The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for October 21, 2007

Texts: Isaiah 43:11-13/Acts 3:1-16

Title:  “That Something Greater”

              They met as two men aspiring for something greater.  The aspirations of the first were most visibly on display.  He was an invalid dependent on the generosity of others for his next meal.  An impoverished invalid doesn’t maintain lofty aspirations, life’s hard knocks had taught him to keep his aspirations modest. The aspirations of the second man were more concealed. Elevated by his fellow disciples to assume a leadership role after Jesus’ death and resurrection, he aspired to do what it took to prove himself worthy of the confidence they bestowed upon him. He knew the eyes of the others were on him.  Would he measure up?  Could he measure up? 

              Two men aspiring for something greater. When you are an impoverished invalid the security of knowing the origins of the next meal is a great achievement. When your confidence fails to rise to the level of the expectations others maintain for you, each new day dawns as a personal test. “Perhaps tomorrow will be the day I prove I am worthy of their confidence.  Or will I?”

              Two men aspiring for something greater.  “An invalid, my life got off to a bad start.  In the society in which I lived little was conceded to the physically impaired. There were no social service agencies to which a person like me could turn.  I did not draw a pension.  Family or friends might have lent a helping hand, but most of the people I knew had enough trouble fending for themselves. Unless born into a wealthy family, there was no guarantee that people like me would eat if we didn’t do what work we could, or beg. 

               A person like me possessed little value in the eyes of the community.  In fact, many of my neighbors suspected that people me like me suffered physical impairment as punishment for sins we had committed.  Through many sleepless nights I tossed and turned over the prospect that it could be true. Was I not only an invalid, but doomed as well?”

              There were bright spots in my day. Rare was the day when two or three charitable souls did not pick me up and carry him the well traveled areas of Jerusalem where I might beg.  Without their help I would have perished.  Day in and day I was delivered to the edge of the marketplace, a busy street corner, or the temple. 

              Desperate to survive, I felt no shame in putting out my hand.  The hours ticking away from the morning into the afternoon, rain or shine, through the summer’s sweltering heat, or the winter’s bitter cold, I called out to anyone who would listen. It was not the life I would have chosen.

              Because there were so many of us reduced to begging, few in the crowds who daily passed by me acknowledged my presence.  Many of those who did acknowledge me, did so annoyed that they had to step over or around me, while the very occasional person who placed some money in my hand acknowledged me in the most detached sort of way.

              Sure I aspired to more from life than I got.  Wouldn’t you?  Over the course of time, however, I learned to appreciate the simple graces of the anonymous people who would help carry me here or there, or open their hand with a coin.  I learned to appreciate eye contact however brief, the glimmer of recognition in the stranger’s eye that I shared his or her humanity. I aspired to the greater in life, but I learned to appreciate the greater in smaller portions than the able bodied who day in and day out hurriedly passed by me.”

              “I too aspired for the greater.  It took me days to accept that the tragedy had actually taken place.  It was like a nightmare from which a person longs to awake until the longing dissolves in the glare of the cold, harsh reality. The Lord was gone, and we were on our own.

              At Jesus’ right hand throughout his ministry, I felt special responsibility for continuing his work. I felt personal responsibility for my brothers. There was no debate as to who should step forward after Jesus was gone.  Everyone looked to me. It was all settled without a word being spoken.

              I would be challenged to prove myself, not so much to them, I couldn’t fool them, but I was challenged to prove myself to me. I had a lot to prove.  I had abandoned Jesus in his time of need.  I had denied that I even knew him. My conscience was stained.”    

              It was three o’clock in the afternoon when their paths crossed.  One was a lame man from birth, positioned as he had been on so many other occasions, at the temple gate.  The other man was a disciple of Jesus whom the authorities had recently executed as an enemy of the state.  Two men aspiring for the greater, but what the “greater” meant to each hardly coincided. 

              The something greater the lame man wanted was a bit of money to stave off starvation, and secure a safe place to lie down at night.  The something greater the disciple of Jesus sought was only beginning to take shape in his mind.  He questioned whether his faith and courage would support him through the challenges that awaited him.

              “My aspirations were modest.  Modest was what I had learned to live with.  Dreams were a luxury no disabled man in my position could afford.  A little money for a meal today, and perhaps a down payment on one for tomorrow, that’s all I really wanted.

              Seldom did anyone respond to my plea for money.  They either ignored me entirely or thrust a coin in my hand without taking the time to look at me.

              I was shocked.  His words came in the form of a command, ‘look at us.’  My first reaction was fear.  Had I had somehow offended the man. What kind of trouble had I gotten myself into? I was at his mercy. There was no running for cover.”

              “Beggars were everywhere.  I seldom stopped, and would not have done so this time except for, except for… Truth be told, I don’t know why I stopped. Though I have thought about that decision often, I still have no answer.

              The power to heal.  Jesus had given us the power to heal, but on the occasions when opportunities to heal presented themselves we came up short. He had chastised us for our lack of faith. I feared the shame I would experience if I failed yet again to use the power he had given us. 

              Here was the test, a lame man lying at the gate of the temple. As disciples of Jesus, I and the others were already marked men. The temple authorities were looking for any reason they might have to lock us up.  Calling attention to ourselves on the temple grounds could mean big trouble.

              There was something greater out there for me. It was my destiny.  I knew it.  But was that destiny to be revealed that day, with that beggar?

              ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ For a brief moment it felt as if the words were coming from some source other than my mouth.  Was it really I who had spoken?  The words were out there. There was no taking them back.

              I have no way of knowing which one of us was the more amazed when the lame beggar rose to his feet.  He was the more demonstrative, leaping in the air and loudly praising God. For me there was much to sort out.  Where would this event lead?  I had aspired to the greater. I wanted to prove myself.  But what did this prove?”

              “I had aspirations for my life, but those were the aspirations of a lame man dependent on the generosity of others.  The greater to which I aspired was my next meal, a safe place to sleep at night. I was totally unprepared to receive the much greater. I could now walk. Praise the Lord!”       

              St. Augustine, one of the truly remarkable contributors to Christian thought maintained his own aspirations for that which is greater, declaring, “Our hearts, O Lord, are restless until they find their rest in thee.”  His restless heart, a good bit of struggle behind him, did eventually find his rest in God.

              There is a greater to which we are aspiring.  We may choose, as many have, to deny those aspirations, but the fact is there exists a void in our lives that only God can fill. That this church can do something to help fill that void is the very grounds for our existence.              

              There are a whole lot of people outside these doors who are looking for that something greater in life. They are searching for that something greater in a marriage, parenthood, success on the job, the next vacation, or retirement, just to name a few.  They will derive satisfaction in those things to varying degrees. However, if what St. Augustine said is actually true their satisfaction is bound to be only partial.  The yearnings of the  heart will continue to keep them restless.

              Some of the people outside these doors choose to come into churches like this one looking for that something greater in life.  The church’s all too human flaws and foibles aside, the church remains the place God, in Christ, has chosen his glory to reside. While God can certainly work without our cooperation in the church so long as the scriptures are read, and sacraments are celebrated, there are virtually no limits to what God can do in a place like this with our cooperation, if that is, we are willing to give it.

              He lay before Peter a man with no prospects in life beyond what the next hand out might afford, and he was looking for something greater in life, even if that greater was a down payment on tomorrow’s supper. At the same time Peter was looking for something greater, an opportunity to define his personal calling now that Jesus was gone.  Both parties received something unexpected when they came together, and each of those lives would never be the same again.

               The church exists at the place where two streams intersect. There is the restless heart seeking the greater in life, and there is God ever ready to confer the greater.

             The church exists at the place where two streams intersect.  However in many instances it has nothing to offer the restless heart because it has ceased pursing the greater, it has ceased taking its life under God seriously enough to listen and learn what the Spirit might be attempting to say to the church. Aspirations satisfied in mere survival alone, the church is too restless dealing with the busy work of building maintenance, finding people to serve on its committees, electing officers, and raising budgets to seek the rest God alone can give. The restless heart seeking its rest in the greater finds no rest in such a place.     

                As the church we are intermediaries between persons seeking that something greater, and God who dispenses it.  If we accept that role, it seems to me there are two very basic questions we need to answer: 1)Do we offer anything important to those seeking the greater that isn’t available somewhere else? And two, the more basic question, does the restlessness to seek the greater manifest itself in our daily lives as individuals?  Does it manifest itself as the gathered community the church? If so, what are we doing about it? 

                As their eyes locked Peter spoke the following words to the man born lame, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you.”  Mind you Peter did not yet know what he had to give.  Instead, his declaration was made on faith, the faith that God may very well be poised to act through him.

                God is poised to act through the church as he has repeatedly demonstrated, but the church is challenged to clear out the clutter of its busy work and competing agendas, that the restless people God sends to the church may receive the greater things they come looking for.

              “No silver or gold, what I have I give you.”  It was a venture of faith for Peter to say those words.  Did he possess the power to heal?  He did not know.

               We at Lakeview Presbyterian Church offer to the world our witness in the faith that God will use us.  But what do we have to give?  You and I are challenged to prayerfully define what that is.  The presbytery has offered us an opportunity to do just that.  I solicit your prayers for your session and me as we attempt to discern the readiness of our congregation to enter a program that will help us define our Spiritual gifts and the focus of our ministry.    AMEN

PRAYER

               Lord Jesus Christ, teach us to pray even as you taught your disciples to pray.  Weary with the rote and predictable in the prayers we offer, in the communion of your Spirit with our hearts may we find new images and vocabulary through which to express ourselves. Nothing less than a ferment in our souls is what we seek, the ability to look at the world from a new perspective, and pray for the world with greater wisdom and compassion. Forgive us for being self-centered, for preparing lists of things we would have you do for us, rather than for allowing you to direct our prayers to where they are needed the most.

               Lord, a restlessness pervades the heart that you alone can satisfy.  This is a lesson that we, in our preoccupation to meet the expectations that come with our fast paced lives, too easily forget. Instead we often misdiagnose the source of our restlessness, mistakenly believing that if we only satisfy our work, family and other obligations we will have peace at last. Even as we strive harder, we discover our restlessness will not budge. Restless, may we find the discipline, O Lord, to reorder our time in such a way that our flagging spirits may enjoy the rest they require, the rest we find in you alone.

                 Abide, O Lord, with those who live in suspense this hour.  Be with those who await the results of a recent medical procedure.  Be with those who maintain vigil at the bedside of a loved one.  Be with those who await a decision on a job applied for.  Be with those awaiting results for examinations recently taken.  Be with those who are waiting for a final decision on their Road Home applications. May your presence give confidence to all who must live with uncertainty.

               Wars and rumors of war occupy the front pages of our newspapers, with little newsworthy to report on constructive efforts being made to secure peace.  The failures of each generation to live in peace have proven to be a stubborn legacy to shake. While there is great precedent for war, there exists no precedent for lasting peace. Weary with war and the hatred it breeds, we lack the imagination to conceive of different outcomes. Lacking imagination and the vision it might inspire we continue to walk a labyrinth leading nowhere. In your mercy, O God, help us see and embrace new possibilities for peace.

                Lord, you have chosen the church for a special mission in the world, but we often made ourselves the mission emphasis, rather than the neighbor you would have us engage.  Seekers come searching for the greater in life, and while we may talk about it, we furnish little evidence that we know what it is.  Having long ago given up seeking ourselves, we frequently have no satisfactory answers to offer for the questions they bring. May new light dawn for the church, light to inspire renewed ardor to live the words we recite in the creeds and the confessions.

               We pray for those who serve in our nation’s armed forces, particularly those who find themselves in harm’s way.  Preserve the innocent in this hour, as you undermine the plans of those who plot evil.          

               Even as our lives are fully open to your sight, may our actions conceal no hidden motives, but may all that we do be consistent with your holy will.

               In confidence that you hear our prayers we allocate time once again to raise petitions for family, friends, and neighbors who have special needs…