Seekers: Reflections by Pastor Mike

WELCOME Welcome to what we are calling, "the Seekers" worship service. When I think of seeking something, I think of all the time I spend looking for lost stuff. For example, I go nosing around the house looking for my car keys three or four times a week. And on occasion, I go looking for my car. I’ll pull into a parking lot, go into the store, and when I come out, I can’t remember where I parked. And its embarrassing. And so I’ll wander around for a little while, pretending like I know where I’m going., hoping it’s not too obvious that I’ve lost my car. It’s better now that I have that little doohicky with a panic button. Just press the button and off goes your car horn. It sure makes seeking a lost car easier.

I’m always looking for some paper that I’ve lost. If you’ve ever seen my desk, you know WHY I spend a good deal of time trying to find this paper or that. Clutter multiplies the time we spend seeking.

Sometimes we lose people. I lose my daughter Mindy all the time. She and I are both very independent in our personalities. And nearly everytime the two of us go anywhere, one or the other of us is likely to wander off. A little over a year ago, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which is the largest museum in North America, and it took us a really long time to find each other that day. In fact, we were so consumed with trying to find each other that neither of us got much out of the museum. Seeking can sometimes sidetrack everything else.

About 20 years ago, we lived in Carbondale, Illinois, and we had a dog named Opie,. Opie liked to get loose. And it seemed like every week or so we had get in the car, drive around town, and look for Opie. We’d eventually find him, yell for him to hop in the back seat, and then take him home until the next time he got loose. Seeking Opie became an unpleasant part of our routine.

Sometimes we go seeking special places. I remember last fall, when I was invited to join the folks in the church for the annual hayride and wiener roast. I spent a good deal of time seeking for the farm where everyone else had gathered. I visited a number of farms that night that surrounded Champaign/Urbana, but none had bonfires or hayrides. Seek and you shall find. I did finally find my congregation, but the hayrides were over, and the food was a little cold.

I’ve been talking about seeking that which is tangible. I’d like to reflect a moment on seeking that which is intangible. Most of us, I think, are seekers of the intangible. Everyday, I seek to be a better father and a better pastor. Even when we’re good at things, we seek to be better. I seek good health. Sometimes when I’m bored, I seek adventure. I seek love. I seek being at peace deep within myself. I seek happiness and joy. Sometimes I seek to understand persons or situations, and sometimes I seek to be understood. Sometimes I seek order in the midst of chaos. Sometimes I seek answers for life’s most perplexing questions. Sometimes I seek to be free from my own self-imposed prisons. And sometimes I seek freedom from claims and demands that others put upon me. Sometimes I seek tenderness, or guidance, or forgiveness. Sometimes relief from suffering. Threaded through all the intangibles I seek is this teasing notion of God. Perhaps it is God who has planted this yearning within me: this yearning to experience life better than I’m now experiencing it.

Welcome to the Seekers Worship Service. In this hour that we experience together, we shall visit some topics that might just help us find some of the intangibles that we are seeking. GRATITUDE I Thessalonians 5:18: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." About half way through the first inning of our church softball game the other night, I got to thinking: Paul never played on a church softball team. I got to thinking about this because our team was having a bad inning. In fact, it was about the worst inning I’ve ever had on a team. The other team had batted through their whole lineup before we even got the first out. I made three mistakes just by myself that inning: one because I didn’t catch the ball, one because I didn’t throw the ball, and one because I DID throw the ball. By the end of the second inning, the other team was ahead 21-1. We were snarling at each other in the dugout. And all that happened before we started getting injured. I got beaned with a ball and had to wear an ice pack under my ballcap for the last two innings. And so I’m thinking to myself: Paul, who said ‘give thanks in all circumstances,’ never had to play on this church softball team.

Now, this is a church league, and we begin and end every game with prayer. And the prayer at the end of this particular game was supposed to be given by someone on OUR softball team. Todd was the one who volunteered to pray. And I was real interested in what he was going to say in this prayer. As the prayer began, I took off my hat, and my ice pack, and listened. I can’t remember exactly what he prayed, but I do remember that he had a hard time coming up with something. Are we really expected to give thanks in all circumstances?

Now, a game is a game. And if nothing else, we can be thankful that it’s just a game--or that the game is over. But what happens when life is really hard? What happens when we’re struggling with a child or a parent? What happens when you or I, or someone close to us has a mental illness? What happens when someone is really sick? Or dies? What happens when a marriage fails or a job is lost? What happens when a wife or child is abused? What happens when nations are at war and atrocities multiply? Are we to give thanks, even in these worst of circumstances?

Paul would say yes. Even when life’s curses and tribulations and tragedies abound, there are still mercies and blessings, insignificant though they may seem, that will carry us through. In fact, the only path through some miseries is the path of gratitude. Through the years, I’ve watched people whose lives have been utterly shattered by tragedies--people who have experienced horrible, violent, insane misfortunes. I have watched people whose lives have been turned upside-down by the unfairness of life practice the gentle, unpretentious art of gratitude.

Are we as diligent in counting our blessings as we are in reciting the litany of our problems? On the whole, do we spend more time feeling sorry for ourselves, or more time counting our blessings?

This is a Seekers Worship Service. We will seldom find the treasures of life we seek in our litanies of complaint. It is when we enter the path, practice, and way of gratitude that we do find God’s blessings. It is only when we begin to intentionally count God’s blessings that they truly accrue to us. In all circumstances, give thanks: for the light and the dark, the companionship and the space, the feast and the fast, the story and the song, the past and the future, the earth and its fullness, the promise of life beyond our knowing.

THE WAY OF JESUS We seek to know more about God. We seek to know what God has planned for us, what God will do on our behalf. We seek to relate to God. We seek the gifts God provides: power, peace, perhaps a mission to make the world a better place. Christians seek God by looking to Jesus--to his ways and teachings. Today we open our Bibles to Matthew, chapter 10. I’ll be reading from verses 9-23 and 34-36.

Before we read the scripture today, we need to remember that Jesus did not have an easy life. His family, including his own mother, disapproved of his ministry, and they tried to stop him. The religious officials of his day were threatened by what Jesus taught. The political authorities were threatened by his popularity. The wealthy were threatened by the way Jesus seemed to be able to captivate the masses of the poor. Jesus was eventually arrested, abused, and executed.

The disciples of Jesus didn’t particularly have it easy. Some of them were arrested and executed. Paul, the most famous of all the early Christians, once wrote about his travails: "labors, imprisonments, countless floggings, and often near death. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. For a night and a day I was adrift at sea. On frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches." (II Cor 11:23-28)

If we are seeking a life of comfort, ease, and absence of pain, then we probably shouldn’t be involved in anything that has to do with Jesus. Jesus never offered anyone a pain free life. What he offered, instead, was just the opposite. We can’t be made whole until we’ve been broken. We can’t find the true road home until we’ve been lost. We can’t experience true joy until we have cried. We can’t be raised to new life, been born again, until a major part of the old self has died. We can’t succeed until we’ve failed. We can’t fully enjoy companionship and community until we’ve felt the darkness of loneliness. We can’t truly love another person until we’ve felt the sharp and painful way that person is different from us.

When we live the kind of life that Jesus teaches: a life of true joy, love, forgiveness, and peace--we will not be popular. We will be ridiculed. A life lived on easy street is not the Christian life. The ways of this world will never be at peace with the ways of Jesus. This world will never accommodate true Christians. Our generation is too much into control to let Jesus be in control. We believe too much in violence and might as our true salvation. We are too attached to money and possessions. We’ve become comfortable with too many ethnic, political, and life-style divisions among us. Jesus calls upon his followers to live warily in the world: be as gentle as doves and as wise as serpents. Only someone who plans to radically change the world can stir up a ruckus the likes of Jesus. Hear the scripture:

PRAYER Most people believe in prayer. Prayer is spiritual, but it’s not specifically Christian. Muslims pray. Jews pray. Agnostics pray in a pinch. When people pray, they call out to some great force beyond themselves to provide aid for some difficult situation. God isn’t always the target of prayer. Some people pray to the dead. Some people pray to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Some people pray to nature. Some people simply toss prayer into the air and hope some benevolent power passing by will provide assistance.

Prayer is a form of seeking. We seek God’s help for situations that trouble us. Some of us wish we could pray better. Others wish we could pray period. Others are pretty glib in prayer, but wish they had better success, a better batting average so to speak, when it comes to getting things through prayer. Prayer and seeking go hand in hand.

Is there a Christian formula for prayer? Is there some secret that followers of Jesus all know--some secret about how to pray? When we read the stories of Jesus, we notice that his prayers had extraordinary power behind them. How can we gain that same power in our praying?

Christians know that the power of prayer is really the power of love. When we truly pray for another person, we give our hearts time to gather up the love we have for that person, and in prayer, that love is offered up to God. Sometimes we pray with words, but sometimes we pray merely with pictures in our minds. Sometimes we pray with a simple formula, such as, "Lord, have mercy." And sometimes we pray at length, the thoughts and sentences just pouring forth. Sometimes we pray as we sing. And sometimes we pray as we cry. And sometimes we pray as we laugh. Sometimes we pray in awe and humility. And sometimes we pray in earnest or in anger. But whatever methods Christians use to pray, they with their hearts exposed, and their love for the person who is the object of prayer right out there for God to see.

Christians pray their love--nothing more--nothing less.

There are so many who need our love prayers these days. Our love-prayers are so often the bridges that connect the needs of people with the mercies of almighty God.

DISCIPLESHIP I’ve been a disciple of something or somebody all of my life. The word disciple simply means a student or a follower. When I was in the second grade, I was a disciple of Ernie Banks, Dick Tracy, Mrs. Tucker, and my grandpa. Whatever they did, I copied it, I learned it, I studied it, I became it.

Children usually make great disciples. Adults these days usually make lousy disciples. We’re so stubborn and independent. We don’t aim to follow anybody. On the other hand, look at where that’s gotten most of us. It’s no wonder that Jesus said that those who wish to enter the Kingdom of God must become like children.

The true gift of Christianity, the true genius of Christianity is found in the concept of discipleship: following Jesus, learning the ways of Jesus, studying Jesus, become like Jesus in all of our relationships.

Now, God loves everybody. And like Jesus said, God causes the sun to shine on the good and the bad alike. You don’t have to be a follower of Jesus to be blessed by God. But what we are taught, and what we have come to believe, is that when one does become a follower of Jesus, life becomes exceptionally rich, and we become extraordinarily overcome with the Holy Spirit of love, joy, and peace.

Many people believe that just because they have become a member of an institutional church, they have done all they need to do to get all God has to offer. But that is so wrong! One can be a member of a church, and it can mean absolutely nothing. We have dozens of people who are technically members of this church, and it means nothing to them in their lives. And their technical church membership means nothing to anyone else, including God. Now, membership in a church could be VERY meaningful, but only if a person is first of all a committed disciple of Jesus Christ.

If you or I want to be a disciple of anyone, it would require a commitment on our parts. And just saying so won’t make it so. Discipleship is in the DOING, not the bragging.

To be a disciple of Jesus means learning about Jesus through Bible study; it means experiencing the presence of Christ in the lives of other disciples; it means doing what we know Jesus would do in every situation; it means deciding in advance to live by the spirit of Jesus, even if we are not certain where that spirit will take us.

Anyone who is a seeker for a better life would do well to ponder a bit this whole notion of being a disciple of Jesus. We could do much worse than to persistently ask, every day, every moment, "What would Jesus do?"

THE CHURCH I’ve been in the church all my life. I got carried in before I could walk. I got baptized before I could say no. I got confirmed before I really knew what I was getting myself into. And I became a minister in the church before the church knew what it was getting itself into.

I have always belonged to the church. Not everyone can say that. But many of you can.

We have lots of ways of defining and describing the church. Some people say, "Well, it’s nothing but an institution." Others may define the church by saying, "Well, that’s the group of people who grow sweet corn and sell it for mission work." Others say, "Well, that’s where I have dear and nostalgic memories of when my kids were growing up." We sometimes define the church by who the pastor is or by the denominational label. We sometimes note whether a church is friendly or stuffy, liberal or conservative, lively or dead, cooperative or a political mess, old or young, modern or traditional...

But in the end, all these peculiarities mean very little. In the end, YOUR church is where you know you belong. Somehow, in a sense beyond words of explanation, you know that you belong to those people, and they belong to you. And that’s the church. And that’s really what the church is about.

One really can’t be a true disciple of Jesus without belonging to a church: that is to say, without being IN an environment that honors and upholds relationships between disciples.

Grace Church seeks to be a place where people are welcome to belong.

To that end, we are in the process of birthing and growing small groups. Groups of 6 to 15 people give everyone a change to be noticed, to be heard, to be important, to be involved. If you are seeking a richer life, a more joyful life, a more peaceful life than you now have, we invite you to seek this new life through the small groups of our congregation. We invite you to join the church, not as a statistic in an institution, but as a human being who yearns to belong.

The purpose of our church is to help people who seek more and better from this life. We invite people to lives of gratitude through our worship. We invite people to learn the ways of Jesus through our Bible studies and small groups. We invite people to join us in prayer for all the people and situations that know suffering. We invite people to journeys of discipleship--teaching people and walking alongside one another as we all try to follow the ways of Jesus.

If some of you would like to talk to me more about being a disciple of Jesus, about belonging to the church, or just about what you are seeking in your life these days, please make that desire known to me before you leave this morning, so we can arrange time to converse and share.

PURPOSE IN THE WORLD The church can be such a sanctuary from the real world. Our jobs, our kids, our marriages, our finances, 9-11, the Palestinians and the Israelis, the budget crisis, layoffs, the health system, cancer, abused children, the laundry, the grass to be mowed, pounds to lose, pounds to be gained, kids to be transported, meetings to attend...the church can be such a sanctuary from the real world.

It seems, in the real world, as though we can perish so easily, be overwhelmed so quickly. But God so loved the world that he send his only Son, Jesus, so that whoever might have faith in him, might not perish, but might have life, abundant life, life beyond all OUR definitions.

We have come to this place this morning seeking...SOMETHING...for our lives and for the real world. And perhaps God has allowed us to discover some blessings, some insights, some gifts while we have been here.

But we are true seekers. And our seeking is not confined to this room. Nor is it confined to the seeking of blessings just for our own selves.

Our seeking continues through the rest of today, through the days of this coming week, into the places we shall go, and in seeking the mercies of God in the world, we shall not be overcome by it--neither its enticements nor addictions, not its tragedies or defeats. Only as we seek the presence and voice of God--in the world--will we be able to avoid being overwhelmed.

It is a great irony that we will receive what we seek from God only to the degree that we give to others what we seek for ourselves. We note the words of St. Francis.

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