We are Growing in God's Kingdom

Yesterday we had our first "After Mass Bible Blast." 17 children from St Timothy's stayed after church and we learned about what makes us grow. Jesus frequently talked about seeds, soil, and growth and the children talked about what makes plants grow and what makes us grow - spiritually that is. I had great pictures from the camera but alas, the transfer to the computer is not working. BUT! I do have this one grainy picture from my cell phone of the children decorating planters and filling them with soil and seed.

PS: Below is the unedited version of the sermon from yesterday.

Last week I had a surprise in church. Actually I had two surprises. The first one was that my mother actually brought naked pictures of me to the ECW shower for Cherilyn. Frankly I do not know why pictures of me in my birthday suit are in any way relevant to Cherilyn and the birth of our son.

But the second surprise occurred at the 10:30 service right as I started to read the Gospel. In the back of the church, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jocelyn Scofield. Now, you don’t know Jocelyn, she’s not from here and before last week I’m not sure if she has ever been in Winston-Salem. And I haven’t seen Jocelyn in almost 20 years. But I remember her well.

You see, in all my years in school, I was sent to the principal’s office one time. And for that one time – Jocelyn was the reason. You have to understand my mother was, and still is, an elementary school principal. She would have weekly conference calls with teachers and principals just to make sure I didn’t have my name on the board or anything remotely considered misbehaving.

But Jocelyn was the reason. In all honesty it wasn’t her fault. We were in Mrs. Risinger’s glass and I was holding a pair of scissors and she had long blonde hair, and one thing led to another, and before I knew I was sitting in the principal’s office with locks of Jocelyn’s long blonde hair between my fingers.

And in that hot seat, sitting in a chair with the lights bearing down on my face, and a principal frowning at me across his desk, and knowing that my mother and father would not find my attempt at cosmetology funny, I wanted and wished so hard to be somewhere else.

There is a great scene in the movie “Forrest Gump.” Do you remember Forrest Gump? The simple Alabama boy who found himself in the most extraordinary situations? Do you remember the scene when Forrest and Jenny, his best friend – just like peas and carrots – took off in the corn fields trying to hide from her daddy?

Jenny wasn’t in school one day so Forrest, being her ‘very best friend’ went to her house to see if she was sick or out of town or whatever. When he walked up to her house Jenny bolted and took Forrest by the hand and together they ran off to the cornfield. Forrest didn’t know it then, but Jenny was trying to avoid her abusive father. All day long she had been cooped up in the house with her father. All day long she had been subject to abuse, and when she saw Forrest, they took off to the cornfields.

When her father heard the screen door slam as Jenny ran outside, he got up from his nap and started looking for her, calling her name, and he started for the cornfield. In an act of faith and desperation, Jenny took Forrest by the hand and they knelt down in the middle of the corn and Jenny prayed.

Do you remember her prayer?

Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far; far, far away.
Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far; far, far away.

Throughout time Jenny’s prayer has also sounded like this:
Dear God, if you would just get me out of this.
Dear God, help me find a way.
Dear God, let this cup pass before me.

St Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians while he was in prison. It is sometimes hard to put the events of Paul’s life in order and we aren’t sure if he was in Rome or if he was in Ephesus or really where he was but we do know he was in prison.

The book of Philippians is one of the prettiest books in the New Testament. It’s in the book of Philippians that we find the Christ Hymn, the song that includes the verses ‘that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’

But it’s also a book written by a man in prison. It’s written by a man who is chained. It’s written by a man who wishes he was a bird, so he could fly far, far, far away.

At least it seems that way. St Paul tells the Christians in Philippi that he would rather be with Christ – in fact if he had his druthers he would be with Jesus in heaven – but he knew that he needed to keep fighting to help the struggling, new Christian Churches.

St Paul says that he hard pressed between his two options – to be with Christ or to stay in the flesh. And it doesn’t take an advanced theological degree to see that St Paul really, really wants to escape from his present circumstances. He’s in prison. He’s chained. Who knows what might be in store? Who knows what his captors have in store for him?

In fact, some scholars have actually wondered if St Paul is considering taking his own life to escape from his own hardship. He argues with himself until his comes away with the conviction that he needed to stay strong, he needed to stay in the flesh so that he might be of help to the Philippians, the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Romans, and Christians everywhere.

The point is, the two most important figures in our faith both experienced times when their circumstances were so great, the stress was so incredible, they wished to be somewhere else. St Paul wanted to be with Christ and not in a damp, dirty, inhumane cell.
Jesus asked God to let his cup pass before him.
Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far; far, far away.

When I hear St Paul writing to the Philippians and when I remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, I know that the feelings I have are not just my own. I know that when there are times and there are places and I am with people when the circumstances seem too hard for me to handle, and when the stress feels like it is going to break me.

We all can nod in agreement with that. We’ve all had times when money or family or work or sickness or those inner demons pile on our souls to the point that we scream for an escape – and sometimes we do destructive things hoping we might escape.

But the most unique thing about our faith is that we don’t have a God who simply tells us how to handle our stress. We have a God who actually showed us.

Christ carried his cross. St Paul labored until he was executed. Neither one was delusional. Neither one had any misconceptions about what faced them ahead. And at their weakest point – they show us God’s immense strength.

Isn’t that funny to say? That at our weakest point, the point where we are the most vulnerable, where we are the most wounded – that we are also at our strongest?

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, British sprinter Derek Redmond tore his hamstring in a 200 meter semi-final. He fell to the ground. The hard surface of the track cut in to his skin. His race was over. His Olympics were over. Olympic officials raced over to Redmond and tried to take him off the track, but he brushed them off. He wanted to cross the finish line.

And then he felt the arms of someone familiar around him. It wasn’t an official, it wasn’t another runner, it was his father. His father after watching him fall, ran down the stands, evaded the security guards and put his arms around his son and together they limped to the finish line.

Do you remember watching that scene? No one really remembers who won that race and no one really remembers who won the gold medal that year. Because the strongest person at that race wasn’t the fastest.

The strongest person was the one that at the point of greatest weakness still marched on to finish the race. The fact that in the face of humiliation and disappointment and pain – he kept on fighting moved 65,000 people to their feet cheering him on. At that point the crowd didn’t care about the winner. They didn’t care about a medal. His story is the one we remember.

When we find ourselves in times, places, and people where everything is crashing in and we can’t seem to even stay above water and we wish, we wish with all our might that we could vanish or be whisked away to another place or even another time – let us remember that God’s strength is the most evident when we are at our weakest.

At that even if we do fall down and if the track we are running on does cut and scrape and if our dreams are dashed and our hopes are not realized, God is there to wrap us up in loving arms and walk with us across the finish line.

That’s a story people will remember.

Amen.

Here's the video of Derek Redmond: