Trinity Episcopal Church-August 2007

August 2007

Luke

There's a story of an individual, an atheist guy who was chased by a bear. Couldn't out run it, trapped in a corner, the bear closed in on him, raised his paw ready to strike, the atheist cried out, 'Oh my God!'

Suddenly time Stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent, as a bright light shone overhead, and a voice came out of the sky;

"You denied my existence for all these years. Am I to count you as a believer?" The atheist looked directly into the light.

"It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps You could make the BEAR a Christian?"

"Very well," said the divine voice. The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. And the bear let out a sigh, slowly dropped his paw, looked compassionately upon the atheist, bowed his head, & the bear spoke:

"Lord bless this food which I am about to receive from thy bounty..."

God cares about the individual: That's the message of our gospel parable: the shepherd went after the one lost sheep.

Most flocks of sheep belonged to the community, and the shepherd left the 99 to the other shepherds and went out to search for the stray.

I can imagine the other shepherds coming home in the evening, telling the village about the one lost sheep and how one tough, seasoned shepherd, tanned and weathered, with callous hands, wearing raw hide sandals, braved the elements & dangers and went out for it.

The townsfolk were waiting and waiting, watching the for the shepherd to come up the distant path to the village. Then, here he comes, with the lamb across his strong shoulders, and everybody cheers because they're both back safely, and they rejoice.

Jesus said, I am the Good Shepherd.

God finds and carries you and me safely back on our way to God while heaven watches and rejoices.

Deep within this book (bible) lay a single plot line: God created the world; the world got lost; God seeks to restore the world to the glory for which God created it.

When Paul wrote to Timothy, he talked about his former life, as a blasphemer, a violent man, and a persecutor--- But then he found God and God found Paul.

God is seeking His children. Some think Christianity is about God's wrath having to be pacified. Some draw a picture of a stern, angry God---and that Jesus did something to change God's attitude from smiting us.

But John 3:16, which is salvation summed up, (quote) tells us it was God that started it all. He sent his Son, to tell us what He is really like; a searching God who loves his creation (you and me).

My first experience of finding God, or should I say God finding me, happened at a time when my parents would dress me up, throw me in the back seat of a green Chevy Impala, and drag my brother and me off to Church.

Mom would let us know if we rolled the windows down too far in the car by snapping at us, "you're messing up my hair." Lilac perfume wafted through the interior of the car as my brother and I pressed our faces against the windows like a couple of Rottwiellers gasping for air.

When I was about 7, my Sunday school teacher was Mrs. Wier; her grandson was born the same day as I, exactly 12 hours later. Sometimes we'd celebrate our birthdays. In my family, it was our special day..."whatever you want to do." Mom said.

She asked me what I wanted for breakfast, I answered, "A three musketeers bar and a cigarette." It was then I learned life isn't always what someone says it is.

We sat on tiny chairs, at the table in the small ss room, and against the painted cement-block walls, shelves were loaded with books, crayons and craft projects and colored paper, and an old fashion turntable that played 45 records.

Mrs. Weir taught us about the miracle worker Jesus, who gave sight to a blind Bartimaeus; Jesus cast devils out of an oppressed woman Mary Magdalene.

Jesus raised Lazarus form the dead.

Jesus inspired Nicodemus about how we need to start all over like a little baby and learn to walk with God--- All salvation stories!

I first got acquainted with Jesus through singing "Jesus loves me" or "This little light of mine" as a child and I remember Mrs. Wier's waving her crooked finger, pointing more east than north; she still sang.

One particular day Mrs. Weir talked about the Good Shepherd who calls His children.

And how the shepherd went out to find the lost sheep, and found the lamb trapped on a small precipice, clinging helplessly, hopelessly on the edge, with a hungry mountain lion pacing underneath.

After some trash talk between the shepherd and the ferocious lion, the shepherd aimed his slingshot and hit the lion in the head, and saved the lamb that day. Children's church stories stick with kids, don't they? I made my first slingshot as a kid out of a V-branch from our cherry tree out back.

There was a huge picture in my childhood church, that seemed twenty feet tall to a little boy standing in front of it, that hung by the doorway to the fellowship hall. It is a famous picture of Jesus knocking on a huge wooden door, with ivy and thorns climbing up the outer walls.

Jesus had a kind, tan face, a determined face and a deliberate stare. He wore a robe that went down to his feet. I stopped at the picture almost every Sunday between ss and the church service.

This was in the sixties, when all the men wore dark suits, white shirts and skinny ties. The women were all in flowery dresses, hats and big necklaces, and the lobby smelled like a perfume factory. The silver haired minister, Rev. Laughton, who was 150 years old, always bent down to shake my hand.

One day I stood looking at that picture of Jesus knocking at the wooden door with the big hinges, and a man came up beside me and pointed out that in the picture---the door was without a handle.

There was no door knob! "Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart," the man said, "and that door can only be opened from the inside. You have to turn the handle! It's up to you."

Wow! That really hit me. Suddenly I could feel the knocking. In the bible, the heart is the center of a person---the core of our intellect, the center of our passions, work, desires, family, and life.

I remember telling my parents during the service that Sunday about the picture and that "there was no door knob on your heart" and they said, "That's nice dear...now shut up!" And I told my brother and he said I was stupid. (He became a Methodist minister so the last laugh was on him).

And I told it to my friends in the neighborhood, and they stared at me for a moment and said nothing, then we played baseball.

And I eventually stopped telling people about the door of their heart that could only be opened on the inside, and I forgot about it, and I grew up, and I got lost---Have you ever felt lost? I got lost in the grown up reality of good and evil.

I got lost in the gray, cynical world of people not caring about each other or not caring about their planet or about God who would fight lions to save you, and I stopped caring!

TS Eliot wrote, 'Where is the life we have lost in living?"

We get so busy making a living that we forget to live.

I experienced many dark nights in my life---when I would lay in bed waiting to doze off, and in the quiet room, listen to my heart beat...Jesus was still knocking at my door.

God doesn't give up on you, even if you give up on yourself. God does not forget us, even if we forget Him. If you are feeling lost this morning, God loves you as if you were the only one to love.

And one day, as a rational thinking adult, I directed my attention inward and I opened the door of my heart, the center of my being, and Jesus entered, and told me many things.

That I come from God, I was born from above, and I am walking a timeless journey, walking with Him;

and that even in the darkest of situations He can create new life because He is the light of life, the face of salvation; the shepherd who goes after the sheep.

The story wasn't finished yet. Once again I'm telling people about the door of your heart without a door knob that opens from the inside. I came to this church, Trinity Episcopal, and the same picture hangs on its wall.

Jesus knocking on your heart---you can receive Him as my parents did when I was 7; "that's nice, now shut up." You can receive Him the way my brother responded and think it's "stupid."

You can hear today's message that God wants to find you, and like my childhood friends, say and do nothing.

That is the choice anybody has, when anybody comes to our door. But you're not just anybody, you are the lamb the Shepherd seeks. So turn the handle; swing open the door; answer the knocking.

Trinity Episcopal Church

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August 2007