Community Church Sermons
October 16, 2005
Once upon a time…
Those four little words are favorite words for many people.
My little grandson Ryan immediately stops what he is doing, cuddles up close, and pays rapt attention when you say, “Once upon a time…”
“Once upon a time, there was a fire-breathing dragon…” “Once upon a time, a beautiful princess…” “Once upon a time, there were three little pigs…”
There are lots of “Once upon a time’s” that Ryan loves, but the ones he loves the most are those that begin, “Once upon a time, when your daddy was a little boy just like you…!”
Once upon a time.
When my best boyhood friend Dennis Astrella and I have occasion to talk these days, our conversations are full of “Once upon a times…”
“Do you remember the time we almost burned down the whole neighborhood?” “Remember when we used to lower Danny LaMarche by his ankles down the sewer to retrieve whiffle balls?”
Once upon a time. Do you do the same thing when you get together with old friends?
And even in the most unlikely
moments, “once upon a time” is important. One of the unusually beautiful
blessings we ministers get to experience over and over again comes when we are
sitting with a family whose loved one has died. Together, we cry, and hurt, and
try to come to grips with the momentous thing that has happened. We try to
comfort each other. But then, in the middle of the mourning, someone will
invariably say, “Hey, do you remember the time dad stuffed fifteen raisins
up his nose…and only got 14 out?!
And laughter trickles out, along
with a flood of tears…and then story after story follows. And afterwards,
family members so often say, “There was something very cleansing – very
healing about sitting around telling those old stories.”
Once upon a time.
I think its possible that once-upon-a-time when God was planning out the world – before anything had yet been created – God thought, “I need to give people a gift that will contain all their living so that none of it will ever be lost. And I want it to be something that will connect people to each other, and generation to generation, and that can give form and foundation and concrete expression to the meaning of their lives.”
And God thought about this for what seemed like eternity (LONG PAUSE). And then God came up with a brilliant plan!
“I will give my children the gift of TIME!”
And ever since that time, everything you have ever done, said, thought about, imagined, acted on, worked for, played, seen – everything in life you have ever experienced – has been set on the stage of TIME!
And time is very important to Christians.
The Christian people living in
the Greek city of Thessalonica learned something about time. In the
first chapter of Paul’s letter, the Apostle reminisces with them about how they
met and what happened when they did. It is a letter full of once upon a
time’s.
Remember when we first met? It was so clear that God had chosen you because you so quickly accepted the Gospel and held it with deep conviction. Remember how you imitated us, and how even when suffering came, you received it with joy? That was God at work in you, you know!
And remember how you became a model for other Christians? You actually became so famous throughout the region for your strong faith that before I could brag on you to others, they bragged on you to me! It’s a beautiful story, how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. And now… you now wait for his Son from heaven…”
Wait…a minute! Wait just a minute! Did you hear that?
Paul notes that these Christians are now waiting for times yet to come! WAITING! They are waiting - for Christ to return. They are waiting - for the end of the world. Now waiting can be a good thing – if it means living in anticipation of something that’s going to happen in the future. Or waiting can be a bad thing – if it means giving up on life and just hanging around waiting for the future to unfold. Which do you think was the case for the Christians in Thessalonica?
Well, in the early Christian church a lot of people took up the second way of waiting. Some believers actually took up residence on the rooftops of their houses, waiting for the Lord’s return. And in Thessalonica, some of these Christians even quit their jobs and stopped working. And they became busybodies, minding everybody else’s business. That’s always a sign, you know, of people with too much time on their hands. So later on, in Chapter 4 of this letter, Paul gently but firmly raps their knuckles, and tells them to mind their own business and go get a job!
Like you and me and everyone else in the world, the Thessalonicans had been given time, but some of them had stopped filling it up with life.
Do you realize that there is no such thing as a “once upon a time” story about people just sitting around doing nothing? No fairy tales. No family memories. Nobody ever says at a family gathering, ”Hey, do you remember the summer we didn’t do anything?” The stories we love to tell are always stories of how life was lived and acted upon …once upon a time!
Time is for living – not waiting.
Which brings us to “Trails
Through Tellico.” Our Stewardship campaign asks you to prayerfully consider
making a commitment for next year of your treasure, your talent and your time.
Last week, we talked about the treasure. Next week we’ll take up the talent.
But today, we’re focused on the gift of time.
Now I’m happy that our church does not believe that a Stewardship campaign is merely about meeting a budget, or filling a slate of nominations, or identifying gifts that can help the church. We believe that Stewardship is not so much about meeting the institutional needs of the church, but about helping people grow in their faith by making the most of their lives – the most of their money – the most of their talent – and the most of their time. The institution will benefit, of course, when people grow in their faith. But the focus has to be on us as people, and how our lives can be better lived as Christian people. So I’m not going to stand up here today and tell you that we need to sign up so many Scripture readers, Sunday greeters, ushers, committee members, and cookie bakers. Yes, we need all those things – and more – and we need each person here to give time to the work we share. That goes without saying.
But the more important thing for us to come to grips with today is how you and I as people – as Christian people – can make the most of our time.
There are several important biblical principles that can help us here. The first one is a little jewel found in Psalm 90: learn to value your time by numbering your days.
The scariest thing about time is not that it marches on, but that it is always slipping away. Today you have one less day to live than you had yesterday. Tomorrow, yet another day will be gone– if tomorrow comes. In truth, the only day you know you have is this day.
When you go home in a little while, I wonder if you might find some quiet time to just think about what you would do if today was, in fact, the only day you had. Who would you want to be with? What good thing would you want to do? What would you want to say to those you love? What phone call would you make? What note would you write? What memory of your life would you want to leave behind as a once-upon-a-time story others will tell about you?
Over the years, I’ve known lots of people who have thrown away the true significance of their lives by squandering their days on things that – in the long run – really didn’t mean diddilysquat. But Christians are called to make the most of the time they have by learning to number their days and living each one as the only day we have.
A second biblical principle is to
learn to receive the goodness of each day. Do you remember the words
that ended each of the days of creation in Genesis 1? At the end of each day,
God thought back upon the experiences of the day, and then said, “Behold, it
was a good today!”
Every day of our lives should end like that – with the discovery that goodness is planted in every day given us - even in the bad days of our lives.
Some time ago I was visiting in a hospital with a church member who was going through a hard time. The cancer had returned, and with a vengeance. It was not likely that he would survive. As we talked about it, I was moved by his ability to find goodness in the midst of all the bad. He introduced me to the girl from the cafeteria who, he said, treated him like a king, gave him extra ice cream, and promised that the members of her little Baptist church were praying for him.
Then he pointed out the window to a bird’s nest that was tucked into the corner of the building a short distance away. “I watch her feed her babies every day. I think there are two or three in there. One day soon, they’re going to fly away. I can’t wait to see that!”
You see, cancer was not the only reality present in his life each day. There were also loving people, gifts of nature, even the times of peace and quiet late at night when he could pray and think.
There is goodness in every day God creates. Are you able to find it? And the goodness points to the presence of the God who loves us and in whose hands our lives reside.
Every Sunday, I
leave the house while it is still very early and very dark. My last stop before
driving away is at the mailbox to pick up the newspaper and bring it in for
Sandy. Well, one particular morning as I walked down the driveway, there was
just something special about the touch of the air, and the brilliance of the
stars in the sky. I became so very aware of the presence of God all around me.
And I found myself needing to pause there by the mailbox for awhile, just to
absorb it all. Just to be present to the presence of God.
I think one day we
will all be very surprised to discover that, in the course of every day of our
lives, there were many moments when God reached out to us. But we were too
busy. Or paying attention to other things.
Learn to receive the day
as a gift filled with goodness, a gift filled with God! Don’t let
yourself become so distracted by things that don’t really matter that you lose
out on the gift of God’s presence in each day! My prayer is that all your days
will come to a close with a heartfelt prayer that says, “And behold, today
was very good! Thank you, Lord!”
Number your days. Receive the goodness of each day. And one last thing. Learn to redeem the day.
We call Jesus the “Redeemer” because he stepped into the brokenness of the world and claimed it for God. The primary purpose of Jesus’ life was not simply to consume each day, but to touch the world each day with the grace of God. And so Paul, writing in Ephesians 5, tells us Christians to do the same thing by redeeming each day.
Christians can bring God’s redemption to the world in countless ways. By caring for our families – by loving our neighbors – by testifying about the love of God – by caring for the earth - by giving a cup of cold water to a thirsty child – by standing up for justice - by praying for others – by helping others grow in faith – by accepting those who others treat as unacceptable - even by greeting people at church on Sunday – or serving in a ministry – or making crafts to be sold to benefit others.
There should never be a day in your life when you neglect the work of redemption. There is plenty of God’s work that needs to be done in the immediate circle of our lives – every day.
Once upon a time, God gathered eleven people in a brand new community called Tellico Village. Those eleven people began a church, and we are that church today. You can say lots of things about our church – how it has grown to over 1300 members, how it has built a beautiful sanctuary, how the music is wonderful and the preaching is stupendous (you can go either way with that word!).
But I dare say, one of the most wonderful things that can be said about our church is that is full of people who God is teaching to number their days, to receive each day’s goodness, and to do God’s work in very human ways.
People using their time wisely.
Once upon a time…
How will the rest of the story of your life and our church…unfold?