CELEBRATING:
SERMONS
15 - March 2009
A sermon delivered by Rev. Gordon How
March 15, 2009 "Lent leads to Easter - with an
eye on change."
Recently… lunchtime down on Arbutus .. near the
village at the fish shop where the halibut and French
fries are the best ever! Now I don't usually order fries
but this place has particularly good fries, nice and
thin and hot and done just right with some seasoning
that makes me enjoy and remember … and want some
more. My apologies if you skipped breakfast this morning
and are feeling a tad peckish.
So the man delivers my plate and I begin to eat. And
almost immediately, I have some ketchup moments. It
seemed every time I reached around and dipped a fry
into the ketchup and then brought it up to eat, some
little bit of ketchup would drip, on my sweater, or
on my trousers or one time, on my shoe. After a few
minutes of this, it occurred to me that I was going
to show up at my afternoon visit looking like one of
the characters of a blood-soaked horror movie. So, I
deliberated and analyzed the situation and I realized
that I had accepted the plate as it had been given to
me with the fish in front, the French fries in the back
and the ketchup on the back rim. That meant that to
ketchup my fries (I am now using ketchup as a verb)
to ketchup my fries, I had to reach around the fish
and load up a fry and draw it across the plate. This
was simply too much hang time for the ketchup. I did
the only thing I could. I turned the plate around. And
my ketchup problem disappeared.
I have reflected on this. Why would I sit there, moment
by moment increasing my debt to the dry cleaners and
risking my reputation as a reasonably hygienic person
with my plate in the wrong position? The answer is,
it came that way and I got used to it. Lord, how hard
it is to change.
Politicians are always talking about change. I heard
a story of a politician who was out trying to get votes
so he drove up to a house on a dirt road, got out of
his car and walked up to the door, speech prepared.
All he was able to say was, "Good day, madam, my
name is…" and the woman started in. "I
know who you are you son of a goose. You're the lowdownest,
floor flushing, double-talking, graft taking miserable
excuse for a public servant. I wouldn't vote for you
if you were running for dogcatcher. Now get off my porch
before I get my shotgun and do a bit of my own public
service!" With that she slammed the door. So the
politician shrugged, turned and went back to his car.
He picked up a clipboard, took his pencil and ticked
a box on the sheet of paper. Undecided.
Why is it so hard to change? I'm not talking about
plates on tables, but about relationships, about our
attitudes, about the way we see the world. Why is it
so hard to change? And if it is hard to change in ordinary
affairs - in things of temper, or patterns of behavior
- how much more difficult, it seems, is it to grow and
change as people of the faith.
I once preached a sermon about the discipline of prayer
(in another church - don't worry I'm not referring to
any of you in this!) I thought I had many wise things
to say. Lots of valuable insights. And perhaps those
listening to me were saying to themselves "yes,
that's right, I need to pray more and deeper".
The next Sunday three people said to me they loved the
message last week. I asked, "Did you pray more
and deeper because of it?" They all answered, "No."
Lord, how difficult it is to change.
Jesus in the story we heard from John 9, puts his finger
on one reason it is so hard to change, especially spiritually.
The Pharisees in this story cannot and do not change
because they are wedded to a logic that they cannot
untie. "We are disciples of Moses they say and
Moses said to keep the Sabbath, but this man does not
keep the Sabbath so he must be a sinner and therefore
cannot have opened the eyes of this man." In other
words, that's where they were and that's where they
wanted to be. Jesus kept running into this. Do you remember
his encounter with the lawyer in Matthew, when the lawyer
stood up and asked Jesus a question? The record says,
and he said, seeking to justify himself…
Seeking to justify himself. Do we not justify ourselves?
There is perhaps no greater barrier to change in human
beings that self-justification. On our only visit to
Paris, in 1991, Valerie and I went to the Louvre - early
on a Wed morning, before opening time to get in the
front of the line - only to find it already open and
we were before anyone else - except a large family of
Italians. We kept bumping into them at the Flemish painters
and the Dutch Painters and the German painters and the
Spanish painters. After an hour or so, we sat on bench
to plan out next move. And suddenly there was a commotion.
And the large family of Italians were there and they
had obviously decided to take pictures. So one family
member was designated as photographer and the rest lined
up in front of this statue, a nude of a goddess. And
as they just about got to the "cheese" part,
the father of this clan reached up and grabbed the statue
by the breast and smiled broadly. Well - out of nowhere
came a female guard shouting and waving and telling
the man to unhand the statue and not to touch anything
in the museum. Now mind you, she was speaking in French
and the man was answering in Italian and I only spoke
English, but that was the gist of it.
But then the man grabbed the guard and with a grin
pulled her over to the family as if to invite her to
be part of their family picture in front of the statue.
Well, this sent the guard in to convulsions of blistering
French and a scolding I doubt the man had ever heard
the likes of in his life. And then they moved on. A
few minutes later, we saw them again. His wife was having
words with him this time. And do you know what he was
doing? He was doing this. [gesture of defensiveness
and guilt]. As if to say, what? I was just having a
little fun.
Whenever you hear the words "I was just…"
there is self-justification going on.
I did not eat too much - I was just appreciating the
hosts food.
I'm not cheap; I was just being thrifty.
I'm not a bore; I was just sharing my opinion.
I'm not harsh; I was just being honest.
I don't gossip; I was just reporting
I'm not judgmental; I was just being realistic and she
should be too.
Lord, how hard it is to change!
So what can we do? First, we can be open to the leading
of God's spirit. Second, we can be open to and dwell
upon the story of God's interaction with humankind -
as told in the Bible. One of the things that reflecting
on the Biblical story does is tell us a different story
than the one we keep repeating to ourselves. Self-justification
comes when we keep telling ourselves the same story
we've made up about ourselves so that we don't have
to face ourselves. In the scriptures, God tells us God's
story about ourselves. And so when we read that in the
Garden of Eden man and woman sinned, the first thing
they did was to hide and then to blame each other. We
need to hear that story because it is probably different
from the one we tell ourselves.
God tells us a story about his son who wanted so much
to show us the way that he gave his life for us and
meant to found a church full of people who were not
grasping after themselves or their self interest. Rather
there were to be all about the well being and healing
and comfort and encouragement and love of one another.
We need to hear that story. Yes, we need to hear and
struggle with the stories of Jesus and the people he
met because doing so will open us up to the joy and
hallelujah of Easter! God uses the study of God's word
to make connections within us that we would never have
seen otherwise. Studying the Bible is like hooking into
a power line. It may shock you, it may hurt you, but
it will change you.
Like the story of the blind man. Given the belief
in those days that sin caused disease, the Disciples
asked Jesus who had sinned - this man or his parents
- because he was born blind. Jesus says neither, he
was born this way that God might be glorified. And he
reaches down in the mud and he puts the mud on the man's
eyes and tells him to go wash in the pool. So the man,
in faith, goes and washes and can see. He could have
derided Jesus, he could have scoffed at the effort,
he could have justified himself - I am born blind, what
can I do? But he didn't do those things…
And the first thing that happens to him is self-knowledge.
For some came and said it isn't him, it is only one
like him. But the man says, I am the man. You see, the
first step in spiritual growth is knowing the truth
about ourselves, not trying to be someone else. So they
say, how did this happen? And the man says, "the
man named Jesus made clay." That's all Jesus is
to him, a name. The man named Jesus. And really, that's
all we ever start with. Someone we've heard of named
Jesus. We don't know him, we don't know much about him,
we certainly don't love him. He's just a man named Jesus.
I find this blind-man child-like in his honesty and
simplicity. In this story he grows, but he always says
things plainly. The Pharisees hear about what had taken
place and they apply their logic that if he healed on
the Sabbath he must be a sinner and therefore could
not be from God. The man says, "I don't know anything
about that. But one thing I do know. Once I was blind,
and now I can see."
This is the true beginning of faith - a personal encounter
with what Jesus does. - with ministry in the name of
Jesus. This is true for all of us…. We may not
know a lot about the Bible, or doctrine or the church
…. but being willing to learn and to enter into
some discipline to do it makes all the difference. "Once
blind and now I can see" now I see things differently
because I see through the lens of faith. To change and
grow and become the people God would have us to be,
we must come to understand just how much we justify
ourselves, and to renounce self-justification whenever
we see it in ourselves. Then you can let faith get a
bit of traction in your heart so you can step into life
expecting to encounter God's story in the scriptures
and to encounter the Way of God in life.
But don't get thrown off by modern self-improvement
doctrine. In the self-improvement doctrine, you only
get as much out of discipline as you put into it. There
is a direct proportionality to exercise, or dieting
or the study of books or the amount of time spent in
the office. But God's economy is different.
Yes there will be challenges but there is always more
grace than effort. In almost all the encounters of Jesus
with people reported in the Bible a little bit is enough
- whether it is the woman with the widow's mite, or
the woman who reaches an anonymous hand through the
crowd to touch Jesus coat, or the lame man by the pool,
or even fraidy cat Peter who is very unsteady in his
faith, a little encounter with Jesus is enough. Even
with this blind man, it doesn't take much - a simple
obedience to wash and it is turned into the bond of
faith that changes life.
This is God's way. God is bountiful and generous beyond
counting. So much does God desire us to be in relationship,
that the least sliver of faith will be filled and expanded
beyond anything we have a right to expect. For we come
to him blind and not knowing what to do. God does though.
God in Christ reaches out and touches our eyes and by
grace allows us to see things we've never seen before,
in ourselves and in each other, in the church and in
the world. As it should, Lent leads to Easter - with
an eye on change. Funny what you can get out of a lunch
of fish and French fries and some clumsy ketchup when
you look hard enough. Amen
Sermon Resources: John 9; D. Friesen; E.M.Nichols.
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Shaughnessy Heights United Church
congregation is a Christian faith community respecting
each other in our diversity and reaching out to all
who seek God’s love.
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West 33rd Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V6M 1A7
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