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Sermon 11/20/2005
Calm Of a Call Obeyed
~ by Tom Kinder
November 20, 2005, Twenty-seventh Sunday after
Pentecost, Reign of Christ Sunday, Thanksgiving
Sunday, Neighbors In Need Sunday
First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont,
UCC
Psalm 95; Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Matthew 25:31-46
Thanksgiving is a time to remember those things
for which we are grateful in this life. We need
a day of Thanksgiving for at least two reasons.
One is that we are not always as grateful as we
could be, even when we are aware of life’s
gifts. Another is that there are things for which
we cannot feel grateful, and sometimes they seem
so overwhelming that we forget that there are
still some things for which we should be giving
thanks.
This second point does not take much effort to
experience. Just tune into the news or pick up
the newspaper and begin reading, and it probably
won’t be long before you feel gratitude draining
right out of you.
This past Thursday the Valley News published an
opinion piece by former President Jimmy Carter.
He began his article with these words: “In
recent years, I have become increasingly concerned
by a host of radical government policies that
now threaten many basic principles espoused by
all previous administrations, Democratic and Republican.
“These include the rudimentary American commitment
to peace, economic and social justice, civil liberties,
our environment and human rights.
“Also endangered are our historic commitments
to providing citizens with truthful information,
treating dissenting voices and beliefs with respect,
state and local autonomy and fiscal responsibility.
“At the same time, our political leaders
have declared independence from the restraints
of international organizations and have disavowed
long-standing global agreements—including
agreements on nuclear arms, control of biological
weapons and the international system of justice.”
President Carter then went on to back up his allegations
with detailed examples. If you missed his piece
but saw the rest of the paper Thursday, you would
have had your gratitude drained just as effectively.
In fact, if Carter had only known what the news
was going to be on the day his piece was published,
he would not have needed to say any more than
what I just read.
The day’s stories gave all the supporting
evidence. Six more U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
The top aide to the Vice President accused of
unethical behavior, lies that are tangled up in
how the Administration pressured us into the war
with Iraq. Another story on congress considering
making the stripping of some of our rights permanent,
so that our government might from now on spy on
parts of our lives that have traditionally been
private. There were stories on our Administration’s
claiming the right to torture prisoners, and on
the 83,000 prisoners they have held without due
process of law since 2001. There was a story on
nuclear proliferation. A story on the increase
of disease and death already being caused by global
warming, affecting especially the poor. And there
were reminders in Thursday’s paper that our
government has just cut health programs that helped
the poor when they were sick, and at the same
time that our government is giving huge tax breaks
to the rich.
A bumper sticker says, “If you are not outraged
you are not paying attention.” How can we
pay attention and be appropriately outraged and
yet at the same time be grateful? Do we have to
practice deep denial this Thursday when we sit
down to give thanks?
I don’t think so. In the midst of suffering
or tragedy or struggle against outrages, we can
always be grateful for those who minister to our
pain or who lead us out of the situation causing
us pain. One prophet speaking boldly against wrong
can outweigh a whole paper full of bad news. We
can feel grateful for President Carter’s
courage and for his faithfulness to traditional
American values. As Christians we can feel grateful
for how he embodies the spirit of Jesus Christ
at a time when Christians active in politics are
too often most un-Christlike. Carter not only
preaches what Jesus preached, he practices what
Jesus practiced. He has just written a new book
entitled Our Endangered Values: America’s
Moral Crisis, but he has also been building houses
for the poor in Georgia and traveling on peace-making
missions around the world.
We can be grateful every time any person preaches
what Jesus preached and practices what Jesus practiced,
because it is beautiful and encouraging to see.
What we are seeing is more than just good works
or good words from good people. We are actually
seeing a glimpse into another world. It is as
if we live most of the time in a room with thick
curtains drawn on the windows, in a realm of darkness.
Every person who follows Christ faithfully is
like someone who comes and parts the curtains
a little, and a brilliant shaft of morning light
bursts through the crack.
Both Ezekiel and Jesus were telling us urgent
information about this other realm of light in
today’s scriptures. They were telling us
how we can live in it, and warning us of how we
might miss it and remain in darkness forever.
Their message is very simple. If you think only
of your self-interest and do nothing to help others
who are weak or vulnerable, you will remain in
darkness. But if you think of God’s interests
and the interests of others and overcome your
selfishness, you will enter God’s realm of
light. If you are like a good Shepard, or at least
a kind sheep, you will enter the green pasture
of God’s realm. As God says through Ezekiel,
“I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue
them from all the places to which they have scattered
on a day of…thick darkness.”
This is the greatest source of gratitude we can
have, a source that no one can take away from
us—no one but ourselves. It does not matter
whether we are dying in a hospital or being tortured
in a prison or starving in poverty or traveling
through a strange land. This good news follows
us everywhere: a realm of light exists just on
the other side of the curtains of our darkness.
We can enter it by parting the curtains ourselves,
if we can reach them. Or if we cannot, we can
look to those who can, the people of the light
who have heard the call of the prophets and put
aside their self-interest and come forward to
minister to our pain and to lead us to a better
realm.
If we look at life carefully, we can see the judgments
that Ezekiel and Jesus talk about. Ezekiel says
we are judged on whether we have made ourselves
fat by butting other weaker sheep out of the way.
Jesus says in the gospel that we are judged on
whether we have used our talents to help the hungry,
the sick, the stranger and the prisoner—in
other words our neighbor in need. We cannot see
the afterlife, but we can see consequences in
this life to living so selfishly that we neglect
others. If we are wise we will see that the costs
of selfishness far outweigh the benefits, and
the benefits of living in the light and serving
the interests of God’s realm far outweighs
the costs.
Let me bring in a few wealthy, famous celebrities
to attest to this truth. The tennis champion Arthur
Ashe says, “From what we get, we can make
a living; what we give, however, makes a life.”
The movie star, Catherine Deneuve, says, “Giving
to others heals me, as the Indians healed themselves
with herbs. They did not understand what the herbs
did, how they operated, they knew only their healing
powers. So with me. I do not want to know what
there is about the process of giving that heals
me. It is my herb. I must not try to pick it apart.
Just use it and know what it does and be grateful.”
And the wealthy investor, John Templeton, who
founded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion,
says, “Trust in God….makes for a pervasive
sense of gratitude for the blessings of everyday
existence and that gratitude in turn flows out
in efforts to help others. If you are seeking
wholeheartedly to help other people, you cannot
prevent rewards coming back to you in terms of
friendship and love, which are, after all, life’s
most important gifts. Happiness comes to those
who try to give happiness to others.”
These three people each gained worldly riches,
fame and success, and each came to see the selfish
use of gain as a way that leads ultimately to
unhappiness, unhealthiness and an empty life.
They learned through experience the judgments
Jesus pronounced in today’s teaching.
In a few minutes we will sing a hymn written by
R.B.Y. Scott, an Old Testament professor at McGill
and Princeton who was well known in the mid-20th
Century as a teacher, preacher and prophet. His
hymn prays,
"O Day of God, draw near in beauty and in
power,
Come with your timeless judgment now to match
our present hour.
Bring to our troubled minds, uncertain and afraid,
The quiet of a steadfast faith, calm of a call
obeyed."
If you are outraged by what is going on in the
world, these words may help you find the way to
gratitude, hope and peace. God’s realm is
near, within and around us, waiting for us to
part the curtain and see its beauty and its power.
As full as the world may be of bad news—enough
to trouble our minds with uncertainty and fear
for the future—this same world gives rise
to people of steadfast faith. Some are presidents
or famous athletes or actors or wealthy business
people, but many are people like us who gather
under the steeples of village churches. Every
time one of us obeys God’s call and follows
Christ’s way of loving and serving, a little
more light comes into this world from God’s
realm. And just that little bit is enough to bring
us quiet and calm. This is the good news that
can make us grateful beyond the ability of bad
news to overcome. The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness does not overcome it. We can
thank God for this in all circumstances. The darker
they are, the more thankful we can be.
Let us pray in silence, asking God what we might
be called to do to help the hungry, the stranger,
the sick or the prisoner. What acts can we do
to bring more light into this world, and to bring
calm and gratitude to our hearts? Let us pray…Amen
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