What Motivates You?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Lance Armstrong's record-setting seventh win of the Tour de France sparked this installment of The Immediate Word.
In the primary discussion, team member Carter Shelley writes about motivation, using the lections for August 7 as a basis. We've also included team responses, related illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
What Motivates You?
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Matthew 14:22-33; Romans 10:5-15
By Carter Shelley
This past Sunday, July 24, cyclist Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour de France beating a previously held record for consecutive wins. He made his way into not only sports history but also into medical history as the man who refused to die of the testicular cancer that attacked him eight years ago. The cancer had spread to his brain and elsewhere in his body prior to diagnosis. Where prior to his illness Armstrong had been a strong competitor in cycling events; it was only after his long haul with cancer that he became the unbeatable, internationally known Tour de France champion. While the younger Armstrong was motivated by personal ambition and money, the man who won his first Tour de France in 1999 and his seventh in 2005, has been motivated by his determination to speak out for and embody victory over this killing disease.
In reading Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28, one can't help but notice that Joseph's dreams are missing from the lection. The emphasis, consequently, appears to focus on his half-brothers' act of selling Joseph into slavery rather than upon this fair-haired boy's nocturnal revelations. What motivates the brothers? Jealousy, anger? What motivates Daddy Jacob's favorite son to rub in his privileged status to his siblings? Egotism, perhaps?
And what, in the Gospel Lection for this day, Matthew 14:22-33, was Peter's motivation for plunging into the sea? Matthew tells us it is Peter's need to verify that the specter coming toward the boat was indeed his Lord and Master (and not, we might suppose, some first-century equivalent of Nearly Headless Nick from Harry Potter!).
We know what motivates Lance Armstrong. We think we know what motivated the sons of Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah to act as they did. And we think we know what prompted Peter to step out of the boat.
What motivates you? Paul has no hesitation in writing to the Romans in 10:5-15 about what motivates him. Everything Paul says and does and is, is motivated by his belief that "Jesus is Lord!" While we as Christians know that Jesus Christ deserves to be the center of all we say, do, and are, we also confess that far too often that is not the case. This week's Immediate Word explores why we Christians so often fail to keep Christ at the center of our lives, and considers ways that we can sustain both faith and practice in a world in which there is very little reward for a Christ-centered life.
Introduction of the Biblical Texts
What motivates Joseph? Ego. It would seem that being the one whom Daddy loves best isn't enough for Joseph. In the portion of Genesis offered this week it is Joseph's ego that demands that either his brothers must come to like and admire him or bow down to him!
What motivates Joseph's half-brothers? Jealousy, resentment, anger, frustration. They don't have dreams, aren't given expensive garments by their father, or sent on occasional errands while the rest of the rest of the family toils long hours in the desert sun.
What motivates Peter? Belief and fear. Peter gets it about Jesus and Peter doesn't get it -- all at the same time -- kind of like us. There's plenty to fear in first-century Galilee: Will there be enough fish in the sea to feed their families that day, that week, next year? Will the Romans decide to crack down on religious leaders who are outside the mainstream? Will Jesus and his disciples get lumped in with the Zealots? Will they live to a ripe old age? There were soldiers and terrorists then as now. There were diseases and natural disasters, then as now. Fear? There's plenty to fear.
What motivates Paul? The saving grace of Jesus Christ. Paul's rhetoric and motivation in Romans has the advantage of Damascus-Road hindsight. "Jesus is Lord!" Paul writes and declares. What a difference it makes to this formerly devout Jew's present and future life.
What motivates us? Faith, sometimes. Self-interest, sometimes. Love for others, sometimes. We aren't naive or stupid. We know that the majority of us are motivated by ambitions and self-interest much of the time. In fact, at some time, most of us have acted out of a need to bolster our ego, to get even with someone we dislike, or to ease our fears. We, like all of God's children, are inclined to let our own needs and ambitions drive our actions as surely as Joseph, his brothers and Peter do. But it is because we are God's children that we are capable of moving beyond our own selfish motivations.
The young Joseph sees himself as the center of the universe -- until his life is seasoned with hardship and experience enough to enable him to recognize that the sun doesn't revolve around him and the world doesn't belong to him. Thus, when the time comes for his brothers to eat humble pie and kneel before him; there's no pleasure or cockiness felt by Joseph at his brothers' desperate state. Being a brother with them, being in a position to help them, wanting to reconcile with them, motivates Joseph's actions then.
The brothers themselves are motivated out of desperate need to save their families and their father from starvation. They are also desperate not to cause their elderly father any more heartache than that already given many years before. Their thoughts are not for themselves but for him.
Peter can walk on water until he discovers that he's walking on water. He wants proof of Jesus' uniqueness. He wants promises that Jesus will fulfill Peter's notion of a Messiah and a God. He needs someone to look up to but also someone to rescue him. This Peter is a far cry from the Peter tradition describes as having been crucified upside down because he did not consider himself worthy enough to be crucified in the exact manner as his Lord.
Where I Am Headed
Some weeks the lectionary readings are so rich in material that the simple act of deciding which text to stress most can become a true challenge. Even the most neophyte of Christians is likely to know the story of Joseph and his brothers. In fact, it is so beloved that the Psalmist (in today's lectionary Psalm 105) cites it in detail as an example of God's ongoing intention to take even the most disastrous of situations and turn it into something redemptive. A plot to kill a favored brother at some future date becomes an opportunity for that same brother to save those same kin from starvation and death.
Matthew's telling of the well-known tale of Jesus walking on water -- also featured in Mark and John -- once again provides an opportunity for Matthew to offer encouragement and hope to first-century Christians buffeted about by fear and uncertainty in the face of governmental persecution. It's comforting to learn that even the heroic Peter had doubts and fears about Jesus' power to save. If Jesus could calm something as terrifying and unyielding as a storm on the sea, then, of course, Jesus will be with his followers as they face the terrors of their world and we face the terrors of ours.
It is theologically significant for the preacher like the Psalmist to observe the power of God and the providence of God evidenced in these two narratives. God is able to use the worst of human events: slavery, religious persecution, and cancer to change human lives and motivations. It is Joseph's ability to interpret dreams that motivates his brothers to sell him into slavery. It is the "little faith" the disciples do have that keeps them following a Master they do not fully comprehend; just as it is their accompanying cowardice that leads them to a man to abandon Jesus in his final hours. Yet God uses these all-too-human beings to fulfill God's own purposes. And these human beings are open to God's direction due to the hardships they have endured and the humility those hardships have instilled.
That is why they, and we, can declare along with Paul, "Jesus is Lord!" It is because they have discovered that human motivations and ambitions alone are inadequate to help one face the hard knocks and lessons that life in this world involves.
Whether one is talking about Lance Armstrong's successful battle against cancer and professional achievements, Joseph's ultimate elevation to the right hand of the Pharaoh of Egypt, or Peter's brave death, ultimate praise and credit belong to God our Creator and Savior. It's important to recognize that Paul's rhetoric in Romans 10:5-15 undergirds the spiritual transformation the Genesis and Matthew text anticipate. These human triumphs are a tribute to the God who gives us life and gives us the ability to seek and discover a higher purpose in life than our own creature comforts and our own ambitions.
In his comments on Romans 10:5-15 in Preaching Through the Christian Year A, Gene M. Tucker points out that those words in verses 6 and 7 that are set off by parentheses appear thusly for Paul to emphasize the fact that Christ cannot be located above in heaven or below with the dead. Rather, Paul's point is that each and every one of us who declares along with him that Jesus is Lord does so existentially. Christ has already come. Christ has already risen. Christ is with us now. That is to say, Christ resides in our heart and works from within us outward to society through our words of praise, joy, witness, and salvation. The mouth declares what the heart already feels. "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
This motivation for living upends the world just as surely as the world was upended by a slave becoming the chief advisor to a Pharaoh, a former fisherman becoming the first acknowledged holy father/pope of the church, or a learned and devout Jew becoming the foremost missionary to the Gentiles. Paul appreciates just how radical is the change in motivation and in life for those who follow Christ. "There is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. No distinctions will be made, no one better or inferior, no one who seeks salvation will be denied it."
What I'll Say Once I Get There
Like Joseph we are egotistical and self-centered. Like Peter we possess some faith in our Lord but not enough to walk on water or feel secure going it alone. Like Lance Armstrong we know personally -- either through our own suffering or that of someone we love -- what a scourge such things as cancer, war, bigotry, hatred, and natural disasters can be and how they easily any one of them can destroy life rather than save it. What we have to fight back with is our will and our conviction that there has to be more to life than making a lot of money or being a celebrated athlete. Christ in the heart, changes the heart. We move from looking in the mirror to looking out the window.
Lance Armstrong has a well-deserved reputation as a difficult, prickly, competitive, and not always very pleasant sort of a guy. If you asked his cycling competitors, they'd probably say that having had cancer hasn't changed Armstrong's intensity or softened his personality. He was good before. After cancer, he's been unbeatable -- not in every kind of event he's entered but in the Event all competitive cyclists dream of winning. Armstrong was ambitious for himself before. Since 1998 he's been ambitious for himself and for other cancer patients and cancer survivors. Lance Armstrong may not have found his church, but he sure has found his pulpit. For concrete details about the thousands and thousands of dollars the Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised you need look no further than the yellow bracelet displayed on the arm of a nearby teenager, cyclist, or oncologist.
What this world-class, world-famous cyclist provides is inspiration and hope for thousands of others who suffer from the same disease. What we as Christians need to have, and also need to be able to offer, is a similar level of inspiration and excitement about Christianity and being a Christian.
"Jesus is Lord!" Paul declares. Our inspiration comes from those who've gone before us: the Josephs, the Peters, the Pauls, the Theresa of Avilas, and saints of our own congregation. When we lack inspiration and lack the motivation and drive to live the Christian life, let us remember and celebrate those servants of our Lord who came before us, so that we may have what it takes to inspire future Christians in a similar way.
Team Responses
Carlos Wilton responds: "If you want to build a ship," writes French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "don't drum people up together to collect wood, and don't assign them tasks and work -- but rather, teach them to long for the sea."
What is it that causes a Lance Armstrong to long for the sea? Armstrong is an athletic and physiological wonder. Not only has he won seven grueling Tour de France bicycle races, but he's triumphed over testicular cancer, and come back from that ordeal an even stronger competitor than before. Armstrong is one of the most studied athletes in history. He competes in a sport in which arcane details of blood chemistry and respiration rate attract the attention not only of sports physicians, but the competitors themselves -- and even some of the spectators. Recent news articles have highlighted the fact that Armstrong has a near-perfect physiology for long-distance bicycle racing. Before the starting-gun even goes off, he's already got a considerable advantage over many of his competitors, because his body can pump oxygen into his bloodstream more efficiently than theirs.
Yet it's obvious that Armstrong's repeated victories are about a lot more than physiology. There's something inside him that "longs for the sea" -- that motivates him to match his God-given physiology with iron personal discipline. On the back roads of France, that combination has proven unbeatable.
What is it that makes Joseph, son of Jacob, long for the sea? This week's text provides a hint. As Joseph's half-brothers cruelly beat him, strip him, and cast him into a hole in the ground, one of them remarks, "We shall see what will become of his dreams." Earlier, Joseph has proved adept at receiving dreams that carry messages from God, and at interpreting them. This rare talent has earned him -- Jacob's favorite son -- even more paternal favor than he would have otherwise received. It also earns him the undying enmity of his half-brothers, who are sons of different mothers than is Joseph. As such, they are already inclined to feel jealous of this pampered young son of their father's most-favored wife. Joseph's prophetic dreams are the last straw.
If you want a safe, non-controversial occupation, don't choose that of visionary. "Society often forgives the criminal," writes the poet Oscar Wilde (who knew something, in his own life, of ostracism); "it never forgives the dreamer."
T. E. Lawrence -- the famed Lawrence of Arabia -- makes a similar point. He draws a distinction between the fleeting dreams of night and the lasting dreams of day: "All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to the day to find it was all vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for the many act out their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."
In every generation, there are those who would kill the dreamers. John F. Kennedy dreamed of a "new frontier" -- and Lee Harvey Oswald's bullet cut him down in Dallas. His brother Robert liked to quote George Bernard Shaw: "You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?' " Sirhan Sirhan ended that dreamer's life in the kitchen of a California hotel. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s most famous speech was all about having a dream -- a dream that placed him squarely in the crosshairs of James Earl Ray's riflescope.
Those are just three examples from recent American history. We could cite many more, from other countries and cultures. Maybe the best example of all is Jesus. He was a dreamer: and it was the persistent way he hung onto his dreams -- even as Pilate was offering a sleazy plea-bargain -- that sent him to the cross.
The sons of Jacob try to murder their dreamy brother, and they nearly succeed. Yet one thing they never can kill is the dream itself. That's the fundamental error of those who traffic in prejudice and hatred. They imagine they can kill the dream by assaulting the dreamer.
What becomes of dreams -- of good and godly dreams, anyway -- is that when they are assailed, they grow even stronger. That first Good Friday, Pilate believed he was trampling down a troublesome dream. What he was doing, in reality, was broadcasting the seeds of that dream so widely they simply had to bear fruit. The same proved true of those early martyrs of the Roman Coliseum: "The blood of Christians," remarked Tertullian, centuries ago, "is the seed of the church."
So where does all this lead us? It leads us, I hope, to value our dreams. Arrayed all around us are the realists, the practical thinkers, the cynics, who look on dreams as only so much foolishness, and who regard life as little more than a grim treadmill-walk until we die, interrupted only by small pleasures furtively snatched along the way.
They don't understand, those cynics, nor can they be made to understand. All we can do -- we, who have glimpsed something of the dream -- is to keep telling and re-telling that dream, in the hope that God may grant the gift of interpretation to them as well.
Would that they, too, could long for the sea.
Chris Ewing responds: We are motivated by our interpretation of how the events and circumstances around us affect our most essential selves, and by our vision of what we are and are not able to do about it. More often than not these evaluations happen quite unconsciously. Even if asked, many of us would have difficulty naming what we hold to be most essential about ourselves; and the core values we actually live by may not correspond very well with those we think we espouse. Small wonder, then, that motivation tends to be a slippery fish! Our dreams, like Joseph's, may surface truths about our deep view of ourselves, and the world that are not normally accessible. Harsh challenges, like Lance Armstrong's cancer, can push us from superficial values to the real bedrock of our deepest desires -- and, consequently, our most powerful motivations. And what parent has not been surprised by their outsized reaction to something their child did -- offering, among other things, a clue to some overlooked deep value?
Discerning and/or choosing our deepest identity and values, and learning to let these motivate and guide our daily lives, is the work of a lifetime. Developing and harnessing such motivation in the church can be an even more daunting challenge. Ideally, we share a deep identity as followers of Christ that provides the common ground and the motivating power for our shared life as the Body of Christ. Reality, however, frequently paints a different picture. As Carter explores in her lead article, while "Jesus is Lord" may be the central Christian confession, it frequently fails to root as the central reality in Christian lives. And as human beings with different personalities, different individual histories, and different cultural backgrounds, we inevitably interpret the lordship of Christ in dramatically different ways. On a positive note, this enables the great variety of Christian work and witness that, taken together, fulfill the image of the body, whose many parts have many functions. More frustratingly, it also generates conflict and makes it difficult to find effective motivation. So it's a small wonder that we often experience church life as somewhere between herding cats and drifting to oblivion.
Today's post-Christian environment makes it essential for us, both as individuals and as congregations and wider church bodies, constantly to plumb our identities and explore the roots of our motivations, so that we may in fact function as Christ's in the world.
One way of beginning to do this would be, in the call to worship provided by Julie Strope, to depart from the scripted response to the "Why are you here?" question, and invite instead a time of individual reflection and naming in silent prayer each one's own reason(s) for being in worship. Beginning to locate one's own motivation, whether it's habit, duty, guilt, need, aspiration, or whatever, could be a crucial step in connecting with the discussion of motivation in the rest of the service.
George Murphy responds: How important is it for us to have good motives? For a couple of reasons it's very important. Genuine obedience to God's will isn't just a matter of external performance but of doing what God wills because it is God who wills it. There's a reason why the First Commandment comes first, for all the others depend upon it. A person who doesn't murder or steal simply to avoid getting caught practices mere civil righteousness. That is all that society can expect of a person, and society will work reasonably well if people practice that level of righteousness, whatever their motives may be. "Verily I say unto you, they have their reward!"
But such righteousness is of no value theologically precisely because it stems from the wrong motives. It does not grow out of true faith in God. T. S. Eliot recognized that when in Murder in the Cathedral he had Thomas say:
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
For that matter, actions that come from selfish motives can be seriously defective even in their worldly consequences. The person who is faithful to a spouse only when it serves his or her purpose, the soldier who only wants to save his own life and has no loyalty to comrades, or the politician who puts personal financial interests ahead of the welfare of the community will fail in the time of crisis and that failure will affect other people. Motives matter.
But that doesn't mean that we should always be taking out our motives and examining them in neurotic fashion. A number of years ago, Krister Stendahl wrote an influential article titled, "The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West." Whether Stendahl was right in his interpretation of Paul or not, it's certainly true that many of us in the Christian tradition have been extremely introspective and have spent a lot of time examining our rationales and motives.
To some extent that's valuable. As I said, motives matter. But we also have to be realistic and come to grips with the fact that our motives are never going to be pure. The very fact that we are so concerned with our spiritual security and can worry so much about being rejected by God because we're doing things for the wrong reason is an indication that we're not concerned about doing God's will purely because God comes first in our lives. Our religious thoughts and actions are especially subject to this problem, as preachers know perhaps better than anyone else. "Do I want my sermon to be good so that it gets the gospel across to people in an effective way and creates and sustains faith -- or because I want people to admire me as a great preacher?" (We all like those "nice sermon" comments at the door even if we discount them at about five cents on the dollar.)
This is why Luther insisted on a claim that seemed blasphemous to some of his contemporaries, that even the good works of the saints are sinful. (The treatise "Against Latomus" in Volume 32 of Luther's Works deals with this.) Who, he says, would be so bold as to stand before God and say, "Lord, this work that I have done is so perfect that I have no need of any grace or forgiveness for it"?
So what is the remedy? It is to realize that our righteousness is Christ, not the purity of our own motives. That is not to make the question of motivation unimportant, for we are still called to love God with our whole heart and soul and strength and mind, and our neighbor as ourself. But it means that we're free to try to do that without worrying about achieving an illusory perfection. We don't have to be paralyzed by the fear that we're doing the right good for the wrong reason. We know that to some extent we are! And we also know that we are forgiven and accepted for Christ's sake.
Related Illustrations
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family -- in another city.
-- George Burns
***
The Christian author G. K. Chesterton once used the example of a desert island to describe the world. It's as though we were a shipwrecked sailor on that island, he says. The sailor awakes from a deep sleep, suffering from a kind of amnesia. Looking all around him, he discovers treasure strewn about: relics of a civilization he can scarcely remember. He picks up each of the relics, one by one -- gold coins, a compass, fine clothing -- and he tries to discern their meaning.
According to Chesterton, the sailor's dilemma is very much like our situation, as fallen humanity. There are good things on this earth, treasures that still bear traces of their original purpose -- but each one is also subject to misinterpretation, precisely because of our amnesia.
***
William Butler Yeats, the great Irish poet, was surely a dreamer. In this little poem, titled, "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," Yeats captures the now-but-not-quite-yetness of our dreams:
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with gold and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
***
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
-- Langston Hughes
***
The Catholic spiritual writer Anthony de Mello tells a story of an eagle's egg that a farmer places by mistake in the nest of a brooding hen in the barnyard. The eaglet hatches, along with the chickens -- and as he grows, he grows to be like them. He clucks and cackles. He scratches the earth for worms. When he flaps his wings, he manages to fly a few feet into the air, no more.
Years go by. One day, the eagle -- now grown old -- sees a magnificent bird soar above him in the sky. It glides in graceful majesty against the powerful wind, with scarcely a movement of its golden wings. Spellbound, the eagle asks, "Who's that?"
"That's the king of the birds, the eagle," says his neighbor. "He belongs to the sky. We belong to earth -- we're chickens."
And so, the story goes, the eagle lived and died a chicken: for that's what he thought he was.
Such things can happen, when we fail to honor our dreams.
***
You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.
-- Bob Nelson, Writer; cited in Bits & Pieces
***
In Lewis Carroll's beloved Alice in Wonderland, Alice -- who is lost -- encounters the Cheshire Cat. She asks the cat which road she should take, and the cat responds, "Where are you going?"
When Alice tells him she isn't sure, the cat replies, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."
Without motivating dreams, one road is truly as good as another.
Worship Resources
By Julia Strope
Theme: What motivates us to be good/godly people?
What motivates people to develop destruction and terror?
What sustains one's interests and energies?
In the Genesis story we wonder what motivated Joseph to tell his dreams to his brothers. Why did they decide to betray him? In Matthew's story, why did Peter and not the others desire to walk on water? Take a look around -- there's Harry Potter, Lance Armstrong ... How do they and their creators sustain their umph? In Romans, Paul's explanation is that "faith puts us right with God."
CALL TO WORSHIP
From Romans 10:5-15
Leader: It's a bright summer day. Why are you here this morning and not somewhere else?
People: We're here because we want to be with "right with God." We're here because we want to hear God's message for today.
Leader: In this place, we experience God to be the Creator of all, the God who blesses all who seek.
People: Here there is no difference between people who believe in God -- black and white, yellow and red, male and female. We are all one human family.
Leader: How wonderful to sing and pray together.
People: Whoever believes will not be disappointed!
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
From Romans 10:5-15
Gracious God --
We are grateful for this place. Here we experience being appreciated; here we are invited to enjoy your love; never strangers, we know that you are our God and together we can listen for your Word and respond in silence, conversation, and music. Thank you for your presence among us. Amen.
HYMN SUGGESTIONS
Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather, TOKYO
In Christ There Is No East Or West
O Day Of God, Draw Nigh, ST MICHAEL
Hear The Good News Of Salvation, NETTLETON Native American
Lord, Make Us Servants Of Your Peace, DICKINSON COLLEGE
Help Us Accept Each Other, BARONITA
O Master Let Me Walk With Thee
O For A World, AZMON
Fill My Cup, FILL MY CUP
Today We All Are Called To Be Disciples, KINGSFOLD
We Walk By Faith And Not By Sight. DUNLAP'S CREEK
When We Are Living. SOMOS DEL SENOR (If there are people who speak Spanish, your congregation, they might be willing to sing at least one stanza in Spanish.)
God Marked A Line And Told The Sea. KEDRON (Stanzas 3, 4, and 5 are pertinent to the theme if diversity and responsibility, boundaries and freedom are the direction the sermon goes.)
See Ye First The Kingdom Of God
Who Is My Mother, Who Is My Brother, KINDRED (Especially stanza 3 fits: Love will relate us -- color or status can't segregate us, round Jesus Christ; Family failings, human de-railings -- all are accepted 'round Jesus Christ.)
We Need A Faith, CRIMOND (Especially stanzas 1 and 4 fit with the Romans text.)
Water, River, Spirit, Grace, TRES RIOS (This is a four line chorus suggesting motivating ingredients for our living.)
The Servant Song, THE SERVANT SONG (Especially stanzas 2, 3, and 4)
She Comes Sailing On The Wind, SHE FLIES ON (This song is a stretch for the theme: the Holy Spirit sustains us, motivates us.)
I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry, WATERLIFE (This song, too, is a stretch. When we realize that God is with us through all life's stages, we are motivated to be faithful.)
Faith Is Patience In The Night, FAITHSONG (Nice description of faith -- patience, laughter, steadfast will, courage)
As A Fire Is Meant For Burning, BEACH SPRING (This song describes communal responsibilities for people of faith.)
CALL TO CONFESSION
Our journey with God begins with self-knowledge along side God-knowledge. Our divine mold is tarnished and we must make time to polish it to reflect holiness. Pray with me and then in silence experience the liberating presence of Christ.
COMMUNITY CONFESSION (unison)
Holy One --
Reveal what hides in our unconscious; bring into the light all the attitudes that inhibit your love's healing power. Give us clarity on the prejudices that confine justice to what pleases to us.
Brighten the corners of our minds that procrastinate and hesitate to fulfill your hope for our lives.
Lift us from fear and narrow thinking to see wide horizons of possibilities of heaven on earth. Amen.
WORD OF GRACE
Jesus of Nazareth challenged every absolute, every stereotype, he ran into -- in familial relationships, in politics, and in religion. His God-ness walked on water, healed all sorts of illnesses, and dreamed new ways to be in the world but not of it. That power and grace is offered to you and me across the centuries. In Christ we are made whole! With Holy Spirit, we have reason to be fully alive!
A CONTEMPORARY AFFIRMATION
God is here --in and around us!
Creating, birthing, healing!
Christ is here -- in and around us!
Gracing each individual with wholeness,
Unifying people of every nation!
Holy Spirit is here -- in and around us!
Inspiring, enthusing, and empowering!
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
Knowledge about God moves into experience with God when we share our resources.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
With our time and talents, our resources and our relationships, we honor you and your work in this world. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
Integrating Spirit --
We come to you tattered by life; weave our inner fabrics again into a seamless whole. Recolor our bruises and sore places with rainbows; retexture our ungraceful psyches with gentleness.
Motivating Spirit --
Bikers cycle up mountains; readers make it through thick books; musicians make exquisite sounds. We pray that individuals will emerge in unions, in the White House, in congress, and in every nation who have a passion for peace and who are motivated to establish a good living for all people. We are sorrowful when we realize that 40,000 children die each day because they do not have the nutrients to keep them alive; we are awed by the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who have been forced from their homes because evilness with guns violate land and personhood. Transform the tribal motives of evildoers to actions that are hospitable. Hold the people in harm's way in your arms.
Inspiring Spirit --
Space walkers look down at this earth and know in an instant the power and fragility of humanity and divinity. Dream through all your peoples a humane world order. Motivate us to participate with you here in our city/town and around the world. Inspire us with stories that show us mutuality in relationships, stories that demonstrate collaboration and honesty, stories which show us how to live as disciples of Jesus in this era of technology, globalization, and manipulated foods. Amen.
BENEDICTION/CHARGE
Be aware of how life is coming to you.
Be alert for Holy Spirit empowering you to be satisfied and to reach out to others.
Let laughter and colors, sounds and tastes inspire you to be creative in your home and in your work.
Until we meet again, enjoy what you do and who you are becoming!
God loves you!
A Children's Sermon
What's a miracle?
Object: a glass of water, a rock, and a wooden toothpick
Based on Matthew 14:22-33
Good morning! I'd like to do a little experiment this morning. Here is a glass of water and two objects, a rock and a toothpick. Now, if I put this rock in the water, what will it do? Will it float? (let them answer) That's right. It will sink. (put the rock in the water and let it sink) What about the toothpick? What will it do if I put it in the water? (let them answer) Yes, it will float. (put the toothpick in the water)
Some things sink and some things float. We can look at something and know from its weight, size, and so forth whether or not it will float or sink. What if I put a rock in the water and it didn't sink? What would we call that? (let them answer) We would call that a "miracle." When something happens that is contrary to all the rules of science, we call it a miracle. Can God do miracles? Could God make this rock float if he wanted to? (let them answer) Yes, of course he could. God is the creator of everything, including all the laws of science. If he wants to do something that breaks some law of nature, he can certainly do it.
In the Bible we read about a time when Jesus walked on top of the water. Is that something any of us could do? (let them answer) No, we can't do that, but God can, and when he does something like that, we call it a miracle. Are there lots of miracles reported in the Bible? (let them answer) Yes, there certainly are and they are all true. Aren't you glad that our God is so powerful that he can do miracles? (let them answer) Let's tell God that we are happy that he has such power.
Dear God: We are thankful that you are so strong and powerful that you can cause miracles when you want to do so. Please use that power to keep all of us safe and faithful all of our lives. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, August 7, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
In the primary discussion, team member Carter Shelley writes about motivation, using the lections for August 7 as a basis. We've also included team responses, related illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
What Motivates You?
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Matthew 14:22-33; Romans 10:5-15
By Carter Shelley
This past Sunday, July 24, cyclist Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour de France beating a previously held record for consecutive wins. He made his way into not only sports history but also into medical history as the man who refused to die of the testicular cancer that attacked him eight years ago. The cancer had spread to his brain and elsewhere in his body prior to diagnosis. Where prior to his illness Armstrong had been a strong competitor in cycling events; it was only after his long haul with cancer that he became the unbeatable, internationally known Tour de France champion. While the younger Armstrong was motivated by personal ambition and money, the man who won his first Tour de France in 1999 and his seventh in 2005, has been motivated by his determination to speak out for and embody victory over this killing disease.
In reading Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28, one can't help but notice that Joseph's dreams are missing from the lection. The emphasis, consequently, appears to focus on his half-brothers' act of selling Joseph into slavery rather than upon this fair-haired boy's nocturnal revelations. What motivates the brothers? Jealousy, anger? What motivates Daddy Jacob's favorite son to rub in his privileged status to his siblings? Egotism, perhaps?
And what, in the Gospel Lection for this day, Matthew 14:22-33, was Peter's motivation for plunging into the sea? Matthew tells us it is Peter's need to verify that the specter coming toward the boat was indeed his Lord and Master (and not, we might suppose, some first-century equivalent of Nearly Headless Nick from Harry Potter!).
We know what motivates Lance Armstrong. We think we know what motivated the sons of Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah to act as they did. And we think we know what prompted Peter to step out of the boat.
What motivates you? Paul has no hesitation in writing to the Romans in 10:5-15 about what motivates him. Everything Paul says and does and is, is motivated by his belief that "Jesus is Lord!" While we as Christians know that Jesus Christ deserves to be the center of all we say, do, and are, we also confess that far too often that is not the case. This week's Immediate Word explores why we Christians so often fail to keep Christ at the center of our lives, and considers ways that we can sustain both faith and practice in a world in which there is very little reward for a Christ-centered life.
Introduction of the Biblical Texts
What motivates Joseph? Ego. It would seem that being the one whom Daddy loves best isn't enough for Joseph. In the portion of Genesis offered this week it is Joseph's ego that demands that either his brothers must come to like and admire him or bow down to him!
What motivates Joseph's half-brothers? Jealousy, resentment, anger, frustration. They don't have dreams, aren't given expensive garments by their father, or sent on occasional errands while the rest of the rest of the family toils long hours in the desert sun.
What motivates Peter? Belief and fear. Peter gets it about Jesus and Peter doesn't get it -- all at the same time -- kind of like us. There's plenty to fear in first-century Galilee: Will there be enough fish in the sea to feed their families that day, that week, next year? Will the Romans decide to crack down on religious leaders who are outside the mainstream? Will Jesus and his disciples get lumped in with the Zealots? Will they live to a ripe old age? There were soldiers and terrorists then as now. There were diseases and natural disasters, then as now. Fear? There's plenty to fear.
What motivates Paul? The saving grace of Jesus Christ. Paul's rhetoric and motivation in Romans has the advantage of Damascus-Road hindsight. "Jesus is Lord!" Paul writes and declares. What a difference it makes to this formerly devout Jew's present and future life.
What motivates us? Faith, sometimes. Self-interest, sometimes. Love for others, sometimes. We aren't naive or stupid. We know that the majority of us are motivated by ambitions and self-interest much of the time. In fact, at some time, most of us have acted out of a need to bolster our ego, to get even with someone we dislike, or to ease our fears. We, like all of God's children, are inclined to let our own needs and ambitions drive our actions as surely as Joseph, his brothers and Peter do. But it is because we are God's children that we are capable of moving beyond our own selfish motivations.
The young Joseph sees himself as the center of the universe -- until his life is seasoned with hardship and experience enough to enable him to recognize that the sun doesn't revolve around him and the world doesn't belong to him. Thus, when the time comes for his brothers to eat humble pie and kneel before him; there's no pleasure or cockiness felt by Joseph at his brothers' desperate state. Being a brother with them, being in a position to help them, wanting to reconcile with them, motivates Joseph's actions then.
The brothers themselves are motivated out of desperate need to save their families and their father from starvation. They are also desperate not to cause their elderly father any more heartache than that already given many years before. Their thoughts are not for themselves but for him.
Peter can walk on water until he discovers that he's walking on water. He wants proof of Jesus' uniqueness. He wants promises that Jesus will fulfill Peter's notion of a Messiah and a God. He needs someone to look up to but also someone to rescue him. This Peter is a far cry from the Peter tradition describes as having been crucified upside down because he did not consider himself worthy enough to be crucified in the exact manner as his Lord.
Where I Am Headed
Some weeks the lectionary readings are so rich in material that the simple act of deciding which text to stress most can become a true challenge. Even the most neophyte of Christians is likely to know the story of Joseph and his brothers. In fact, it is so beloved that the Psalmist (in today's lectionary Psalm 105) cites it in detail as an example of God's ongoing intention to take even the most disastrous of situations and turn it into something redemptive. A plot to kill a favored brother at some future date becomes an opportunity for that same brother to save those same kin from starvation and death.
Matthew's telling of the well-known tale of Jesus walking on water -- also featured in Mark and John -- once again provides an opportunity for Matthew to offer encouragement and hope to first-century Christians buffeted about by fear and uncertainty in the face of governmental persecution. It's comforting to learn that even the heroic Peter had doubts and fears about Jesus' power to save. If Jesus could calm something as terrifying and unyielding as a storm on the sea, then, of course, Jesus will be with his followers as they face the terrors of their world and we face the terrors of ours.
It is theologically significant for the preacher like the Psalmist to observe the power of God and the providence of God evidenced in these two narratives. God is able to use the worst of human events: slavery, religious persecution, and cancer to change human lives and motivations. It is Joseph's ability to interpret dreams that motivates his brothers to sell him into slavery. It is the "little faith" the disciples do have that keeps them following a Master they do not fully comprehend; just as it is their accompanying cowardice that leads them to a man to abandon Jesus in his final hours. Yet God uses these all-too-human beings to fulfill God's own purposes. And these human beings are open to God's direction due to the hardships they have endured and the humility those hardships have instilled.
That is why they, and we, can declare along with Paul, "Jesus is Lord!" It is because they have discovered that human motivations and ambitions alone are inadequate to help one face the hard knocks and lessons that life in this world involves.
Whether one is talking about Lance Armstrong's successful battle against cancer and professional achievements, Joseph's ultimate elevation to the right hand of the Pharaoh of Egypt, or Peter's brave death, ultimate praise and credit belong to God our Creator and Savior. It's important to recognize that Paul's rhetoric in Romans 10:5-15 undergirds the spiritual transformation the Genesis and Matthew text anticipate. These human triumphs are a tribute to the God who gives us life and gives us the ability to seek and discover a higher purpose in life than our own creature comforts and our own ambitions.
In his comments on Romans 10:5-15 in Preaching Through the Christian Year A, Gene M. Tucker points out that those words in verses 6 and 7 that are set off by parentheses appear thusly for Paul to emphasize the fact that Christ cannot be located above in heaven or below with the dead. Rather, Paul's point is that each and every one of us who declares along with him that Jesus is Lord does so existentially. Christ has already come. Christ has already risen. Christ is with us now. That is to say, Christ resides in our heart and works from within us outward to society through our words of praise, joy, witness, and salvation. The mouth declares what the heart already feels. "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
This motivation for living upends the world just as surely as the world was upended by a slave becoming the chief advisor to a Pharaoh, a former fisherman becoming the first acknowledged holy father/pope of the church, or a learned and devout Jew becoming the foremost missionary to the Gentiles. Paul appreciates just how radical is the change in motivation and in life for those who follow Christ. "There is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. No distinctions will be made, no one better or inferior, no one who seeks salvation will be denied it."
What I'll Say Once I Get There
Like Joseph we are egotistical and self-centered. Like Peter we possess some faith in our Lord but not enough to walk on water or feel secure going it alone. Like Lance Armstrong we know personally -- either through our own suffering or that of someone we love -- what a scourge such things as cancer, war, bigotry, hatred, and natural disasters can be and how they easily any one of them can destroy life rather than save it. What we have to fight back with is our will and our conviction that there has to be more to life than making a lot of money or being a celebrated athlete. Christ in the heart, changes the heart. We move from looking in the mirror to looking out the window.
Lance Armstrong has a well-deserved reputation as a difficult, prickly, competitive, and not always very pleasant sort of a guy. If you asked his cycling competitors, they'd probably say that having had cancer hasn't changed Armstrong's intensity or softened his personality. He was good before. After cancer, he's been unbeatable -- not in every kind of event he's entered but in the Event all competitive cyclists dream of winning. Armstrong was ambitious for himself before. Since 1998 he's been ambitious for himself and for other cancer patients and cancer survivors. Lance Armstrong may not have found his church, but he sure has found his pulpit. For concrete details about the thousands and thousands of dollars the Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised you need look no further than the yellow bracelet displayed on the arm of a nearby teenager, cyclist, or oncologist.
What this world-class, world-famous cyclist provides is inspiration and hope for thousands of others who suffer from the same disease. What we as Christians need to have, and also need to be able to offer, is a similar level of inspiration and excitement about Christianity and being a Christian.
"Jesus is Lord!" Paul declares. Our inspiration comes from those who've gone before us: the Josephs, the Peters, the Pauls, the Theresa of Avilas, and saints of our own congregation. When we lack inspiration and lack the motivation and drive to live the Christian life, let us remember and celebrate those servants of our Lord who came before us, so that we may have what it takes to inspire future Christians in a similar way.
Team Responses
Carlos Wilton responds: "If you want to build a ship," writes French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "don't drum people up together to collect wood, and don't assign them tasks and work -- but rather, teach them to long for the sea."
What is it that causes a Lance Armstrong to long for the sea? Armstrong is an athletic and physiological wonder. Not only has he won seven grueling Tour de France bicycle races, but he's triumphed over testicular cancer, and come back from that ordeal an even stronger competitor than before. Armstrong is one of the most studied athletes in history. He competes in a sport in which arcane details of blood chemistry and respiration rate attract the attention not only of sports physicians, but the competitors themselves -- and even some of the spectators. Recent news articles have highlighted the fact that Armstrong has a near-perfect physiology for long-distance bicycle racing. Before the starting-gun even goes off, he's already got a considerable advantage over many of his competitors, because his body can pump oxygen into his bloodstream more efficiently than theirs.
Yet it's obvious that Armstrong's repeated victories are about a lot more than physiology. There's something inside him that "longs for the sea" -- that motivates him to match his God-given physiology with iron personal discipline. On the back roads of France, that combination has proven unbeatable.
What is it that makes Joseph, son of Jacob, long for the sea? This week's text provides a hint. As Joseph's half-brothers cruelly beat him, strip him, and cast him into a hole in the ground, one of them remarks, "We shall see what will become of his dreams." Earlier, Joseph has proved adept at receiving dreams that carry messages from God, and at interpreting them. This rare talent has earned him -- Jacob's favorite son -- even more paternal favor than he would have otherwise received. It also earns him the undying enmity of his half-brothers, who are sons of different mothers than is Joseph. As such, they are already inclined to feel jealous of this pampered young son of their father's most-favored wife. Joseph's prophetic dreams are the last straw.
If you want a safe, non-controversial occupation, don't choose that of visionary. "Society often forgives the criminal," writes the poet Oscar Wilde (who knew something, in his own life, of ostracism); "it never forgives the dreamer."
T. E. Lawrence -- the famed Lawrence of Arabia -- makes a similar point. He draws a distinction between the fleeting dreams of night and the lasting dreams of day: "All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to the day to find it was all vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for the many act out their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."
In every generation, there are those who would kill the dreamers. John F. Kennedy dreamed of a "new frontier" -- and Lee Harvey Oswald's bullet cut him down in Dallas. His brother Robert liked to quote George Bernard Shaw: "You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?' " Sirhan Sirhan ended that dreamer's life in the kitchen of a California hotel. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s most famous speech was all about having a dream -- a dream that placed him squarely in the crosshairs of James Earl Ray's riflescope.
Those are just three examples from recent American history. We could cite many more, from other countries and cultures. Maybe the best example of all is Jesus. He was a dreamer: and it was the persistent way he hung onto his dreams -- even as Pilate was offering a sleazy plea-bargain -- that sent him to the cross.
The sons of Jacob try to murder their dreamy brother, and they nearly succeed. Yet one thing they never can kill is the dream itself. That's the fundamental error of those who traffic in prejudice and hatred. They imagine they can kill the dream by assaulting the dreamer.
What becomes of dreams -- of good and godly dreams, anyway -- is that when they are assailed, they grow even stronger. That first Good Friday, Pilate believed he was trampling down a troublesome dream. What he was doing, in reality, was broadcasting the seeds of that dream so widely they simply had to bear fruit. The same proved true of those early martyrs of the Roman Coliseum: "The blood of Christians," remarked Tertullian, centuries ago, "is the seed of the church."
So where does all this lead us? It leads us, I hope, to value our dreams. Arrayed all around us are the realists, the practical thinkers, the cynics, who look on dreams as only so much foolishness, and who regard life as little more than a grim treadmill-walk until we die, interrupted only by small pleasures furtively snatched along the way.
They don't understand, those cynics, nor can they be made to understand. All we can do -- we, who have glimpsed something of the dream -- is to keep telling and re-telling that dream, in the hope that God may grant the gift of interpretation to them as well.
Would that they, too, could long for the sea.
Chris Ewing responds: We are motivated by our interpretation of how the events and circumstances around us affect our most essential selves, and by our vision of what we are and are not able to do about it. More often than not these evaluations happen quite unconsciously. Even if asked, many of us would have difficulty naming what we hold to be most essential about ourselves; and the core values we actually live by may not correspond very well with those we think we espouse. Small wonder, then, that motivation tends to be a slippery fish! Our dreams, like Joseph's, may surface truths about our deep view of ourselves, and the world that are not normally accessible. Harsh challenges, like Lance Armstrong's cancer, can push us from superficial values to the real bedrock of our deepest desires -- and, consequently, our most powerful motivations. And what parent has not been surprised by their outsized reaction to something their child did -- offering, among other things, a clue to some overlooked deep value?
Discerning and/or choosing our deepest identity and values, and learning to let these motivate and guide our daily lives, is the work of a lifetime. Developing and harnessing such motivation in the church can be an even more daunting challenge. Ideally, we share a deep identity as followers of Christ that provides the common ground and the motivating power for our shared life as the Body of Christ. Reality, however, frequently paints a different picture. As Carter explores in her lead article, while "Jesus is Lord" may be the central Christian confession, it frequently fails to root as the central reality in Christian lives. And as human beings with different personalities, different individual histories, and different cultural backgrounds, we inevitably interpret the lordship of Christ in dramatically different ways. On a positive note, this enables the great variety of Christian work and witness that, taken together, fulfill the image of the body, whose many parts have many functions. More frustratingly, it also generates conflict and makes it difficult to find effective motivation. So it's a small wonder that we often experience church life as somewhere between herding cats and drifting to oblivion.
Today's post-Christian environment makes it essential for us, both as individuals and as congregations and wider church bodies, constantly to plumb our identities and explore the roots of our motivations, so that we may in fact function as Christ's in the world.
One way of beginning to do this would be, in the call to worship provided by Julie Strope, to depart from the scripted response to the "Why are you here?" question, and invite instead a time of individual reflection and naming in silent prayer each one's own reason(s) for being in worship. Beginning to locate one's own motivation, whether it's habit, duty, guilt, need, aspiration, or whatever, could be a crucial step in connecting with the discussion of motivation in the rest of the service.
George Murphy responds: How important is it for us to have good motives? For a couple of reasons it's very important. Genuine obedience to God's will isn't just a matter of external performance but of doing what God wills because it is God who wills it. There's a reason why the First Commandment comes first, for all the others depend upon it. A person who doesn't murder or steal simply to avoid getting caught practices mere civil righteousness. That is all that society can expect of a person, and society will work reasonably well if people practice that level of righteousness, whatever their motives may be. "Verily I say unto you, they have their reward!"
But such righteousness is of no value theologically precisely because it stems from the wrong motives. It does not grow out of true faith in God. T. S. Eliot recognized that when in Murder in the Cathedral he had Thomas say:
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
For that matter, actions that come from selfish motives can be seriously defective even in their worldly consequences. The person who is faithful to a spouse only when it serves his or her purpose, the soldier who only wants to save his own life and has no loyalty to comrades, or the politician who puts personal financial interests ahead of the welfare of the community will fail in the time of crisis and that failure will affect other people. Motives matter.
But that doesn't mean that we should always be taking out our motives and examining them in neurotic fashion. A number of years ago, Krister Stendahl wrote an influential article titled, "The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West." Whether Stendahl was right in his interpretation of Paul or not, it's certainly true that many of us in the Christian tradition have been extremely introspective and have spent a lot of time examining our rationales and motives.
To some extent that's valuable. As I said, motives matter. But we also have to be realistic and come to grips with the fact that our motives are never going to be pure. The very fact that we are so concerned with our spiritual security and can worry so much about being rejected by God because we're doing things for the wrong reason is an indication that we're not concerned about doing God's will purely because God comes first in our lives. Our religious thoughts and actions are especially subject to this problem, as preachers know perhaps better than anyone else. "Do I want my sermon to be good so that it gets the gospel across to people in an effective way and creates and sustains faith -- or because I want people to admire me as a great preacher?" (We all like those "nice sermon" comments at the door even if we discount them at about five cents on the dollar.)
This is why Luther insisted on a claim that seemed blasphemous to some of his contemporaries, that even the good works of the saints are sinful. (The treatise "Against Latomus" in Volume 32 of Luther's Works deals with this.) Who, he says, would be so bold as to stand before God and say, "Lord, this work that I have done is so perfect that I have no need of any grace or forgiveness for it"?
So what is the remedy? It is to realize that our righteousness is Christ, not the purity of our own motives. That is not to make the question of motivation unimportant, for we are still called to love God with our whole heart and soul and strength and mind, and our neighbor as ourself. But it means that we're free to try to do that without worrying about achieving an illusory perfection. We don't have to be paralyzed by the fear that we're doing the right good for the wrong reason. We know that to some extent we are! And we also know that we are forgiven and accepted for Christ's sake.
Related Illustrations
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family -- in another city.
-- George Burns
***
The Christian author G. K. Chesterton once used the example of a desert island to describe the world. It's as though we were a shipwrecked sailor on that island, he says. The sailor awakes from a deep sleep, suffering from a kind of amnesia. Looking all around him, he discovers treasure strewn about: relics of a civilization he can scarcely remember. He picks up each of the relics, one by one -- gold coins, a compass, fine clothing -- and he tries to discern their meaning.
According to Chesterton, the sailor's dilemma is very much like our situation, as fallen humanity. There are good things on this earth, treasures that still bear traces of their original purpose -- but each one is also subject to misinterpretation, precisely because of our amnesia.
***
William Butler Yeats, the great Irish poet, was surely a dreamer. In this little poem, titled, "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," Yeats captures the now-but-not-quite-yetness of our dreams:
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with gold and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
***
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
-- Langston Hughes
***
The Catholic spiritual writer Anthony de Mello tells a story of an eagle's egg that a farmer places by mistake in the nest of a brooding hen in the barnyard. The eaglet hatches, along with the chickens -- and as he grows, he grows to be like them. He clucks and cackles. He scratches the earth for worms. When he flaps his wings, he manages to fly a few feet into the air, no more.
Years go by. One day, the eagle -- now grown old -- sees a magnificent bird soar above him in the sky. It glides in graceful majesty against the powerful wind, with scarcely a movement of its golden wings. Spellbound, the eagle asks, "Who's that?"
"That's the king of the birds, the eagle," says his neighbor. "He belongs to the sky. We belong to earth -- we're chickens."
And so, the story goes, the eagle lived and died a chicken: for that's what he thought he was.
Such things can happen, when we fail to honor our dreams.
***
You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.
-- Bob Nelson, Writer; cited in Bits & Pieces
***
In Lewis Carroll's beloved Alice in Wonderland, Alice -- who is lost -- encounters the Cheshire Cat. She asks the cat which road she should take, and the cat responds, "Where are you going?"
When Alice tells him she isn't sure, the cat replies, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."
Without motivating dreams, one road is truly as good as another.
Worship Resources
By Julia Strope
Theme: What motivates us to be good/godly people?
What motivates people to develop destruction and terror?
What sustains one's interests and energies?
In the Genesis story we wonder what motivated Joseph to tell his dreams to his brothers. Why did they decide to betray him? In Matthew's story, why did Peter and not the others desire to walk on water? Take a look around -- there's Harry Potter, Lance Armstrong ... How do they and their creators sustain their umph? In Romans, Paul's explanation is that "faith puts us right with God."
CALL TO WORSHIP
From Romans 10:5-15
Leader: It's a bright summer day. Why are you here this morning and not somewhere else?
People: We're here because we want to be with "right with God." We're here because we want to hear God's message for today.
Leader: In this place, we experience God to be the Creator of all, the God who blesses all who seek.
People: Here there is no difference between people who believe in God -- black and white, yellow and red, male and female. We are all one human family.
Leader: How wonderful to sing and pray together.
People: Whoever believes will not be disappointed!
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
From Romans 10:5-15
Gracious God --
We are grateful for this place. Here we experience being appreciated; here we are invited to enjoy your love; never strangers, we know that you are our God and together we can listen for your Word and respond in silence, conversation, and music. Thank you for your presence among us. Amen.
HYMN SUGGESTIONS
Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather, TOKYO
In Christ There Is No East Or West
O Day Of God, Draw Nigh, ST MICHAEL
Hear The Good News Of Salvation, NETTLETON Native American
Lord, Make Us Servants Of Your Peace, DICKINSON COLLEGE
Help Us Accept Each Other, BARONITA
O Master Let Me Walk With Thee
O For A World, AZMON
Fill My Cup, FILL MY CUP
Today We All Are Called To Be Disciples, KINGSFOLD
We Walk By Faith And Not By Sight. DUNLAP'S CREEK
When We Are Living. SOMOS DEL SENOR (If there are people who speak Spanish, your congregation, they might be willing to sing at least one stanza in Spanish.)
God Marked A Line And Told The Sea. KEDRON (Stanzas 3, 4, and 5 are pertinent to the theme if diversity and responsibility, boundaries and freedom are the direction the sermon goes.)
See Ye First The Kingdom Of God
Who Is My Mother, Who Is My Brother, KINDRED (Especially stanza 3 fits: Love will relate us -- color or status can't segregate us, round Jesus Christ; Family failings, human de-railings -- all are accepted 'round Jesus Christ.)
We Need A Faith, CRIMOND (Especially stanzas 1 and 4 fit with the Romans text.)
Water, River, Spirit, Grace, TRES RIOS (This is a four line chorus suggesting motivating ingredients for our living.)
The Servant Song, THE SERVANT SONG (Especially stanzas 2, 3, and 4)
She Comes Sailing On The Wind, SHE FLIES ON (This song is a stretch for the theme: the Holy Spirit sustains us, motivates us.)
I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry, WATERLIFE (This song, too, is a stretch. When we realize that God is with us through all life's stages, we are motivated to be faithful.)
Faith Is Patience In The Night, FAITHSONG (Nice description of faith -- patience, laughter, steadfast will, courage)
As A Fire Is Meant For Burning, BEACH SPRING (This song describes communal responsibilities for people of faith.)
CALL TO CONFESSION
Our journey with God begins with self-knowledge along side God-knowledge. Our divine mold is tarnished and we must make time to polish it to reflect holiness. Pray with me and then in silence experience the liberating presence of Christ.
COMMUNITY CONFESSION (unison)
Holy One --
Reveal what hides in our unconscious; bring into the light all the attitudes that inhibit your love's healing power. Give us clarity on the prejudices that confine justice to what pleases to us.
Brighten the corners of our minds that procrastinate and hesitate to fulfill your hope for our lives.
Lift us from fear and narrow thinking to see wide horizons of possibilities of heaven on earth. Amen.
WORD OF GRACE
Jesus of Nazareth challenged every absolute, every stereotype, he ran into -- in familial relationships, in politics, and in religion. His God-ness walked on water, healed all sorts of illnesses, and dreamed new ways to be in the world but not of it. That power and grace is offered to you and me across the centuries. In Christ we are made whole! With Holy Spirit, we have reason to be fully alive!
A CONTEMPORARY AFFIRMATION
God is here --in and around us!
Creating, birthing, healing!
Christ is here -- in and around us!
Gracing each individual with wholeness,
Unifying people of every nation!
Holy Spirit is here -- in and around us!
Inspiring, enthusing, and empowering!
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
Knowledge about God moves into experience with God when we share our resources.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
With our time and talents, our resources and our relationships, we honor you and your work in this world. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
Integrating Spirit --
We come to you tattered by life; weave our inner fabrics again into a seamless whole. Recolor our bruises and sore places with rainbows; retexture our ungraceful psyches with gentleness.
Motivating Spirit --
Bikers cycle up mountains; readers make it through thick books; musicians make exquisite sounds. We pray that individuals will emerge in unions, in the White House, in congress, and in every nation who have a passion for peace and who are motivated to establish a good living for all people. We are sorrowful when we realize that 40,000 children die each day because they do not have the nutrients to keep them alive; we are awed by the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who have been forced from their homes because evilness with guns violate land and personhood. Transform the tribal motives of evildoers to actions that are hospitable. Hold the people in harm's way in your arms.
Inspiring Spirit --
Space walkers look down at this earth and know in an instant the power and fragility of humanity and divinity. Dream through all your peoples a humane world order. Motivate us to participate with you here in our city/town and around the world. Inspire us with stories that show us mutuality in relationships, stories that demonstrate collaboration and honesty, stories which show us how to live as disciples of Jesus in this era of technology, globalization, and manipulated foods. Amen.
BENEDICTION/CHARGE
Be aware of how life is coming to you.
Be alert for Holy Spirit empowering you to be satisfied and to reach out to others.
Let laughter and colors, sounds and tastes inspire you to be creative in your home and in your work.
Until we meet again, enjoy what you do and who you are becoming!
God loves you!
A Children's Sermon
What's a miracle?
Object: a glass of water, a rock, and a wooden toothpick
Based on Matthew 14:22-33
Good morning! I'd like to do a little experiment this morning. Here is a glass of water and two objects, a rock and a toothpick. Now, if I put this rock in the water, what will it do? Will it float? (let them answer) That's right. It will sink. (put the rock in the water and let it sink) What about the toothpick? What will it do if I put it in the water? (let them answer) Yes, it will float. (put the toothpick in the water)
Some things sink and some things float. We can look at something and know from its weight, size, and so forth whether or not it will float or sink. What if I put a rock in the water and it didn't sink? What would we call that? (let them answer) We would call that a "miracle." When something happens that is contrary to all the rules of science, we call it a miracle. Can God do miracles? Could God make this rock float if he wanted to? (let them answer) Yes, of course he could. God is the creator of everything, including all the laws of science. If he wants to do something that breaks some law of nature, he can certainly do it.
In the Bible we read about a time when Jesus walked on top of the water. Is that something any of us could do? (let them answer) No, we can't do that, but God can, and when he does something like that, we call it a miracle. Are there lots of miracles reported in the Bible? (let them answer) Yes, there certainly are and they are all true. Aren't you glad that our God is so powerful that he can do miracles? (let them answer) Let's tell God that we are happy that he has such power.
Dear God: We are thankful that you are so strong and powerful that you can cause miracles when you want to do so. Please use that power to keep all of us safe and faithful all of our lives. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, August 7, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
