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Sermons & Writings |
Loree Penner
Saint James, Monkton
April 19, 2009
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Once upon a time, in the last millennium, I was an avid Camp Fire Girl. Those of you old enough to remember Camp Fire know that It was an organization that closely associated with Boy Scouts. Camp Fire, as its name implied, emphasized outdoor activities, nature, camping, and experiences in the wilderness. As part of our training, we worked to become a Gypsy, which was roughly meant to be equivalent to an Eagle Scout, To achieve Gypsy one had to master all kinds of outdoor skills, one of which was knot tying. In fact, we were required to learn not only to tie a variety of knots, but also to use them in the skill of lashing, so that if we were ever in the wilderness without furniture, we could make our own, assuming we always traveled with plenty of rope. As I worked toward this erstwhile goal, I learned to tie knots really well. And quite a variety at that. I can still tie a few of them, but many I don't remember even the names of. And the fact is, that now as an adult, I'm much better than tying myself up in knots than I ever was at tying rope. Its as though every stress that comes along, every concern, or worry, or fear becomes its own rope, and strand by strand gets tied on to each other until my inner self resembles a macramé hanging from the 70's. Lately there's been a lot of strands to make some quite grand knots. I've had a half-hitch going for the last 10 days while we have had some very dear company staying….and staying. And I do mean dear, for they are….but to quote Val Smalkin, "I love to see company come….and I love to see company go!" Several other strands are coming from health concerns based in my family of origin way back in California. And events that are almost on top of us that I have responsibilities for, and yada, yada - you know the drill…. for if I'm not mistaken, tying ourselves in knots has become the great American pastime. Its usually referred to as stress, with which we are all familiar. And stress is created when there are more than a few things on our plate, some worrisome, some requiring extra energy, some requiring a particular kind of finess….all meeting together at once in a great, highly tense design. I was reading an article on stress eating recently, since Chocolate tends to be my drug of choice. When our bodies recognize that we are under stress, they produce a hormone that causes us to seek high-energy/quick energy food. This is because stress used to be something that came about a few times in a lifetime - you know, like the day the mastodon decided to trample the village. The resulting adrenaline rush required extra energy to stave off the mastodon and rebuild said village. Today the mastodons come in herds, tramp over our fragile souls regularly, and leave us in this environment in which stress has become a daily occurrence. Our bodies still think we need this hormone to manage stress, so in comes the deepseated desire for sugar in all of its unhealthy forms, both solid and liquid. Unfortunately, sugar and alcohol will only make our stress worse in the long run. All of this reminds me of a saying that has been attributed to both Gregory Peck and Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. "Tough times never last; tough people do." The idea being that if we just hang on long enough, we'll outlive the stress. Just keep going, and that day will come when we can breathe again, when things go back to normal. Don't give up! Be tough! The other day in the midst of living as a macramé hanging, I decided in a moment of great intelligence to take a walk. It was the right thing to do; in fact I would go so far as to say it was a God-led thing to do, in spite of the work piling up on my desk. For In that walk I found a combination of the great power and the great grace which characterized the disciples' lives in our first reading this morning. It was the first day of beautiful and warm weather we've had yet. The water of the gunpowder was sparkling even as it churned from the recent rain. The trees were finally budding out, all - green, and promising the lushness that is still to come in this long-awaited spring. Along the path I found a white daisy-like flower, pushing itself up through the blanket of fall leaves, still on the ground. Rather than taking my breath away, it seemed as if this beauty was giving it back. The gift of nature, the gift of a beautiful day provided the great grace that I needed, and I was reminded of the psalmist's cry, "He restoreth my soul." The longer I walked, the more I could feel the knots untying, until my macramé hanging disintegrated into its pieces of rope once again. And the great power of God's resurrection life, new life, abundant life made itself known to me on a riverbank. Great power and great grace followed the apostles throughout their journeys recorded in acts. That doesn't mean they had perfect lives. Even though they sold all they had and lived with all things in common, as one continues to read the book of Acts, one finds all kinds of problems found in this community. They had their moments of great knot-tying just as we do. But something had happened to these men and women during the events we celebrate as Holy Week. They had found out that they really weren't as tough as they thought they were. And they had discovered that God was much more faithful than they ever gave God credit for. They had begun separated by the events of Good Friday, joined again in an upper room where despair overpowered them, only to be visited, through no ability of their own, by the risen Christ. That was the beginning of a journey toward strength and grace which showed them over and over again that while tough times may engender tough people, life can be abundantly more grace-filled if only we will acknowledge our need for that grace. The message of Jesus' appearance to Thomas is more about God's faithfulness than it is about our faith, or lack thereof. Whether we have faith or not, God consistently offers grace, because he has faith in us. But we, in our great knot-tying endeavors, tend to forget that grace is there, accessible to us, as present as Christ was to Thomas in that upper room. We can choose to tough out these tough times we are in; we can rely on those stress hormones to point in the direction of relief - and most of us will make it through - But we will miss the great power and great grace that is foundational to the gospel message. Christ awaits us, in our own upper room, in our offices, on a riverbank - arms outstretched, beckoning to us to come, and to receive all that we need. All we need to do is humbly acknowledge that we are not in charge; and, like Thomas, bow before the Risen Christ, and say "my Lord and my God." |
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