[Propertalk] Proper 13 c

[Robert P Morrison]

I commend the Travelers Insurance commercial to you - the YouTube address is given in the notes at the end.

This is up for editing. We have eight baptisms this Sunday at a service held with four local episcopal congregations worshipping in a park this Sunday.

Bob



THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY   TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST C RCL
HOSEA 11:1-11	                    PROPER 13
COLOSSIANS 3:1-11	           1st AUGUST, 2010  
LUKE 12:13-21		 	           PSALM 107:1-9, 43

	Last Thursday someone sent me one of those e-bumper-sticker-type phrases: “I try to use unconditional love in small amounts, she said, so people really appreciate it. The rest of the time I just try not to yell.” 1
	God doesn’t have that sort of a problem. God’s simply not that worried about having to be appreciated. God keeps on pouring out the unconditional love. But there ARE times when I wish God WOULD yell a bit more. I don’t know about you, but my attention span can be kind of short sometimes, and my hearing and understanding could use a tune-up fairly frequently! Still, it’s good to be reminded that God’s unconditional love continues, despite my reluctance to accept and use it. Maybe we ALL need a good word of encouragement to help us understand some of the ways God works in the world – and to remind us that living with Jesus is supposed to be risky.
	Tom Toles, the syndicated political cartoonist for “The Washington Post” told a story the other week. He called it “Something stupid”.
	“While it is nearly always a mistake to tell somebody about a dream you had,” he wrote, “this one is short. Last night two friends and I were hiking along a creek, when up ahead on the left were Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy singing (the song) ‘Something Stupid’. My friends were pretty excited and ran ahead to listen and tell the Sinatras how awesome it was. Now, I would like as much as anyone to listen to Sinatra sing in person – especially as it's really hard to do now – and woo hoo with the best of them – but NOT THAT SONG. I hung back and cleaned my sneakers with toothpaste and my index finger.
	“When I caught up after the song, it was too late for me. Frank was touched by my friends’ enthusiasm and showed his legendary generosity by inviting both of them to his place for barbecue and giving them front-row tickets to an upcoming show. All I got was a chance to wave at him as they all hiked away up the hill together. The lesson? This is what integrity will get you in this life. On the other hand, my sneakers whitened up surprisingly nicely.”  2
	Which is to say – most of the time, you get that for which you ask.
	Hosea the prophet must have been shaking his head as he talked to the people. “Didn’t anyone ever warn you? Did you not believe what you were told? Or did you simply not pay attention? If you keep certain company, and participate in any events with them, then you have to expect that you’ll get picked up with them when there’s a time of reckoning.”
	Now that may not seem particularly fair. We may think that certain folk are quite legitimate, that what they say and how they behave is perfectly acceptable. We may feel that someone’s standing in the community caries weight that offers us an excuse. Or, even if we have a nagging question, we may hope that we can extricate ourselves from the situation and not be judged because of the people with whom we associate. Not so, if we believe Hosea. Our lives, our reputations, our futures are all affected by the way we do things and the folk with whom we do them.
	But we CAN change. We really CAN! That’s one of the joys we discover when we read our way through the Bible and we talk to other people. WE’RE actually the only people who can keep us fixed in one spot, or in one pattern, or in one attitude. What God hopes, then, is that we’ll be open to the leading of the Spirit Who’ll help us take that first step away from the danger – be it spiritual, or personal, or economic, or political. What God hopes is that we’ll be open to change, no matter how scary; to the unknown, no matter how unsettling. In other words, God is calling us into such a faith that we’ll find the beginnings of a foundation which will support and encourage us.
	Patrick Overton lives in Astoria (Oregon) and is the founder and director of the Front Porch Institute. Apparently Overton isn’t “afraid to engage in controversy.” He seems to have the knack to cut “away the rhetorical underbrush of extremism,” and enable people to find ways to reach “the common ground and positive shared values of community.” 3 But it may be Overton’s role as a Pastor and Church leader which really caught my eye.
	He challenges you and me to think carefully about the sorts of communities with which we affiliate, and to recognise their limitations. He challenges us to see God in action in our world. He wrote, “When you have gone as far as all the light you have, and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen: There will be something solid for you to stand upon, or, you will learn to fly.” 4
	He’s reminding us that God WILL be there to support us, no matter what happens, how uncertain things look. And Overton’s implying also that no matter how attractive, or persuasive, or even superficially sensible it may seem to cast our lot with one particular person, or one group, ultimately we have to look further beyond anything material in order to find security. Overton talks about inviting the Spirit of God to guide us to do what is right, and in doing this he’s talking in the same way as Hosea and Jesus. For our health’s sake we must check when we think about following what others are doing and saying. We’re to measure our hope against what Jesus planted in us. THAT’S how we’ll find that there WILL be a way out of whatever threatens to turn our lives dark or fearful.
	I think it’s this fear, this temptation to allow darkness to colour our lives, that drove the member of the crowd around Jesus, and the person in the parable Jesus told, to place possessions and personal privilege above everything else. 	However, Jesus probed behind what the person in the crowd asked, just as he did behind the motivation of the successful farmer. Jesus didn’t condemn either for the wealth or the hard work to which each appealed. But He saw in their focus a misguided emphasis. “There’s more to life than money and property,” He implied. Perish the thought, Jesus also made the comment that there’s more to life than security, if that security distracts from a healthy relationship with God. We can’t afford to fool ourselves about who we are.
	“The American critic Joe Queenan (gave an account on the radio recently of) a memorable account of his time at a bubble gum factory in Philadelphia. ... (He) worked the graveyard shift at Fleer's Bubble Gum, inventors of the Dubble Bubble, and most of his time was spent compacting trash. ‘I loved telling my friends, especially girlfriends, that I was working the graveyard shift. Using terminology like that made me feel like a man. I was not a man. I was not even close to being a man, but after that first summer in the factory, I felt at least that I could masquerade as one.’” 5
	Sometimes WE use language to impress others too. Or we use jobs in the same way. Or we amass possessions. So we struggle to get more, finding in them what we THINK is security. But no matter who we are or what we do, God doesn’t want us to masquerade as anything. It won’t win us any points with Jesus. Ultimately, it’ll begin to define us in terms of a lie. 
Jesus seeks the truth for us, and within us. THAT’S why it’s so important to recognise who we are in relationship with God and with our sisters and brothers. And for me, THAT’S why it’s so important to embed myself with a community which is marching towards the light of God.
	This is what’s so amazing about what we’ll ALL be engaging in in a few minutes. From a chance question about ten days ago about whether any of the congregations represented here had any people in the process leading up to Baptism came mention of Sophia, who was born two weeks ago, and from there it snowballed to the point that the next day the names of eight people – four children and four adults – were brought forward as candidates to be acknowledged as members of God’s family.
	They seek for themselves, and their children, something beyond what society can offer. Not out of fear, but out of an exciting sense of belonging. In fact, to borrow an insurance company’s slogan, Baptism offers to help “Take the scary out of life”. 6 ‘Waterhole’, one of a new series of TV commercials, “features baboons, lions, zebras, crocodiles, vultures and all sorts of other animals getting along famously at what would normally be a very dangerous watering hole.” 7
	It’s interesting that what the ad purports can happen occurs around water, and it prompts us to remember that what WE do – and others have done for two thousand years – is focused directly on the last sentences of the Matthew’s Gospel. Each of us is responsible to be a witness to Jesus Himself, to lead people to see Him and what He’s done for every single one of us.
	In the words of the commercial, “When you’re not worried about potential dangers, the world can be a far less threatening place. Take the scary out of life with (Jesus), and the see the world in a different light.”
	Baptism is designed to illustrate how life can be if we aren’t afraid of anything. So, for those being baptised this morning, as for all the rest of us, we’re told to let our imaginations run freely, to make dreams come true – even dreams of Frank and Nancy Sinatra.
	Jesus has done HIS part for us. All that He asks is that we trust Him. This means that we probably shouldn’t see any really white sneakers around the Mid Willamette Valley Churches. They should probably be dusty and scratched for walking on all sorts of roads. Besides, I don’t remember reading anywhere that they’re anywhere near the top of Jesus list of things He wants to see among His followers.


NOTES:
 	 StoryPeople 29th July, 2010	Annette at storypeople.org 
2	Tom Toles 21st July, 2010. The Washington Post Opinion Page.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2010/07/20/PH2010072005402.jpg 
3	 “Rebuilding the Front Porch of America: Essays on the Art of Community Making”.  From the Foreword by Harvey Stower,1997. Mayor, Amery, Wisconsin 
4	Faith Poem Poster: The Leaning Tree, 1975 Rebuilding the Front Porch of America,1997 Patrick Overton	www.patrickoverton.com
5	Joe Queenan on “Twenty Minutes” BBC Radio 3 Tuesday 20th July, 2010 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00szr1y 
6	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDFDCSsImNE   http://thisisawesome.com/take-the-scary-out-of-life-awesome-wildlife-video/ TV Commercial. Company slogan for Traveler’s Insurance, an advertising campaign developed by Fallon, Minneapolis. 	 
7	http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/travelers-take-the-scary-out-of-life/

 

--
Robert P. Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban,
P.O. Box 1556,
Albany, Oregon, 97321

541-921-1076 (cell)
541-967-7051 (church)