Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
August 16, 2020
Scripture:
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
Last week on Wednesday, Jan Gildner and her husband, Jim, stopped by the office. It was good to see them from a distance, but as we talked briefly, it was something Jan said that has kind of lodged itself in my mind this week. She said, “During this crazy time of the pandemic, I have been working on gratitude.”
Now, knowing Jan, that made complete sense for she exudes gratitude, but for many in the midst of these difficult times the virtue of gratitude has disappeared or been forgotten – and for many that seems just fine.
I know for me, as I tried hard to seek “new perspectives” this week, I began realizing just how much I have taken for granted - my health, my travel, my socializing, my ability to simply have a cup of coffee with a friend. I admit, for too long, I have taken a great deal for granted that the pandemic has brought back into reality.
Ironically, it is when these things are stripped away that we start to appreciate the things that we do have.
I sense these past 23 weeks have begun to change us. Things that we used to think of as insignificant are now much more important and even necessary.
The freedoms we once had have slowly eroded and we have been left with very little physical contact, very little social interaction, and in its place has been put a screen, whether on our phone, our computer, or through your TV.
Let’s be honest…sometimes a hug would be nice rather than people waving their hands furiously trying to tell you that you need to unmute on Zoom.
Two years ago, in August, I was working, as I am currently on the fall sermon series and plans for the upcoming holiday season. That August I was planning to kick off September looking at what it means to be a “Slow Church.” And we spent the entire fall, learning to slow down.
Learning to slow down has been a key to survival during this time – especially as so much has come to a halt or been canceled. The pandemic has literally forced us to embrace a much slower and intentional life, whether we like it or not.
This forced slow down, as Christopher Lamb says, “is an antidote to rampant consumerism and a transactional culture where everything can be bought and sold.”
He concludes that our culture is being exposed for believing everything has a price, but not everything has value.
It is almost like we are living (in real time) one of those Mastercard Commercials from the late 90’s. Remember, they listed off several items you can buy giving the prices (tickets to the big game $65, two hot dogs and a large drink $35, and a baseball with his favorite player’s autograph $50) and then concluded with some social interaction that could not be bought (the conversation with my son during the game – priceless).
I guess what I am trying to say is that what I am learning during this pandemic is that the “priceless” things should have been the ordinary and normal things all along.
Yet because of our privilege, because of our means, because of our consumeristic lifestyles, we have simply bought our experiences for way too long. And I sense the emotions those Mastercard Commercials invoked are becoming a daily reality during this pandemic.
Waiting and watching that flower bloom in your garden – priceless!
Cuddling your child on the couch while watching a movie – priceless!
Watching the stars appear in the night sky from your backyard while holding your partner’s hand – priceless!
Folks, we have the opportunity to live the “priceless” now – but are we taking it for granted?
And when we experience those priceless experiences, a gratitude begins to arise again in our hearts. A gratitude for all the people we miss seeing and interacting with, for those we love and care for, for those special moments.
No longer can we obsess about buying things, going to certain places, even “keeping up with the Jones’” to make us happy.
I love what the popular spiritual writer, Timothy Radcliffe says about gratitude. He says,
“We may think that gratitude is a feeling. It is much more than that. It is simply living in the real world, in which everything is a gift from God, ‘the giver of all good things’,” he tells me. “Someone who thinks of things as fundamentally to be bought and sold and owned is living an illusion."
If you think about it, when we stop seeing everything as a gift from God, and simply relying on the idea that everything can be bought, sold, or owned, life simply becomes a transaction, people become objects, and life becomes anything but priceless.
It is said that our trials often come to show us a deeper truth about ourselves and help us be a gift to our neighbor. Or as our scripture for today says,
“He consoles us as we endure the pain and hardships of life so that we may draw from his comfort and share it with others in their struggles.”
Folks, I know this may seem an interesting connection, but I don’t think it is an irony that we are in a pandemic and also having racial unrest in our country. The pandemic is exposing our illusions (which some may refer to as the “American Dream”) where we have believed for far too long that everything can be bought, sold, or owned for a price.
It has exposed our narcissistic nature and our willingness - and even desire - to buy our fame, fortune, love and even friendship.
And let’s be real honest, the pandemic has exposed the “illusion baggage” we have been carrying in this country from years - believing that actual human beings could be bought, sold, or owned for a price – instead of being gifts from God and equal to all.
Just maybe, Covid 19 is not the travesty we first thought, but rather a reality check of our values and morals - especially the issues we have continued to sweep under the rug and refuse to address like racism, our consumeristic and narcissistic desires, and our buying into a an American Dream that is both selfish and unbiblical.
This week, a friend posted the following on Facebook. It is a quote from Indian author Arundhati Roy, who said,
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.
We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.
What Roy is trying to emphasize is that, for us, the pandemic is causing people to finally assess what is important, to count their blessings, to become aware of what they believe, the issues they stand for and against, and the baggage they carry -- because let’s be honest -- in all reality the pandemic pays no respect to wealth or status or the American Dream.
Even though in Paul’s day he was not dealing with a Pandemic, he was dealing with a culture that was very similar to ours. He too addressed the need to break from our past, name and address our deeper issues, and turn to a better way.
Paul said it rather straight forward and did not “sugar coat” it for those reading his letter to the Galatians. I believe he gives us a picture of what it looks like when we are unwilling to give our values and morals the priority they should have in our lives.
Just listen to how Euguene Peterson translated Paul’s words for us from Galatians 5:19-21…
19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
Now, if we just stopped there – we could say Paul just exposed both the Galatians in his day as well as describing, extremely well, the world we live in today. Yet, Paul was not finished…he gave a warning…
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
It seems Paul has been warning the Galatians for some time, just as many prophets in our day have been sounding warnings of what this all could lead to as many simply ignore.
But as any good teacher, Paul doesn’t just condemn and point a finger, but also provides an alternative - a much more hopeful picture. A picture we need today. Paul says…
22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity.
We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.
We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
What Paul just described is an embracing of the Fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Folks, this isn’t easy, especially with all that our world is throwing at us currently, but if we are willing to take this prolonged pandemic and
embrace a slower pace,
take time to become aware of our condition,
cultivate the Fruit of the Spirit,
and find opportunities for gratitude in our midst,
we will endure, we will begin to see the gifts we are being given, and the counter-cultural nature of God’s life-giving way will expose the death-producing ways of our world.
Now, as we enter a time of waiting worship, here are some queries to ponder this week:
1. What is something that I thought insignificant before the pandemic, but realize is very important to my life, now?
2. What has the pandemic exposed in me that I need to work on this week?
3. How am I embracing God’s life-giving way and not the death-producing ways of our world?