Tuesday, January 1, 2008

37 The Seeking Society

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"THE SEEKING SOCIETY"


The head of our denomination, John Thomas was arrested this
week. He delivered 64,000 signatures - some of them yours and mine to
Washington - signatures on the Pastoral Letter requesting an end to the
Iraq war. The heavy boxes of petitions were taken to and received by
the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid, and House Minority Leader David Boehner.
The Rev. John Thomas and The Rev. Linda Jarmillo were not as
well received at the Whitehouse where they were refused a face-to-face
meeting with the public liaison office, so they stood in the "No Protest"
zone, refusing to move even though asked three times to do so by police
officers. As a result they were arrested and taken away. Later they were
released, each $100 poorer
Not everyone might agree with petitioning to end the war, but
everyone should agree their right to protest it - and that justice never rolls
down like the waters unless someone makes it roll - referring to the
passage in Amos 5:24: "But let justice roll down like waters And
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
The persistent widow in our parable today knew just how to keep
on pestering the judge for justice until she got it. She is our example.
But it's not easy to follow that example. A lot goes through your mind
when the police are telling you to move and the protest group you are with
is refusing to move and some are being rather strident with the officers.
Visions of just how much your life could be compromised if this ends up
with your getting a police record come into your mind! And yet it must
be done. And if you don't do it, then who?
The widow realized that there was no one other than herself to
turn to. As William F. Malambri, III describes our parable: "There was
this widow who had been treated unjustly. We might presume that
she had not received the proper support due her from her deceased
husband's estate since she could not inherit the estate outright.
Doubtless her brothers-in-law were not living up to the understood
arrangements. God, you see, had commanded that of all people,
widows, orphans and strangers were to be looked after.
So the widow puts her case before the judge, but not just
any judge. It turns out this judge does not fear God or respect
people. He's one of those judges who is more attuned to the dollar
than the divine. If you want justice from him, you had better be the
higher bidder. Or, you had better be persistent.
Having no advocate or nothing with which to bid, our widow
just keeps coming back. Like a boxer who does not know when to
throw in the towel, she continues round after round to stand up to
the judge and swing. Finally, he concedes. That's all we know - in
this one instance, for this one accuser, the judge gives in. We are
not told that he has a lasting change of heart, a new outlook on life,
some redemption story to tell his grandchildren. All we know is
that in the case of the widow versus whomever, the judge gives in
and rules justly." (William F. MalambriIII)
We're supposed to pray with the poor widow's kind of
persistence. Barbara Brown Taylor says that perhaps Jesus did not know
too many people with "the faith to stay at anything forever. Then as
now, most people prayed like they brushed their teeth - once in the
morning and once at night, as part of their spiritual hygiene
program." Barbara Brown Taylor
The Gospel writer, Luke, says that Jesus gave us this parable so
that we would understand that we should always pray and never lose
hope. We should indeed become, "THE SEEKING SOCIETY." That,
I believe should be based on the understanding that with God, all things
are possible. By that I mean that God is so great that even the smallest
details of our lives are important to Him. But like you yourself may think,
I often think that God is too great to be bothered with the little things that
I need help with.
How about you. Do you see prayer as a last resort. Is God a
First Resort or Last Resort God..
In the last issue of our newsletter, The Word, I asked: "Have
you ever rescued a damsel in distress? I tried to do that recently
when a lovely young woman who had been at church approached
me to say that her boyfriend had inadvertently left with the keys to
her car. (They had driven separately to church.) Her cell phone
was in her locked car. His was on "silent mode" in deference to
not disturbing the church service. Using my cell phone, we left
messages for him. She went to wait by her car, hoping that he
would remember to check his phone for messages. She had given
him my cellphone number as a contact. Not too much later, he
called and said he was on his way to give her the keys. I thought I
would be a nice guy and let her know that he would be there in
about 15 minutes. He had told me that her car was in the municipal
lot just down from the church. None of the parking attendants had
heard of anyone locked out of their car. I looked and looked. Not
wanting to give up, I FINALLY asked God to help me.
IMMEDIATELY, I saw her and IMMEDIATELY the thought came
into my mind as if from God's: 'Why didn't you ask ME in the first
place. Point well taken. Next time I will"
I didn't. On Tuesday I went to do the accounting for the Octoberfest
dinner. I had put the money in an envelope and put it in my mailbox in the
church office. On Tuesday mnorning, I took everything from my box -
everything that was there from Sunday and everything that came in from
Monday (I am not here on Mondays), and went through all the papers,
but there was no envelope. We looked everywhere, finally assuming that
the envelope of money had been stolen - which would have been the first
time in my 33 years here that any money had come up missing. We're
good with money, and locking doors and in securing the buildings and the
property. FINALLY, I resorted to prayer - and in one moment the lost
was found when the idea came into my mind to look under the portable
file I have on my desk. There it was. Again, I made God into a Person
of Last Resort. When will I learn? When will you learn.
I have a book from Guideposts called the Hidden Hand of God
(Remarkable Answered Prayers). They vary from the sublime to the
ridiculous and from the slime to the remarkable. Let me explain! One of
the true stories was from persons just like all the rest of us - this one from
Tina Coligan-Holt who had moved from a big city to a small town in Texas
where she decided to keep up with the neighbors by having a beautiful
garden. One of her neighbors suggested using compost so went to the
city dump where they gave it away free. When she opened the car door,
she was hit by a gust of wind that caused one of her contacts to fly out of
her eye. (Would one event WANT to find it in a pile of compost?) She
did want to, but she couldn't find it.
That night her son said, "Mama, do you believe in miracles?"
"I sure do!" she responded. "Then why don't we pray for a miracle
- to find your contact lens.: Needing his strength she said, "Will you
pray with me? So we did. He led us in a wonderful prayer straight
from a child's innocent heart. Right afterward he turned to me and
said, "Mama, did you check your purse. It was at the bottom of her
purse which had been open when she opened the door and her contact
blew away - right into her purse. How did her son know to ask that. It
was a miracle! Tine said, I was deeply touched by this very simple
event that proved to me the power of a child's faith....While we are
teaching them how to be adults, they are teaching us how to be
children. And the longer I live, the more I realize the strength of
that quality - "to become as a little child" which Jesus said is the
only way we will see the Kingdom of God.
Or consider little Rachel who moved from a school where she
had a friend, Kristin, and prayed that she would have a friend named
Kristin in her ne school. Her mother wondered, "How do I tell my
child she shouldn't be so specific with God." Then her daughter told
her something - She announced that Jesus was going to give her a new
best friend,, Kristin and she would have brown hair, just like her friend
Kristin from her former school. That's exactly the way it happened! Who
is teaching whom? Maybe we should be more specific with God - maybe
you should be more specific in your prayers! How does God know what
is important to you unless you make it known!
Whatever the collective group of us - those who live on the planet
earth - put out there into the universe is what will come back to us. How
many persons of peace are there - how many who enjoy the strife of war
and the spoils of war. How many are interested in justice for all?
We need some persistant prayers for the things that are far more
important than OUR specific wants - I think that's why we shy away from
asking a Big God for Small Favors, we cringe at suggesting that our God
is One Big Errand Boy in the sky - and well we should, but we should also
remember, as Jesus taught us that our God is a loving Heavenly Father
desirous of giving good gifts to His children.
His children, in turn should, according to our parable, pray without
ceasing - for important things - peace, justice, health, well being,
contentment. Our lives should be consistent in their sharing and their
giving, in their hoping and in their praying - never losing heart. "Will not
God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?"
Luke 18:7
In fact, you can put your "praying without ceasing" to good use
for the church. Most of you know that in the past 11 years we have put
on our to do list all of the things we put on our list to accomplish in 25
years. And things were going really smoothly - good support from the
members of the church - over a million and a half dollars raised and put to
us in the last eleven years - some of us are still paying on our pledges. I
am.
But we have run into a challenge. The last piece of work was to
take the paint off the front of the sanctuary, patch up the facade where
necessary and repaint it. We budgeted, $40,000. Unfortunately when it
was uncovered, it was immediately obvious that major restoration work
needed to be done - to have the three dimensional columns on either side
of the main door - the pilasters - and the area in between around the
stained glass window restored to their original state to last at least for
another 100 years. The cost - perhaps as low as $400,000, or perhaps
as high as $600,000.
Not wanting to go back to people still paying on what we have
done, the trustees made a proposal to the Historic Preservation Board of
the State of Florida asking for $350,000. There were 132 applications.
We were ranked 55th. According to the letter I got yesterday, the Division
of Historical Resources is recommending that the State Legislature approve
60 of the projects - that would include us - to the tune of 16 million.
Last year, only 3 million was allocated. The year before that 11 million
and forty some projects. Needless to say, I will be writing our legislative
representatives and encouraging them to vote for the recommended sum
for the 2009 State budget. I have the names and addresses available for
others of you who would like to lobby for the same. You won't be
arrested for it. You will be blessed for it, and you can begin to pray as
persistently as the poor widow who won her case simply by keeping on
keeping on.
We are called to be prayer warriors - for what the world needs, -
healing for the sick; money for the poor, courage for the downhearted,
energy for the exhausted. We are to be THE SEEKING SOCIETY in
and for our world. - prayer soldiers, winning the war against the world's
ills. So may it be.



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)October 21, 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 18:1-8
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

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