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| Inside Our Shell (Mark 13:37) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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Grace, Mercy and Peace to you … First of all, I want to express my appreciation to Our Principal, Marty Brieschke for his very timely message this past Sunday. His play on the words “let us” leading us into a metaphor of a tossed salad. And through that, seeing the many opportunities we have here at our Savior to bring glory to God in serving Him. Today, all our readings speak to this day which is the last Sunday in the Church Year. So, let us … then, look at those… as time is flying! Next Sunday is the First Sunday in the Advent season. But for today, our readings all speak to the end times … the times we are arguably in right now. The Scriptures tell us that these are trying times, especially for us who hold fast to a biblical understanding of who we are … and who God truly is; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our call from our readings is to persevere in spite of the all the issues … and to do so, not in our own strength… but in the Power of the Holy Spirit which is ours through the grace of God we have experienced in Jesus Christ. The implication is, again, that times will be hard. Hard, both physically and spiritually … And in such times … the temptation is to be like a turtle … and just withdraw into our shell. And so … we let our faith be like that shell …and we pull in anything that might be sticking our, especially our heads! And then, safely inside our shells, we just “hole up”… until the storm of whatever-may-be-coming … is past. “Holed up” means that we just don’t stop living… it means we live inside the shell of our faith. And so we nourish our shell. We attend church, we go to Bible Study… we gather with others of faith socially … but to the world out there … we appear to have withdrawn into our shells. We do that as individuals … and we also do that as churches. What happens when a church goes through trying times? Let us suggest that the meetings and the activities tend to be more and more concerned about how well our shell is holding up … than about what we might encounter if we were to stick our head out. Or to be less figurative: We worry about the bottom line, instead of about how we might find new and better ways of speaking the gospel to those who need to hear it. Sure, it’s good that we might be found inviting to those who may come running into our shell for cover … But in these times … well, we’re so awfully busy trying to make sure that our shell stays intact … that there doesn’t seem to be the time or the resources to reach out to those who may be uncovered … when the thief comes in the night to snatch them away. But we might argue … “Lord, we’re watching! We’re on our guard! And besides, being holed up reduces our susceptibly to temptation, it reduces the opportunity to be persecuted!!” Yes… but the problem is … all this holing up makes our faith itself an idol. We worship our faith, our shell … instead of the worshiping and serving the God who gave it. Just a few Sunday’s back we let go a bit of a critique on what we might call the “Hillcrest Street” phenomena here in Louisville … saying something like it was two-block-long horror movie being brought to life. We also noticed that the proliferation of outdoor Halloween decorations in some neighborhoods here in town outdoes what’s put up for Christmas. More to that point, if you travel much … and if you look at the local attraction brochures, no doubt you’ll find at least one purporting to be able to take you on a ghost tour of some old house or some other location in that vicinity. Ghost tours are usually offered at two levels… one tour for the curious … and another, much more expensive one, for the true ghost hunter. And there is much money being made in this. Now, what’s our usual, in the shell, response to all that? Well, that ghost stuff is demonic … It’s like fortune telling, tarot cards, crystal balls, and so forth … we shouldn’t have anything to do with it. And that’s true. We shouldn’t. But many people do. Yet, from our shells … what we may see as people in pursuit of the occult … we might better see as people in pursuit of an inborn human desire to understand their own spirituality. In other words … if you can show me a ghost … or proof that a ghost exits … you have just physically proven to me that there is an existence, a life after death. Proof that I do indeed have a spirit that lives on beyond the grave. And that is an assurance people are hungering for!! … even if they may be looking for it in all the wrong places. Now we saw this Bible passage last Sunday: Hebrews 11:1 – “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” We don’t have to see a ghost to know for certain that a spiritual part of us exists … to know for certain that we do indeed have a soul, or spirit if you will, that is part us. We know that for certain because of God’s gift of faith. But what about the seekers …out there? The ones without a shell? The ones looking for proof of their spirituality from the occult side of the spiritual world … of the “all things visible and invisible” … we confess in the Nicene Creed? The truth is … there are many, many who are seeking what we call faith … but looking for it … and its blessings… in all the wrong places. And the fact that “all the wrong places” seem to be proliferating in these end times just underscores the existence of that hunger in people that could well drive them in the faith direction, the church direction, as well. People in tough times are finding out the hard way that wealth, worldly possessions and pleasures, and even fame … are extremely volatile ways of defining oneself. In these tough times, people are finding out that the world really offers nothing that lasts… nothing that can really satisfy the desire that one saint stated so well … that “our hearts cannot rest until they rest in You.” Namely in God. That’s the real irony … that our true rest and peace … our true entitlement as Americans we call our “pursuit of happiness” … is truly something spiritual. And yet, we human beings try to satisfy that desire with physical things that cannot touch that real hunger, because physical things have no spiritual value. So… here’s the irony… here’s the dilemma. A Spiritual hunger exists … but how do we touch it, how do we make a difference …if we’re hiding safe inside our shell? If our shell… has become our idol? In the Book of Revelation, the final word in Scripture about the end-times, St. John speaks about visions that He was given in order to encourage the faithful in these times. Some of his visions are about churches. In those visions recorded in Revelation, Chapters 2 -3 we hear commendations to churches like: “You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary… And yet we also hear the Lord’s accusations, “You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen.” (2:4-5) And to another church we hear, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. (Meaning neither “dead” nor “boiling”). I wish you were one or the other! So because you are luke-warm –neither cold nor hot ( really, half-dead)—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (3:15-16) Rather strong words … but how else might you describe a turtle withdrawn into it shell… it’s not dead … but it’s not looking very alive, either. Fairly Luke-warm, we might conclude. Well, in all the cases where the Lord pronounces judgments like these in the book of Revelation … His immediate admonishment is to Repent… And with that He says in one place, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me.” (3:20) “Repent! I want to have a relationship with you!” Jesus want to have Table Fellowship with us … the closest of all relationships… like we share with our Lord at His supper. But it begins with “Repent.” A word we probably more likely associate with John the Baptist… but Here, spoken in the end-times, and not to unbelievers … but to churches. Repent. Not a bad way, really, to ring out an old year in preparation of ringing in a new one. Repent. Do we look half-dead to our Lord? Have we withdrawn into the security of our shell? … Have we taken our talent or talents and buried them safely in the ground until our Master returns? It’s safe. But that’s not the call of the Gospel is it? Be safe? We might well then be hearing our Lord’s Call … “Repent!” Come our of our shell, even though it is the end times … and let him have the rudder, evelet Him be in control… Get up to boiling … How? Repent. Recognize our sin and let it go, put it in the Lord’s hands, know His forgiveness in Jesus Christ … and then let Him bring us up to boiling by the fire of His Holy Spirit! That’s the path we’re on! I can’t wait to see what He does with us in these most opportune times to reach many people with the saving love of God in the Gospel!! In Him, Amen. |