Sermons

"People of Inertia"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church by The Reverend Mark E. Long on January 25, 2009

Lections:  Ex. 1:8-14; 6:1, 7-9

                  Js. 4:1-5

                 Mt. 6:22-24

I'll bet you have never heard "inertia" used in a sermon title before, but it seems a less confusing word than the Sanskrit word, 'tamas', which inspired this sermon, basically a spiritual "couch potato."  Nowhere to go, nowhere to want to go - 'tamas' is the "slacker" of the universe.  It is the place where progress on the way is first considered - maybe.  You got to start somewhere and according to the Bhagavad Gita and my own experiences, both within me and looking around at things, this is it - inertia.

But spiritual wisdom tells us through stories of many religious sources, our unwillingness to get up and get on the road to progress toward joy or peace or abundance is not always our hope.  Sometimes we have eaten gruel for so long we have grown not only accustomed to its taste but are even drawn to it.  Our present gets us nowhere but has a sense of comfort about it - at least we know what it is and don't have to risk living where who knows what lurks about.

There was a scientific experiment conducted not so long ago which considered the effects of shock on chickens - better than humans but still more than a little disturbing to me.  Your tax dollars at work.  The experiment was two groups of chickens were shocked.  One group was given an avenue of escape which they quickly seized upon but the other group was given no means of avoiding the shocks.  After a time, the second group was also given an avenue of escape from the shock.  Guess what?  They didn't take it; they walked right past the open door as though it was shut.  Perhaps for them, it was; the cage signaled their fate was to be shocked so they submitted and didn't even try to find a way out when one appeared.

This is what happens to those enslaved habitually to whatever they are enslaved to - they accept their fate and make no effort to escape even when such an opportunity appears.  Their brains are essentially re-wired to accept their slavery.  Another word for it is a broken spirit.

It is the story of the Israelites in Egypt.  As the story begins we hear that things have changed in Egypt, the new times are not like the old times when Joseph was around the Pharaoh's court.  The new Pharaoh doesn't know Joseph but he does know that the Israelites are multiplying at an alarming rate as many a dreaded thing seems to.  Pharaoh is afraid that they may form an alliance with others and take him down.  So he orders the Israelites taken into slavery to build the sort of things that Pharaohs have others build for them.  The Egyptians are notably ruthless the story goes, so later generations in slavery in Babylon will understand just how miserable life was for their ancestors.

But into this dismal circumstance comes God's reluctant "knight," Moses, who is told by the Lord "you just watch what I am going to do to Pharaoh" by his own "mighty hand he will let them go."  "Moses, go tell the good news to the people that I will be their God who frees them from their slavery and will bring them into the land I promised to their ancestors for I am the Lord."  Moses, once he gets over the fear of being YHWH's spokesman to Pharaoh, I imagine, would be very excited to hear this so he calls a meeting, tells the elders what he has heard, and they rush off to tell their families and friends what the Lord will do . . . of course they don't.  They look at Moses in disbelief as if to say, "Are you mad?"  The bonds of slavery have so hardened their hearing that they can't even hear the messages of their protecting god anymore.

It is much the same with us in those areas of our lives where we are "couch potatoes" or "slackers."  We will not begin to move until we begin to listen for a different voice than the one that tells us "not so fast" there are still potato chips in the bag or "what's the rush" you have nowhere to go or nothing worthwhile to offer anyone after you get up.  It is not difficult to see where such voices leave us - unhealthy and going nowhere anytime soon no matter how much is lost in staying put.  What kind of life is that where we will not risk even getting up?

People of inertia are people in some form of slavery - imposed by someone else or without help from anyone else.  That's right; we can and do put ourselves in slavery by our choices.  Once the choice becomes a habit then the will is hijacked and we are the "chickens" who no longer think to look for a door no matter the pain we bear.

People of inertia.  Not so much unwilling as unable to move themselves from where they are; they have forgotten or never been told how to do anything different.  Somewhat like the chickens who no longer seek escape from the shocks because they no longer even see the open door to their cage.

So how is inertia overcome?  What breaks that blinding bond of slavery for the Israelites?  What gets the "couch potato" or the "slacker's" one foot on the floor?  How do we escape?

James gives the advice in our lesson today to start listening for another voice than the one that enslaves us.  The voice will tell you where the door of freedom is.  This is the promise from James anyway, listen:  "You do not have because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly . . . friendship with the world [will not get you very far (I paraphrase)] with God."

Let me digress a minute to clarify something.  Why is the "world" to blame?  In the Bible, the "world" is a stand-in for a voice that speaks falsely of its promises.  Is the entire "world" a cesspool of ideas and behavior?  Of course not.  It is God's world after all; much of it is good and right.  But much of it is also selfish and foul.  Rather self-evident I think as it is populated and influenced by many who have forgotten the sound of God's voice.  So when our lesson says "world," it does not mean all of it just most of it.

Anyway the Israelites forgot the sound of their god's voice.  They saw the wonders but a good many probably were not impressed, after all Pharaoh's wizards could do a few of their own, and Pharaoh (the "world's" definition of master) was not impressed.  People in slavery do not react as they otherwise would.  I don't think the wonders did much for them, and there is nothing in the story that leads me to believe otherwise.  The shocks of captivity embedded deeply any thought of a "door" of escape.

So how do the Israelites begin to move?  They listen to Moses; the one who claims to have heard a different voice than the voice of slavery and appears to have some street cred to back it up.  Moses asks the people to trust him that the voice doing all of these wonders tells him there is a "door" of escape even if they don't see one.  The people begin to move only when they listen to someone who has heard a different voice.

Most of the time in our "couch potato" or "slacker" mode, we are our best answer.  One of the natural graces we bear is the capacity to turn on a dime and go another direction, one more profitable.  We just need to listen for a different voice; one that tells us that we don't have to eat every last chip now or that there really is something worthwhile in our life and within us getting out of bed for.

But some of the time we are not so different from the Israelites before us.   We can not find the "door" to escape the cages of our wills or the "door" of our opportunity to dream of something outside of our cages, we simply can not conceive of it on our own.

Our "worldly" cages come in many shapes and sizes and hold us captive whether as one or as a community to many different things but no cage is more devastating than the one that holds our perception as a slave.  It becomes impossible to find the "door" on our own.

I had an emotionally disturbed parishioner in the past that was highly functional but demonstrated clear signs that she had an undiagnosed illness.   After a particularly painful episode, we talked and it was apparent that she was unable to apprehend her odd behavior.  I asked her whether she trusted me; she said "yes," so I asked her to trust my perception of her behavior rather than her own.  Her illness prevented her from seeing what everyone else could see clearly.  Her willingness to do so allowed her to seek the professional help she could not see the need for.  She needed someone to help her find the "door."  Sometimes it is not someone but a community that needs help to find the "door" of escape from its perceptions which hold it captive from moving toward its opportunities - an awakening that allows it to become the one who hears the voice for others.

The voices in our lives, whether one or as a church, are not always easy to discern.  Most of the time, we can figure it out on our own well enough; we just need to incline an ear in the right direction.  But there are other times when we have listened to deceptive voices for far too long and our hearing has hardened.  This is when we need help to find the "door" of escape out of cages constructed for us or by us.  Don't be afraid to help or be helped; the human story has moved from points of inertia in this way for a long, long time.  Where the voice that moves us takes us is the real story, but it all starts when we listen ourselves or to another who hears better the voice tell us to start moving.

This is how I see it; next week; the Israelites no longer people of inertia journey from slavery into wilderness wandering in search of an opportunity to turn "cage" dreams into reality; but their attention span wanders as well.  Amen.