Keep It Simple, Silly!

“KEEP IT SIMPLE, SILLY”
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Faith United
September 2, 2007


Life is hard
and people can be mean
I am grateful for such technological gifts
as the internet
But I get so sick of day after day
being inundated with the cruel gossip
about the latest pop star to crash and burn
and spend her 4th time in rehab
Or the latest politician caught with his pants down
You can say you don’t feel sorry for them
because they make millions of dollars
or own several houses
but any human being has the capacity
to be humiliated
Even the people we like the least
Why does our society seem to thrive on humiliation?
Tearing each other down?
It goes on long after middle school, I assure Sarah
Middle school, I think, is our training ground for the real world
Why do people thrive
on telling each other’s failures and tragedies?
What kind of rush to do we get
out of humiliating somebody?
It’s a tough world out there
It always has been,
we just didn’t use to have the technological capabilities
of spreading the word so much so easily before
Jesus wouldn’t have lasted three years
if he was here now
The Church gets a bad rap
I’ve told you many times
I hate going out there
and telling people what I do for a living
They act differently when they know
Sometimes they act better,
sometimes they just think it’s pretty funny
that someone still believes all this stuff
The mainline Church is declining in numbers
it has been for a few decades now
people don’t take us as seriously
or they just don’t have the time to take us seriously
and to be a part of us
They choose to put the Church at the bottom of their priorities
and often they have good reasons, I admit
The Church has been caught with its pants down
many times as well
So there’s programs, there’s lots and lots of books to read
on how we bring more and more people
back to church
There’s all kinds of campaigns and slogans
and special strategies
that are tried and used and abandoned
year after year
People look at the aging population
of the congregations of the Church
and wonder what will happen after that generation goes?
They’ve been wondering that for several decades,
generations have come and gone
and somehow we’re still here
It’s very easy, and we have lots of help
as pastors and churches
to get discouraged about the future
Especially when all these programs that we’re given to try
often don’t work
Many years ago in New Jersey
I went with a friend of mine from church
to an AA meeting
she didn’t want to go alone
And I must admit, I was pretty nervous myself at the time
being a pretty sheltered kid
I imagined all kinds of things about the people I’d meet
I was shocked
that most of the people I met
looked… well, like ordinary people
that I saw everyday or at church
After that, I’d gone to some Al-Anon meetings
because of some issues in my extended family
and with some employers that I used to work for
who were alcoholics
I met people who said they couldn’t talk like this
at church
they couldn’t be as honest with each other at church
as they could at these meetings
They couldn’t find the acceptance
the grace, and the love at church
that they felt at these meetings
And it broke my heart
but I understood
I, too, was able to be more honest
with these people, than I could be with church people
Everyone in those meetings
knew what their weaknesses and sins were
and were very honest about them
they didn’t try to be what they’re not
And they/… we … were equalized by our humanity;
our sins and our struggles
They talked about knowing their need for God
to get through each day
but more than that, to find meaning in their day
to find hope and purpose
And they talked about these meetings as being the place
where they found that hope
that acceptance, that LOVE
whereas at church they only found rejection and judgment
I know it’s even more difficult in a small town
where you’ve grown up
where people remember what you were like as a teenager
or a young adult
The mistakes that you made
or that your family made
and people don’t forget
no matter how much you’ve changed
And that carries over into the church
But what if we could forget?
Or at least know that the past doesn’t matter anymore?
What if we could come here and be that honest?
What if we could come here and be ourselves?
No matter who we’ve been in the past?
What if we felt better
just by walking in that door each Sunday
knowing that THIS is our family, THIS is our home
a place that we are reminded that we are precious children
in God’s sight
No matter what we’ve done before
or what demons we wrestle with each day?
What if?
What if we came here and found a spirit of community
so radically DIFFERENT from what we find out there??
What if we weren’t so afraid to talk about
The way things are?
What if we talked honestly about how important it is
to stay faithful to our spouses in marriage?
to not treat sex like some kind of sport
that doesn’t affect the heart and soul?
Talk about SEX in church??????
What if we weren’t so afraid to be different?
What if we weren’t so afraid to embrace those
who are so different?
What if we dared to actually boldly BE different?
M. Scott Peck tells the story of the Rabbi’s Gift
It’s the story about a monastery that had fallen on hard times
it was once a great order
but after a number of different factors,
it fell into decline
There was anti-monastic persecution in the 17th and 18th centuries,
followed by the rise of secularism in the 19th century
people were less interested in the church
All of the branch houses of the monastery were lost
and it had declined so much that this little monastery
was down to 5 monks in the decaying mother house
The abbot and 4 others
and all of them were over 70 years of age
It was clear to them that it was the beginning of the end
In the woods that surrounded the monastery,
there was a little hut that a rabbi from a nearby town used
occasionally for his own retreat
Through their many years of prayer and contemplation,
the monks were a little bit psychic,
they could tell, they just KNEW
whenever the rabbi was in the hut in the woods
“The rabbi’s in the woods again,” they’d whisper to each other
Finally, the abbot, who agonized daily over the decline
of his order, decided to pay the rabbi a visit
and ask him some advice as to how these old monks
could possibly save their monastery
The rabbi graciously welcomed the abbot into his hut
but the rabbi wasn’t much help
He didn’t have any inspiring words of wisdom, so it seemed
he could only identify and relate to the abbot’s concern
“I know how it is,” the rabbi sighed
“The spirit has gone out of the people.
It’s the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue
anymore, they’re busy with other things ….”
And so the abbot and the rabbi
wept together over their similar circumstances
After awhile, they read from the Torah together
and quietly spoke to each other about things of God and the Spirit
Finally, feeling refreshed by the rabbi’s company,
the abbot decided it was time to leave
The two men embraced
“It’s been a wonderful thing that we should meet
after all these years,” the abbot said,
“but I still failed my men in my purpose of coming here.
Is there nothing you can tell me, no advice at all,
that you give me that would help me
save my dying monastery?”
“No, I’m sorry, friend,” the rabbit responded. “I have no advice to give.
The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you.”
When the abbot returned to the monastery,
the other monks gathered around him eagerly
“Well, what did he say? Can he help us?”
“He couldn’t help,” the abbot said wearily
“We just wept and read the Torah together.
The only thing he did say, just as I was leaving—
it was pretty cryptic—
He said that the Messiah is one of us.
I don’t know exactly what he meant.”
Hmm, they all shrugged sadly
and went about their day disappointed
But in the days and the weeks and the months that followed,
the old monks pondered
and wondered whether there was
any possible significance
to the rabbi’s words
The Messiah is one of US?
Could he have possibly meant one of us monks here
at the monastery?
If that’s true, which one?
Do you suppose he meant the abbot?
That would make sense
If he meant anyone, he must have meant Father Abbot
he’s been our leader for more than a generation.
On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas
certainly Brother Thomas is a holy man
everyone knows that Thomas is a man of light
Certainly he couldn’t have meant Brother Eldred!
Eldred gets real crotchety at times
just a crusty old guy
But come to think of it, even though he’s a thorn in our sides,
When you look back on it,
Elred is virutually always right
Yeah… sometimes VERY right
He could NOT have meant Brother Philip
He’s so passive, you hardly know he’s there
A real nobody
But then, almost mysteriously,
He has a gift for somehow always being there when
you need him
He just magically appears by your side
maybe Phillip is the Messiah
Of course the rabbi doesn’t mean me
He couldn’t possibly mean me
I’m just an ordinary person
But what if he did?
Suppose, just suppose, I’m the Messiah?
O God, not me
I couldn’t be that much for you, could I?
As they contemplated this way, all of them,
The old monks began to treat each other
with extraordinary respect
on the off chance that one among them
just might be the Messiah
And on the off off chanced that each monk himself
might be the Messiah,
they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect

Because the forest in which it was situated was so beautiful
it so happened that people still occasionally came
to visit the monastery to picnic on its tiny lawn
to wander along some if its paths,
even now and then to go into the dilapidated chapel
to meditate
As they did so,
without even being conscious of it,
the sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that now
began to surround the fine old monks
and seemed to radiate out form them
and permeate the atomosphere of the place
There was something strangely attractive
even compelling, about it
Hardly knowing why, they began to come back
to the monastery more frequently
to picnic, to pray, and to play
They began to bring their friends to show them
this special place
and their friends brought their friends
Then it happened that some of the younger men
who came to visit the monastery
started to talk more and more with the old monks
After awhile one asked if he could join them
then another
So within a few years the monastery
had once again become a thriving order
and, thanks to the rabbi’s gift,
a vibrant center of light
and spirituality in the realm
The letter to the Hebrews
is a letter to a people that have been beaten up
by the world
who have been persecuated for their faith
for believing in the foolishness of the Gospel
and going against the grain of society
for being DIFFERENT
Wow, how we treat people who are DIFFERENT
Man, we crucify them, don’t we?
You know each other’s stories better than I do
What if we looked at each other
and saw only the precious child of God,
the endless possibilities and potential in each face?
What if we actually dared to see JESUS
looking back at us in our neighbor’s eyes?
You’re not Lincoln or Omaha,
and all too often, I hear you apologize for yourselves
as a church or a town…
but the people who know me
know I’m different
because of my 2.5 years with you
And they know, there is something special
about Gibbon…
because they see it in me
Look at each other, I dare you,
Look at each other… and see the face of God