Sermons

"People of Energy"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church by The Reverend Mark E. Long on February 1, 2009

Lections:  Ex. 32.15, 19-26; ref. Ex. 16.1-8, 17.1-7

                  Js. 2.14-26

                 Mt. 15.1-9

Once the decision is made to overcome the inertia of staying put and risking nothing more no matter what the gain might be, then the sun shines brighter above us, the colors of our lives are more vivid, and our confidence level soars - well, maybe.  It is no sure thing.

People of energy, or 'rajas' in the Sanskrit[1], are people up and on the move to wander about; their energy has them restless to wander.  They may wander with purpose or without purpose.

I recall a minister at a large suburban church in Detroit admit to me how petrified he was just before he took the stage (and it was a stage) each Sunday morning, but how over time he had been able to take that energy of fear and turn it to an energy of excitement for his message.  Just one example - there is a life out there and in here full of stories of how energy may serve us or hold us back.  It is our choice where our energy will take us.

Life is full of lost opportunities of those that hear enough of a voice or trust another's to get up and move - energy flowing full on - but whose choices then thwart the celebration of faithfulness because their faith flows along only to a point.

James warns about people of energy whose faith falters and how that energy takes them to unhappy places.  Not saying he was but James could have been thinking about the Israelites in the wilderness.

Once free of the slavery that limits their perspectives of what is possible for their lives; the Israelites, listening to Moses' tell of a better life somewhere else, move as people of energy out into a wilderness of the unknown.  They are people in the "fits and starts" of faith - faithful enough to follow Moses but not faithful enough to not fear what follows from there.

These people in the "fits and starts" of their energy fear the day to come soon (they thought) that all this YHWH talk is going to have them come to an unpleasant end.  They complain incessantly; they seek constant reassurance in signs that somebody somewhere is not going to let them starve or thirst to death out in this forsaken place.

Whatever signs a faithful God sends are never enough for the fearful.  They are forever looking for the next one to confirm the "sick" anticipation that they can't get out of their minds; they are a forsaken people.  They may have left the bonds of slavery but their minds are still there.  They may be a people of energy, on the move, but their minds will not allow their hearts to soar.

So guess what?  They get their sign - the bad sign - actually they don't but their fear twists Moses' long absence into a bad sign.  They do not stand faithful to Moses' return but rather start to worry that he has fallen off a cliff or worse YHWH got angry and threw him off the mountain.  In any case woe to the Israelites who now will starve or thirst to death, for if the Lord does not protect Moses or worse tires of him, the Lord surely isn't going to put up with them.  People of energy - people of fear.

People of fear do one of two things when perceiving bad times.  They sit tight and hope the bad feeling somehow goes away or if it won't go away maybe they can deaden themselves enough not to feel it or they take action which experience tells us will probably not be a very healthy choice.

People of fear don't make very good decisions, as the Israelites demonstrate.  The Israelites are no longer in the bonds of slavery but their minds never quite make the journey as far as their bodies.

They fool themselves rather easily about life back in Egypt.  Hey, life wasn't so bad there if you did your hard labor and kept your opinions to yourself.  Those golden idols, they thought, did a pretty good job of keeping them safe.  Look where Moses' voice had gotten them - on the edge of death in a land where food had to fall from the sky and water appear miraculously out of rocks.  Thanks, but no thanks.  We get it; please no more signs to confuse us; it is time to party with our golden god again.

The party is in full swing when Moses, who has neither fallen off a cliff nor been thrown off by YHWH, returns.  He is very unhappy, so unhappy he throws down the tablets of the Lord's instructions of how the Israelites can have the life of their dreams.  We might think he has given up on them but then under the circumstances he asks a remarkable question:  "Who is on the Lord's side?"  Somehow Moses hopes for them even as he burns with anger; it is up to them to repent their foolish ways and begin again with God.  Oh, there will be consequences; there most always are for our poor choices.

Dreams die for people of energy when their fear prevents them from believing the signs of the faithful voice either they hear or follow someone who does enough to show up in their choices.  But dreams live again when finally they trust the voice for what may come; their energy expressed as faith.  I know of this in my own experience.

I believe that I was called to ministry when I was around fifteen.  I tried to deny its pull but ultimately it all became too much for me, and I surrendered to study music at Baylor University while in my sophomore year at a different university.  It was not an easy transition; one parent supported me, the other did not.  But I got up and moved in a direction I surely knew God called me; I became a person under a full stream of energy.

I arrived on campus with a dream in my head and assurance in my heart.  My spirits were high; I was going somewhere this was a given because God had called me.  And maybe I was, just not as fast as I thought.  My expectations were that my willingness to get up and move assured my path would be golden.  All that I wanted would fall at my feet; God would surely bless me for my sacrifice. 

Anyway it was sometime into the second year when the demands to be faithful to my calling became something other and more than I wanted to give.  I wanted to answer the call but on my terms.  I preferred the pick-up football games on the green to spending time practicing finger exercises on the piano.  I preferred to date on Friday night rather than sharpen whatever gift (it wasn't much) I had for recognizing chord progressions and such other arcane and wholly uninteresting skills of a musician.  In short, I was on the move but rather like the Israelites with one ear listening for a familiar, comfortable voice of my past I knew well rather than for the unfamiliar risky one that would show my faithfulness.  This is a fair description of fear.

My result was consistent with the Israelites' experience; but no one died in the process just a dream and at that (though I did not know it at the time) as with the Israelites, only until I would listen again.  But I gained something in the process as well when I first began to see that faith is a holy notion but does not make much difference until as people of energy we begin to act in one way rather than another.  I used to believe God would pave the path smooth just for coming aboard.  I no longer believe this; instead all the steps ahead depend on how we will use our energy.  It has much more to do with us than some would like us to believe.

Before facing Moses' question we face another one on the lips of the faithless Israelites; "What difference can it make, what difference can it make either way?"  The Israelites wrestled in the "fits and starts" of their faith with this most human of questions.  It is the question that drives both their fear and faith, even as it drives ours.

The answer, I think, lies in realizing that all the signs in the world that help us see the graces of God add up to nothing unless we will act.  Without us or someone like us, nothing gets done.  It makes no difference where you claim to stand.

When we do get up the energy to act it matters in what service we act.  If our works (actions) are grounded in fear, then our works (actions) do not show our faith and nothing good gets done anyway, besides we may actually bring ourselves a lot of trouble.  If our works (actions) are to get us anywhere that has us better off than we were before we acted, then our actions must be propelled by energy as faith not fear or all of its various disguises.  It is faith which frees us to hear the voice on which graces flow to us and spring through our actions on to others.  It would seem faithful acts are the only ones to make a difference, at least according to the story and my life.

"Wilderness living" is not easy; we get confused about needs, priorities, and the signs only sustain us for so long before in our "fits and starts" of faith we are looking for more signs to assure us of our choices.  Sometimes grace sends them in abundance, but if we choose to ignore what we are given when will our fear frustrate the Spirit which sends them?  When will our god decide "enough" and leave us to find our own food and water in forsaken places?

We are in a dangerous place if when the call comes we are caught up in our own dramas or petty quests or playing church and don't hear or don't care to hear that we have more to do with our days than find solace for our fears in golden idols.

The brand of Christianity I believe in and feel compelled to tell is not for Christians but needs Christians.  The insular church lives in fear of its dying; the weight of attention upon itself will ensure its collapse.  The church that thrives will be the one that finds ways, and never stops seeking ways, to use its peoples' energy to generate opportunities for faithful actions of justice and compassion.  If we are content to concern ourselves principally with what happens within these walls, and our attitude about what happens outside them is, "CAWS takes care of that."  We are in more danger than we know.

Signs can aid our journey, but enough already; at some point we must take action on the basis of the signs we have already seen or felt.  All must answer in time Moses' question:  "Who is on the Lord's side?"  For the one who will rise to say "I," for the people that rise to say "we," the call is answered; the people of energy become the people of law. 

Next week; the Israelites make their choice and begin again with their god. Amen.