Right Now, In A Land Close Close By

This Sunday, Pam and I preached together:

Pam: Once there was a prince, and he wanted a princess, but then she must be a real Princess. He traveled right around the world to find one, but there was always something wrong. There were plenty of princesses, but whether they were real princesses he had great difficulty in discovering; there was always something that was not quite right about them. So at last he had come home again, and he

was very sad because he wanted a real princess so badly.was very sad because he wanted a real princess so badly.

 Don: One of the joys of having children is telling them stories.  While that conjures up images of reading aloud from Alice In Wonderland, our storytelling extends beyond fairy tales.  We tell our children stories about their family, a grandparent who fought in WWII, the Christmas dinner when their older brother laughed so hard that milk came out of his nose, or Mom and Dad’s first date (which is sometimes a tricky one).  Being part of a family or community, means sharing stories.

Pam: Are you wondering why when you burn a candle like this one their seems to be less and less wax as it burns. If the wax is just melting, where does it go? Why does it not all just melt when you burn it and harden back up again so we can see it? Well, Here’s the answer.  As the candle burns, its wax melts into a liquid, that liquid "wicks" up the wick (like water flowing up into a paper towel), and then the extreme heat of the flame vaporizes the wax (it is become gaseous wax). Once the wax is a gas, it burns in much the same way that natural gas burns — it reacts with oxygen in the air to become water and carbon dioxide.

Don: Another joy of parenting, is explaining to children how things work.  Children are full of questions about the world.  Sometimes they ask things we don’t even know like, how does the refrigerator work?  How does my body work?  As parents, we’ll go out and get a book about that subject and read it together with our kids.  Sometimes we take a shortcut and secretly go to a website like howstuffworks and then explain it to our kids so we can look like the expert.

At first, those two activities, telling stories and explaining how things work, may seem unrelated.  Yet they are one and the same thing.  When we tell our children stories, we are really telling them how something works.  The fairy tales we read to them can explain how morality works.  Their heroes and villains explain how the world is supposed to work. Even on a subconscious level, they instill expectations of what it means to be heroic, courageous or loyal. Sometimes they implant unintentional ideas, such as that girls must wait for a boy to come along and rescue them.

Our family stories can explain how our family works and who we are.  Through what is said or left unsaid, a child discovers what kind of person they are supposed to be, and what role they will play in the family.  What is possible and what is impossible.

From all these stories told to us, we form a story that we tell ourselves, a story of how the world works.From all these stories told to us, we form a story that we tell ourselves, a story of how the world works.

Pam: Sandy is 13 years old.  Everybody tells her how pretty she is but she doesn’t believe it.  Recently she feels really awkward, like she’s gained some weight and her skin isn’t as clear as it used to be.  The doctor says it common to put on some pounds when you’re going through puberty but she hates it.  Most days after school she does her homework and then sits and watches the line-up the latest hit shows on Niclodean and Disney Channel.  She tries not to but she compares herself to the characters in the sit-coms.  She notices their hair, their skin, and especially their bodies.  She wonders why she doesn’t look like them.  She’s even changed her eating habits.  Sometimes she skips meals and doesn’t eat at all.   No matter how many times people tell Sandy how beautiful she is, when she looks in the mirror she just doesn’t see it.

Don: Every time we turn on a TV or go online.  We’re told a story by our culture. For the story to have a happy ending, we need to buy a car, look like a celebrity, support a politician or ideology.  We hear a narrative that we are defined by what we own, not who we are.  We hear a narrative of confused ethics and morality.  We are told tales of violence and that ultimately, every story ends with something blowing up.  We hear a story of rugged individualism in which we are the main character, in which it’s okay to be the center of attention, in which our desires and wants are the final arbiters of what is right and wrong.  We hear a nebulous goo of spirituality suggesting that we are gods who can have our heart’s desire if just visualize it hard enough.  We hear a story of individualistic personalized religion.

Pam: Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Don’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after that one lost sheep?  You would jeopardize your whole flock over one dumb sheep that wondered off.  It was probably old anyway!

You know what the kingdom of heaven is like?  Say you’re a businessman and you go out and find yourself some workers to work for a day.  You tell them that you’ll pay them $100 for a days work.  So they start working.  About three hours later you run into some more guys who need work so you tell them to go over to your place and start working.  Six hours later he met more workers and told them the same thing.  Nine hours later – same thing.  Then an hour before quitting time you see people just standing around and you say them, “why aren’t you working?”  They say “Nobody has offered us work”.  So you send them to your place to work for that last hour.  

At the end of the day all the workers came for their $100.  Of course you pay those that have been there all day the right rate but you cut the others wages to reflect how long they worked.  Why should you pay them for a full day when they stood around most of it.  Sure they say no one offered them work but hey they could have found you, you were looking for workers. 

Those you try harder finish first.  

There was a man who had a great year and harvested a lot of grain.  So much grain that he could not fit it into his existing barn.  He could not bear to let it go because he would be set for life if he could keep it somehow so he decided to destroy his old barn and build a new barn to store it in.   To this God said, “Well done, you can never have enough security at any expense.  What matters in life is how much stuff you store up.”  

Don: Have you ever recalled a story, can’t remember where you heard it?  That happens to me all the time when I write my sermons.  We all know stories whose sources we can’t remember. Sometimes they’re just urban legends, like the one about the stranded couple and the scraping on the car roof.  Other times, we attribute a story to someone that really came from someone else.  This happens with quotations.  Many of us are familiar with the passage that begins, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…“  Perhaps you were told that’s a quote from Nelson Mandella.  In reality, it comes from new-age author Marianne Williamson, and “A Course in Miracles.”

Misattributing a story may seem harmless enough, until we misattribute a story to God.  Sometimes we confuse our culture’s story, or our family’s story, or even a fairy tale with God’s story.  People can confuse their judgmental parent with God.  Or they think God is like their impossibly demanding never-satisfied boss.

Pam: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?  When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 

 "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.

   "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'   

 " 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. 
      "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' 

 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' "

 "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' 

 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' 

"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.   He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'  "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'  "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.   And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '   "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'  "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

Don: Jesus spoke in stories.  He told a different story from the religious and political powers of his day.  His stories always ended differently than his audience expected.  A Samaritan, despised and distrusted by society, helps a robbery victim, while the religious elite just pass him by.  A father, who has every right to punish his wayward son, welcomes him back with love and throws a party for him. 

The story Jesus told was that story you’ve been told about how the world works is the wrong story.  The sick and the poor are not sick and poor because God is punishing them.  As God’s people, we are not to despise and reject them, but restore them into our community and alleviate their suffering. The rich and powerful are not rich and powerful because God has favored them.  In fact their wealth and power is what keeping them from God.  Wow, that sounds an awful lot like social justice.  (According to Glen Beck, you now need to run from here in terror and report me to the church authorities.)

Jesus told his audience that the story you’ve been told about how God works is the wrong story. The sinners are not lost and forgotten by God, but God is seeking them out, every last one of them.  God is not a God who just can’t wait to punish people.  God is a God who just can’t wait to welcome people home again, to love them, forgive them and give them a new life.

  All of us carry around an internal narrative about ourselves.  Often, it is not a good one.  It can be a story of grudges, hurts and resentments.  It can be a story of regrets, guilt and shame. It can be a story in which we are always doomed to failure.  

Pam: Matt was a tall lanky kid.  He would have liked to play sports but it didn’t come naturally to him.  If someone took the time with him maybe he could’ve played basketball.  He was definitely tall enough.  Unfortunately his dad didn’t live with him.  (His mom and dad divorced when he was young) and that was ok by Matt because whenever he went to visit him, he just criticized him anyway.  Matt secretly thought his dad liked his stepson better.  He knew his dad tried to relate to him but he could see they had more in common.  Even as an adult Matt always seemed to see himself as the kid who was standing alone against the gym wall when the other kids were sorting out teams.   As he got older he never really found that THING he wanted to do with his life.  It seems like nothing ever really led to anything else.  He graduated from a nearby college with a business degree and started working for an electronics company.  During his years there he watched the other guys get pats on the back and other guys get promotions.  It got to the point that he even stopped trying when he heard of a new opportunity.  “They’d never pick me”  He’d say, “This is the story of my life.”

Don: If the story of how the world works and how God works is different from what we thought, then your story and my story can be different too.  Life coaches will tell you that if you want to change your life, change your story.  Change the story you tell about yourself, to yourself and others.  Develop a future story about where you want to be in life ten years from now and tell it to people.

Although there may be some merit in their suggestions, telling a new story about ourselves has one big drawback; it’s always coming from us.  Consequently, it’s always contaminated with the wrong stories of our families, our culture and God.  Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves hold us back so much, that we can never imagine a new one.  

That’s why we have been given new stories from outside ourselves, from Jesus.  His stories were about the Kingdom of God.  This kingdom was not a far off imaginary land.  It was not a possible land of the distant future that would all come to pass if we humans could just get our act together.  Jesus said this kingdom was at hand.  It was and is right here and right now.  Like the Jesus Revolution we spoke about last week, it is already here among us.

The stories Jesus told and the story he lived out in his life, death and resurrection can transform our stories.  They recreate us so we can tell ourselves a new story about ourselves, a story that we are now made whole.  A story that our lives have been turned around by the stories and story of Jesus.  As his followers, we can boldly tell that story to the world.