Sermon for November 26, 2006Deep And Wideby Rev. Mike Ratliff
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John 4:7-10 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Many of us learned this little song in Vacation Bible School or Sunday School if we grew up in the church – especially if we grew up going to church in the south. For the benefit of those who didn’t have this opportunity, I’ve asked Larry to play it so we can teach it to everyone.
This little song actually holds a treasure for those of us who are seeking to be followers of Jesus. It is a reminder that we need to be open to the opportunities that are presented to us for growing deeply in our faith. Richard Foster’s quote on the front of the bulletin (curse instead of cures) is expressive of comments I hear on an ongoing basis. Whether I’m around here, at writer’s conferences, or any other place where the people gathered are discussing the needs of the church, I seem to hear concerns about the superficiality of the people in their churches, businesses, communities, places of leadership…the list could go on. The way a good friend of mine down in Alabama describes this dilemma is that many people’s faith is “an inch deep and a mile wide.” I know that when my friend John uses that description, he is commenting on the depth of a person’s knowledge and commitment as it translates into the way they live their faith in our world. Until recently, I would have tended to agree with him. I would have expressed an enthusiastic “AMEN” to Foster’s comment on the front of the bulletin. I would have fully supported the concept that we need to “be” before we can “do” effectively. We need to experience the depths of God’s love for us before we are able to be a conduit of that love for others. We need to drink deeply of the fountain containing that living water before we play in the water, splashing all around the edge. But, my experience in ministry is telling me that there isn’t necessarily a sequence here. I am discovering that deep and wide not only can happen at the same time, but that it may actually be necessary for the way some people experience their world. Indeed, it may be that while seeking to go deeper in our spiritual awareness…in trying to learn more, know more, and grow more, we can find ourselves removed from the reality of the world Jesus came to save. A quick illustration: in another church where I was on the staff, there was a very nice woman who was a part of the congregation. She was a leader in the youth ministry, and loved doing for others. As time went on, I realized she was so busy going to different Bible studies in the community, learning to be a Godly woman, figuring out the correct way that God said to raise her children, seeking to understand more fully what her responsibilities as a Biblically grounded wife might be, that she was neglecting her children – dragging them from church nursery to church nursery. She never had time to spend doing anything in her house and only had time to cook on special occasions. Her time with her husband was limited by his schedule and her Bible studies. The depth that this woman sought escaped her in the very way that she expressed the faith she was diving in to! The wholesome, Biblically based family life she sought slipped through her hands because of her dedication to discovering what it was that God wanted her to be and do. As I have been exploring this topic in preparation for today, I was reminded of a science project that I undertook in eighth grade. For my earth science class, we were a part of an experiment. We spent an entire year learning about the development of the Grand Canyon. Now, just in case you are a science teacher, it HAS been a few years since I was in eighth grade, and it is possible there has been more study concerning exactly how the Grand Canyon was formed, but this is what I remember and what I have read as I’ve been preparing for this morning. The Grand Canyon did not begin as a deep place. As a matter of fact, it was the wide coverage of the ocean at one point that deposited much of the layers that have since been carved to form the magnificent walls of what we now see. It was the wide waters that began the process. Then the birth of the Colorado river flowing as a shallow, wide stream – looking for it’s banks and eventually carving them as it flowed to the sea – continued the process. As time went on, the path was set, the riverbed more focused, and the water deeper. Today, the depth of the canyon is a testament to the focused flow of water carving a path toward its future. The beauty we experience as we take in the endless layers of rock – peeled away one layer at a time – confirms that starting wide can lead to being focused and deep. We know that the rooms in this building, and many other church buildings in our community are places of learning where faith is deepened even as knowledge of scripture and God is shared among learners and leaders. Within the walls of this sanctuary we silently bow our heads in prayer and lift our voices in unison to sing. However, we cannot assume that God is only able to work here. We must also be witness to the fact that God can work in and through us in much less “religious” settings and stir our hearts with the issues and challenges that confront us on a daily basis. While reminding you that we do need to delve continuously deeper in our faith, and there are tremendous resources at your disposal to do that, I want to focus on those places that call to us night and day – those wide places in our lives where our often vertical faith becomes horizontal. We simply cannot exist as followers of Christ without the depth of our faith being translated into the breadth of our existence. As our souls meander through this world, finding our way, we become channeled and begin to shape our surroundings. The beauty of our world becomes a reflection of our interaction with that world. The antithesis of this statement is true also – the ugliness of our trash dumps, the thickness of our air, and the scars on our land reflect our shallow expressions of irresponsible self-indulgence. Back in September, I had the opportunity to celebrate our mission trips and activities with you. Through those efforts, we have made a significant difference. According to a June USA Today article, 1.6 million people participated in short term mission trips abroad, while even more participated here in the states. Those trips are tremendous, and I’m a strong proponent of participation in them…our next one will be a Spring Break health care/education trip to Belize in March, and I hope you’ll consider participating. There will be painting and other jobs for those not skilled in the focus areas for the trip. What I want to focus on here though, is something different. I want us to look at what it means to translate the depth of our faith in a daily way. I want us to be able to identify at least one way each of us might choose to more responsibly widen the scope of our spiritual expression in daily life. Generally speaking, I think we find ourselves to be limited in what we can actually do to change our world. That is why I think we are glad when there are opportunities to give to special causes or participate in some way – even if it is limited – to make a difference. I think this is the genius of Habitat for Humanity and many of the short-term mission programs available. They tap into that desire to make a difference. The kind of giving we are able to experience through these helps us feel good about what we are able to do. The thing to remember is that we aren’t called to give of ourselves or our possessions in order to feel good. We are called to give as an expression of who we are as followers of Christ and because like Adam and Eve in the garden, God asks us to care for all of creation. This means ALL of God’s children and every other aspect of the created universe. I’m sure that in the abstract you are readily able to accept this charge. The question is, how do we work on this widening expression of our faith on an ongoing, practical level? How should we respond to our experience of the recent elections? Is there work that we need to do in relation to any of those causes? Is there a need for us to work toward a more dignified way for candidates to express who they are, what they stand for, and still protect the individuals from the degradation we watched in a ceaseless parade of inflammatory commercials that made it hard to believe that ANY candidate was fit for office? Are there ones among us who need to step up and commit to being a candidate whose values reflect the love of God and others in their lives and views? God doesn’t need politicians who wear a merit badge of faith on their political uniform, but who embodies the life of Christ in their daily decisions and actions. Are you aware that today, while we worship, and go about the rest of our comfortable existence, 30,000 people – many of them children – will die of hunger? There was an article in the Post this weekend that states Colorado has the third largest increase in people who are experiencing “food insecurity” in our country for the last two years. Last weekend, St. Andrew and our youth contributed more than 1500 items of food to the Denver Urban Ministries Food For All program. Nearly 100 youth and adults from this church joined another 300 youth and adults from around our area to pack thousands of food items into gift boxes and the DenUM food pantry to distribute during this holiday season. This is great, but how do we work beyond the necessary band-aid approach to this dilemma and find ways to bring about systemic change? Last week, while at a conference in Orlando, I had the opportunity to hear from a young citizen from Hong Kong who recently traveled here to work at the China pavilion of Disney’s World Showcase. She said that one of her first experiences was that of “portion shock!” She was amazed at the size of the portions she was served in restaurants in our country. WHO will help change this cause of obesity and waste? Meantime, another 30,000 will die tomorrow. I’ve tried to emphasize a couple of areas of our wider existence where we need to be engaged. I have not done this to make anyone in this room feel guilty – maybe a little uncomfortable, but my reason is to encourage a wider expression of what has become a very personal Christian faith. I want to show a brief out-take from the movie Hotel Rowanda. In it, a video producer and the manager of the hotel that has become a refuge for 1200 of the Tutsis being attacked in the 1994 genocide discuss a segment of video that is to be aired on US television. Show Video segment The statement by the camera man is stunning – and stinging! The very nature of horrific news footage of wrongs in our world has become an insulating layer in our protected world. How can you and I begin to do more than bemoan the plight of others? How do we move beyond charity to instigate expressions of justice where there is none? The challenges are HUGE! It may feel as if we are small and weak in comparison, and yet, there is the mandate from Micah to “…act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” (4:8). Act justly…what does that mean as it relates to your life as a follower of Christ? How can you influence God’s brand of justice in a political system where power and style overshadow responsibility and substance? How can we as the church meaningfully react to the AIDS crisis that continues its death march in our country and is devastating the countries of sub-Sharian Africa? How do we get some of the food off our plate and onto the plates of those in need so that the next day’s toll is only 25,000, and then 20, 000, and then less as we seek to love each of God’s children by supplying their most basic needs? How do we make a difference in Darfur and Sudan, and Chad, and Iraq where genocide rips out the heart of God’s children? You were given an index card when you came into the sanctuary today. I want to give you a minute to reflect on where you are in the depth and the breadth of your faith. Then I want to invite you to write down one thing – just one thing that you are willing to do to live your faith more widely in this world that God has entrusted to us. Can you write a letter? Sign a petition? Buy a can for you and a can for someone else? Shop for Christmas at the Alternative Gift Boutique next Saturday? That fountain of living water is flowing – deep and wide. We are called to splash in the shallow edges and dive into the depths of refreshing faith. How will you choose to splash in God’s love? |
