In John 15 Jesus talks about the formation of a new commitment in the lives of his followers. “Love one another … just as I love you… the greatest love a person can have is to give his/her life for them.” In effect, Jesus is saying, Some of you used to be pretty casual about your relationships. If one started to break down, you discarded it like yesterday’s newspapers. Now, all of that must change. I want you to be committed to each other as much as it is within your power to do so.

Getting to Know God via Glee: Part 5 - God Who Laughs and Cries with Us

A sermon preached at Journey United Church of Christ, July 10, 2011.  Based in part on “Getting to Know” by Bill Hybels

Featured Glee Episodes:  Season 1, Episode 9 “Wheels” & Season 2, Episode 21 “Funeral”

By the time Bill was 6 he learned that the big alligator tears he cried in his early years as a toddler were no longer acceptable.  Instead he was taught that when deep sorrow came his way, the best way to handle it was buck up a bit and never let them see you cry.  Shortly after that, he received a little training on coping with anger.  When he was a very small boy it was OK to throw a temper tantrum now and then when he felt angry.  However, as he grew, his family told him that big boys didn’t get mad any more.  They just took what life came them.  Never let them see you get angry  By the time he was an adolescent, Bill learned even more from the “big people” around him.  While earlier in life, he was able to roll on the floor with laughter and have a raucous good time, as a maturing person, he was informed that he really should learn how to reel that in a bit, muffle it some, tone it down a bit  Never let them see you get too excited.  Finally in his later teen years Bill was those tender moments he shared with his grandmother and baby brother were probably not in his best interest.  He needed to toughen up a bit.  Be a little more firm if he was to survive in this world.  Never let them see your soft side

Can you relate to Bill’s life?  Were you ever taught to “never let them see you express emotion”. There are a variety of methods that have been used down through time to encourage folk to be a little less expressive and little more flat.  Sometimes it has quite a bit to do with the people around us – our families of origin.  Sometimes, it more of a cultural issue relating to the environment or sub-culture in which we were raised.  Unfortunately it sometimes is even affiliated with our faith and how we’ve been told “good Christian folk” behave.

The result is all the same.  A LOT OF US SPENT A LOT OF TIME IN THE LAND OF THE BLAND.  Our lives are effected … And perhaps even more importantly our image of God is affected.  As we strip our lives of emotion, we likewise take away God’s expressiveness as well. 

Today, as we continue our series on “Getting to Know God”, we’re going to work a bit on setting the record straight in that area.  If we view God as the great philosophical stoic – impassive and unmoved by the heights of ecstasy and the depths of sadness – we’ll naturally aspire to the same characteristics.  But is we come to know the God that is depicted in the Bible – and expressive God, holding and demonstrating a rainbow spectrums worth of emotion, then our muted lives will start to change

Let’s start with delight! 

I invite you to use your imagination with me.  Close your eyes and imagine … if God were the center for the NY Yankees … if in the final seconds of a tied game against Boston, bases are loaded …  and God got up to bat … he swings, he connects … it goes and goes and goes … it’s a grand slam…  what would God do?  Would God calmly hand the ball back to the referee … or would God do a celebration dance with teammates on the sidelines?

If we look at Genesis, which we read earlier … we get the answer.  At thevery beginning of God’s story we read a story of God who DELIGHTS in what has been created.  After each day of creation, God steps back, looks at what’s been done and says, “I did well”.  “I like what I created” “I take delight in the results”  In fact the on the 6^th day, after creating human beings, God says “This is very, very good”.  So good, God takes a vacation, rests on the 7^th day … delighting in all that has been made.

GLEE: Sues Delight in Her Sister

Season 1, Episode 9  35:38-36:50

That’s delight, joy, happiness --- call it what you will.  God knows and expresses it. … knowing that somehow brings me joy ….That sense of delight is just one of our anything but dispassionate God’s many emotions.  God also does compassion

You know what it’s like to have a friend look you deep in the eyes and say “How are you … how are you really” and with great tenderness and gentleness say “if there is anything I can do, let me know.  Those are really the points in life when we feel God wrapping loving arms around us through another brother or sister in Christ.

At God’s core is the intrinsic gentleness that seeks to bear our burdens.  When God sees people who are feeling very fragile – as I often have – God finds a way to visit them and let them know they’re not alone.  God does COMPASSION and God does it like no other. Once again we see it clearly in the work of Jesus. The same man who performs miracles and offers deeply profound teachings about love utterly confounded them when he displayed an embarrassingly gentle tenderness by the little children and welcomed them into his arms.  And when he ministered to the lepers.  At that time, leprosy was so feared that the thought of touching a leprous man or woman would make most people wretch (like AIDS)  Leprosy ate your extremities – finger by finger, toe by toe … turned your skin a ghostly white.  It was one thing to offer a drive by greeting or healing, but Jesus had to stop and touch them and embrace them.   He showed them a gentle side that they had never experienced.

GLEE:  Beck Joins’ Cheerios

Season 1, Episode 9   19:20-20:34

God has the gentle compassionate side we need.  I am moved know that, just like Sue, God has a softer side as well …

We like the thought of God who knows how to have a good time and we’re comforted by the reality of a god. What about anger?  Does God ever get mad? When we look at how God is reflected in Jesus, we know how God does express anger.  Jesus entered the temple and saw and saw dishonest businessmen jacking up the prices for animals that were required for sacrifice.  Jesus didn’t have a problem with honest business, but these guys were the moral equivalent of show owners who start charging $10 a bottle for water after a hurricane creates a high demand.  They were price gouging.  They were cheating.  They were turning a house of prayer into what Jesus called a “den of thieves” and he became furious.

So he grabbed some ropes and tied them together to make a whip.  It wasn’t a flash of temper he would regret later.  He knew what he was doing and he chose his actions carefully.  He used that whip to clear the place out … quick.  Jesus does anger and so does God … there are things that make God upset. The important thing is to notice WHAT makes God mad.  That is found in the realm of injustice in the world.  It’s a lot different than Sue Sylvestry to seems to only get mad when things upset her personally.  It’s all about her.

Some of us don’t even want to think about an angry God at all… others are caught up in the trap of thinking that anger is God’s only emotion.  I know lots of people who grew up with that understanding … “If you step one inch out of line, you get hit with the Lord’s lightning.  You’re always just one step about from trouble with God.” It doesn’t square well with the biblical account of God’s wrath… Psalm 108 says  “The Lord is … slow to anger”.  Scripture doesn’t say God never gets angry, it says that God is slow to get angry.  But that’s not all God does. While those circumstances make God angry, they also cause God sorrow

We read in the gospel of John that when Jesus walked up to his friends Lazarus’ tomb, he didn’t put on a brave face.  HE WEPT.  But nothing compared to the spirit-wrenching anguish of the night of his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus tried to explain it to his followers this way.  “My soul is crushed with horror and sadness.”  Jesus knew sorrow.  And so does God.   Psalm 56:8  says “You have seen my tossing and turning.  You have seen me tossing and turning in the night.  You have collected my tears in your bottle.  You have recorded every single one n your book.

GLEE:  Sues’ Sister’s Funeral

Season 2, Episode 21    27:40-30:30

What the Psalmist is saying is this:  God knows sorrow.  God feels it deeply.  And God says, “I can’t stand the thought of any of you being sorrowful to the point where your tears would flow and drop to the ground and be absorbed and have no one notice. “   The thought is appalling to God.  God collects every tear we shed, puts it in a bottle, gazes on them … not as part of some scientific experiment … but sharing in the pain … to show us how our sadness affects God.  And I don’t know, but somewhere along the line some of us were taught that the right way to handle life is to buck up, paste on the plastic smile and say nice things that we don’t really feel.  That’s the not way God is … GOD DOES SADNESS.

Now the fact that God is expressive – does joy, sadness, anger, gentleness – is a great time … it deepens our understanding of God.  But there is another benefit.  You see, BECAUSE GOD ALLOWS THOSE VARIED EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTIONS WE ARE RESCUED FROM AN EMOTIONLESS EXISTENCE.

Bill Hybels in “The God You’re Looking For” puts it like this:  God’s emotional photographs aren’t black and white. They’re full of colors.  Everyone we can think of, as well as shades, hues, blends that would boggle our imagination.  As God’s children we are invited to join this relational, expressive and vibrant family. 

So … May you find delight.  May you delight in the blessings all around us - the big things, the important things, but also the small things and insignificant things that sometimes we don’t even take time to see.

May you feel compassion.  May you look around and really see the people and situations in this world who stand in need of our empathy and our concern. 

May you be angered about the injustices… not angered about the things that simply annoy you, but the things that go against God’s sense of justice and love. 

May you feel sorrow for the pain of the world.  May you grieve with those who grieve and stand ready to offer comfort to those who need it most.

PRAYER OF RESPONSE

God, we call you by so many names: Father, Abba, Mother, Loved One, Counselor, Friend, Guide, Alpha and Omega.  Every name reflects your relationship with us, your creation.  Each name pushes us beyond imagination to think of you in new ways.  Help us discover you anew in every aspect of our lives, in every aspect of our living.  Amen. 

Getting to Know God via Glee: Part 4 - God Who is Still Speaking

 A sermon preached at Journey United Church of Christ on July 3, 2011.  Based in part on the “The God You’re Looking For” by Bill Hybels.

This weeks Glee feature:  Season 2, Episode 8 “Chessus”

A mother was observing her little girl saying her bedtime prayers.  She said, "Dear God, thank you for mommy.  Thank you for daddy.  And dear Lord I pray that tomato would be spelled with an "e" at the end!"  Her mother was surprised, "Honey, why did you pray that Tomato would have an "e" on the end?"  The little girl said, "Well mommy, because that's the answer I put on my test at school."

Each of us would like to have some kind of special connection with God.  In the United Church of Christ we proudly proclaim our connect with a “Still Speaking God”, but when it comes right down to it, let’s face it, we’re not always sure exactly how to communicate with God…

Today as we continue our series "Getting to Know God via Glee", we're going to focus on the theme, "Getting to Know our Still Speaking God."  We're going to look at the story of Samuel. 

But before we do that, lets set the stage with a little look at how one of the more interesting methods of communicating with God as discovered by Finn in Glee

MODERN PARABLE FOR TODAY: “Cheesus”

GLEE SEASON 2, EPISODE 8 

Setting the Context            

READINGS FOR THE DAY: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (Today’s English Version)

The book of First Samuel is all the gift of a special person.  In many ways It’s the story about a gift that keeps on giving. 

As with many birth stories in the Bible, it starts off with a woman who wants nothing more than the gift of a child.  She prayed, prayed and prayed - prayed that someday she could be a mom.  At first it seemed like God wasn't listening.  And so one day she stood in the temple and cried out with all her heart to God.  You know that kind of prayer.  The prayer of desperation.  We’ve all been there.  We may pray that kind of prayer kneeling in church.  We may pray that kind of prayer sitting on our sofa a home.  We may pray that kind of prayer from our beds or maybe next to a hospital bed.   We know THAT kind of prayer.

Only this prayer was a little different.  Across the room, the priest, Eli, noticed her lips moving but no sound was coming out.  Now his pastoral response leaves a little bit to be desired; we read that he came over to her, and in not so many words said "Hannah, you must be drunk.  Pull yourself together.  You need to get out of here and go sober up".  Not quite the kind of pastor we'd all like to have around in a crisis. But Hannah persisted.  She said, "No, Eli, I'm not drunk.  I'm crying out to God because I want a child."  It’s HER prayer of desperation.  Well, God heard that cry.  And a short time later, Samuel was born. 

In response to God’s gift to her, Hannah decided to dedicate Samuel to the Lord's work.  It’s the gift the gives back.  When he was old enough, she brought him to the temple to live and to grow and to learn. 

You might imagine that a temple would be a pretty positive place for a child to grow up with all the religious education and the religious environment.  But not so.  In fact, here it was just the opposite.  You see, Eli had some extremely evil, evil sons.  And these sons did some dastardly deeds. In fact, because of all the evilness, we read in chapter 3 of 1 Samuel "In those days, the Lord hardly ever spoke directly to the people".  It's not that God didn't want to speak.  It was just that when God spoke, no one listened.  And so the communication with God was rare.  It was in that kind of environment that Samuel grew as a boy.

Somehow, by the grace of God, Samuel was protected from all this.  One night as he was sleeping, the Lord spoke to Samuel, "Samuel!"  Of course, Samuel ran to Eli, the priest and said, "Here I am"  Eli said, "I didn't call you.  Go back to bed"  A second time, "Samuel!"  "Yes, Eli, here I am"  "I didn't call you.  Now go back to bed"  And a third time, "Samuel"  "Here I am".

Now sometimes clergy can be a little slow.  Eli was one of those.  But finally, the third time, he was starting to get a little insight as to what was going on here.  Ah-ha! Thought Eli, maybe this is God trying to speak here.  So he said to Samuel, "This time say 'I'm listening Lord.  What do you want me to do?"  And this time when Samuel went back to bed and heard the voice again, he responded just like Eli had instructed him.  And the Lord, so excited and delighted that someone was finally listening, spoke to him. It wasn't an easy conversation to have.  It was a tough word from God with good news and bad news.  But nonetheless, it was an important conversation.  It was a message that brought healing and hope to the nation.  It was a message of new beginnings for the people of God.  God was looking for someone who would listen.  God wanted to speak! God wanted to be heard!  And finally God finds Samuel with the GIFT of being able to LISTEN

You and I live today in a world that may not be much different.  We are in a world that needs so desperately to hear from God. 

GLEE: 

(Let me set the context:  Curt’s father has had a heart attack and is in the hospital in an unresponsive state; the Glee clubs initial reaction is to respond with messages of hope from their various faith traditions; however, Sue finds a way to ban all spirituality from school grounds so Rachel is forced to struggle with her own Jewish understanding of prayer off school property.  Listen as she shares this song from ….

Season 2, Episode 3   Rachel’s Song                         “Papa Can You Hear Me?”

It is that kind of craziness that God wants to speak to and will speak to.  God is willing, ready and able to speak to us.  Even in our own lives.  When we're feeling discouraged and empty.  When our families are falling apart.  When our finances are crumbling.  When we have no hope for the future, we need the word of the Lord!  And God wants to and will speak to us.

How does God speak to us today?  First of all, God speaks to us through the written word.  What we call the Bible.  God's word is alive and active.  It can speak to us.

Secondly, God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.   God can also speak to us through other people, tap on the shoulder, events, circumstances, and spiritual nudges….

I don’t think the problem is on the sending end of the communication process.  God is still speaking. I wonder if more of the problem is that we tend not to listen.  Perhaps we are more like Eli’s sons than we like to imagine.  They’ve totally tuned God out.  God speaks through the Bible, but today only about 17% of Americans actually read their Bible on a regular basis.  God speaks to us through other people, but how can we really get their insights if we hide behind our pretenses and fail to be honest about our reality. God speaks to us through circumstances, but often we’re just so busy flyin through life, that we don’t even see open windows around us.

Perhaps we need to look more closely at Samuel Turning Towards God and Tuning In.  I’m not suggesting you need to go live in a temple or other sacred space, but what would it mean for each of us to carve out more sacred time in our daily lives so we could actually listen for God.

Secondly, we to respond to what we hear.  Now there’s another big difference between Eli's sons and Samuel -- Samuel not only listened to the voice of God, he actually responded to what he heard.  I don't know about you but I have developed a tremendous skill called selective hearing.  You may have noticed it in your spouse, or a child, or other people you know.  I only hear what I want to hear …and I only respond to things that are engaging to me.    I do the same thing with God sometimes.  I read in the Bible where it says "Forgive those who have hurt you".  I say "Well, God, I think I'll skip that part …”  I hear but I don’t respond  It says "Love your enemies".  I hear ... but I pretend that I don’t.  It’s selective hearing.  Ever been on the sending side of those communication efforts.  It’s frustrating to say the least.  Usually ends up with louder and louder attempts or we just throw our hands in the air and say “it’s like talking to a wall…” We long for new patterns of communication.  Therapists call the solution “closing the communication loop”.  You let people know you are listening to them by actually responding to what they are saying.  (and one of those non-committal grunt-like sounds doesn’t cut it)

As we hear God's voice, and as God gives us a little nudge to do something we need to learn to respond.  Step out and try it and we'll develop an ear and heart to hear God's voice. God is willing ready and able to speak to you.  And God is going to guide you and give you new hope and encouragement, strength, energy and joy as you listen and obey.  It’s great to be part of a denomination where we lift up a “Still Speaking God”.  May we also be “Still Listening People”.

Getting to Know God via Glee: Part 3 - God of Grace

A Sermon Preached at Journey United Church of Christ on June 26, 2011.  Based in part on “The God You’re Looking For” by Bill Hybels. 


This weeks Glee feature:  Season 1, Episode 10 "The Power of Ballad




In this country, life as we know it, is largely based on performance.  As kids, we are taught that if you really want something, you have to earn it.  See if any of these ring a bell.  Sit still on the way to grandpa and grandma’s house and you’ll get…(a cookie).  If you study hard, do your homework, you’ll get … (an “A” on your report card).  Run your sprints, work out in the weight room, practice your lay-ups and … (you’ll make the team).  As adults we know the same rules apply (more or less).  If you want a promotion, you have to …(put in the long hours proving yourself).   If you want to lose a few pounds … (cut out the desserts and hit the gym).  If you want to succeed – be it vocationally, athletically, financially  -- you’ve got to work hard … make it happen.


Unfortunately, many of us bring the rules of those games into other areas of our lives where perhaps the fit is not so good … when we come to church, as we think about our faith, as we share in a relationship with God.  It’s almost as if we say to our selves, “If we can please mom and dad, teachers and coaches, bosses and co-workers by being good … then surely we ought to be able to please God by being good and doing good.’ I say that’s unfortunate because that line of thinking … that approach to our spirituality … inevitably puts us on a never-ending treadmill … the treadmill of good words (moral self-improvement).  And in the end, we get nothing from that treadmill but some serious blisters …


So, today, we’re going to flip things upside down a bit … As we continue our series on “Getting to Know God” we’re going to celebrate the GRACE of God.


Bound up in who God is, is an inclination to bestow benefits on undeserving people.  Ephesians 2:8-9 say  "You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve.  This is God's gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own."


In order to fully understand and appreciate that idea…to see grace for what it really is.  To move us toward that end, look with me a “hypo-thetical situation.” (from Bill Hybels "The God You're Looking For").  


Let’s say tomorrow morning you’re getting ready to leave your house.  You walk out your front door and you notice something a tad bit unusual…You notice the 15 year old kid who lives a couple of houses down from you… it’s not so much that he is weird, but his actions are a bit unusual.  You see, he doesn’t have his license yet.  But you watch as he illegally gets in the family car, backs out of the driveway like a madman, and starts to drive away.  You’re concerned not only because you know what he’s doing is not legal, but you’re also concerned because you know there’s trouble in that household.  You’re not sure what it is, but you’ve heard the rumors … the parents aren’t getting along, a break-up is probably going to happen soon, and the kids are caught in the middle.  There’s trouble there.  Then you see the kids coming down the street.  He’s driving faster than he ought to drive, and he’s sitting low in the seat, and his steering is kind of out of control.  And when he gets by your house, the car suddenly veers off to the side and he mows down your mailbox, he drives through your bushes and he crunches the fence you finally got up last week.  The car stops.  The kid’s okay.


Now, you’ve got a decision to make.  Think about it.  What are you going to say to this kid?  How are you going to treat him?  You have three choices:


You might treat him with justice Justice means you give somebody exactly what they deserve.  You get exactly what you deserve.  Some of you might go up to the kid and say “You messed up, so I’m going to treat with you justice.  I’m going to call the police, the police are going to come, you’re going to get arrested, you’re going to be cited for driving without a license and driving carelessly.  And then I’m going to take you to my mailbox and show you the damage you did and I’m going to take you bushes, and the fence … and you’re going to pay.  And I’m going to call your parents and tell them to come and get you.”  If you treated that boy with justice, you’re not a bad person.  You’re treating him exactly as he deserved, no more, no less.  You’re just a person who knows justice.


     SEASON 1, EPISODE 10  Quinn’s parents respond to her pregnancy (31:25 – 34:21)


However, some of you might choose another option.  You might choose for whatever reason to treat the kid with mercy. What is mercy?  Mercy is when you know what someone deserves, but you give them a little less punishment than what they deserve. You take a bit of the sting away.  You give them a little less than they deserve.  So what you say to the kid is this:  “I’m not going to call the police because I don’t want to get you in trouble with the law and all that.  But I am going to call your parents and we are going to establish the cost of the damages and you’re going to pay me back”.  If you did that, you would be merciful.  And the kid ought to be grateful that you were merciful because you could have been just.


     SEASON 1, EPISODE 10   Finn’s Mom responds  (34:28-34:50)


Now it’s possible that some of you would choose a third option – an option that doesn’t make much sense … it’s radical. You might decide to treat the kid with grace. You might help the kid out of the car and say, “OK, you messed up.  I mean you mowed down my mailbox, you ruined my bushes, you destroyed my fence that it took me half the summer to build.  But I’m not going to call the police because I don’t want to you have a record at 15 years old.  And you know what, I’m not even sure that I want to get you in a whole lot of trouble with your parents.  And well, I guess the mailbox, the bushes, the fence … I can fix all those.  I can pay for them and I will.  But how about you and me go inside and find a place where we can sit down, get something to eat, and I can find out a little more about you, what’s going on in your life, what the future holds for you.  Would you do that with me?” That’s GRACE.  Giving people what they don’t deserve.   And that’s how God relates to each of us each and every day.  Grace is an outrageous blessing freely bestowed on a totally undeserving people.  


You see, when we accept that grace, take it from God … it has real power in our life … not only in the way we relate to God, but also the way we relate to others … you see we want to in turn start spreading grace because of what it might accomplish in other people’s lives.  All day every day we walk around and we’re pretty good at justice.  “You bump me and I’ll bump you back”  Every once in a while when we’re in an extraordinarily good mood we might be merciful to someone.  “I’ll give you a break today.”  “You bump me and I’ll bump you back a little less forcefully.”   But what God would like for us to do, is for US to act out of grace as well.  God wants us to release outrageous acts of random graciousness.


It's not unlike the parable, guarding what we have, watching to see that someone doesn't have it better than we do…doesn't get more of a break. In the parable the landowner replies, “I just wanted to be gracious.  I just wanted to perform a random, senseless act of grace. To have them say "Do you believe this.  I worked only one hour.  I don’t deserve this and yet here it is.”  If we treat each other around this church, in our families, in our workplace, in our neighborhoods with justice, we’re just being square with each other.  It’s kind of the status quo.  If we’re occasionally merciful with each other, that’ll warm things up a bit.  But it tell you, if every once in a while you perform a random, senseless act of grace-giving where you.  


Are you open to grace?  Will you open your heart up and take it in for it’s richness and its fullness.?  And will you commit yourself in response to receiving that grace to sharing that grace through senseless acts of graciousness?  Will you receive and give the Touch of Grace?  I invite you to a time of reflection as we listen to the Glee Clubs response to Quinn and Finn ... 


Song of Reflection:  SEASON 1, EPISODE 10       (38:49-42:10)  “Lean On”

Closing Prayer:

For being a God of Graciousness we offer up our prayer of thanksgiving.  Move us now and touch us with your grace.  Help us to acknowledge that it is true and it is real.  Help us by faith to receive it and spread it.  Help us to live in it, be liberated by it and motivated by your grace – that grace which is nothing short of amazing.  Amen.