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"Stop and Listen"
A few months ago I noticed a funny smudge on the sliding
glass door of my house. Now, I have young kids, so smudges
on windows and doors are a very common thing. Dirt smudges,
food smudges, greasy-hand smudges, not-sure-what-it-is smudges –
it’s all normal!
But this smudge was different. This smudge looked like something.
As I stood in the kitchen and examined it, I could see what looked
like a forehead, and a cheek, and a chin. There was a clear spot
where the mouth would be, and I could see a nose, and another clear
spot where the eye would be.
This smudge was a face. Somebody had walked, face first, into
the sliding class door. And, the face print was still on the
window. Now, have any of you ever done that?
I had a minor encounter with a screen door once, but I have
never had the experience of walking into a glass door. THAT
has got to be one of the more severe surprises in life, don’t
you think?
I mean, you are walking along. Nothing seems out of the
ordinary. You can see where you’re headed. Your destination
is in sight. Life is normal. And then, BOOM! You are stopped
cold and suddenly by a totally unexpected, and invisible force.
I was thinking the other day that LIFE is like that. How
often do we journey through our days, taking care of business,
and our families, and ourselves? Life seems ordinary. We make
plans. We look forward to the normal events in life: marriage,
kids, birthdays, Christmas, a good job, vacations. We can see
where we are headed – where we want to go in life.
And then BOOM! We are stopped cold by a totally unexpected
event in our lives.
The letter says that you have not been accepted into the
university. Suddenly, your good health goes away. The economy
shifts and you lose your job – right after you bought the
house. Your marriage dissolves. Someone you can’t live
without, dies.
And the things you were living for, the things you were
planning to do, the direction you were going in life –
it all changes. You walk face first into the sliding
glass door and it feels like your life has come to a
sudden and jarring stop.
I think John Brandrick from England could tell us what that
is like. Back last year he was told by his doctors that he
had pancreatic cancer, and that he only had about a year
to live. And that brought his life as he knew it, to a
sudden stop.
So, the 62-year-old quit his job, sold his car, stopped
paying his mortgage and dug into his life savings. He
decided that he would treat his remaining days to a wild
spending spree of lavish hotels, restaurants, and travel.
But this year, with no signs of death coming to call, and
being flat broke, he went in for tests. And that is when
Brandrick walked into that sliding glass door, again, so
to speak. It turns out that he never had cancer at all. He
had pancreatitis, which is not life-threatening. Now Brandrick
is upset because he is still alive. He says he wants compensation
from the doctors who misdiagnosed him.
In the Gospel reading today, Jesus is looking to introduce
some spiritual “sliding glass doors” into the lives of some
folks. What I mean is that Jesus wants to bring people to a
sudden stop in their lives.
People, who are traveling through life, trapped in sin, locked
in selfishness, people who are trying to do the best they can
to get through their days, but feel lost and confused, people
who don’t know that there is a God Who wants to be a part of
their lives – these are the people Jesus wants stop.
He wants to drop a sliding glass door in their paths, and stop
them in their tracks. He wants them to pause so they can see
what they are missing, and so they can hear about a better
way to live.
In the Gospel story Jesus sends out 72 of His followers. He
sends them out into the areas where He will be arriving soon.
He wants them to prepare the way. He gives them instructions
that are not intended to burden them down with rules. These
instructions about what they are to take, or not take, or what
they are to do, are all for the purpose of keeping them focused
on one thing – telling people about Jesus. God will take care
of everything else.
The 72 disciples are to be like sliding glass doors that suddenly
enter the lives of the people they encounter. Their witness, their
mission, with the miracles and message they bring, is to get people
to STOP! To STOP – and LISTEN!
You see, it is a constant problem in this sin-ravaged world that
people get too busy and they stop listening. This busyness-curse
of sin has affected humanity since the beginning. No longer able
to trust God, we, in the human race, have fallen into the busyness
trap of trying to take care of ourselves.
People get so busy trying to find happiness in more money. People
try to find happiness in bigger houses and better stuff. The Rueters
news service reported in May that in India an estimated 40,000 people,
who are still alive, have been declared legally dead. This is being
done by family members in order to inherit the victim’s property,
money, and get their stuff. It is amazing how far selfish humanity
will go.
People get so busy feeding their ego, and searching for popularity,
and pursuing approval. People believe that only they can satisfy
their needs – and so, they busy-up their lives trying to meet those
needs, trying to manage their lives. And people get too busy to listen.
Of course worry, and fear, and frustration are a regular part
of this kind of busyness of life because nothing is ever perfect
or quite enough.
Do you ever get like that? Do you ever feel that life is too
hectic or busy for God to matter anymore? Do you ever get so
focused on the problems of life that there is no room for
church? Do you ever get so consumed in things that you think
will make you happy that you lose sight of God’s will for your life?
Do you ever feel, whether you achieve what you want or not,
that it is all irrelevant because but you still end up
feeling unhappy? Unfulfilled? You still feel empty?
“Woe to you, Karazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” Jesus says.
“You wouldn’t stop and listen. You think you can find happiness
in yourselves or the things of this world. You think life’s
answers are found within you.”
“No!” Jesus said. Such a life amounts to ashes and futility.
The Gospel message of Christ today, seeks to get us to Stop
and Listen.
Listen to the Jesus, Who says, “I am the way, and the truth,
and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.”
Listen to the Jesus Who, from the cross, looked at each
and every one of us and said, “Father, forgive them…”
Listen to the Jesus Who reminds us that it profits us nothing
“to gain the whole world, but lose our soul.”
And listen to the Jesus Who says, that our true joy in life
is found in simply being God’s child, “…rejoice that your
names are written in heaven,” Christ says in the Gospel.
This is the message that the 72 disciples brought to the
people in the Gospel story. This is the message that impacts
their lives with real power. This is the message that brings
the genuine ability to be at peace in life, in work, in family,
an in your heart.
But this isn’t the disciple’s message. The Words belong to
Jesus. They also belong to the Father. “He who listens to
you listens to Me;” Jesus says in verse 16, “he who rejects
you rejects Me; but he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent me.”
The power of the Gospel, the activity of salvation – it all
belongs to God. And the results all belong to God.
When “the seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord,
even the demons submit to us in Your name,’” Jesus said,
“…do not rejoice” in those results, “but rejoice that your
names are written in heaven.” “Find your joy in the fact
that you are God’s child.”
What Jesus is telling us, is that we, Christians, are not to
find our source of joy in the outcome of spreading the Gospel
message. Too often, the outcome is rejection, anyway.
And too often, we, Christians lose a lot of our joy because
we take responsibility for the results of our witness and
efforts. When people don’t respond the way we want – we
feel we have failed. In families, or among friends, or in
out-reach efforts at church, too often Christians try and
try and seem to get nowhere. And then, it is easy to get
discouraged and frustrated.
“No,” Jesus says, “Find your joy in the fact that you
are a baptized child of God, dearly loved, protected,
and cared for by your heavenly Father.”
There is your unchanging, renewing source of joy in life.
The ups & downs, the success & failures of life can’t touch
this joy. And, even though we do rejoice, when the Gospel
message brings salvation, and creates children of God – it is
NOT because of what we have done.
There is a seminary professor, who teaches preaching courses
to future pastors. Every year, he takes his students on a
field trip to a local cemetery. I take them to this little
cemetery,” he says, “and I have them all gather around a
certain gravesite. I point out the name, and then I tell
one of the students, ‘Preach the Gospel to Mr. Smith here.’
“They look at me like I’m nuts. So I show them what to
do. I preach to Mr. Smith with enthusiasm: ‘Mister Smith,
the wages of sin is death, but Jesus died for your sins
and rose again. Through faith in Him you are no longer
guilty. You are God’s child.’
“Then I look at the students and tell them, ‘This is no
different than preaching the Gospel to those who do not
believe. The Bible says that they are dead in their sins.
You can preach your heart out, but nothing will happen
unless God performs the miracle to give them the life to listen.”
In verse 2 Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the
workers are few.” It is interesting that Jesus doesn’t
tell us to pray for the results, He tells us to pray for
more workers. “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to
send out workers into His harvest field.”
Because we are free from worrying about the results, and
because we are able to live a life of peace and because
we are able to rejoice that our names are written in heaven,
God has given us a unique strength.
He has given us the most powerful witness there is: the
ability to live our lives in Christ’s love, surrounded
by His peace, and filled with His joy, as we tell others
about this wonderful and eternal relationship we have
with God.
Amen.
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