Practice Spirituality

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 11/6/16

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^NRS Matthew 6: 1 "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ² "So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ³ But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ⁵ "And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ⁷ "When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. ⁹ "Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. ¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

As we gather this morning to worship, to praise God and join in fellowship let us explore the question of God. When do we search for God? What are we seeking with God? How do we find God? These are deep theological questions that each of us answers in our lifetimes hopefully. “Does God exist? Why am I here? Is there more? These questions nag at us incessantly throughout our lives. But the answers are forever elusive, always just out of reach. Today we are fact-driven people: we need evidence before we form opinions and often dismiss events that can’t be logically explained. Yet we desperately want the security that comes with having a certain future. The search for these answers has divided people into two camps; those who look for solace in organized religion and its promise of an afterlife and those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious: they believe their souls are going somewhere but they’re just not sure exactly where. Regardless of what camp you’re in, we all want the same thing. We want confirmation that what we believe is true. We want proof of modern day encounters with the Divine.

Theologians the world over tell us that we most often seek God when we have struggled through some great trial. For some it is the healing miraculously of cancer or some deadly illness. For others it may be that they survived some great calamity like 9/11. After World War II many sought to learn about God, especially in Europe. Take what they had just been through. They had endured Mustard Gas that killed hundreds horribly and the world turned upside down with the war and its carnage. For the first time rockets had been used effectively over great distance to cause harm and destruction. In fact for the first time rockets launched in one country had flown over several before arriving in London England where they destroyed much of the city. And how can ever forget the first nuclear explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the first time the destruction of the world was possible in a new and horrible way. And once we rolled into Germany we found the remnants of the Jewish race in concentration camps. Thousands had been cruelly treated and then gassed to death or died in acid chambers. So why wouldn’t the survivors of the great world war seek God. And the questions that they had were also deep and numerous. In fact for many of them they believed that the end of the world must be near. And maybe it was nearer than they thought. In 1948 these same people resurrected the nation of Israel to be a nation again for the first time in two thousand years.

During the 60’s and 70’s a spiritual awakening occurred in this country unlike anything we had seen in more than a hundred years. The great revival of Billy Graham brought God into our stadiums, our towns and our homes. I still watch the reruns of some of these revivals on television. What is amazing is to watch the faces of those in the stands as they listened to the words of Billy Graham. What he said was not earth shattering or even especially new. But what he did was set out to answer the question on the hearts of those who had come to hear him speak. Who is God? Why do I care? Are these your questions this morning? There was a series on television for a while called Touched by an Angel. In that show the guest characters would routinely encounter angels in their most difficult trials, almost always in response to a prayer that they had made to God. It was a popular show in part because we want to believe in God and God’s angels. And we want to believe that God is in control and that God’s love is real. And many of us desire to hear the voice of God as assurance that God exists. So where do we search for God? God is real.

Do you know what day it is in the Christian calendar? It’s All Saints Day. It is the day when we follow All Hallows Eve, celebrated in this country as Halloween with a day dedicated to the Saints. Some churches even go so far as to have homecoming celebrations on this particular Sunday. But we are going to celebrate it by remembering. I want you to close your eyes. Now with your eyes closed, look around the room and visualize the Saints who are sitting here but no longer here. We remember them not to be sad but to celebrate. Celebrate that we hold within us their legacy and now we hold within us the responsibility of carrying the torch of that legacy to the world. It is the succession that our parents received from theirs and theirs from our grandparents and so on all the way back to Abraham. We are tasked with carrying the blessing of God to the world. And today we celebrate those who have gone on before us. You can open your eyes now. So each year when All Saints Day rolls around, remember them. Remember their smiles, their jokes, their special weird things that they did that made us laugh, and then step into those big shoes and move from where we are to where we need to be as a people and as a church. Sydenstricker is here because of generation after generation of people who desired to have Christ inside them to guide them, to fill them up, and to mold them into Christ here on earth that other people may be blessed by their presence. Too often we forget our past while trying to focus on the future.  That is why the writer of Hebrews writes about such a cloud of witnesses that are watching as we lay aside our humanly desires of sin and run this race to its end. So today we remember Annie Hall, Ada Taylor, Reverend Sydenstricker and Reverend Amidon who refused to give us up for lost. We remember Doug Hottle and Claude Gentry, Barbara Russell and Shirley Dolfy, Ruth Newcomb and Clara Hall, Grant Wright and Carl Thorne, Irv Sackett and Estelle Taylor. We remember their smiles, their antics, their determination to make this church something special. The race that is laid out before us like the track of a great speedway, with its obstacles and its dangers, we run this race not for our own glory but the glory of the team of witnesses. We do it not because it gains us anything, just as Christ went to the cross not to gain himself anything, but to bring glory to God and to bring glory to those who are searching for it even not realizing that they are.

Years ago my mother used to tell us all the time, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. I like the modern day version of that. It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. I heard this story the other day and want to share it with you. “One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us! My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, really friendly. So I asked, “Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!” This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, “The Law of the Garbage Truck.” He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage (frustration, anger, and disappointment, etc.). As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so… love the people who treat you right & pray for the ones who don’t. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!” So we can allow the garbage trucks of life to overrun us or we can be like the taxi driver, focused on the right things that keep us in right relationship with God.

We are doing great things at Sydenstricker. There is evidence everywhere of all the things that we share with our community and the world. Walk the halls of Hottle Hall and you can see the collections of needful things for those who have little. Check out our TWAS and our Steeple for all the missional activities that we are doing that help to change the world into a better place. Change is always in a part of life. We have had many changes in the life of Sydenstricker. I believe that the saints who have gone on before us would tell us to change if it means winning more people to Christ. Today we celebrate the past as we look forward to the future. Practicing spirituality is listening to God, often through the voices and example of those who led us and now have received their glory.