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The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, July 24, 2005 |
WHAT IMPRESSES YOU? What really makes a deep, lasting impression on you? The Teton Mountains of Wyoming, looming up in their snow-capped grandeur to a boy I have eaten a lot of peanuts in my time, as nuts or in peanut butter. I watched my mother make bread from ?scratch? so many time that it was nothing unusual. She always used a ?cake? of moist yeast to make the bread rise. I can remember asking her what it was and why she used it. I have seen a pearl, one pearl valued at $10,000.00 American dollars in the Ginza store of Mikimoto Pearls. Talk about impressive! A pair of them, large, absolutely round, glistening in all their iridescent glory. I wonder what wonders were not on display that would give the connoisseur of pearls sweating palms and heart palpitations. I always imagined treasures were hidden in the field beyond the vegetable garden of my childhood. I guess I had some kind of vision that treasure was stashed there. My digging was so bad that just to dent the sod with an adult spade was too formidable, and I soon went on to other fantasies and never found but one treasure, worth going to any trouble for. Fishing? The first fish in some creek near my home when I was a nascent teen was a 4 inch long catfish. And I ate that rascal! And was it ever so delicious! I wouldn?t though be able to tell a ?good? All about the Kingdom It?s not very impressive to hear that God accepts you, loves you, just as you are without standards to meet or changes made. It?s not impressive to see the bloody cross, a tortured wreck of a person hanging on it, and thinking: This is going to turn into something ?good?? The story of God working through Jesus is just that. Not impressive, well, until you see the results in the lives of people. People hanging on their every word?Mother Teresa, a cloistered monk, Martin Luther who tortured himself until he learned that God was not only not impressed, but all he was trying to do?get in a position of favor with Whoever-is-in-charge was already a done deal because of this cross hanging fellow named Jesus. A small word becomes the Word and there is an explosion of force that drove kings to tremble, empires to fold, and nations to revolutionize their way of dealing with people. Impressive? To you? The Power of Yeast A little goes a long way! The way God operates through the telling of the Good News of God?s concern for individuals is absolutely astounding. It brings peace, a sense of joy, a sense of purpose to lives once focused on only the present because there was no future. The aroma of the effects of this heaven-sent yeast produce an attraction that cannot be produced by any other time of luring scent or odor. What is more impressive? A mansion of 60 rooms or a store front chapel serving the homeless with bread and the Bread of Life? What is more impressive?a TV evangelist bringing in million of dollars each month or the lay person, the ?you? speaking to a fellow worker who has just found the spouse straying of God?s loving presence even in the most desperate of circumstances? Impressive? To you? Worth Getting Rid of Everything Else Bu there is just that. It is called by this teller-of-tales, Jesus, the ?kingdom of heaven.? Now before you call the boys in white uniforms to take this man off to the asylum, you have got to remember that this people called Christians have said for a long time, that the joy of salvation, the rescue from all fears of life, death, and beyond is so great that it is worth the loss of everything else. The joy that comes from total dependence on our gracious God is so freeing, so liberating, so exhilarating, that nothing else?relationships, ?things,? dreams are all in and under this great treasure, this relationship with our gracious God and Savior, Jesus, the Christ. Of course, you have just got to find the treasure or you would think those who have found it are fit for the loony bin, the fringe element, the weirdoes of the world. Then again, when the treasure finds you and it will, if it hasn?t already, you?ll have to deal with the joy it brings. Impressive? To you? Searching for the ?Priceless? Is a relationship with God, is the ?kingdom of heaven? that important? Yes, I know that Jesus as Lord of the universe?to believe that in this chaotic, tsunami occurring world of fanatical violence, and indiscriminate bombing of houses, subways, houses, and buses it a major leap. Yes, it is a leap of faith, and into a joy that you cannot imagine until you have seen it, until it is yours?the Pearl of great value. Impressive? To you? The Good and the Bad It is no wonder many are withdrawing from bureaucratic organization which tend to perpetuate themselves, and with no real goal other than self-perpetuation. It is no wonder many are drawn to churches which serve all kinds and in all situations of life. And many are simply separating what they believe is the good from the bad before the nets are pulled to shore. It appears that angels are to do that. The great separation is not the work of men, but of angelic beings. And we all know that the perfect church is the one we belong to, and it is too bad that all the others belong to such bad churches with bad people. Well, I do believe that fish are fish and we in our fishiness cannot tell the good from the bad. Only God knows the heart and all shall be revealed at the last. And yes, there is a fiery furnace. Yes, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It will be by those who thought they could get on with God simply by associating with those who have the pearl of great price, but didn?t really want it themselves. Let me tell you, to know that there is this collecting of the good and the throwing away the bad, make me sad, because I would want all people to be with me in the paradise of God?s eternal home. But that will not be, and so it is in the ?kingdom of heaven.? This is possible to reject. It may go beyond our ideas of God, that he can be so mean that he would finally separate the good from the bad. Impressive? To you? Impressed? These stories are treasures. Some with old messages told again. Some with new messages from the treasure house of God. Will they be remembered by you as you go from here, to your work, to your relationships, to what you do daily? Will they in any sense alter your orientation to life and what it brings to you? Will they be impression giving? Impressive among all that comes to you this week? Walter W. Harms, retired pastor |
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