No Trivial Pursuit
Let go, and let God.
(from the Sunday Sermons On CD-ROM Collection)
"... let it be to me according to your word" - Luke 1:38
You are working in a garden on a beautiful sunlit morning pulling out dandelions. Suddenly, you drop to your knees and discover beauty in the unique coloring, beauty in the intricate design, beauty even in the strange smell. Suddenly the dandelion is transformed. You know it's more than just an ugly yellow weed; it's a little bit of the wonder and the glory of God. Suddenly, you can appreciate in a whole new way the pietistic phrase, "Let go and let God." Suddenly you can hear yourself saying, "Let it be! Let it be! Let it be!"
You watch your child marching to the marriage altar and, suddenly, no longer do you see messy rooms; no longer do you remember late, anxious nights; no longer do you hear angry shouting. Suddenly you realize that in your experience of parenting you have encountered something of the Divine Love -- that intense, irrational love which nothing can shut out. And your child is transformed before your eyes so completely that you now see him or her in a whole new way. And suddenly, you can hear yourself saying, "Let it be!"
You come to Church regularly for years. Over-an-over again, you listen to the same old stories, sing the same old hymns, say the same old prayers, and your spirit becomes sleepy and dull and lifeless. But one day it happens! Suddenly, one Sunday, you experience a breakthrough. By some miracle you are visited by an angel of the Lord who whispers to your soul a message of hope, a message of faith: God is the God of history; His Kingdom will come! Suddenly your lifeless old spirit is transformed into a powerhouse of outlandish faith and hope. Suddenly your sleepy old spirit is interrupted by the wildest imaginable dreams of what the Lord has prepared for those who live in harmony with His Will. And suddenly, you can hear yourself saying from every fibre of your being, "Let go and let God! ... Let it be! Let it be! Let it be!"
- A certain pastor was the victim of a prolonged illness. During the period, the parish secretary regularly posted an update of the pastor's condition on the Church's sidewalk bulletin board. "Pastor critical" was the first message. "Pastor off critical list" read the second. And so on until, one day, when the pastor's recovery seemed almost complete, persons walking past the Church were startled by the announcement, "God Is Good - Pastor Better!"
You may have come here today feeling spiritually drained. You may be feeling like the deep sea diver who was walking around the ocean floor in his heavy diving suit. Above him was the mother ship to which he was connected by an air-hose: his lifeline. After being on the ocean floor for some time, he suddenly heard an anguished cry coming over his intercom: "Come up at once! The ship is sinking!" Even if you've come here today feeling like you're at the bottom of the sea and the ship is sinking, the lifeline will not disconnect. God will give you a new outlook, a new perspective, a new point of view, a new attitude, a new spirit of outlandish faith and hope -- if only you will begin to trust Him with all your being.
When Jesus said, "Blest are the poor in spirit," he used a phrase which connotes absolute, total destitution: total poverty. And He used that figure to teach us that everything in life is ultimately dependent on God who is the Source of all life. The person who is "blest," Jesus was saying, is the person who recognizes how poor he or she is apart from God. The person who is "blest" is the person who recognizes how empty life is apart from God. The person who is "blest" is the person who recognizes how futile life is when lived apart from the Will of God. The person who is "blest" is the person who, in complete humility, gives his or her life over to God in the spirit of utter trust and dependency.
The point of view of the sleepy, dull, lifeless, empty spirit is "I am the master of my fate! I am the captain of my soul!" The attitude of the transformed, reawakened, powerhouse spirit of outlandish faith and hope is "I am utterly dependent on God ... I will let go and let God!"
It's not enough to know this intellectually. We've been hearing this, most of us perhaps, since we were little children. But we must ask ourselves, "Have we really heard this in any deep sense? Are we hearing it now in any deep sense of commitment to do God's Will?"
Someone has said that the body of the Church is structured from four kinds of bones. There are the wishbones -- those who spend all their time wishing someone else would do the work. There are the jawbones -- those who do all the talking, but little else. There are the knucklebones -- those who knock everything being done by others. And then there are the backbones -- those who are deeply involved in doing what needs to be done.
You may have seen the "Trivial Pursuit" ad that appeared in some of the slick magazines. "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Trivia!" it began. The "Trivial Pursuit" game may have its attractions, but it also reminds us that the mindless pursuit of trivia serves only to trivialize life. The Dean of the Duke University Chapel has written a book on "burnout," particularly among the clergy. He interviewed scores of clergy who had "called it quits" because, in their own minds, they had "burned out." They complained of being "overburned by their work ... stressed out ... crushed by the demands of the job." The author commented:
After talking with many of those who claimed to have "burned out," and with counselors who had tried to help them, I decided that sometimes we feel burned out, not because we have too much to do, but because we have too much which is meaningless and unimportant to do. Life's greatest burden is not in having too much to do (some of the happiest people I know are the busiest) but in having nothing worthwhile to do. Energy is a renewable resource. Good work appears to produce more energy to do more good work. People burn out, from what I observe, not because they have too much to do but because they become exhausted by constant engagement with the trivial and the inconsequential.
So the issue before us cannot be whether or not we shall be burdened, but what shall we be burdened with!
The issue before us now is not if we shall be the backbones but how to become deeply involved in what needs to be done.
We begin to resolve the issue by echoing Mary's expression in today's Gospel lesson: "Let it be to me according to your word" (Lk. 1:38). Let it be God's Will that shapes our attitude toward life. Let it be our clear understanding of why Christ said the meek shall inherit the earth that shapes our perspective on what we ought to do in our individual lives. Meekness -- the clear voice of love -- is the only disposition of mind and heart and soul that can make us the backbone of the Community of Faith.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine! Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our love like unto Thine!
Could it be that this very day, by some miracle, you are about to be visited by an angel of the Lord with an outlandish message of faith and hope -- suddenly transforming your sleepy spirit into a powerhouse of the Love of Christ?
We are always in danger of trivializing the Christmas Message and, in so doing, trivializing life itself. But the work of the backbones -- to love one another as Christ has loved us -- is no "trivial pursuit!"
(Reprinted with permission from the Sunday Sermons on CD-ROM Collection. This collection, which contains seven complete fully-illustrated sermons for each Sunday of the three year lectionary cycle and regularly sells for $297, is available through December 24, 1999 for the special price of $199.95. For more info or to order, please visit the Homiletic Resource Center.)