June 26, 2022 ~ Third Sunday after Pentecost ~ Worship Zoom Video Link & Sermon

This is the link for the Worship:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/svZlDfARvy8JT6865k4-4Qr7nKL3T-xLjX0kdlDAAlj_yhEbST_4FwYQN7YmMs7Y.Y3UyNna8y1L5MHFE?startTime=1656251823000

                                                                                                06/26/22—Highland—Meute

“Our Common Aspiration”

I Kings 19: 14-16, 19-21; Galatians 5: 1, 13-25; Luke 9: 51-62

Pearl: Spirit in us opens our perspective to see, to smell, and to taste a brave and exciting world of possibility.

Function: To inspire listeners to drink deeply from the life-giving, world-repairing stream of grace which God provides.

They call him the “Sunshine Mayor.” He can be found in his “office” every day early in the morning. About eight years ago Al Nixon decided to begin each day sitting on a bench along the waterfront in St. Petersburg, Florida.

1. At the age of 59 he discovered a new way to begin his day. An early riser he spends about two hours sitting on that bench watching the sun rise. He would simply sit there in quiet, watching the water and the sun, taking in the sounds and smells and everything else that presents itself in the early morning.
2. After about a year of this a woman stopped by to say hello, and she said something that changed his perspective on his daily ritual. She said, “You know, every morning when I see you sitting here, I know that everything is going to be OK.”
   1. Al recalled, “That’s when I knew I needed to pay attention to the people walking past. I needed to make eye contact and let people know that we mattered to each other.”
3. So he began to look at people instead of staring straight ahead at the water and the sun. He smiled at them. He greeted them.
   1. People returned the same smiles, and greetings, and even stopped for brief conversations.
   1. In no time at all, people began to share worries and problems and even asking for advice.
   1. They testify to Al’s excellent listening skills, saying “He listens without judgment and without any kind of return expected.”
   1. Nixon says, “You have to have an open heart and an open head, because you never know who’s going to walk up and what they might need. Every person who stops by the bench deserves my undivided attention.”
      1. He remembers the day a couple came by to talk about problems in their relationship. “The husband was always working, rarely home. It was ruining their marriage.” Nixon told him: “My friend, if your wife’s revelation didn’t scare you, then maybe the possibility of losing her will.”
      1. The man “…started to cry and agreed that he needed to slow down.” They all hugged each other, and became friends after that. They go out for lunch every so often.
   1. One time a woman stopped by and said, “I just want to sit here with you.” Nixon recalls “We stared at the water for an hour, then she said thank you and walked away. She just wanted a moment of peace and to know she wasn’t alone. And in that moment, in that hour, on that morning, she truly wasn’t” (Readers Digest, May ’22).
4. It is safe to say that Al Nixon was drawn by a bright, brave, good world, something that we call the “realm of God.” That is a realm of goodness and light, of peace and of grace. It is the world of the Spirit of God.

People of God, we are committed to a better Way; we are compelled by a big, brave, new world that comes from God, to which Jesus pointed all through his short ministry.

The Spirit of God prods us and provokes us toward something much greater and better. In the very best sense, the Spirit of God possesses us by the good world God is all about.

1. Jesus taught and proclaimed the “realm of God.” It is a world full of the energy of God.
   1. God’s realm (traditionally called “kingdom”) includes people who are struck by the massive act of self-sacrifice into which Jesus assented. I believe that would be all of you who are listening to this message. We are all moved by the love of God who gave his life in Jesus Christ to redeem and to restore our world.
      1. So God’s realm includes all who appreciate what God has done and continues to do for this created world.
      1. That appreciation expresses itself in our worship of God; it is in our dedication to God’s ways; it is shown in our aligning our life with the life of God.
   1. God’s realm, which Jesus preached, is something much more.
      1. For example, Jesus revealed a spirit which was behind the laws that were observed by the God-following people of his day.
      1. He did not set aside the law of God but indicated that there was a lot more to the law than met the eye. There was a spirit behind the letter of the law which was a bigger reality at work.
      1. Basically the realm of God is brimming with so much more life than whatever self-satisfying small thrills we might feed to ourselves.
         1. To this realm Jesus continually pointed. There was so much more to God’s intent for the world and for every creature than we could imagine.
         1. We tend to view things in rather small proportions. Jesus sought to enlarge people’s perspectives. He tried to lift them beyond themselves.
            1. And so he talked about a realm of God. He said it was present.
            1. And we believe that he, through his own life and message, advanced the presence of God’s realm on earth.
            1. He said as much prior to his ascending into heaven when he said that the Holy Spirit would come in his place and that in that way he would always be with us.
      1. God’s realm is life in all its fullness and in all of its abundance.
         1. It will not run out. There is no end to the life which God provides. This is “eternal life.” Eternal life is a way of talking about the never-ending source of “true life” that God provides.
      1. God’s realm is a power unequalled on earth.
2. Not only did Jesus point to the realm of God in many ways but also the Apostle Paul noted several entry points to it in what are called “the fruits of the Spirit of God.”
   1. Here in Galatians 5 he contrasted the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh is described in terms of self-satisfying attempts to gain life which come up short of achieving what we are seeking: impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, fornication,  anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, and so on.
   1. The world of the Spirit, the realm of God, is conducted through such things as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Certainly there are more fruits than these. Just look at how many fruits exist in the world.
      1. The Sunshine Mayor is living out of the energy of the Spirit of God.
      1. His way of loving and listening to anyone who stops by is a portal to a whole new and better existence.
   1. The fruits of the Spirit that Paul listed are all portals to a much larger realm and perspective.
      1. There are many things which cause us worry about which we are dismayed.
      1. We have an excess of things to burden us and weigh us down these days.
      1. The fruits of the Spirit of God transport us beyond the things which weigh us down. Perhaps Esther (Etty) Hillesum was finding such portals to the bigger reality of God. Etty was a young Jewish woman from Holland, whose letters and journals cover the period of time after she was picked up by the Nazis and taken first to a transit camp, and then finally on to Auschwitz where she died. She wrote the following:
         1. “There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there too. But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath. Then God must be dug out.”
            
            “There is a vast silence within me that continues to grow.” 
            
            “You have made me so rich, O God, please let me share out Your beauty with open hands. My life has become an uninterrupted dialogue with You, O God . . . one great dialogue.”
            
            “We hardly realize it ourselves: we have become marked by suffering. And yet life in its unfathomable depths is so wonderfully good.”

Elisha and some of those who followed Jesus were drawn by something greater. Elijah threw his mantel around Elisha calling him to follow him. Jesus called his disciples to follow him into God’s greater awareness and perspective.

1. But Elisha hesitated so Elijah first thought he made a mistake.
2. People hesitated when Jesus invited them.
   1. Elisha and those around Jesus did not easily detach from the things that so occupied their attention. Nor do we easily detach either.
3. The truth is that the Way of the Spirit beckons us toward greater liberty and freedom than we can possibly imagine.
   1. This is why Paul wrote, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).
   1. Liberty for everyone is to be our common aspiration. Liberty and freedom in every possible sense of that word for everyone on this planet.
4. The Spirit of God provides the way to that liberty and freedom. The many portals into that wide, wide realm are to be used.
   1. This is why Paul wrote about those portals, those fruits of the Spirit, “There is no law against such things” (Gal 5:23b).
   1. I love that notion! If there are no laws against these fruits, that means they are nothing but good! It means that there are many doors into this greater realm or world. There are many ways into this big, brave new world which God is providing.

From the Sunshine Mayor to Anibal Amador we see how to channel all the good that is so close at hand.

1. Anibal lives in New York City and loves to go around to many of the 1,800 basketball courts around the five city boroughs putting up brand new nets on the basketball hoops.
   1. These hoops easily become worn out from much play. And these courts get tons of action.
   1. Anibal likes to play basketball himself so he knows how it is no fun to play with a backboard and rim that has no net. The sound of the perfect swoosh of a basketball going through a hoop cannot be beat!
   1. Anibal uses money from his own pocket to purchase $10 nets, totes his ladder and regularly replaces the nets on many of the courts. He also washes down the backboards while he is up there.
   1. Last year, a group of players in St. Vartan Park waited patiently as Anibal, then 55, carefully balanced atop his ladder, finished fastening new nets to the clips under the rims before wiping down the backboard with a rag. When he was done, they cheered.
   1. Another time when he was putting up a new net one of the regular players gave Anibal $20 to help defray his costs. The player was astounded that someone would be so generous with his money and time. “I thought he worked for the city,” the man said. “He was very meticulous. And then he brings out a long brush and wipes down the backboards. I’ve never seen that before” (Readers Digest, May ’22).
2. Generosity is one of the beautiful portals of the Spirit of God opening up a whole new world.

The fruits of the Spirit are portals which lead to God’s realm. This is the realm the world needs. This is the realm to which we commonly aspire.

While anger and violence and other more fleshly actions may lead to more immediate satisfaction, they are not the portal to liberty and freedom.

As one of my regular sources for inspiration writes, “We are freed by the power of love” (The Rev. Teri McDowell Ott, The Presbyterian Outlook).

Expanding on that, we are freed through the fruits, through the portals which lead to God’s big, brave, beautiful realm.