Picking Potatoes

"PICKING POTATOES!"
For three decades I came to the church six days a week. Now I
am here five days a week - which means that tomorrow I will be getting
caught up on work that needs to be done at home - also on Friday. An
every Monday and Friday task I have is putting on my rubber gloves,
getting on my bicycle and pedaling around to the landscaping on the outside
of the wall on the south side of my property - 240 feet of exposure into
which passersby on Stirling Road throw their fast food containers, beer
bottles, pop bottles, flyers, and store receipts and empty cigarette
packages, and some unmentionables as they walk or drive by. It sounds
like an unpleasant task that is mine, but as I feel the wind in my face as
I ride the bike, and as I bask in the satisfaction, of how nice my landscaping
looks freed of debris, I am glad that I am the persistent type. I vowed that
I would keep the outside of my property looking as good as the inside.
My persistence reminded me of John Trotti - longtime librarian at
Union Seminary, who as a Boy Scout was taught to leave a property
better than he found it - so he and his troop, whenever they went camping
would not only leave their campsite clean, but would go around picking
up other people's trash before they left.
He carried this practice into his adult life. He and his wife Joan,
when their children were young would pick up refuse as they took their
children in strollers for outings, and finding that the City would pay.08
cents a pound for aluminum cans they kept them separate, got paid for
them and donated the money for years to a Center for the Adult Mentally
Disabled. One day an interested observer asked the seminary professor
why he was collecting cans. On hearing the explanation he asked the
professor "Do you have to prove you're mentally disabled to get
the .08 cents a pound!"
Persistence is highly praised by Jesus - in general - and specifically
in how you pray. I'm concerned that you not only pray persistently but
that you live persistantly - in relationship to your Christian commitment -
because you'll feel much better about yourself if you do, and as usual, I
have an illustration for you:
At thirty, Russell Jeung, was restless. Despite the fact that he had
a B.A. from Stanford and was in grad school at the University of California,
he was not at ease - and it was all due to his desire to be persistent about
following the Way of Jesus. The "Way", in his native language - Chinese -
was "dao" meaning knowing the right path and taking it - the Chinese
character combines the symbol for head and foot - not only thinking about
doing something but actually moving to do it.
He knew his good fortune should be used to help others - but he
was only studying about it. He had just begun a study of refugee children
who join gangs. He was ill at ease because he knew that just studying
about it wasn't enough - he had to do something about it.
One spring day, he visited the Fruitvale district in the city of
Oakland, specifically the Oak Park apartments, a 53 unit complex where
the tenants were refugees from war-torn Cambodia. The kids there
were dropping out of school and joining gangs. There he met a man from
the suburbs, Dan Schmitz who had moved there to help. "What is it
like to live here?", Russell asked. "Actually, I love it. It's a
wonderful community, wonderful friends. I feel like I meet God
here every day." Russell said he then pictured himself sitting at his
computer in his cozy apartment writing about Oak Park? Did he meet
God there? He didn't! So when Dan invited him to move to Oak Park
and to help, he took him up on the offer. Soon he met and married a
volunteer at the project. Altogether, he's been there 15 years. He hasn't
left it yet, but it's a lot better than when he found it. The "dao" was right
there where he was "head and foot" involved. He says he has learned in
being there that "the way, the truth and the life of God aren't found
in big accomplishments and shiny resumes, but in the small things,
the little miracles. They're right in front of me, in my friends, my
neighbors, my community." He too, met God there everyday.
How persistent ARE you in the practice of your Christian faith in
the daily experience? Persistant enough to remove the restlessness? As
the poet, Mary Oliver asks, "What is it you plan to do with your one
wild and precious life?" Good question!
For a good answer, let's begin with the beginning of the day when
I recommend you emulate the dedication the prophet Isaiah. His
dedication grew out of an experience he had when he went into the temple
to pray one day. He saw God sitting on a very high and wonderful throne,
his long robe filling the temple. Seraphic angels stood around him, praising
God so loudly that the frame around the door of the temple began to
shake and the temple was filled with smoke. Isaiah was terrified. He said
to himself: "Oh, no! I will be destroyed. I am not pure enough to
speak to God, and I live among people who are not pure enough o
speak to him. Then an angel flew to him with a hot coal in his hand,
touching his mouth with it. Then the angel said, "When this hot coal
touched your lips, your guilt was taken away and your sins were erased."
Then he heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Who can I send?
Who will go for us? And Isaiah said, "Here am I. Send me!"
From when your day begins to when it ends, God asks you to
remember that you are His servant meant to leave the world better than
you found it. When you return to your home and are ready to retire for
the night, you are to ask yourself - "Is the world a better place for my
having been in it today? Have I used both head and foot - have I
both thought and acted for God today? He sent me. Did I go?
And if I went, what did I do when I got there?"
Anne Bauer of Helena Montana went to the hospital to visit her
mother who had fallen and broken her leg. She was particularly sensitive
on behalf of her mother right then because she had lost her husband just a
few months before this added burden of injury. Yet the nurse treated her
as if she was a bed number, not a person - grabbing her wrist like it was
the last item in a sale bin, flopping the blood-pressure cuff around her arm,
pumping it up quickly, then marching out of the room. When she returned
she announced from the doorway "Vital checks" - charging over to the
bedside. Something deep inside herself nudged Anne to say, "Thank
you Sarah, for taking such good care of my mom." "It's so nice to
hear that," the nurse replied. "The last few nights have been rough.
All the beds are full and some of the nurses are out sick." She
paused and adjusted the patient's pillows and said to her, "See you in a
couple of hours, Ruth Ann" and left.
Anne said "I'd been angry with Sarah for seeming to forget
my mom was a person. I quietly thanked God for reminding me
that Sarah was a person too." She had forgotten that. Perhaps you
forget that those around you are persons who have their own stories, their
own difficulties and dilemmas to think about. It's not all about you!
It's not all about us - what we're facing each day. It's also and
about all the people around us. what they're experiencing...the encouraging
words THEY need - the lift they need to THEIR spirits to be able to
continue on. They are our mission field - our place to answer God's
call - our place to meet God every day!
Sometimes we get in our own way. I read a beautiful story in
Guideposts about a girl name Beatriz who had a little problem - her sister,
Leticia asked her to be her matron of honor at her wedding. The problem
was, Beatriz hadn't 'spoken to their Mom for five years. Her husband
had lost his mother a few months before and had been encouraging her to
heal the rift, but she hadn't. . "Why should I be the one to give in?
She's the one who doesn't know how to treat me." The self
righteousness felt good, but within herself she knew it was wrong. God's
commandment tells us to honor our parents. Jesus teaches us to forgive -
not grudgingly and not with any conditions, just forgive. She realized that
if she didn't do something, she would be ruining her sister's wedding.
"Okay, Lord" she thought, "I'm going to need your help with this
one." A few days later she stopped at a florist - shivering as she held the
cooler door open - trying to decide which color bouquet to get. Not
being able to decide she grabbed them all - eight dozen roses, and took
them to the counter...loaded them in the car - and pulled into her mother's
driveway, making the sign of the cross. "I know I need to do this,
Lord. Give me the right words." I looked through the windshield
and saw my mom standing in the garage. Were those tears in her
eyes? I gathered the flowers, the cellophane quivering in my
shaking hands and stepped out onto the driveway. Mom WAS
crying. I could hardly believe it. My stoic, stubborn mom. Had our
separation hurt her too? It didn't fit with my picture of her. And
yet, here she was - this crying, vulnerable woman. I rushed to the
garage, set the flowers on the washing machine and took her in my
arms."
Doing things God's way is always good for us, though for some
devilish reason (pun intended) we think God's way will be impractical and
get us taken advantage of us. Let us decide, once and for all, that God
knows what He's doing!
Frank Sinatra sang, "I Did It My Way." We are called to sing,
"I Did It God's Way." We will have to be consistent in that - persistant
in that.
I remember getting a real lesson in real persistence when I got a
job PICKING POTATOES the title of our sermon today. We had been
potato farmers, but we weren't farming any more - the neighbors were -
and when it came time to harvest their crop - it gave several of us - including
my mother - the chance to make some extra money. Being a teenager, I
looked forward to the money I would make - so much per bushel - I
figured I could pick at least a hundred bushel in a day. Naturally my tiny
little mother would be far behind me. But she had one quality that I was
severely lacking - PERSISTENCE - that quality that God wants us to
have. She had had years as a potato farmer's wife - she had picked more
potatoes than I would ever see - she had taken care of nine children with
no modern conveniences - she had learned how to work through pain and
discomfort and to put the needs of the family above her own. God doesn't
want us just to "go through" our difficulties, He wants us to "GROW
Through" our difficulties. That's what my mother had done. She had
grown. She was tough. She had learned persistance. I hadn't.
I don't remember how many - or rather how FEW, were the
bushels I picked, but I remember that my mother was the one who picked
over a hundred bushels in one day, not me! PICKING POTATOES - a
life lesson I will never forget.
I have learned some PERSISTENCE. I know how to keep
keeping on. If there's a problem at the church, I will keep after it until it is
solved. Then the staff will say, "That's why he's the boss." (I LOVE
to hear that!)
I trust that you too, will , FOR GOD'S SAKE, be the persistent
people - from early morning to late evening, from today through all time
and eternity - so that your life may be filled with the glorious realization
that you have earned a very special place in the Heart of God - a very
special place in His Kingdom - BEYOND THE SUNSET. Amen.
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)July 29, 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 11:1-13
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.