Let’s get right to it this morning

Sermon for Friends Congregational Church

“So Many Opportunities, So Little Time”

Delivered by Reverend Dan De Leon

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Psalm 66:1-9; Galatians 6:7-10; Luke 10:16-20

Let’s get right to it this morning. Jesus isn’t mixing words, so we shouldn’t either. From Luke’s gospel, we hear Jesus pronounce in a very evangelical tongue, “He who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” We can infer from this that if one rejects Christ, one rejects God. That inference, however, is an example of Christian dogma, not gospel truth.

I could tell you that if you accept Christ and then live a life that is morally upright, not mixing socially with deviants, giving your tithe to the church, walking the straight and narrow, saying ‘no’ to drugs, drinking your milk and staying in school that you will be in good standing with God; and that God will only bring good things to you as a reward for your righteous living. But I’m not going to preach that message, because I don’t believe that. And I don’t think that any of you do either. In fact, don’t think that anyone who searches the depths of their souls can truly believe that. So I’m saving us from an unneeded argument this morning.

What I do want to preach on is this: Jesus Christ is here. God in Christ is present among us here and now. As the song says, Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room. Christ is in the world. And just as sure as I am standing here, everyone in this room and everyone in this world has rejected Christ. We have all rejected Jesus not once or twice, but many times even in our very recent past.

What I’m saying is that God in Christ is not some far off God on a cloud that we accept as our Lord and savior and leave it at that. God in Christ is our neighbor, our friend, our sister, our brother, our peer, our fellow church member, and we have rejected this Christ from time to time even after we have been baptized or possibly even uttered the sincere words, “I accept Jesus as my Lord and savior.”

What I want to preach on this morning is that Jesus is present in this world, and our time in this world is short. In this limited time in this very small world, we are given opportunities every day to reject Christ or to seize Christ, and, thereby, to gain favor with God who writes our names in heaven, as Jesus says.

Our time is short. The 4^th of July was dreary and gray, and most of this weekend and the week before have been drenched with relentless rainfall, so I’ve had a little more time on my hands to think. Now, when I think about our time being short, our days being limited, I ponder the ongoing trend of movies, especially summer blockbusters. Everything is either a remake or a sequel. And I love it.

I loved Die Hard when it came out in 1988, so I’m ecstatic over the fourth installment of the John McClain franchise with Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard. When I was in elementary school, I was introduced to the world of Transformers, and I watched the Transformers TV show every morning, and I stood in line jumping for joy in 1986 when the Transformers animated movie hit the big screen. (I even had the constructicons. Transformers dorks, let’s talk after the worship service). So, I’m very pleased that the Transformers CGI flick has hit theaters. And I collected comic books, hundreds of comic books, when I was in the 6^th grade. And the main comic book I collected was—wait for it—Spider-man. So, Spider-man 3 was a must-see for this guy. And I look forward to next summer when they release the next Batman remake, the next Hulk remake and yet another sequel to the Rambo franchise, starring Sly himself.

But, as the They Might Be Giants song reminds me, “I’m older than I’ve ever been, and now I’m even older,” so I have precious little time to see all of these movies. And as I get older, I’m getting worried that they won’t be able to remake all of the movies I want to see or add enough sequels to make me feel that the story has been adequately told. I want to be around long enough to see Wonder Woman and Aqua-man on the big screen. I want to be around long enough to see Freddy vs. Jason vs. Mike Myers vs. Alien vs. Predator vs. Superman vs. Batman.

But I don’t have enough time. What worries me more is that I won’t have enough time to keep up with my son and the movies that will excite him when he gets to be an adult. Of course he’ll have his own slew of remakes and sequels. I imagine him coming to visit me in 20 years and saying, “Dad, me and the boys are going to see the new Finding Nemo remake. We’re super-pumped because it’s rated R since all of its fans are adults now. It’s called Nemo’s Revenge: The Fin of Fury. And then we’re going to go see Veggie Tales 3: Silly Songs Forever. And we might go see the Rise and Fall of Paris Hilton, but they should’ve gotten someone younger than Dakota Fanning to play the role of Paris.”

So many remakes and sequels, so little time. So many opportunities, so precious little time. I do wonder, in all seriousness, about those movies that our children will see 20 years from now, and how they will depict the world from which they were reaped. Will our children have the option to see movies like the ones that served to shape our shared understandings of tolerance, equality, hope, peace, mercy, justice and love? Will the next generation and the one after that get to see movies like: Cool Hand Luke, Dances with Wolves, Shawshank Redemption, Boys Don’t Cry, Boyz n tha Hood, Places in the Heart, Mississippi Burning, Remember the Titans, Lean on Me, Stand By Me, Field of Dreams, Philadelphia and the Color Purple.

Maybe. But I feel that future generations will only have those kinds of rich cinematic choices if the world from which future films are reaped is sowed in ways that prepares for upcoming generations’ nurture and growth. Not just movies, but toys, comic books, TV shows, and other media—they are reflections of our culture; reflections of our world—the world that you and I make together. And with this reality staring us in the face, we hear the words from Galatians that Kathy read for us, “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

Let’s be clear about this. Jesus is talking in terms of a harvest. He’s speaking in the vernacular of a farmer: sow sin, reap destruction, but sow to please the Spirit, reap eternal life. To sow is to plant, and to plant is to prepare. Jesus is speaking to how you and I make preparations in our lives. So, now that we have brought future generations into this morning’s perspective, let’s ask this question: “Are you making preparations for you, or are you making preparations for God’s great joy?”

Are you preparing for your self-preservation, or are you preparing for other’s well-being? Are you preparing to save your skin, or are you preparing to bring mercy, justice and love into this world, possibly even while you’re still alive?...or have you given up on that because you think, “What’s the point? I’m only going to be around so long, so I’ve got to look out for number one and give whatever time I have left over to God.”

Well, I wish I could preach otherwise, but our time on this earth is limited. I might not be around long enough to see the remake of Star Wars with good acting and anyone besides George Lucas in the director’s chair. But what I can preach is our constant reminder: Death is dead, God is love, in Christ all things are made new, and God’s Holy Spirit, that lives in each of us, is a resource for and reminder of the eternal kingdom of God.

Go back and hear Galatians 6:9-10: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Don’t give up. Do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers. That is the opposite of a rejection of Christ who is alive and in the world. That is seizing every opportunity that God puts in front of our faces. That is preparing for God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Do you hear that reoccurring theme: prepare, seize every opportunity, prepare, sow from God’s Holy Spirit, not your own selfish desires, prepare? Do you hear that? The gospel message about eternal life is amazing, but it has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with everyone. The kingdom of God is not yours to enjoy. The kingdom of God is everyone’s to live in. And to get your name written in heaven, as Jesus says, means that we don’t righteously prepare for the self-preservation of number one. Getting your name written in heaven means that we selflessly prepare for the enactment of mercy, justice and love in the here and now for all of God’s people, even the ones that we will never meet, and even future generations that will forget we ever existed until we are all made one in glory.

Now, I often take issue with some of Paul’s stuff that he writes in the New Testament. And as I was wrestling with this morning’s Galatians passage, I had trouble with this part of Paul’s letter: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers.” Why should the family of believers get priority? I loathe the notion that the Church is for insiders, and only the insiders get special treatment because we’re pure and righteous. We reject Christ just as much as the next guy every day, so why should we receive priority?

But the Church is God’s gift to us. The Church is part of God’s gift to the world, so our stewardship of the Church is crucial to the enactment of God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. And remember what we heard last week? If the world is ever going to take the Church seriously, the Church has to be radically different from the world? The Church can’t have the strength to be radically different if it is poorly cared for. The Church can’t have the tenacity to sow from God’s Holy Spirit in the face of this world’s temptation to focus on the self if the family of believers aren’t upholding and uplifting one another. Change starts at home. Health starts and home. Growth starts at home. This is home.

As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers. Seize every opportunity. You may have passed by our clipboards that ask for volunteers to clean the fountain and serve as greeters and help prepare communion—you may have passed by those clipboards a hundred times, or you might not have noticed them before. Notice them now. Seize every opportunity.

Or the clipboard thing might not be for you. Volunteering in the nursery or cleaning the fountain or serving as a lay leader in worship might not be your thing. Opportunities for ministry in this church aren’t limited to a laundry list on a clipboard. You are an opportunity, and you being here is our shared opportunity, and we need to seize every opportunity to embrace new ideas for ministry, new ways for our church to make a difference in this community, new ways to stay healthy as a congregation, and new ways to do good to those who belong to this family of believers.

You might be waiting for that opportunity to present itself in your life where you can find a place to call home, and in that home you find more opportunities to seize for the sake of God’s kingdom ministry, and in that home you find the strength and confidence enough to bring your own ideas for how to do good to all people to the table, and in that home you come to know the presence of Christ. This place might be that home.

One last observation this morning. When the 72 disciples return to Jesus after a hard day’s work, they’re full of excitement. And Jesus seems to feed their excitement when he says, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning from the sky.” If there was ever a battle cry to stir a crowd, that was it. We’re accustomed to picturing people calmly gathered around Jesus, and Jesus teaching the masses in a soft tone. But these words from Luke’s gospel make me picture Jesus riding on a horse, riding up and down ranks of disciples who are waiting for him to say ‘charge.’ And Jesus beats his chest and says, “My brothers and sisters, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning from the sky!” And everyone holds their fists in the air and yells for joy.

Sounds like a confidence booster, but it’s not. It’s a warning. Now, you may view Satan as a red-skinned Minotaur with a pitchfork or you may interpret Satan as a metaphor for the very candid evil that exists in our world in myriad forms. But whatever your theology about Satan, we have to recognize that Jesus speaks about Satan in this morning’s gospel. We also have to recognize that Jesus is a Jew, and Jewish evangelism is more about Satan being a crafty tempter that is rampant in this world. So, Satan being thrown from heaven might not be such a good thing. Revelation 12:12 reads, “Rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”

Satan is filled with fury because he condemned to our world and his time is short. Satan is focused on things that are limited, he is hell-bent on his self-preservation. Our God, however, is, by nature, liberated into a realm of justice, mercy and love, and our God exists now and forever more so that we might live in communion with God. So, are we seizing opportunities in this world for Satan, or are we seizing every opportunity in our lives for God? Satan’s time is short, but God is eternal.

When I focus on me, then life is short. But when I focus on all, then life is eternal.

When I focus on competition, greed and materialism, then life is short. But when I focus on justice, then life is eternal.

When I focus on hatred and elitism, and when I judge others based on their origins or their genders, their social class, their clothing, or their cultural status, then life is tragically short. But when I focus on mercy, then life is eternal.

When I focus on fear so much that I fear others taking my life away from me, then life is short. But when I focus on love, then life is eternal.

Think of it like this: You are an opportunity. Your very life is an opportunity. And God sees you. God sees every opportunity. And out of God’s abundant love God seizes every opportunity and cradles it close. God seizes every opportunity and creates from that opportunity something beautiful and calls it good. We are made in the image of this God of abundant love. Our years in this world are short. For the sakes of God’s justice, mercy, and love, shouldn’t we seize every opportunity? While there’s still time, for the sake of Christ, shouldn’t we seize every opportunity?