Needed to Attempt the Impossible

Needed to Attempt the Impossible

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

February 24, 2019

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Luke 6: 27-38

Genesis 45: 1-8

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show us the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen. 

Always believed in pushing people to be more

Teacher as a Coach

As a pastor

Always preaching about the next rung, pushing further

Often forget to thank

To make sure folks know how much their work is appreciated,

To make sure folks know that I know that I stand and we stand on the backs of amazing effort by amazing people, especially in this church.

OBX P. Martinez – compliment his church. . . I should do that more

But as soon as you get to comfortable, you get back to Jesus and he is preaching the impossible

And its time to push some more

Because this is the impossible. . .

²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

I put the famous quote from GK Chesterton in the bulletin

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

                        - G.K. Chesterton from What’s Wrong with the World

Christian nation? What would that even really look like?

Don Quixote

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

I have the painting hanging in my office to remind me

But Dostoyevski – The Idiot

Could you even imagine a person who lived up to this standard posed here. . .

Think about all of them without shaving off their edges to make them palatable

That’s what we do right, Jesus didn’t really mean that. . .

Love your enemies

Love them. . .

Your enemies

And what is an enemy?

Someone who seeks to stop you from doing what you want to do?

Love them. . . doesn’t mean pretend they’re not your enemy and tolerate them no

Love them

Love someone who is seeking to stop you from doing what you want to do

Would that mean sacrificing its accomplishing? I don’t want to do that. . .

Do good to those who hate you. . .

Doing good.. . . and they hate you

What is it like to have someone hate you. . . that person that cuts eyes at you

Maggie Simpson with the unibrow baby

Do good to that guy

Bless those who curse you – what does it mean to curse and bless someone?

See shaving off the edges would be the old Bless his heart routine

Pray for those who mistreat you – pray for what for their health? For their success? For them to stop mistreating you. . .that’s just praying for yourself with them as a subject. . .

Slapping and the turning the other cheek. . .who does that?

Taking coat and giving the shirt. . . no we lock all the doors, and make a bunch of rules to make sure that it never happens again, not only that we separate them from us, and then when they are safely behind bars, we don’t trust anyone else either. . .

Give to those who ask. . . . without a checklist to make sure they are worthy? Without a plan in place to make sure they aren’t a scammer?

And if someone takes . . . don’t ask for it back. . . but give it, and give more, and don’t lock the doors and trust the next guy who comes along too. . . even afterwards.

Do to others as you would have them do to you. . . not so they will, not because they did, not if they did, in case they might. . . no do to others regardless of what they might do, just because. . .

Do not judge, do not condemn, forgive, give, measure for measure

What would that person look like?

What would that nation look like?

What would that church look like?

But no Jesus couldn’t mean that. . . so we shave the edges off to “be nice”

Be nice

Don’t make waves

Stay in your lane

Be kind

Being mean is bad

But it robs it. . . because what good is that. . . it’s impossible it’s a crazy standard

What if we took him by his word. . . ?

What if we thought that this is what is required of us

What Jesus means when he says. . . if you love me keep my commandments?

What if these are those commandments?

What if we are held to a higher standard? Like he says we are in the middle paragraph

If  you love those who love you

If you do good to those who are good to you

If you lend and expect rpayment

What credit is that. . . more is expected. . . . always. . . more

How would we begin?

What would be needed?

Look at Old Testament – Joseph

45 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. ² And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.

³ Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! ⁵ And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. ⁶ For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping.⁷ But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

⁸ “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

To have internalized the message from last week. . . .

To know that each moment is a blessing, given especially from God. .

And that means all those people have been given to you by God.

Blessed

Blessed

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

February 17, 2019

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Jeremiah 17: 5-10

Luke 6: 17-26

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show us the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen. 

Don’t you just love that song, His Eye is on the Sparrow. . . .

 Gives such comfort

But when you think about it too literally . . . provides for our needs, but our needs are so much more complicated than a Sparrow. . . but should they be?

Last week we talked about miracles?

Act of God not explained away

This week Blessings – what is the definition of a blessing?

We hear it all the time

I’m so blessed. . . . ask some one how they are doing they  say “blessed”

The cashier at Food Lion tells you to have a blessed day

What does it mean to be blessed?

When good things happen to us. . .

Blessed with family, friends, a great church,

I once wrote this after falling a asleep after a long day at the beach with Coralee under one arm clara under the other

I get it now, for I've been there, and tasted the other fruit,

The ones that have always been allowed, since only one

Was ever really forbidden anyway, and I also have now taken

The stroll, feeling the breeze on my face, in the cool of the day,

Knowing the true face of God, and calling, and purpose.

I was lying there between them, five and three, tired, drained,

All from the hard work of children's play in the hot summer sun.

We drifted off to dreaming together, but I lingered longer,

Floating away merely seconds after they did, at least I think so:

There are times in life where there is no discernible difference

Between waking and sleeping, for the dreams and realities of life

Are if just for a moment completely at the peace together as one.

The time did not matter. The rest did not matter, but it matters

To us, and it matters to him, and for moments such as these

I am and will always be forever grateful, and will never forget.

That I am truly blessed

If that’s not enough there is always

AGT – preacher Lawson – Flipped the Car 8 times. . . Blessed

What does Jesus have in mind?

Here is a peak. . . let’s look at Luke 6: 17-56

¹⁷ He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸ who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, ¹⁹ and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

²⁰ Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹ Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
²² Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

²³ “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have already received your comfort.
²⁵ Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
²⁶ Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

Is it me or does that completely turn our world upside down

All opposite – George Seinfeld Opposite day

There is an old Chinese Anecdote about the lost horse

The Lost Horse Story Origin: China

Long ago in a village in northern China, there lived a man who owned a magnificent horse. So beautiful was this horse that people came from miles around just to admire it. They told him he was blessed to own such a horse. “Perhaps,” he said. “But what seems like a blessing may be a curse.”

One day, the horse ran off. It was gone. People came to say how sorry they were for his bad luck. “Perhaps,” he said. “But what seems like a curse may be a blessing.” A few weeks later, the horse returned. It was not alone.

It was followed by twenty-one wild horses.

By the law of the land, they became his property. He was rich with horses. His neighbours came to congratulate him on his good fortune. “Truly,” they said, “you have been blessed.” “Perhaps,” he said. “But what seems like a blessing may be a curse.”

Shortly after that his son -- his only son -- tried to ride one of the wild horses. He was thrown from it and broke his leg. The man’s neighbours came to say how sorry they were. Surely, he had been cursed. “Perhaps,” he said. “But what seems like a curse may be a blessing.”

A week later, the king came through that village, drafting every able-bodied young man for a war against the people of the north. It was a horrible war. Everyone who went from that village was killed. Only that man’s son survived, because of his broken leg. To this day, in that village, they say,.”What seems like a blessing may be a curse. What seems like a curse may be a blessing.”

It’s true right, how many things have you known that seemed so bad at one time turned into something great, and on the flipside, how many things seemed so good and all went sour?

So what is a blessing? Are we ever to know? Are we like the Greeks?

They couldn’t judge whether a person was truly happy, or blessed, until after they were dead. . . because their luck could always turn again. . . until it couldn’t. . .

Or do the words from Jesus suggest as well that the only blessings that really exist are after death. . .

Its good to be poor because when you die you’ll be rich?

And woe to you who is already rich because you won’t be?

Heaven then is the great reversal of fortunes. . . the great evening out of stuff?

Or is it a just about our perspective. . . if we’re poor it will seem great, and if rich, not. . . ?

How do you read it?

Does this muddy the water for us? Can we even then say what is a blessing and what is not? From our perspective here on Earth?

How sad is that

The Old Kris Kristofferson Song Who’s to Bless and Who’s to Blame

Who's To Bless And Who's To Blame"

If a cheated man's a loser
And a cheater never wins
And if beggars can't be choosers
'Til they're weak and wealthy men

And the old keep gettin' older
And the young must do the same
And it's never gettin' better
Who's to bless, and who's to blame

[Chorus:]
All the cards are on the table
You done laid your money down
Don't complain about your chances, boy
It's the only game in town

And the meaning doesn't matter
Nor the way you play the game
To the winner or the loser
Who's to bless, and who's to blame

[Chorus:]
Keep your hands above the table
And your back against the wall
Toss your chips in with your chances, boy
Let 'em lay the way they fall

Cause the moral doesn't matter
Broken rules are all the same
To the broken or the breaker
Who's to bless, and who's to blame

Kind of a bleak way to look at life. . . maybe we shouldn’t be so literal

Take it seriously but not literally

Maybe the Old Testament is a help to us

⁵ This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
    who draws strength from mere flesh
    and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶ That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
    they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
    in a salt land where no one lives.

How bout that in the spirit of what we’ve said about blessings, and that we can’t judge them ourselves?

Worrying about whether we are blessed or not. . . no good

⁷ “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things
    and beyond cure.
    Who can understand it?

¹⁰ “I the Lord search the heart
    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
    according to what their deeds deserve.”

 Trusting in the Lord is the blessing in itself?