28 What Goes Around Doesn't!

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"What Goes Around Doesn't!"

My mail is always interesting, whether it's e-mail, snail mail or fax.
Yesterday I received a letter from a friend who was writing on behalf of a
handicapped man who sits at an intersection and asks for donations. But
that's not where he would like to be. He'd like to be working as an
accountant. He has a degree from one our universities, but so far, no one
will hire him because he's handicapped. His upper body works, so has a
wheel chair to get around in and a van he drives to transport himself and
his chair. He could go to work tomorrow. He is the modern Lazarus,
sitting, dependent upon the charity of those who pass by.
You just heard the story. Lazarus was sitting at a rich man's door,
just hoping to get some scraps of food. He didn't get any. The rich man
passed him by. They both died. Now there fates were reversed. Lazarus
had everything, the rich man had nothing.
No wonder somebody recently prayed this prayer: Lord, why
did you have to pick the poorest and weakest people to be drawn
to? The are so unpleasant, so different, so depressing, so
forgettable. What we would like to do is forget about them, but
you bring them up so often in your Scriptures. Enough is enough!
You make it hard to enjoy all the stuff we have when we are
constantly reminded of the hungry, the sick, the lame, the powerless.
Couldn't you just make our faith be more about "spiritual" things?"
There's something embarrassingly appealing about that prayer!
The rich man could certainly have related well to it, but now he was in
what the Bible describes as a place of death - not because he had been
rich, but because he was a complete failure of using his riches for godly
purposes.
Undoubtedly he refrained from doing that because he thought it
would be painful. Actually, he had missed out on one of the greatest
pleasures - the pleasures that come from doing good and godly things.
God doesn't ask us to do good things for His sake, but for ours.
In your case, for example, he wants you to be able to look back over your
life and bask in pleasure over the lives that have been changed by your
charity, your compassion, your teaching, your loving, inclusive spirit.
I had another letter from a Pastor in North Carolina whose former
parish voted to leave the United Church of Christ because of its inclusive
policies in regard to same sex relationships and unions. Feeling differently
than the majority of his parishioners, and unable to bring them to a more
loving and inclusive way of thinking, being and doing, he had no choice
but to take the thirty-some people who were disappointed in the church's
decision and begin a new congregation with them, the Grace United Church
of Christ. He was requesting donations to build their church. Hopefully,
all UCC churches will comply. It's a wonderful opportunity to stand with
people who will make sure you will be really welcome in the church
fellowship, no matter whether you are black or white, rich or poor, sick or
well, gay or straight, theologically conservative, or theological liberal, able
bodied or lame, native or immigrant, home owner or homeless, young or
old. It's a decision to be where Jesus would be - where people are
hurting. Thus far the 30 have grown to 55 and are meeting in the cafeteria
of a school. They hope to have a building of their own in three or four
years. They hope and pray that our congregation will be willing to assist
them to answer what they feel God has called them to do "a call that
demands breaking the barriers that divide and the ending of the
hostilities that make strangers out of brothers and sisters in the
human family."
Albert Schweitzer, the gifted physician, scientist, musician and
missionary, saw our task as living in such a way with Jesus, the Light of the
World, that our light would rekindle the lights of others.
Applying that to the Scripture of today, we would make ourselves
rich not by what we hoard, but by what we give. They didn't come in
the mail but about thirty young people arrived at the church door yesterday
to help with the luncheon for the homeless which is NEXT Saturday!
And Estelle Farnsworth arrived to add to her donations for Afghanistan.
And the mail delivered the newsletter from our sister church in
Coconut Grove - our Plymouth church - which will be the main center for
the Annual Meeting of our Florida churches the first three days in May.
The Pastor, Tom Niblock, wrote of being at a wedding in Wilmington,
Delaware. At the reception Tom noted that the bartender was from
Jamaica - the dreadlocks and the accent may have been clues. "Have
you ever heard of a group called the Missionaries of the poor?" he
asked. "Oh, yes sir. They are Catholic Brothers and they do great
work." "That's good to hear," Tom said, "My church just sent
them some money to hop put back a few roofs in Kingston" Tom
said, "He stopped what he was doing and looked at me very carefully.
'You got family in Kingston?" he asked. "No, No. I replied. "You
Roman Catholic? he asked. "No, I'm a Protestant from Miami"
There was a long pause while he again examined me. Then he
asked, "So why do you care about roofs in Kingston?" "Well, my
church tries to make a difference - tries to help in whatever little
ways it can." The handsome young man walked around the bar,
gave me a big hug and simply said, Thank you!" (The Plymouth
Church and the Cobb Family Foundation sent nearly $30,000. That
SHOULD make a difference.)
It was good the minister went to the bar. We're not agin' drinkin'
- just agin' people drinkin' too much! Which reminds me of the incident
centering around Mildred the church gossip and self-appointed monitor
of the church's morals who kept sticking her nose into other people's
business. Members feared her enough to maintain their silence however.
But that was not true of Charlie, a new member of the church, who she
accused of being an alcoholic because she saw his old pickup parked in
front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She told Charlie and everybody
else in the town that everyone seeing his truck there would know what he
was doing there. Charlie, a man of few words, stared at her for a
moment and just turned and walked away. he didn't explain defend, or
deny. He said nothing.
But, later that evening, Charlie quietly parked his pickup in front
of Mildred's house...walked home...and left it there all night! (Ya gotta
love Charlie!)
The world is changed one day at a time, one person at a time. Many of
you know that I like you to listen to the Scripture each week and see who
you are in the story - are you the good Samaritan or the people who
passed by the wounded man.
In today's Scripture, I would like to suggest that you might be the
brothers of the rich man. The rich man, not able to save himself, asked
Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them not to end up as he
did. "But Abraham said, They have the Law of Moses and the
writings of the prophets to read; let them learn from that. The rich
man said, No, father Abraham! But if someone came to them from
the dead, then they would decide to change their lives.
But Abraham said to him, 'If your brothers won't listen to
Moses and the prophets, they won't listen to someone who comes
back from the dead."
The Bible says that to whom much has been given, much is
expected. That seems to me a logical expectation, but let us not frame it
in a negative way - let us reflect that God is giving us an opportunity to
bring life and light to others - which will bring life and light to us. If we are
the brothers, we can escape our brother's fate.
Will Willimon from whom I get a lot of sermon illustrations says
that wen he was growing up he received many a threatening lecture from
his mother about his treatment of your nieces and nephews. "You better
watch out" she warned, "What goes around comes around."
But Will doesn't think so. What do you think? What do I think?
I think that on this earth what goes around does not come around. One
could say, WHAT GOES AROUND DOESN'T. But ultimately the
Bible says, the scales are balanced, the tables are turned. But it's a bad
turn those tables take if we're rich and don't share our riches, and by the
world's standards, we are all rich - very very rich and have the potential of
very rewarding lives as we decide how we share what we have.
I'd like to quote the preacher from the Miami Beach Community
Church who in a recent sermon quoted C.S. Lewis who said, "Charity
- giving to the poor - is an essential part of Christian morality..I do
not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid
the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other
words, if our expenditures on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc.,
is up to the standard common among those with the same income
as our own, we are probably giving away too little.
If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should
say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to
do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes
them."
C.S. Lewis
What goes around does come around in God's ultimate reality. I
have a story about a man who woke up at the destination God has in mind
for us. It was shocking to him because he didn't believe in the afterlife at
all. "New Zealander Russ Woolcock was an atheist who thought
he had all the answers. "We don't know why we're here." he said.
"All we can do is make life palatable." Well, Woodcock was in for
a surprise. First came the chest pains, then an authentic heart
attack, then physical death - temporarily.
But Woolcock's spirit was far from dead. He was in a whole
new environment, with intense light and love. He became aware of
an 'overwhelming, overpowering, colossal, extravagant, amazing,
radiating love." It was God's presence. "This ran counter to
everything I had believe," Woolcock says. It was all novel to me.
I was flabbergasted.
The experience was peaceful, not frightening, and he wanted
to stay. But he was brought back to life, a totally changed man.
Now the former skeptic testifies: "In the presence of that love,
you would never want to be out of that again. I wanted God in my
life every day. What I learned was this: Far from being a random
organism swimming through an ocean of blind chance, it turned out
I am the beloved child of the creator God who made me for his
purpose."
Reported by John McNeil
Our task is to tune into that purpose. Member Gladys Green
found her Woods Hole Neighbor with his shoes off standing in the brook
that ran through his property. He was moving stones into different places,
changing the sound of the brook. He was "tuning the brook".
We need to tune ourselves to the Life of God that runs through us,
connecting ourselves to the mysterious Presence of God. Then mysterious
things happen as reported by Angie Arthur who was going through her
things to see what she could give to a family who had lost everything in
Katrina. She was trying to beam in on what it would be like to lose all the
things in your house - so many with such precious memories. Speaking of
precious memories, she came across the rocking chair in which she used
to rock her son to sleep. She could never bear to part with that - until a
feeling from deep within herself said, "Give it away." She did. She
would give it to the family her church was helping get back on their feet.
The person who transported her donations and the chair came back full of
excitement. When the family saw the chair, they all stopped and stared.
Then one of the grandchildren called out, "Grandma, look. It's your
rocking chair." The rocking chair she had given was exactly like the
one they had lost, the one that held their sweetest memories.
God's asking you to share of what you have is His invitation to
Share the mysterious miracles He is even now contemplating and hoping
to bring about.

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)September 23 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 16:19-31
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.