Proper 17

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’ please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand for the times they are a-changin’          

Remember that song from 1964? It was from Bob Dylan’s third album.  But 58 years later, most of us prefer that things stay the same, so we tend to be afraid of the changes that are coming – into our lives, into our churches, into our communities, into our homes.

            The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews testified that there is only one thing that can fear-proof your life to deal with “changing times:” Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  This morning’s epistle offers one practical little guide and guardrail after another to next-generation Christians, with the author ticking them off in an almost David Letterman style. 

            To put this into the language of 2022, we need a parallel list of practical advice on how to find the still point of a turning world.  So here’s a list of 10 simple things we can do to live faithfully, not fearfully.  Here are 10 small things we can incorporate into our normal routine that can help our faith create a future that outstrips our fears.

Number ten: Be hospitable to the strange and stranger in your life.  Break your daily routine in some small way.  Try some new food.  A couple of months ago at the Columbia, I ate boliche for the first time.  Try a new book of the Bible each week.  Read from a book of the Bible that is unfamiliar to you.  (What’s the difference between Zechariah and Zephaniah, for instance?)

            Number nine: Take off your shoes the first chance you get.  Remember what God told Moses?  “Take off your shoes.  The place on which you stand is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).  A scientific study revealed that those individuals who habitually kicked off their shoes under the dining table or their desk or their pew tend to live three years longer than the average American does.  That’s why I wear loafers to the office.

            In the Benedictine monastic order, the monks take off their shoes constantly – for meals, for prayer, for conversation, for reading.  Whenever shoes are not an absolute necessity, they go barefooted.

            Why?  Bare feet are aware feet: aware of the earth, aware of holiness, aware of life.  Feet that are bound up and cooped up for too long begin to, well, stink.  Let some fresh air into your soul.  Go barefoot.

            Number eight: Meditate for fifteen minutes each day.  According to the American Institute on Stress, 75 to 90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints.  So take time out, relax, and let God speak to you.

            Number seven: Do one wild thing a day.  Purchase your next appliance without having read every Consumer Reports article on the subject. (Or don’t do that.) But, perhaps, go out of town without making a reservation somewhere.  Coming back from a road trip to Washington one time, I uncharacteristically cancelled our hotel reservation in South Carolina and drove on to Savannah, where we simply showed up at a hotel and asked for a room.  Now those of you who know me fairly well will easily realize how wild that was for me to do!

            Now if wildness is too wild for your taste, take a break and do something silly.  For example, visit some gorillas on the Internet and admire their paintings.  I have their web site info if you are interested (http://www.koko.org).  Really – art painted by apes!

            Number six: Say ‘no’ sometimes.  I read about a committee meeting where Georgina, after confessing to being burned-out in her own life, volunteered to take on some more duties.  After the meeting was over, Georgina’s friend Sabrina said to her, “Georgina, I have a mantra for you.”  And in a low voice she chanted, “Noooooo.” 

“Om?” Georgina said.

“No!  Nooooooooo,” Sabrina chanted again.  Then the two of them began chanting it together in unison.

How many of us here this morning need to learn this chant and sing “No” to each other sometime? 

            In the words of Montana psychologist Charlotte Kasl, “When you won’t play the role of the one who gives all, or the nice guy, other people might feel hurt or be angry with you.  Remember, whenever we carry others on our backs, both become cripples.  By taking people off your back, you free them to learn to walk and you will feel lighter, happier, and more able to feel the breath of spirit.  Most of all, as you get more comfortable in saying no, you can relax, laugh and start saying a true YES.”

            Number five: Find someone new to “Barnabas” each week.  Remember Barnabas?  He was an “encourager.”  Who can you find to encourage in their journey through life?  The best health insurance out there is relationships.  Find someone to encourage and lift up.

            Number four: Laugh a lot.  The Latin root of the word humor means ‘fluid,’ like water.  What keeps us fluid and flexible?  The fluids of laughter and humor.  You can find it just about anywhere, even driving down the road.  Some interesting bumper stickers include: “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats” and “I bet Jesus would have used HIS turn signals” and “Try Jesus. If you don’t like him, Satan will take you back.”

            Number three: Find a way to go with God in everything you do.  In his last years, Kurt Vonnegut, one of our most popular contemporary novelists, began signing off his conversations with these words: “Go with God.”

            Go with God by never eating without bowing your head and giving thanks.  Even in restaurants.  Even in cars.  Bow your head.

            Go with God by being faithful in going to church.  A Duke University study of people over age 65 found that those who attended religious services at least once a week were less likely to have high blood levels of interleukin-6, a protein associated with various age-related diseases and disabilities.

            Number two: Find your own Biblical mantra, or chant, and recite it whenever you feel the need.  My biblical mantra is from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8-9).  Choose whatever short passage speaks to you the most and recall it whenever you have the opportunity.

            And finally – the number one thing you can do to add years, not fears to your life – shift your prayer life from “Please, God” to “Please God.”  Take the comma out of those two words when you pray and transition your praying from asking God for things to asking God for the pleasure of God’s pleasure.

            These ten simple exhortations will help us cast out fears and add years to our lives.  But a word of caution here: We may not be able to do everything at once.  These are steps to take, not a quick fix.  But as we begin to be hospitable, take our shoes off, meditate, do something wild or silly, say no, find someone to encourage, laugh, go with God, pray biblically, and please God, we will find, step by step, a love in our life that casts out both the fears and the tears.  And remember: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.