The Bible taught early on in its development, that the loving God of the Universe created humankind in his own image. He shaped the soil of the earth into flesh and blood, breathed into it the breath of life, and in the beginning said “This is good.”And this great God promised that he would provide for his people---that seedtime and harvest would continue. The requirement for this promise to be fulfilled was that his people were to trust him with each passing day and that he would give to them substance to sustain their lives and eternal life when they would die. They were to trust him, to reproduce and replenish the earth, to take care of one another and to share with others and He would take care of them.
Seedtime and harvest has not failed: This year we once again went up in the northern part of the county and gathered blueberries, which produced in abundance. While visiting the homeland and gravesites of my parents, we purchased Chilton county peaches; once again the fruit of the earth has come in delicious beauty.
One day John and Rosemarie Thames brought me corn from the flat, fertile lands of Baldwin County. He brought me corn; I didn’t have to go after it. He and Rosemarie even shucked it, and cut it off the cob and bagged it up. That’s better than having a garden. Have a good friend who has a garden. The point here: Seedtime and harvest has not failed us again.
This year since we last saw a harvest from our lands, 1000 American soldiers have died in the Mid-East. Thousands of civilians - Iraqis, Palestinians, Israeli’s, and people in the mountains of Afghanistan. Millions have starved to death in the Sudan and at knife point in other developing countries of Africa. God’s promise is steadfast.
Yes, great is His Faithfulness. Thou compassions they fail not year by passing year!
The problem is not with God but it is with us. And it is the same problem God has had with his people from the beginning of time. The Church has described this problem as “original sin”. It is that tendency within to disobey the creator.
God’s people in Bible times suffered when they ignored the basic life principle that God would take care of them and out of their greed and self centeredness, would ignore God and claim more than they needed.
When they were in the wilderness journey traveling from slavery in Egypt to the promised land of milk and honey, God provided for them guidance and food. In the morning they would gather bread and by evening, quail. The only instruction was gathering only enough for each day. God said, “Trust me and I will provide for you in the future.”
Even when they moved into the Promised Land and began to build their houses of cedar and stone, God told them set aside a tenth of their crops and herds as a thanks offering to God, lest you forget. And sure enough, they began to forget. They became more interested in their houses than in God’s purpose.
And over the years because of this problem, they were conquered by Assyrians, Persians, and Babylonians. They would lose their freedom because they would not trust in God and be obedient to his ways. There are basic life principles which God expects of us: trust God daily and when you have more than enough, help the poor among you.
Thus when you come to the New Testament and you hear once again Jesus’ teachings, you are not surprised that they are the same as the OT. “God loves you and you are to trust him, but you are to obey him.” “Consider the birds of the air and the animals of the field, how they toil not nor reap not, yet God takes care of them.”
On one occasion, in the scripture for today, Jesus said: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully, and he thought to himself v. 17…I will build more barns.”
It never entered into his mind to share the plenty. To give a thanks offering to God in gratitude, to look for the neglected of society, to make a difference where people were hurting. It never occurred to him to search out the widow who was living life on her own, the unemployed and the underemployed, people who were working hard but could never make ends meet. No, he thought, I will build bigger barns…
Let me step back here and help you see the larger picture of what is being taught by Jesus. God created us and will provide for us when we trust him and are obedient to his ways. But, when we disregard our heavenly ancestor, when we are disobedient to his ways, we are on our own and destruction is not far behind.
One way is the way of Godly living. The other is the way of evil and evil is all about us. It is easy to identify evil in many of its obvious forms. Sexual promiscuity. Drugs of any kind—marijuana, alcohol, cocaine. Dishonesty, stealing from others, murder. Destroying other people’s property. That’s evil and we can easily identify it.
Recently some young men destroyed some of the grave stones at St. Michael’s Cemetery. They are charged with 21 felony counts which carry 5 years of jail time each. The kids are in their 20’s and 5 times 21 is 105 plus age 20, they could be 125 years old before they see the light of day or choose again which street to walk down. One night of breaking some old grave markers. How much fun was that? How much fun is any form of evil? You have got to be dumb to do some things.
Recently some people broke into our home while we were gone and stole jewelry and all of the electronics. I don’t miss the electronics as I couldn’t work half of it anyway. But one of the things they stole was my cell phone and when they pulled out of the drive way, started using it. Used it for four days till it went dead at which time they were nailed because the cell phone keeps detailed records of every person called. It is not smart to choose the way of evil. You are going nowhere when you do evil things. You are traveling fast down a dead-end street.
We had an abandoned church in the northern part of Escambia County which was burned last year and the authorities, realizing it was arson, put in the paper that they would pay a reward leading to the arrest of the arsonist. Well the fellow was arrested who called in the tip for the reward. You understand, that’s dumb. Evil of any kind is dumb. You are not going anywhere. The sky will get darker. The days longer and you will have nothing but misery if you chose the way of evil.
Sometimes I feel much like the policeman in James Lee Burke’s book “Jolie Blon’s Bounce,” who I quote: “one day leaned back in his chair, his fingers laced behind his head and wonder at the complexities and contradictions that have creeped into the earth’s original clay since God first scooped it up in His palm.”
Some evil is easy to identify, other forms just sort of creep in, like greed. As we in America have made more money, do we become more generous? Or less? As the ground where we have planted our crops, or invested our monies produces more abundantly, do we look for ways to feed a hungry world, mend a broken world, to help the less fortunate, or do we just build bigger barns? Is it evil to build bigger barns?
The Atlanta Constitution printed recently the salaries of the CEO’s who worked in Atlanta—Coke, Southern Company, ATT, multiple companies. And then their observation was CEO’s are of crucial importance to any organization and should be paid more than the average worker who clocks in at 8am and out at 5p.m. But the article pointed out, “Twenty years ago CEO’s made 40 times the average worker’s salary, today they make over 400 to 500 times the average worker’s salary.”
The sisters who once roamed the halls of Sacred Heart Hospital are no longer there, because there are fewer and fewer sisters who are going into full-time Christian service. Sister Mary Carol Eby lives in Georgetown, South Carolina where she works with the poorest of the poor just outside of Charleston. The daughters of Charity don’t receive a salary but receive room and board and a small stipend of a couple of hundred dollars a month. And that is what they live on. Recently she received a gift of three thousand dollars from Sacred Heart Hospital and her response was, I can not wait to get back to Charleston where there are some people who can use this.
Mike Tyson fought last Friday and made a couple of million dollars. In recent years, Tyson filed for bankruptcy. He had made 300 million dollars over his adult life and now is bankrupt and can’t pay his utility bills. I think if I had made 300 million I could pay my rent. 300 million, yea! I could just about make it.
Tyson is a parable of the modern rich fool, who builds bigger barns and neglects the more important issues of life. Maybe he will learn and maybe he will grow up. Will we?
Faith: Confidence in Things
to Come
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Hebrews 11:1-3; Luke 12:32-40
Please hear this wonderful affirmation:
Faith is the substance (the essence) of things hoped for
It is the conviction (assurance) of things yet to come.
Years ago Jane and I went to London to help carry bags for our youngest daughter as she entered the London School of Economics. We visited all of the tourist places—the Museums, the Churchill bunker, Buckingham Palace, Parliament and Big Ben—and a bit overwhelmed and over programmed we sat down in a park just across from the entrance to Westminster Cathedral, and that’s when we saw it. It was City Temple, the inner-city Methodist Church where W. E. Sangster and Leslie Weatherhead, great English Ministers, preached for many years. We walked across the street and made our way into the foyer of City Temple away from the crowds of Westminster. A proper English lady approached us with a warm greeting and introduced herself. Upon meeting us she asked our daughter: Do you have the assurance my dear? Not knowing quite what the question was all about, she looked at me for help and received nothing but a blank stare. Upon being asked again she tried an answer: “Well, I am a member of a church. I have been confirmed. My daddy is a Methodist Preacher.” Yes, my dear, but do you have the assurance?
This is a gift God offers to you. The inner assurance that you are a child of God. Then the lady asked having the assurance, “Are you showing the evidence of the gift of assurance? Rebecca looked at me with her eyes saying “Get me out of here.”
Well now that I’ve got you in here. I am led to ask you do you have the assurance? And are you showing the evidence of the gift of assurance?
The Assurance is the confidence of things which you hope for. The faith which we share is not a “Leap in the dark”. It is not hoping against reality”. It is a sense of surety, confidence, assurance —this is but one of the gifts which God gives to us.
You can know that you are saved. That you are a child of God. Thus you are not afraid of living or dying. That when you die you will go to heaven.
This assurance is the confidence as Patrick Overton said: That when we die and go as far as the light will carry us and step out into the darkness of death, it is the surety that our foot will find something solid on which to stand or that we will know how to fly.
You know yourself to be a people of God, Sons and daughters of the Creator of the Universe and that you are made in His image. You know yourself to be a people of the Book—You are a people of prayer who are shaped by eternal truths not by the trends of the times, You are An Easter People, You are sons and daughters of the risen and victorious Lord. You are not victims, you are victors. You hold your head up high not because you are the owners of the universe but you know that you are his sons and daughters and that you are joint airs of all the promises of God.
Last week in Cleveland, Ohio, more than 15,000 people gathered to be interviewed for an audition for the reality television show American Idol. In long lines and in the heat, people had taken time off from work, took the day off from school. I can't imagine…None of you were there were you? Don’t answer that. I just would rather not know. You are not an American Idol, you are a child of God…
Jesus had the “assurance” for you will remember he taught as one having authority: Here’s a sample of his teachings:
“Ask and you will receive, seek and you will fine, Knock and it will be opened unto you.”
Mark 11:24 “Whatever you ask, in prayer believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
John 15:7 “If you abide in me and I in you, ask anything you will and it will be done for you.”
Thus he taught in Mark 9:23 “All things are possible for him who believes.”
Yes Jesus had the assurance! The conviction! The confidence! of things hoped for, of things not yet seen. Do you? Some of you are going away for college in the next week or so and we want you to go with “the assurance”. It will give you confidence and it will keep you out of trouble.
Be open this morning, right now and the assurance will surely come. Accept Jesus Christ as your savior, and the gift will be given.
First, Faith is the inner assurance of things hoped for, the inward confidence of things yet to be seen. Secondly, to have this assurance, you will began to show evidence of its presence. You will get involved. You will invest in the Kingdom of God You will find yourself in the arena of life with all of its complications and contradictions.
Walter Albritton once wrote a nice little book entitled: If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of your boat. Sometimes assurance comes as you plunge into life, as you give as you volunteer, as you sacrifice.
Occasionally I will bump into an individual who have opted out, who with an irresponsible shrug of the shoulder indicates they just don’t care. But they are not to be followed.
The apostle Paul speaks of God’s people who have been reconciled unto him who become Ministers of Reconciliation.
As you mature, As You Grow Up, you begin to want your life to count for something. You want to make a difference. You want to leave a legacy.
We do not want to spend or waste our lives in flimsy, foolish ways. We want the confidence that we are living for a cause that counts. Our lives count best when we are Christ-like and become Servants of God.
We live our life best as we give our strengths, gifts, and competencies in the service of God’s mission. We are called to serve, not survive.
In our church we have identified our mission to be that of “a Christian family that Worships God, Grows In Christ, and Puts Our Faith To Work In The World.
You grow in Christ as you chose a life of Christ-like service.
It was a blessed moment for the world when the curtain went up on Friday evening on the 2004 Olympics in Athens Greece.
We have this year known Division, Suspicion, Bloodshed and Death. It is good for us to see once again, in the Olympics, people of differing color, religion, and national origins who come together in peace and honor.
In 490 BC, the first battle for democracy was fought at the Greek village of Marathon. Though overwhelmingly outnumbered by an invading Persian horde, the citizen-soldiers of Athens won and preserved the classical Greek way of life. Legend has it that the Athenian messenger Phidippides ran twenty-six miles to Athens, carrying the news of that stunning victory. The modern marathon commemorates his feat.
The New Yorker magazine, in anticipation of the Olympic commemoration of the Marathon, carried this delightful cartoon showing the runner carrying a torch, who reaches a group of people in Athens eagerly awaiting him. Someone asks what the message is, and he looks at them and gasping for air says: “I can’t remember. I have forgotten.”
The Apostle Paul would have known of the marathon running tradition in Greece when he was there some 500 years after the defeat of the Persians and it is intentional that he uses the marathon analogy in Hebrews 12:
Let us throw off everything that hinders
and the sin that so easily entangles,
Let us run with perseverance the race set out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
To run the race which is set before you, first there is the necessity of getting rid of all of the impediments. There are some things that we need to remember but other things we need to forget or eliminate from our lives. Perhaps this morning in worship is the time to step from the past which has not always been for us a stepping stone, but rather a millstone about our neck.
Most translations of Hebrews 12 indicates that we should “lay aside those things that hinder our lives.” I much prefer the NIV where it translates the Greek: “throw off everything and anything that hinders.”
Some of you can remember Dan Whitsett who served among you in the l960’s. This week I was at Lake Junaluska in the Carolinas and Visited with Dan Whitsett’s daughter- in-law. This means she was Danny’s wife, who lives in Huntsville. Now Danny was a character and there are many stories…Some things are better not remembered. I told her about the church and about the new retirement home being built. She said “But what about the automobile dealership?” I said, “sometimes you have to tear down the old to build the new.” This is not only true in construction work, but also in one’s spiritual life. Before something beautiful and new can become a reality, the old and the ugly must be destroyed. Blasting precedes building.
Runners tend to strip down to the bear essentials as you can move both faster and easier. Runners do not carry a lot of excess baggage. Of course in the business of living, we are talking now about spiritual and emotional weights or baggage which can hold us back!
Some of the things which I would suggest we need to consider as excess baggage in the modern era are the following:
At first pass this sounds like a fun way to live, no responsibility, no regrets, no respect for anything except what feels good, but try being married to someone or working with a business partner who has that kind of “free-for-all philosophy.”
While Jane and I were traveling this summer, we celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary. And there are a lot of us who have been married a long time in this church and know the great benefits of long term relationships. Anyone who wants that kind of long term life had better throw off the epicurean attitude toward life and take care of the important things first and then look for what feels good.
My observation is that you can never get well by holding on to past hurts. You have to throw them off. Like an old garment, you take it off, and be done with it, and walk away.
KaSaRaSaRa whatever will be, will be! This is not one of the hymns in our hymnbook. Individuals with a fatalistic attitude will live and then die and have this attitude “Why get involved in anything that detracts you from enjoying yourself.” All talk about Sacrificial Service falls on death ears.
Fatalism sucks the hope and motivation from life and leaves us feeling like trapped robots, destined for misery. Life becomes depressing and meaningless.
One of the reasons we come to church is to realize that we are connected with something far greater than ourselves. We are linked with the Body of Christ which is world wide and is eternal.
I have a friend who, early one summer, trained for a long back packing expedition on the Appalachian Trail, by placing in his back pack two heavy 10 lb. weights. But when the time came to pack the nap sack with the bare essentials, he forget to take the heavy weights out. It was only on the trail the end of the first long day that he discovered the weights at the base of the backpack. He had hauled them all day long. He told me later, I know there is a sign in the National Park saying “Leave only your footprints,”, but ten miles into the Shinning Rock Wilderness there are two ten lb. weights carefully buried one foot beneath the earth’s surface.
Perhaps today is the day for you to unload some of your excess weights you have been carrying.
2. Secondly, we are told in this passage, “Let us run with perseverance…
3. Let us keep our eyes on Jesus…
Some look on Jesus, not knowing him except through the story of the cross. And the cross, his suffering, his death is a crucial part of the story, but you must remember that it is an empty cross for he rose from the dead and is today victorious over.
Summary: You will see over the next few days, Olympic stars standing on the podium with tears streaming down their faces. Tears of joy express the deepest of emotions for they come at the end of a long and arduous road.
There is great joy in accomplishing one’s chosen tasks, one’s carefully chosen goals. One day we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and hear his words “Well done good and faithful servant.”
Some time it is hard to think of a cross and joy in the same sentence, but the truth is experience has taught me that there is not gain without pain. Everyday comes the pain of training before ever you ever stand in the winners circle.
You will be victors. You will stand in the winner’s circle. You will be rewarded the reward of the abundant life here and now and eternal life in the hereafter, but first will come:
Throwing off all that hinders the Christian life
Enduring the pain of Spiritual disciplines,
And, keeping your eyes on Jesus.
In the Olympics, due to wonderful media coverage, we watch these young athletes stand on the podium as their national anthem is played and they receive the gold, silver and bronze medals. It is real hard not to think that our national anthem is not the best, but I guess every nation has similar patriotic feelings.
These kids are truly winners in their particular sports, but we know that the others who have been their competitors are winners as well. These are all exceptional athletes who at some point in time have stood in the winners circle in their hometowns, in their nations. None are losers.
So also in the circle of life, we are all winners. Medal winners we all are because the Bible tells us that we are all Children of God. When we seek first the Kingdom of God and do justice and walk humbly with God, and when we reflect the image of the creator God, we are gold medal winners.
However, let me be honest to say that when we make poor choices, we can all too quickly become losers.
I would like to say to you that the Bible is a story book of winners, and although that is true as we have our stories of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Paul and John, yet it is also true that in our family biography are the sordid tales of losers. Persons who have chosen a way contrary to the will of God and have consequently suffered greatly. You can read similar stories everyday in the newspaper or see their pictures on the television as they have done something dishonest, hurtful and destructive.
In the O.T. there is the story of the prophet Jeremiah, who was called to be a prophet of God around 627 BC. He was only 20 years old at the time and he would remain a prophet for fifty years until his death in Egypt. The prophets in Old Testament Times were not so much persons who predicted the future, but persons who helped people understand why certain things were happening to them.
After the Kingdoms of Saul, David, and Solomon, the nation of Israel divided into a northern Kingdom and a southern Kingdom, one called Israel and one called Judah. In these times of the 8th, 7th and 6th centuries, there were internal and external problems. There was the external problem of strong nations which surrounded Israel, Assyria in the North and Egypt in the South, but the internal problems are what ultimately led to the destruction of the nation. The internal problem was the sin of the people.
So, today when I warn you that a selfish way of life, thinking always about yourself and never giving away your money or your time for the good of others and God’s Kingdom is a mistake and that when you live in such a way, you are traveling a dead-end street. I am being for you a prophet.
When I tell you to choose the way of Godly living in tune with the Commandments and the Beatitudes and I say you will be blessed and any other way will lead to your detriment and downfall, then I am being for you a prophet.
When I point out to you the importance of keeping Sabbath, I remind you of a practice which the world no longer appreciates the value of. There once was a grocery chain called Delchamps, who started “like everybody else” opening on Sundays and then folded. There is another company like Chick Fil-A, who does not open on Sunday, and is doing quite well. Consequently, you had better take note; I am being for you a prophet.
When I point out to you that a Governor like Ruben Askew put a stop to serving alcoholic beverages in the Governor’s Mansion and finished his time of service in dignity, but Bill Clinton compromised his marriage and the principals of honesty and brought disgrace to the White House, I am being for you a prophet.
When I say to you a nation that depends on its firepower rather than its prayer, will soon have no power, it is the word of the prophet.
You must forgive others for hurting you and you must pray for your enemy rather than saying ugly, and gossipy things about others, lest you be hurt even more. When I remind you that “what goes around will come around,” I am speaking the words of the prophet to you.
The prophet Jeremiah was the prophet for the nation of Judah, the Southern Kingdom. He said to them “you have sinned and you are sinning and you will suffer.” In Jeremiah and all of the O.T. Prophets, there is a conviction of a connection between sin and national disaster. There is a law of divine retribution, they proclaimed and when you violate and flout the basic essentials of moral and religious integrity you will inevitably face ruin and destruction. So Jeremiah was called upon to call the hand of the Israelites six hundred years before the birth of Christ. Two thousand six hundred years ago, he pointed out to the Jewish people living in Jerusalem that the reason Babylon had come against them and would destroy them was because they had sinned and violated the essentials of moral and religious principals.
The sins which he called by name were many and have a contemporary ring:
The nation had played the harlot and been unfaithful to God and had begun to worship Baal which was a fertility religion in the early days of the development of the Jewish nation. This rather weird business involved sexual relationships under the auspices of religion, which struck at the very root of the social fabric of the family. “Like a wife who had played the harlot, faithless had been Israel and now faithless would be God toward you,” Jeremiah pointed out.
Entangling external alliances with foreign countries, had led to nothing but heartbreak for Israel and then Judah. “You have tasted of the waters of the Euphrates, the river in the Assyrian nation, and you have drunk of the waters of the Nile in Egypt. “You cannot trust in the chariots of foreign countries, but only in the strong will of God. “Let’s make a deal” was not a game God would play with any nation. Historically, we now know that Israel fell to Assyria and Judah chose to make friends first with Assyria and then with Egypt, but it was neither Assyria nor Egypt who prevailed, but rather the growing nation of Babylon who then invaded Judah under Nebuchadnezzar in 598 BC and in 587 BC Babylon destroyed the city of Jerusalem. Entangling alliances will bring destruction. There is a law of divine retribution. “What goes around comes around.”
You wonder when I voice these problems if I am describing the times of 2600 years ago, or last night’s news. One has to raise the question, “will we never learn?” “Why are we fighting these old battles?” “Why are we making the same shameful mistakes?”
Jesus’ response to the question, “How can we avoid the law of divine retribution, and will there be many who are winners?” “Strive to Enter by the Narrow Door."
The Christian who enters by the narrow door will have a disciplined, methodical, spiritual focus of our lives.
In the Olympics, you will see only one lap a winning swimmer will do to win the gold medal, or one gymnastic flip or one race a runner will run, but there have been more laps, and more early morning practice sessions and more hard work than you can image.
Maybe these swimmers like the feel of cold water early in the morning, or a runner loves our afternoon humidity, but I don’t think so.
They do it because they chose to keep their eyes focused on the prize. The difference between a winner and a loser is a matter of discipline and spiritual focus.
Choosing a sacrificial, unselfish way is a choice of a pathway less traveled and is “the narrow way.”
When you are a child, you seem to have this strong inner urge to have things your way. You cry when you are wet and whine when you are hungry. You have seen your own children throw a fit when they have to go with you to the grocery for orange juice, bread and milk rather than to Target for a toy. But as you grow up you realize that when you do something someone else wants or needs that brings joy to your life. It is the realization of the power of a sacrificial, unselfish way.
We bring joy to God and peace to ourselves when we go where we do not want to go and do what we by nature don’t want to do, but we do it for someone else.
Disciplined, sacrificial service, enter by the narrow door!
In every grouping in which I live, there are less than 10% of us who really participate. Get involved and do something that makes a difference.
Richard Nixon’s biography, In the Arena by its very title affirms that at least Nixon got involved. He may not have been our best President, although all of them are mere humans and in time reveal their humanness. But Nixon was involved and his administration was the one that opened the door to trade with China and China, as we have seen in the Olympics, is a force to be reckoned with.
Get involved, be a servant and you will make a difference.
Summary:
There is a law of divine retribution which means bad things happen when we are not disciplined and chose not to live focused, spiritual, sacrificial lives. But the flip side of this law is that as we chose to be disciplined, and God focused, spiritual, sacrificial servants, good things begin to happen in our lives. Get your relationship with God straight and you will find yourself in the winners circle, wearing the gold medal.
Let us live in such a way, that God, our Heavenly parent, will be proud of us that he will keep our report card on his refrigerator. That he will have a bumper sticker with our name on it on his car.
Those who are in the race for meaning and purpose, will at times fail but it helps no one to stand around to examine the spot where you fall, to weep over the delay, over the shortsightedness that prevented you from avoiding the obstacle.
U.S. gymnast Paul Hamm in his performance on the vault landing fell off the mat onto the judges table. But he got up and went on to win the U.S. Men’s all-around gold medal.
Remember how Paul said: “This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind I strive forward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” It is not in looking back but in getting up and walking away from past mistakes, from past imperfections that we move forward a better person. Strive to enter the narrow door!
There is a craving in the heart of all human beings to find security and peace; to find fulfillment and happiness. There is this pervasive, nagging hope for meaning, for purpose, and for eternal life.
Augustine once acknowledged this reality in a prayer saying to God “Oh Lord, Our hearts are restless, till they rest in Thee.”
Once, Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a community well. Water in the Biblical times was sometimes not easy to find and because of the expenses of digging wells, the small villages would have a community well, where the women would, each day, gather to visit and to fill their water jars for household purposes of washing and cooking. One day Jesus met this woman at the well; her life was a confusing kaleidoscope of relationships. She had been married a number of times and was, when Jesus met her, living with someone who was not her husband. He spoke to her of giving her “Living water” which would satisfy whatever was driving her from one man to the next.
We live today in a generation which is desperate for “living water”— inner peace and personal happiness, a sense of purpose.
The rather complex situation, in which we find ourselves, is one which others have faced over the years:
In the book of Ecclesiastes, the writer describes his desperate search for meaning through such ventures as “wealth, food, popularity, sexuality, etc. …but finally concludes “Vanity of Vanity, All is vanity.” This can be translated: Meaningless, Meaningless, all is meaningless.“Life is a chasing after the wind.”
There was a time long ago when Spanish explorers came into these southern shores of North America in search for “the Fountain of Youth.” This was a place whose waters were believed to be soothing and healing, and would restore the youthful energy of a day gone by. It was believed that by drinking from the Fountain of Youth mankind would find immortality.
There used to be a spa/clinic just southwest of Dothan, Alabama, before you got to Two Egg, Florida, where the remains of a clinic resort was years ago where people would go for hot mineral spring water baths. There were those who believed that this mineral spring was “The Fountain of Youth” It was offered for sale, and still has in its restaurant a drink that is advertised as the “Ultimate Thirst Quencher.” It is just bottled water from one of their deep water wells. You don’t want to make fun of Mineral Springs, because you purchase water bottles and other thirst quenchers everyday.
So we recognize that there is this need, this longing, in the heart of every person of every age to find significance and satisfaction, a Fountain of Youth. In times past we have believed that if we can only discover this “fountain of living water” then all will be well.
But I wonder sometimes, are we looking in the right places?
Many have moved into fanatical, fundamentalist religions. Such decisions in the Christian movements have produced organizations such as the KKK, men who wore white robes marked with a cross and hated people of color. The Muslins offer a whole array of fundamentalists groups which you can view the results of their suicidal tendencies on the evening news each day. Did you know that in recent figures released concerning religious relationships, that one in every five persons in the world now belong to the Muslin Faith? Based on what little I know about the the fundamental Islamic groups that seem to be getting all of the attention, and the mainline Islamic group who are silent in their condemnation of violence as a means of social change, these figures are scary.
But what is even more alarming is that in North America, although 90% of the population indicates some religious affiliation, the true religion of the masses is not Christianity nor Islam nor Judaism, but it is secularism: “the love of things, and the absence of the love of God.”
We will purchase almost anything, go almost anywhere, do almost anything if we think it will give us happiness, and quench our thirst. Will Willimon says in his book “The Search for Meaning” that we have seen the creation of the have generation—you know I have got to have that…” but that is looking in the wrong direction. Too many things produce only clutter. In Barry Schwart’s book, “The Paradox of Choice—Why More is Less,” the author points out that beyond a certain point, more choice means less happiness.
Lee Atwater was the presidential campaign advisor for George Bush the First back in 1980’s. Atwater as a young man died in l991 but before his death he wrote: “The l980’s were about acquiring—acquiring wealth, power, and prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty.”
Thomas Monaghan, was the wealthy founder of Domino’s Pizza who saw the futility of the “having binge” and so he began selling off many of his prized possessions. Among many of the things he sold was the ownership of the “Detroit Tigers” baseball team. He wrote: “None of these things I’ve bought, and I mean none of them, have ever really made me happy.”
At the turn of the century William Borden, the heir to the Borden Dairy fortune, entered Yale University. Because of the money which his family had accumulated, he traveled a great deal throughout the world and became aware of the desperate needs of people in foreign cultures. He decided to devote his life to missionary service and after school he went to Egypt where he would learn Arabic in order to reach persons in the Muslim culture with the gospel of Christ. He wrote of living a life of “No Reserves”, “No Retreats” and “No Regrets.” He purchased a “One Way” ticket to Egypt. “No Retreat” Borden was to develop “spinal meningitis” which would ultimately claim his life at the age of 25, but in a short period of time, he writes of the joy and happiness and fulfillment he had discovered. He had experienced the meaning of the words of Holy Scripture which was “It is in giving that we will receive.”
One of the sad by products of a “Secular or having culture” is that it has produced a society where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This week the government released figures indicating that there are another one million people who this year have been added to the list of those who live below the poverty line (35 million total). Two million of them live in the State of Florida! For a family of three persons this means they live on less than $14,000.00 per year. For an increasing number of people, “The American Dream” is a nightmare. It is hard to believe that you can be a citizen of the United States, the richest nation of all time, and not have access to proper medical care. 45 Million Americans live with that fear because they do not have Medical Insurance.
At the same time we are seeing poverty statistics increase; other figures indicate that Americans are giving less of their income away than previously. My observation is that people are becoming less generous. Thirty Six percent of the members of our own church have no record of giving thus far in this calendar year, and that is unacceptable.
Perhaps you have seen some of the pictures or news stories of the thousands of people who are dying in the Sudan—North Africa. The need is great. The poor and needy are all around us and current statistics indicates that fewer and fewer people in the world have more and more but are less generous and less happy than before.
It is clear that it is not in getting and hoarding that we find happiness and meaning. Whatever most people are doing, it is not working. The direction in which we are going is creating more and more “have’s and have not’s.” Thus we experience this tension between the poor and the rich, the East and the West, the Christians and the Muslims.
There is another way. There is a Way! There is an ultimate Thirst Quencher!
Our people, those who are in Christ, have discovered two secrets and I will verbalize them for us so that we can celebrate them:
First, God offers to us a living relationship with Himself. He says, “Come to the waters. Come to the Fountain of Living Waters and without price, drink!”
In God our thirst is quenched. It is not in what we possess or don’t possess, it is in a living relationship with the Creator of Life. We tap into the deep reservoirs of God’s being through prayer, worship and praise and Christ like living.
In a secular “I have got to have that” culture, we fall into the trap of becoming obsessed on owning, possessing, controlling that which ultimately you cannot own, possess, nor control. The essence of life is that it is pulsating, ever changing, dynamic. It is not something you can own, possess nor control, you can only enjoy it as it passes. It is like the water of a river, it is ever-moving.
On the Island of Bermuda, and this is true in many places in the world, the only source of pure, drinkable water is only from rainwater or water shipped in to the island. There the small island sits off the coast of North Carolina surrounded by salt water, but not a drop to drink. The roofs of all the homes are made of limestone, which are designed to catch the rain water and funnel it into cisterns under the houses. In Judah, water was carefully stored and cherished and the wealthy land owners had built large cisterns to store their water. The more wealthy you were, the larger the cistern.
In the 6th Century before the birth of Christ, in the days when Jeremiah was the Prophet of Judah, the prophet said to the people, you are suffering because you have built your fine houses of cedar but have neglected God, you have built your cisterns for water, but only you are drinking from them, while others are starving. You have built your cisterns, but they are now broken for you have failed to come to the fountain of living water. A prophet was not a person who predicted the future, but one who helped the people understand why certain things were happening to them. And in Jeremiah’ day, the nation of Babylonian had invaded Judah, and destroyed the 587 B.C. Government and tore down the walls of the Temple which was the symbol of the power of the Nation. And as the Babylonian soldiers were tearing down the temple walls, they broke the water cisterns. You have trusted in your cisterns and they are now broken, because you have failed to trust in the Fountain of Life.
A few years ago, I spent a couple of weeks with Dr. Jim Fleming, who will be here with us later this year. Dr. Fleming is an archeologist and lives in Jerusalem. One day our group of some 15 student/pilgrims went with him down some of the small back streets of the old city of Jerusalem, and entered an ally way which then led to a hidden stairway which carried us beneath the cobblestone streets of the old city and under what is called Temple Mount. There below the place where the Temple once stood, was a cistern filled with water the size of a football field. It was a secret storage facility for water which had been in existence for hundreds of years. Beneath the rubble of the destruction of the Temple and visible cisterns, there was a place where water was stored which ultimately saved the Jews who remained in the city 2600 years.
Beneath the rubble of your life and mine, there is available to us living water which will sustain us. It is offered to us in Jesus Christ.
Secondly, we find happiness not in hoarding but in giving. This is one of the paradoxes which Jesus taught: “It is in giving that we receive.”
A paradox appears to be opposed to common sense, because it has these contrasts, like “It is in giving away that we receive.” You have from time to time heard me speak to you of the paradoxes of Jesus:
To be first, you must be last.
To live you must die.
To be rich you must be poor.
To find you must lose.
And of course, it is in giving that we receive.
Summary: Yes, Augustine was correct when he said: “Thou has placed in human kind a longing, and Lord, our hearts are restless till they rest in thee.”
Come to God, the fountain of life, through Christ today.
Give your life and you will receive.