Sermon for October 1st ...

(the bulletin will follow ... for now - just the sermon)

October 1st 2006 –

One of my favourite jokes is about a man who one day finds himself in a house surrounded by rising flood water. He is a very pious man, a religious man even – he prays to God to rescue him from the flood waters, to spare him and his house – “O God,” he ends his petition – “save me …”

In a little while a four wheel drive pulls up at his house – “hey buddy,” the driver yells, “we’ll take you to safety. Hop in …”

“No, that’s okay,” calls the man, “I’m waiting for God to rescue me.”

“Whatever,” the driver yells as he pulls away to rescue someone else.

The man continues to pray – “dear God please spare me … O God save me.”

In a few minutes as the water continues to rise around his house, coming in the front door, he flees to the upstairs and utters the same prayer – then a canoe pulls up with some teenagers –
“Hey mister, climb in, we’ll rescue you …”

“No thanks,” the man says, “I’m waiting for God to rescue me.”

"Good luck with that ..." the teenagers say as they paddle away.

The waters rise, the man flees higher in the house, now leaning out the attic window, and a motor boat pulls up to the house and offers to rescue him … again he says “No,” he is waiting for God to rescue him …

Then finally as he is standing on the roof of his house with water lapping around his feet a helicopter swoops down from the sky and offers to rescue him. AND yet, again he refuses, citing God as his rescuer … As the helicopter thumps out of sight the man and his house are washed away by the flood waters and he perishes …

Some time later, not much – because he is still dripping wet, he stand before St. Peter – “I would like to speak with God,” he says outside the pearly gates. “Absolutely,” answers Peter and he is ushered into a small cottage on the edge of a lake, at a table sits God … “Why didn’t you answer my prayers?” the man shouts.

“My dear foolish chilld,” answers God laughing, “what more could I do for you? I sent you a fire man in a truck, some teens in a canoe, some men in a power boat AND a helicopter, and you refused them all …”

Prayer is sometimes like that. As one commentator said in response to the reading from James we shared a moment ago – “prayer and faith are NOT tools to manipulate God into doing what I would like. They are something that I offer to God so that THEY can be used as God likes … perhaps they give God a picture of how little or how much can be done with me …”

Often when we pray – we are selfish. The example of the man in my story is extreme, but what lies in his heart in that moment may not be THAT extreme … We may simply never open our eyes to the actions of faith that are happening all around us. Too often we get too caught up in wanting the big stuff to happen, but we fail to lend our shoulders to the wheel to help make it happen – whatever that IT might be …

In faith we have this deep desire to bring meaningful change in to the world. In the Jewish faith there is a word – Mitzvah, which means literally commandment, but in practice means – an act of selfless kindness.

A mitzvah is something you do in faith to live out your faith – sometimes, in less healthy settings a mitzvah is done to show everyone else how faithful you are … This is the tension James is writing in. In the Jewish Christian community there are people doing mitzvahs because they want to share their faith, and there are those who are doing them because they want to SHOW OFF how faithful they really are …

James is stressing over and over and over, the importance of having your words, your heart and your actions in synch. Words without faith are dead and actions without faith are meaningless …
So too is it with how we approach prayer and actions. We want to change the world – but if we aren’t doing it with a living, vital faith – WHAT’S THE POINT ??

The man on the roof of his house rebuffing the helicopter had faith – it was misguided – but it was faith. His problem was he couldn’t see past his own selfishness. He want GOD to rescue him. God sent ordinary people to rescue him …

We want God to change the world … God sent ordinary people like you and I to change the world … Can we see the obligation of Mitzvah in that moment and do what is asked of me? And you? And all of us together?

Take a moment to consider the towering Cathedrals of Europe. They were started by one generation and often completed by a generation 200 or more years later … Each generation faithfully laid their stones and carved their woodwork knowing they themselves would likely never see the completion of the project, but they trusted that their tiny contribution would be meaningful and important to that moment generations away, when the building was finally completed to the Glory of God …

Sometimes, what is required of us, is looking beyond the moment – looking beyond the prestige – looking beyond the big achievements and realizing that it is the infinite little accomplishments added together that may well change the world.

In our own area last week the Brandon Sun had an article about a young man who at the age of 6 has figured this out … Mind you, he has some really good teachers – but this young man began by collecting the tabs from pop cans and recycling them in an attempt to help others. Now he collects the whole can –having realized that you can get more aluminum to recycle from a WHOLE can rather then in the tiny little tabs. One pop can at a time, Austin Hall is making a difference …

All around us are glimmering moments of Mitzvah – acts of loving kindness that make a difference … they may seem insignificant, but if enough people do them – if tens of thousands of people do them together … if hundreds of thousands of people do them together … the tide begins to change … the world is slowly altered …

Fair Trade coffee and chocolate and food stuffs … each purchase makes a difference … when hundreds of purchases are made entire communities can be transformed …

School kits … each kit makes a difference to a child somewhere … when hundreds and thousands of school kits are donated entire villages can be transformed …

The list goes on and on … each tiny action can and WILL make a difference … because like drops of water in the sea – if we start to add them together we will in find ourselves overwhelmed …

And maybe, just maybe that’s the point – it’s when we work together that we can and will and DO accomplish great and wondrous thing … each of us – one drop – one cup – one purchase – one mitzvah at a time can begin to make a difference because when EACH of us do something we begin to add those drops, and cups and purchases and mitzvahs together and … well … the world begins to change …

Our job – our challenge is to open our eyes to those moments in time when our actions and our faith are in synch … those moments when we can make a difference – one small action at a time …

May it be so – thanks be to God … Let us pray …