The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for January 31, 2006

Texts: 1 Samuel 2:18-20,26/Philippians 3:10-16

Title: “We Press On”

              For the past several months National Public Radio has been running a segment entitled “This I Believe,” inviting listeners to submit personal statements of belief.  The content of these submittals, each four to five minutes in length, have been extremely diverse, yet each of those I have heard have challenged me to compose my own statement of belief.  What is it I believe?

              Ivory Harlow, a Texas coffee shop waitress, submitted her statement of belief, relating an incident occurring in the restaurant where she worked.  One day a customer of hers asked the price of a breakfast item.  Harlow responded that she didn’t know, because that particular item wasn’t priced to sell individually.

              Terminating the conversation and walking away from the woman who obviously was short on both cash and luck, Harlow went to the kitchen and returned to the woman with an order of pancakes.  The woman later asked for bus fare, promising to return later to repay the loan.  Good to her word the woman returned three weeks later with the money.  She had gotten a job and found a place to stay.  She offered to buy Harlow a breakfast.

              Reflecting on the incident, Harlow told the radio audience, “I believe in friendliness and an open ear…I believe we’re in this world to take care of each other.”

              This I believe.  Writer and director Norman Corwin describes an incident at a ball game.  Orel Hershiser, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers threw a fastball that hit a batter.  A camera close-up showed Hershiser mouthing the words, “I’m sorry.”  The batter, according to Corwin, “nodded to the pitcher in a friendly way [while on his way to first base] and the game went on.”

              “Common courtesy” that’s all it was, Corwin informed the NPR audience, continuing he went on to say that “common courtesy,” has important “blood relatives…kindness, sympathy, and consideration.” Concluding his thought, Corwin offered this analysis, “It would be foolish to hope that kindness, sympathy, and consideration will right wrongs, and heal wounds, and the peace and set the new century on a course to recover from inherited ills….But good can be as communicable as evil, and that is where kindness and compassion come into play.”

              Corwin urged his audience to “remain alert in thought and action,” always ready to promote values that will create unity among neighbors.

              This I believe.  As the nation pays its final respects to former president Gerald Ford, former associates who served with him and under him, have offered moving tributes to a man lauded for selfless service to the nation, a man valued for his integrity, honesty, and humor, a man possessing “a practical mind and noble heart.”

              There is a common fund of values to which you and I subscribe, and time and time again those core values and beliefs are reaffirmed when we pay our respects and homage to the “greats” whom God has called home. Though on this occasion it is a President who is leaving the stage, our respect and appreciation also follow the lesser knowns who have lived the values and beliefs to which we subscribe.

              There is a common fund of values to which you and I subscribe, but of that fund, or list of values, which of them might make their way into your “this I believe” statement?

              Have you ever attempted to construct a statement of beliefs?  Honesty, integrity, justice, loyalty, equality, there are ever so many values to choose from.  What might be your personal headliners?  Instead of a new year’s resolution you might want to challenge yourself to sit down and write out your thoughts under the heading, “this I believe.”

              Belief is a catalyst for action.  We believe and thus we act.  That is supposed to be the way it works, but we know it doesn’t always work that way. Beliefs can be very vague and conditional.  Untested the beliefs to which we say we subscribe may amount to little or nothing.

              Belief is a catalyst for action.  It doesn’t always work that way, but it sure worked that way for the Apostle Paul.  Paul deemed himself but a vessel of the Lord. He recognized no agenda or obligation in his life but that given him by Christ. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,” he writes.  Succinct and clear, with his life in pledge to support his pronouncement.

              I need not delve much into the career of Paul, for you know a lot about him already, but here was a man who would not rest until he had done his God given utmost in introducing Christ to the world. The compensation he sought for his trouble was not the typical stuff that motivates the likes of us, a paycheck, power, honor, or glory.  The only compensation he sought was to become like Christ in his death.  He wanted to enjoy the fruits of the resurrected life.

              Secure in his personal faith, a faith he readily acknowledged to be a gift of God, [secure in his personal faith] he writes to the church at Philippi, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”  No, Paul, the founder of numerous churches, brother in suffering and persecution, father in wisdom to his fellow Christians, [Paul] did not rest on his laurels, but he “pressed on” to the heavenly call, urging those with whom he was corresponding to be of the “same mind.”

              Paul was a leader, instilling confidence in those he led primarily because he knew what he believed and what he wanted, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” 

              My reading interested have centered on two men upon whom it can be said, without exaggeration, the future of world hung in the first half of the last century.  Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt were quite different men but both men embraced and overcame extraordinary challenges on the world stage because, first, they knew what they believed and, second, were able to rally support for what they believed.              

              The continent of Europe overrun by the Germans, England faced the onslaught of the Nazis on her own. The British may well have capitulated and accepted Hitler’s terms for surrender, yet despite great hardship and the daily loss of life and resources to fend off attack, Churchill was able to inspire his countrymen to continue the fight. It was an amazing effort.

              Roosevelt could only watch from afar as England’s manpower and resources were virtually exhausted.  A large block in the Congress and a well organized isolationist movement pressed Roosevelt to stay out of that European conflict. These groups obstructed all efforts to assist England in her fight.  Roosevelt, at great risk to his presidency, ventured to help England anyway he could, beginning with a Lend-lease program to supply war materiel, and then mobilized the resources of the nation to replace whatever was being dispatched to England, all the time dogged by those who aggressively fought to keep America neutral.

              Two men knew what they believed, and they “pressed on” to get the job done.

              What Paul accomplished for Christ, what Churchill and Roosevelt accomplished for freedom, draw upon the same principles, know what you believe, and act upon what you believe.  Leadership is all about knowing what you believe, and acting on what you believe

              The question of leadership arose with our newly elect elders during a training session two weeks ago.  Let me say that you have elected some very thoughtful people, people who know a good bit about leadership---some of them have held, or currently hold, quite significant positions of leadership. This was a good group with whom to raise the issue of leadership.  I know at the outset that I will not cover all of the thoughts expressed on the topic that day, but I would highlight some I do remember.

              It is important to define the goal you are seeking to accomplish, was one of the first responses I got to the leadership question.  Paul certainly had a goal firmly in his sights.  For Paul, life with the resurrected Christ was all that really mattered. Another response on the leadership question was that leaders know what resources are, and are not, available to them.  Paul, a keen judge of human nature, knew to whom he could turn when beginning a ministry. A third response the elders gave to the leadership question was that leaders know how to create and maintain the team’s commitment to its goals while drawing upon the gifts of the individual team members.

              We were continuing along with some other good ideas when one member of our group reminded us that passion is an important component of leadership. I would like to highlight that insight for just a moment.  Passion.  How does it arise?  Certainly in Paul’s case, but probably in all cases, passion arises from belief, does it not? 

              Have you ever seen an instance where apathy, indifference or neutrality excited passion?  Never happen.  You believe something.  You have convictions about what you believe.  You have goals. Passion is the engine that drives those things. 

              This I believe.  I want to challenge our elders, but also, all of you, to begin the new year by taking time to write down what you believe.  If you want suggestions on how to go about the effort go to NPR.org and type in “This I believe” in the search window. There you will find several “This I believe,” submittals.  They are inspiring reading.

              If ever there was a time at Lakeview for clarity about beliefs, and passion to act upon those beliefs, that time is now.  As the look of the sanctuary from week to week changes before our eyes, I can sense enthusiasm mounting around our restoration effort. That is good. We have good cause to be enthusiastic.  But if our enthusiasm is merely grounded in a restored physical plant, this church will have little to offer. 

              I will be challenging the elders we will be ordaining and installing today to conscientiously and carefully delineate the beliefs and values that support what we as church leaders hope to achieve in service to our Lord. Passion is generated out of beliefs and values deeply held.  Passion that is not informed by those beliefs and values is just noise.

               I would offer this caution to all who care about this ministry.  Passions can focus us too narrowly.  I have heard passions expressed for this or that thrust of our ministry, placing advocacy of a particularly ministry above other considerations.  That must not, that will not happen here.  Passion, yes, but that passion needs to focus, not on one thing, but on everything to which the church decides to commit. 

              Part of the education process that all of us need to undertake, church leaders, and all who participate in our ministry, is to investigate, and continually investigate, what it means to be a church.  The storm, and the circumstances left in its wake, present us with a wonderful opportunity to define ourselves, but not narrowly, how we will raise a budget, attract new members, rebuild our facilities.  These issues cannot, of course, be ignored.   But our goals and our passions are only properly directed when they serve the ends for which Christ came to earth and gave his life.    

              “I press on toward the goal of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ.”  Now that, friends, is a serious goal, founded on well grounded beliefs and faith. There is nothing to which we as a church should commit that doesn’t ultimately serve that one goal. We press on, but not I the dark.  We press on, trusting that Jesus has already given us the coordinates we will follow.

 PRAYER

              Even as the calendar, O Lord, announces the end of the year we are mindful of the prophet’s words, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” You reign Sovereign over time and eternity, O God, the whole course of human history established as you would have it to be. Beyond all fathoming are your ways, yet not so the love you committed to creating the world and each of us, for in Jesus, your son, love bore a human face.

                Love embodied, incarnate, came down to us and walked this earth full of love and grace.  To us love, O God, as been bequeathed, bequeathed, not to hoard, but to broadcast to the ends of the earth. Empower us, O God, to be faithful to our divine calling, that people may know we are yours through the love we communicate. Where challenged by circumstances in our lives to withhold or deny your love to others, there be, O Lord, to open our eyes to new possibilities.

                O God, you have spoken through the voice of the congregation, calling new servants into the leadership of our church.  In gratitude for those who have agreed to serve we lift them in prayer that through the faith you inspire they may be faithful to their calling, willing servants who ardently strive to discern and do your will.  At this crossroads in our ministry we ask a special blessing on all who will serve with our church leaders, that no gift you have generously given will go unused.

                O Christ, you called your disciples to spread the good news.  Forgive us for establishing our ministry priorities so narrowly that we forget the world into which you have called us to go. Chasten us for assembling here only to receive, even as opportunities to make a difference in the world go neglected.

              We pray for the sons and daughters of our nation who have answered the call to serve in the armed forces of America.  Around the globe they serve, many facing the threat of injury or death in performing their duties. O God, we continue to pray that your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, even as evil continues to menace and mock efforts in peacemaking. Abide with those who strive for peace between nations and religious groups, that the motivation they bring to their important work may be matched with wisdom sufficient to address the challenges they face.

              O God, yet more evidence was presented this week detailing the destructive impact of global warming. The alarm has sounded.  We pray that all citizens of the world mobilize to act before it is too late. Consumers of a disproportionate amount of the world’s energy, we the citizens of this land, O God, have yet to take seriously how our habits of consumption habits jeopardize the legacy we will leave our children. Help us as citizens to do that which is within our power to arrest the destructive impact of global warming, insisting that those whom we have elected to lead us make the environment priority number one.

              We mark the passing, O Lord, of a man who served our nation with integrity and distinction.  As the nation pays tribute to Gerald Ford we are reminded once again of events in our history that could have permanently damaged our republic. We were blessed to have a resolute and calm leader to help us manage the aftermath of Watergate. May President Ford’s legacy inspire young men and women who have gifts to bring to public service.

              A year, O God, has come to an end, and may its end mark the end of self-destructive habits. May we greet the New Year prepared to live in the freedom you provide, unencumbered by fret and care.  This we pray, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name praying the prayer he taught us…