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I recently learned that the
game of Clue! has been updated — it has a different game
board than the one that was out when I was a child. I do know
that the game is very popular with the children in our Wednesday
Club mentoring program at Northpoint School. That, and chess,
are but two of the games in which the children delight to win
out over their adult friends.
The mentors give of their time on a regular basis — the
program has been around for five years now, and four school principals
have expressed appreciation for the way this congregation reaches
out. Some of the original mentors are still there, and each year
there are new challenges — each year we have to read the
clues, check out the environment, gauge the available volunteers
and recognize that we can't do it all. There is more need
than we can meet, even with assistance from others in the community.
But — what we can do — we do. And that includes assisting
children with reading, with math that often makes more sense
to them than to us, and it includes playing games with children,
includes celebrating with them when they win, even if their winning
means that we have "lost."
That program is not, specifically, an evangelism program. We
do not even, in so many words, share the good news of God's
love in Jesus the Christ. We "only" are there every
week. We "only" invest time, and energy, and enthusiasm,
in children from the neighborhoods near to where we worship the
God of love. We "only" provide clues. The adults
who are there, at least those from this congregation, are there
in part because we understand that our God calls on us to share
what we have received — and especially to the little ones,
the ones who are struggling, the ones who, perhaps, require a
little extra grace in order to succeed.
The readings for today provide clues to God's love. The
23rd Psalm is one of the passages that "used to be" memorized
by every child in Sunday school in every church in the land.
Many churches today, including this one, are returning to helping
children memorize at least some passages of Scripture. We often
think of the 23rd Psalm as one of comfort, and thus is it included
in many memorial or funeral services. The psalm offers a balanced
approach to theology, to understanding life in God's design.
It doesn't deny that there are hard times in life — not
with shadowed valleys, surrounding enemies, potential lynch mobs,
ordeals and even death. Every life has hard times — some,
it seems, more than their fair share. What the Psalmist has experienced,
and gives testimony to, is that in the midst of the hard times,
even when all around us seems darkest and we wonder if things
will every come out right, God is with us. It gives us words
for the radical trust in God in the midst of terror, enmity and
death. Such a trust empowers us to believe that life has Christian
meaning even though our immediate experience may be telling us
otherwise. Faith in Jesus does not require us to be blind to
the realities of life, our own or others, but rather to pay attention
to the clues, to make the best choices we can, and to trust that
God is with us, even when we face challenges, even when we are
rightfully afraid.
Many of you know that I have recently been through a truly
frightening experience with my eyes. In the midst of a terrible
sinus infection, it was discovered that the fuzziness in my vision
was not, as I had thought, due to the sinus infection — but
rather to a detached retina in my right eye. To add to the confusion
and potential terror, the left eye also had tears in it, and
needed to be repaired to prevent it from also detaching. In about
ten minutes, I went from a minor question about my vision to
having the vision in both eyes severely at risk. The outcome
has been wonderful — I have been well supported by my husband,
by Jim and others on the staff, by Becky Mentzer who picked up
the pieces of our Lenten study, and by untold numbers of prayers.
What is apparently a hereditary weakness — my mother had
a retinal detachment two years ago — has been corrected.
My vision, my ministry has been spared, and I am grateful beyond
words. Grateful to God for grace in the midst of fear, for the
promise of comfort even when the physical evidence was to the
contrary, for love and support and medical marvels. And I urge
each of you, if you EVER see flashes of light in your eyes, or
have new floaters, new cloudiness in your vision — GET
THEE to the EYE DOCTOR immediately!
Fear often gets a grip on us, from the young child who is certain
there is a monster under the bed to the sudden medical challenge
at any age to the frail elder who knows that a fall could mean
the end of independence and even death. Youth is a time of life
when humans are seeking independence, are reaching beyond prior
parental boundaries, are learning to make choices that will affect
lives, experiencing the effects of their choices, making mistakes
and disappointing friends and parents and teachers and most of
all themselves — but learning, growing, maturing.
We're all afraid, some of the time — and, I'm
sorry to tell you young people, but at every stage of life. As
some ancient maps used to indicate at the edge — HERE BE
DRAGONS! Here there is danger! In life, there are real threats
to you and to those you care about. There is reason to be on
alert, reason to look around you cautiously, reason to think
carefully before you act. And yet — there is also reason
for confidence, for trust, for moving forward into the future
where God beckons.
At every stage of life, like the psalmist, we have a choice — we
can choose to live fearfully, or lovingly. We can cower, or we
can stand up to our challenges. We can take advantage of the
clues that we are given, and make informed choices. As part of
a community of faith, we have access to conversation and reflection
with others who have lived longer than we — who have faced
dangers in their lives, who were also once young and starting
life, who like us were confused and frightened by the choices
and by the terrible things that do come along — but who
have survived, and who can help us learn to survive and even
to become stronger and wiser and healthier for having faced our
own challenges. Many of these older-than-we persons have learned
to invite holiness into the chaotic ordinary times of their lives.
All lives have chaotic times. We can learn from them, and from
one another. Or we can pretend that we are the only ones in the
history of the world who have had difficult times, and try to
hide our pain. We can lie, and say that we are fine when we are
not. We can "put on a happy face" even when what
we want to do, need to do, is weep. There's a time for
setting our own pain aside, but most of us try to do that too
much of the time. We hide, from others, from ourselves, and we
try to hide from God.
Too often, like those who questioned Jesus in the temple, we
miss the signs, the evidence, the clues, that are all around
us. Or we see them, and don't realize their meaning. We
get so busy making a living that we don't have, or at least
don't take, time to LIVE, in the fullness that God has
designed. Time to reflect. Time to do something for another.
Time to simply "be still and know" that our God is
one who cares, who is there for us in good times and bad. Time
to read the stories of God's love, and learn from them.
We try to protect ourselves, and sometimes that results in our
missing the abundant evidence of God's care for us that
is all around. Or we may spend Sunday morning with God, but forget
that God cares about us each and every day of the week. God asks
us to reflect the love we have received, wherever we find ourselves.
We each have a vocation, a task, for which we have gifts and
skills and the ability to make a difference in the world. Something
that only we can do, that the world needs desperately.
The May 2004 issue of Homiletics reflects the thinking of the
two primary reformed theologians, Martin Luther and our own John
Calvin. Andi Ashworth in Real Love for Real Life: The Art
and Work of Caring reflects that "Luther wrote that
our vocations come to us through the positions in which God has
placed us, and through which we love our neighbor as ourselves.
Our positions include the many ways we related to others, inside
and outside our paid occupations—as a husband or wife,
a child, a parent, a church member, a citizen. Calvin added to
this by saying that God has given each person specific talents
and gifts that should be used for the sake of others."
It may take some time, and some mistakes, but keep looking.
Keep trying different combinations until you find the one — or
more likely — ones — that fit. Ask God to show you
what YOUR next step in faith could be. And then pay attention.
Look around you. And give God the credit, and the glory, now
and forever. Amen.
(Some reference to Clue game — not Mrs. _________ in
the parlor with the ____, but Jesus in the dark of night with
the touch of love.) |
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