Wadhams United Church of Christ
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Sermon by Steve Smith Order of Service
Inspired Insignificance
While their series of books now have national and international name recognition that most authors only envy, their beginning was less than inconspicuous: it was downright discouraging. People attending their workshops had been telling them for years that they should publish their stories, so they finally decided to do something about it. But after three long years of racking their brains, they only had about two thirds of the material they thought they would need to make a successful venture out of their book. After networking with other people in their field, they had the material, and now all they had to do was find a publisher.
But in the first month alone, thirty three of New York’s biggest publishing houses turned them down. They heard things like, “This kind of book doesn’t sell. We don’t think there’s a market for this book. We just don’t get it. The book is too positive.” All totaled, they were rejected by 140 publishers. To top it off, their agent finally said, “I can’t sell this book – I’m giving it back to you guys.” Three years into their efforts to find a publisher for their book, they attended a national convention of booksellers, where they went from booth to booth talking to editors and sharing their vision of how their book would uplift humanity by helping people open their hearts, rekindle their spirits and give them the courage to pursue their dreams.
I know: who would want to buy a book like that, right? But they left a copy of their manuscript with the president of a publishing company who agreed to read it. He was the one who caught the spirit of the book & agreed to publish it. Fifteen years ago last month, the first edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul was published, & had become a Christmas favorite by the end of December. Word of mouth led to such a demand for the books that the publisher couldn’t keep up with it: they had to subcontract for the printing. Today, Jack Canfield & Mark Hansen’s Chicken Soup for the Soul series lists 170 different titles in English, in addition to Spanish, Large Print and CD versions of their best-sellers.
A mere fifteen years later, with over 112 million copies sold in 41 languages, their series has made international publishing history, while millions more people have seen or heard the stories even if they don’t own one of their books. From an inconspicuous and inauspicious start, two people have orchestrated a movement that has indeed uplifted humanity by helping people open their hearts, rekindle their spirits and giving them the courage to pursue their dreams. Like the proverbial mustard seed, the tree that has grown up around their movement has inspired support groups, instant connection with people who have gone through something similar, and the telling of the stories that have the power to transform us.
With their modern success story serving as the backdrop, we can turn our attention to another unlikely character who in fact never wrote a book, but who inspired millions of people to write about him. He was a penniless drifter who was roundly despised by the authorities wherever he went. He was considered a genius by some, a dangerous rebel by others, the son of God by a handful, and a servant of Satan by the majority. Whether you love him or hate him, revere him or revile him, though, his stories can’t help but engage your mind, heart, and soul. With his stories, he inspired people to leave their old way of life and launch a spiritual journey that would last them the rest of their lives.
With his stories, he invited laughter, sometimes in mockery, and sometimes in moments of liberation, when people knew they would never be the same again. With those stories, he moved people to incredible acts of heroism, or so angered others that they could think of nothing else but his untimely and painful death. People have allegorized his stories, categorized them, and characterized them as some of the most influential words ever spoken. Today, we’re going to look at just a few of those stories and see what they might say to those of us who sometimes find it difficult to imagine anything different than what we’ve always known.
The first story is so well known that it’s hard to say anything that hasn’t already been said: the parable of the mustard seed was one most of us heard first in Sunday School. But let me turn it around a little bit, and I borrowed this idea from a commentator: the mustard seed is all risk. It is so insignificant that it is embarrassing. When you start sowing this tiny little piece of organic matter, you have no guarantees whatsoever that anything good is going to come from your efforts. It’s so small that a gust of wind can blow it right out of your garden; when you go to stomp it into the ground, it’s just as likely to stick to the bottom of your shoe as to stay put; and once it’s on the ground, the birds love these things more than we love chocolate.
Yet Jesus made risk and insignificance the essential ingredients for launching projects in God’s new community. Like the authors of the Chicken Soup series, we are going to open ourselves up to criticism, mockery and rejection whenever we suggest doing something new or different. The vast majority of us shy away from that kind of experience. Our natural tendency seems to be that of avoiding situations where we might be exposed to sarcasm, insults, and outright hostility. The flip side of our reluctance, however, is the reality that we will never accomplish anything significant or worthwhile without embracing the risk that comes from those initial, inconspicuous, inauspicious beginnings.
If we linger long enough with this story, it can inspire us to open our lives to new possibilities and encourage us to persist in our dreams and visions for our role in God’s work. In this story, Jesus is saying to followers of then and now, that it’s the discouragement that becomes insignificant in the branches of the tree that God is growing. It is his word of hope for each and every one of us who wonder whether our work is in vain: that each and every one of us needs to persist in being the small and seemingly insignificant beginning from which God’s work proceeds to bless the world around us.
The next story in our reading is another familiar one, as Jesus talks about the leaven, or a lump of starter dough as a symbol of God’s presence at work in the world. In Palestine, bread was made at home on a regular basis. But rather than begin each new round of baking by having to start the yeast culture, the baker would simply hold on to a clump of dough that would serve to start the next batch to rising. By comparing the kingdom of God to the slow and nearly invisible work of the leaven in the mix, Jesus is pointing to the work that the Spirit does in the lives of others whom we have loved, or prayed for, or even turned over to God when we found ourselves unable to forgive them.
That slow and seemingly invisible work can go on nearly undetected for long periods of time (years, decades, and even centuries) while the Spirit permeates the thoughts, the attitudes, and the soul of an individual or culture or government. While the leaven may not work fast enough to suit our tastes, this story is our encouragement to leave time and room for God to work in people’s lives. The commentator William Barclay suggests several different applications for this transformational work, and I believe that we can easily find modern equivalents for the ancient implications of this simple little story.
Jesus calls us to transform the way we look at ourselves. Having grown up in a generation that seemed to thrive on a message of self-gratification and positive self-esteem, I constantly find myself feeling sorry for me. Apparently, I took the underlying message to heart, that the universe really does revolve around me, and if it doesn’t, then it should! And when things aren’t going my way, it’s probably because I’m not sending myself enough affirmations and love poems. On the surface, this story can be a bit brutal on my oversized ego, as Jesus tells me that I’m more than a sour lump of dough unto myself, but that one of the reasons God put me on this earth was to act as leaven for the lives of others.
If I never give myself away, then the cycle of bread-making will come to an end. No, this radical little story insists that I will only ever find self-fulfillment in what I do for others, and not for self. The most significant things I will ever do won’t do much to advance my cause, but they can easily do everything to advance God’s cause. More than that, Christianity invites us to search for the invisible people and the non-entities that are hiding in plain sight all around us. Women were part of that group in Jesus’ day. Every morning, the devout Jew would say a prayer of thanks that God had not made him a Gentile, a slave, or a woman. If a man was displeased with his wife for any reason whatsoever, it was perfectly legal for him to beat her, cripple her, turn her out of the house, or even kill her. Don’t you miss the good old days?
You’ll notice that some of the most prominent followers in Jesus’ camp were women, and the dignity that Jesus extended to even the least of the women sent shock waves through a male-dominated culture. The weak and the ill were another group that received unexpected recognition. Because medical resources were limited or non-existent, a serious illness or affliction could radically change someone’s life for the worse. A widow would be turned out of her house and forced into prostitution so that she could survive. Children in the considered weak or defective in the Greek culture of that day were brought outside the village and abandoned to the elements and the predators.
Christianity also helped transform the lives of the elderly. We often hold the Roman Empire up as a model of advanced civilization in the ancient world. But listen to the advice that Cato, one of their premier authors, offered to anyone buying a farm: “Look over the livestock and hold a sale… sell the surplus of your wine and grain. Sell the worn-out oxen, blemished cattle, blemished sheep… an old wagon, old tools, an old slave, a sickly slave, and whatever else is superfluous.” In modern language, don’t put your old folks in nursing homes, just sell them at auction. It’s a bit jarring, don’t you think?
At the other end of the age spectrum, children were no better off. In the immediate background of Christianity, the marriage relationship had broken down. Divorce was so common that it was neither unusual nor particularly shameful for a woman to have a new husband every year. In such circumstances children were considered to be baggage, not a blessing. It wasn’t so very long ago that the industrial magnates of our enlightened country looked at children as a viable part of the work force, and employed them as such. In fact, they were expected to work 14, 15, and 16 hour shifts just like everyone else. Since they were younger, the owners didn’t have to pay them as much, either. It would literally take an act of congress to get them to change their ways.
So who are the non-entities of our day? We have to look hard at finding them, because they have had to learn to be invisible. People with handicapping conditions fit the bill. I was trained not to stare at such people, so I’ve had to retrain myself to look past the handicap and look for their eyes. If I can establish eye contact, I offer a smile or a simple hello. The developmentally disabled are another group that has been sidelined. But if we can overcome the hurdles separating them from society, we are likely to discover that they are some of the most accepting and loving people we will ever meet.
So if we find those non-entities, we offer some small measure of respect and acceptance. If we have a vision of what God could do, we extend ourselves a little further and persist in our efforts. However small the gesture, however insignificant the act, there is simply no telling how God can use it to transform the lives of the people around us.
Order of Service July 27 , 2008 Back to Sermon
"NC" refers to The New Century Hymnal, The Pilgrim Press (1995)
A Candle for Peace NC #575 (verse 1)
Call to Worship (Based on Psalm 105)
Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord; let us call on God’s name. Let us make known what the Lord has done for us.
People: We will sing to the Lord; we will sing praises to our God of love. We will tell of the Lord’s wonderful deeds.
Leader: When we seek you, Lord, you make glad our hearts and we rejoice. We glory in your faithfulness.
People: We look to you, Lord, for we need your strength and your presence in our lives. Help us always to seek your face.
Leader: You are faithful, Lord God. Your mercy and love are forever.
People: You remember your promises for a thousand generations. Your covenant with us is forever.
Leader: We praise you, Lord God. Accept our prayers and our love.
Hymn NC #44 Beautiful Jesus
Responsive Prayer
Leader: Beloved God, we thank you for your persistent and amazing love. You know us in our promise and strength, as well as in our failure and weakness.
People: We praise you that you are greater than our personalities, seeing what lies in our hearts, not judging us according to our public faces.
Leader: Without you, O God, we would be like frail boats drifting at sea—anchorless, without direction, buffeted by every wind, in peril of sinking.
People: But we are not abandoned, O God. Like you did with the disciples, you come to us, to rescue us, to bring us to shelter.
Leader: Lest we ever forget your promise of peace and shelter, anchor our hearts upon the unshakable foundation of your grace.
People: In times of hesitation, doubt, or fear, remind us that at heart we are always your children, as you are always our God.
Leader: Remind us that if we ever lose touch with you, you will never lose touch with us. You keep us in the palm of your hand.
People: If we are tempted to hide from you, as did Adam and Eve, remind us of your awesome love. Give us courage to meet you, to listen attentively for your Word to us. Give us courage to live lives of love.
Pastoral Prayer, Lords Prayer
Hymn NC #517 I Need You Every Hour
Psalm 104:24-34, Genesis 29:15-28, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Sermon Inspired Insignificance
Offering, Doxology, Dedication
Hymn NC #319 Wonderful Words
Benediction
Leader: As we leave here, let us offer our lives to the Lord. As God uses us and our gifts, may our lives be built upon the rock of faith.
People: As we offer our lives, may we see that the Lord of hosts is with us now and forever.
Leader: Go forth as those who live Christ’s love. Go with God’s blessing, as God uses you to help build a world that is built on love.
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