In The Zone
Stories
Object:
Contents
"In the Zone" by C. David McKirachan
"Forgiveness Without Limits" by Keith Wagner
"Sea Crossings" by Keith Wagner
* * * * * * *
In the Zone
by C. David McKirachan
Exodus 14:19-31
I cheer for the Yankees. They are usually in the running for a playoff position. I can't remember a year when there wasn't a possibility -- right up to the middle of September -- when pin stripes would be playing to the bitter end.
Baseball is a sport of patience. Pauses and the rhythms of summer afternoons and evenings force or better allow us to appreciate the way these incredible athletes work together. It allows us to see the excellence of an individual player that allows him to do things that seem almost super natural. It also allows us who sit in the distant bleachers to appreciate the improbability of doing what they do over and over again and how truly amazing it can be when these guys get in "the zone." When they get more than one hit in a game, actually making contact with that tiny ball, going almost a hundred miles an hour, as it curves and dips and then send it to some specific spot between the strands of the human net that is waiting to retrieve it and prevent the hitter from making it to a base, and they do it more than once in nine innings, that's the zone.
Derek Jeter is retiring after twenty years of breaking just about every record ever set by a Yankee and most set by any baseball player. The day he came to the stadium with 2,999 hits the speculation was that he would be nervous. His first at bat he hit a home run and brought the house down. Then he went on to get four more hits that day, including the game winning hit at the end of the game. This guy lives in the zone.
There have been moments in my life when I felt like that. When I knew that no matter what was chasing me, no matter how impossible the situation, no matter what I was facing, somehow I had found a sweet spot in the symphony of the universe and was right on key. There were angels all around me, and I knew I would not only make it through, but the glory of the Lord was apparent all around me.
Few of us will ever get five hits in a game, let alone in Yankee Stadium. But that doesn't mean the zone isn't real, a vision of glory that lifts our tedious and sometimes fearful realities into the realms of what is possible. That is why heroes and their stories of facing the monsters and the limits of our world are so important. That's why I cheer from the bleachers. DEERREEKK JEETER!
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
Forgiveness Without Limits
by Keith Wagner
Matthew 18:21-35
Once upon a time there was a young man who denounced his parents and left home. He wanted nothing to do with his family. Years later, he felt led to return home and visit his parents. He wrote a letter to his mother begging for her forgiveness. He asked that if she would welcome him back home to hang a white handkerchief on the clothesline in the backyard. The train passed near the rear of their house and he said that if the handkerchief was there as he passed by, he would know he was forgiven and could return home.
As he passed by the house on the train, to his amazement, there was no white handkerchief on the line. Instead, there were a number of white sheets flapping in the breeze. The man learned that his parents had forgiven him seventy times seven.
Peter was willing to forgive. However, Peter wanted to put a limit on forgiveness. In other words, his forgiveness was conditional. Jesus wanted Peter and the others to understand that "true" forgiveness opens our lives to the unlimited realm of God's kingdom and has no limits. "How often should I forgive?" Peter asked. "Not seven times but seventy times seven," Jesus replied. What Jesus meant by that is that we are not to keep track. In other words, forgiveness is to be unlimited.
In the story the servant had a huge debt but was forgiven by the king when he cried for mercy. "Have patience with me and I will pay back everything I owe," he cried. The king then forgave his debt. But that same servant was unwilling to forgive someone who owed him money. To him he showed no mercy and had him thrown in prison.
Unfortunately the chain of forgiveness had been broken. Others cried foul and reported to the king what had taken place. When the king heard what had happened he was angered and had the servant thrown in prison and had him tortured. Since the servant had been unwilling to forgive, the king withdrew the forgiveness that he had given. Then there was social chaos. No one had been shown mercy.
When we are unwilling to forgive many lives are adversely affected. This is not what God expects of us. God expects God's disciples to forgive unconditionally because a spirit of forgiveness creates peace and harmony throughout society, in families, in neighborhoods, and even in churches. "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors," Jesus taught. On the one hand we ask God to forgive us, and on the other hand we offer forgiveness to others."
The servant received an opportunity to be free. But his unwillingness to show mercy to anther resulted in his imprisonment. To receive mercy is to give mercy.
One time a young man borrowed the family car without permission, knowing he could have it home and safely in the garage before his father found out. He hadn't reckoned on getting rear-ended at the second intersection he came to. Since there was no way to conceal the damage, he parked the car and closed the garage door, then spent an evening agonizing over how to deal with his father when he arrived home. When his dad walked in, the young man flashed a look of terror.
He told his father everything, complete with a profuse apology. His father walked with the son to the garage and looked long and hard and silently at the damage. Then he said, "Insurance will cover it. It wouldn't have covered the broken trust between you and me, however. Fortunately your apology took care of that."
"Can you ever forgive me, Dad?"
"I have already."
"You have learned your lesson. Forget about it."
A week later the son, still guilt-driven, came to his father and said, "Dad, in case they raise our insurance rates because of the accident, I'm willing to earn the money to pay the difference in the premiums."
His father didn't even look up from his newspaper as he said, simply, "What accident?"
"How often should I forgive?" Peter asked. "Seventy times seven," Jesus said.
I believe that the reason it is so difficult for us to forgive others is that we have not truly experienced God's forgiveness for ourselves. While others may not, God does.
Several years ago I met a young woman who lived with guilt and shame for over twenty years. When she was a child she was playing with her younger sister on the top bed of bunk beds. The younger sister fell off the bed and her head hit a table below. She didn't seem seriously ill except for a headache. Her mother gave her an aspirin and sent her to bed. A few days later the younger sister was totally paralyzed. She remained that way the rest of her life.
My friend's mother and her entire family blamed her for the accident and no one would forgive her. She was tormented with feelings of guilt until her mother finally forgave her, twenty years later. It helped, but nothing could undue those twenty years of living without being forgiven for what had happened.
God doesn't hold back on forgiveness. Nor do we have to wait. God's forgiveness is available to us in this very moment.
Sea Crossings
by Keith Wagner
Psalm 114
In Psalm 114, the psalmist vividly describes the exodus as a pinnacle of the Hebrew faith. It is a song of deliverance, a reminder to the faith community that they have prevailed because of God's continued intervention and creativity. Therefore God is to be praised and the people are to live in awe of God's wondrous deeds. The key verse reads, "Tremble, O hearth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water."
The Israelites were trapped between the Egyptian army and the sea. If they were to survive they had to go forward. So Moses led them into the "midst of the sea" and God divided the sea and gave them dry land to walk across. They escaped to the other side. They had been liberated from their oppressors, because God intervened on their behalf.
This is just one great moment in history where people had to cross the sea for their salvation. Our own country was discovered by men and women who were willing to cross the Atlantic Ocean. There were the adventurers like Magellan and Columbus who crossed the ocean and discovered new worlds. There was Admiral Byrd, who reached the North Pole, and Neil Armstrong, who crossed the Sea of Tranquility and landed on the moon. And there was George Washington who crossed the Delaware.
By the beginning of December 1776, there were only 3,400 men under Washington's command and he decided to leave New Jersey altogether. After securing every boat from the Jersey side for miles around, he crossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania. Washington struck at Trenton, New Jersey, a town held by three regiments of Hessians under the command of a Colonel Rall.
Washington started them across on Christmas night. The crossing took nine hours due to the extra artillery taken along, and the horrible weather. At 7:45 a.m. the Americans reached the town and launched a spirited attack. Their attack was nothing short of miraculous, but attack they did. The battle lasted all of ninety minutes and ended in a complete Hessian defeat.
The crossing of the Delaware was a turning point for the revolution just as the exodus was a turning point for Israel. Because Washington and his army had made the crossing it boosted their morale and gave new spirit to the freedom for which they were fighting.
After Moses and the Israelites had crossed the sea they looked back, only to see the Egyptian army totally consumed by the water. Their powerful chariots had gotten stuck in the mud and they were unable to cross. The powerful oppressor was destroyed.
Unlike Washington, who used boats to cross the Delaware, Moses and his people moved ahead only on faith. Both crossings however depended on their faith in God.
Many of you have seas to cross. Some are starting new jobs. Others are beginning a new year of school. Still others are starting retirement and some are moving out of the old homestead and downsizing to a smaller condominium.
When rough waters are ahead, we often panic and get anxious. Moses told his people that "the Lord will fight for you, but you have to be still." In other words, following the Lord requires not only trust but patience. The bridge will open, the way will be clear, but some waiting is required. And so we look back to those critical moments in history where God was with us and we moved forward in faith.
Rev. Dr. Keith Wagner is the pastor of St. John's UCC in Troy, Ohio. He and his wife, Lin, live in Springfield, Ohio.
*****************************************
StoryShare, September 14, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. 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., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"In the Zone" by C. David McKirachan
"Forgiveness Without Limits" by Keith Wagner
"Sea Crossings" by Keith Wagner
* * * * * * *
In the Zone
by C. David McKirachan
Exodus 14:19-31
I cheer for the Yankees. They are usually in the running for a playoff position. I can't remember a year when there wasn't a possibility -- right up to the middle of September -- when pin stripes would be playing to the bitter end.
Baseball is a sport of patience. Pauses and the rhythms of summer afternoons and evenings force or better allow us to appreciate the way these incredible athletes work together. It allows us to see the excellence of an individual player that allows him to do things that seem almost super natural. It also allows us who sit in the distant bleachers to appreciate the improbability of doing what they do over and over again and how truly amazing it can be when these guys get in "the zone." When they get more than one hit in a game, actually making contact with that tiny ball, going almost a hundred miles an hour, as it curves and dips and then send it to some specific spot between the strands of the human net that is waiting to retrieve it and prevent the hitter from making it to a base, and they do it more than once in nine innings, that's the zone.
Derek Jeter is retiring after twenty years of breaking just about every record ever set by a Yankee and most set by any baseball player. The day he came to the stadium with 2,999 hits the speculation was that he would be nervous. His first at bat he hit a home run and brought the house down. Then he went on to get four more hits that day, including the game winning hit at the end of the game. This guy lives in the zone.
There have been moments in my life when I felt like that. When I knew that no matter what was chasing me, no matter how impossible the situation, no matter what I was facing, somehow I had found a sweet spot in the symphony of the universe and was right on key. There were angels all around me, and I knew I would not only make it through, but the glory of the Lord was apparent all around me.
Few of us will ever get five hits in a game, let alone in Yankee Stadium. But that doesn't mean the zone isn't real, a vision of glory that lifts our tedious and sometimes fearful realities into the realms of what is possible. That is why heroes and their stories of facing the monsters and the limits of our world are so important. That's why I cheer from the bleachers. DEERREEKK JEETER!
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
Forgiveness Without Limits
by Keith Wagner
Matthew 18:21-35
Once upon a time there was a young man who denounced his parents and left home. He wanted nothing to do with his family. Years later, he felt led to return home and visit his parents. He wrote a letter to his mother begging for her forgiveness. He asked that if she would welcome him back home to hang a white handkerchief on the clothesline in the backyard. The train passed near the rear of their house and he said that if the handkerchief was there as he passed by, he would know he was forgiven and could return home.
As he passed by the house on the train, to his amazement, there was no white handkerchief on the line. Instead, there were a number of white sheets flapping in the breeze. The man learned that his parents had forgiven him seventy times seven.
Peter was willing to forgive. However, Peter wanted to put a limit on forgiveness. In other words, his forgiveness was conditional. Jesus wanted Peter and the others to understand that "true" forgiveness opens our lives to the unlimited realm of God's kingdom and has no limits. "How often should I forgive?" Peter asked. "Not seven times but seventy times seven," Jesus replied. What Jesus meant by that is that we are not to keep track. In other words, forgiveness is to be unlimited.
In the story the servant had a huge debt but was forgiven by the king when he cried for mercy. "Have patience with me and I will pay back everything I owe," he cried. The king then forgave his debt. But that same servant was unwilling to forgive someone who owed him money. To him he showed no mercy and had him thrown in prison.
Unfortunately the chain of forgiveness had been broken. Others cried foul and reported to the king what had taken place. When the king heard what had happened he was angered and had the servant thrown in prison and had him tortured. Since the servant had been unwilling to forgive, the king withdrew the forgiveness that he had given. Then there was social chaos. No one had been shown mercy.
When we are unwilling to forgive many lives are adversely affected. This is not what God expects of us. God expects God's disciples to forgive unconditionally because a spirit of forgiveness creates peace and harmony throughout society, in families, in neighborhoods, and even in churches. "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors," Jesus taught. On the one hand we ask God to forgive us, and on the other hand we offer forgiveness to others."
The servant received an opportunity to be free. But his unwillingness to show mercy to anther resulted in his imprisonment. To receive mercy is to give mercy.
One time a young man borrowed the family car without permission, knowing he could have it home and safely in the garage before his father found out. He hadn't reckoned on getting rear-ended at the second intersection he came to. Since there was no way to conceal the damage, he parked the car and closed the garage door, then spent an evening agonizing over how to deal with his father when he arrived home. When his dad walked in, the young man flashed a look of terror.
He told his father everything, complete with a profuse apology. His father walked with the son to the garage and looked long and hard and silently at the damage. Then he said, "Insurance will cover it. It wouldn't have covered the broken trust between you and me, however. Fortunately your apology took care of that."
"Can you ever forgive me, Dad?"
"I have already."
"You have learned your lesson. Forget about it."
A week later the son, still guilt-driven, came to his father and said, "Dad, in case they raise our insurance rates because of the accident, I'm willing to earn the money to pay the difference in the premiums."
His father didn't even look up from his newspaper as he said, simply, "What accident?"
"How often should I forgive?" Peter asked. "Seventy times seven," Jesus said.
I believe that the reason it is so difficult for us to forgive others is that we have not truly experienced God's forgiveness for ourselves. While others may not, God does.
Several years ago I met a young woman who lived with guilt and shame for over twenty years. When she was a child she was playing with her younger sister on the top bed of bunk beds. The younger sister fell off the bed and her head hit a table below. She didn't seem seriously ill except for a headache. Her mother gave her an aspirin and sent her to bed. A few days later the younger sister was totally paralyzed. She remained that way the rest of her life.
My friend's mother and her entire family blamed her for the accident and no one would forgive her. She was tormented with feelings of guilt until her mother finally forgave her, twenty years later. It helped, but nothing could undue those twenty years of living without being forgiven for what had happened.
God doesn't hold back on forgiveness. Nor do we have to wait. God's forgiveness is available to us in this very moment.
Sea Crossings
by Keith Wagner
Psalm 114
In Psalm 114, the psalmist vividly describes the exodus as a pinnacle of the Hebrew faith. It is a song of deliverance, a reminder to the faith community that they have prevailed because of God's continued intervention and creativity. Therefore God is to be praised and the people are to live in awe of God's wondrous deeds. The key verse reads, "Tremble, O hearth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water."
The Israelites were trapped between the Egyptian army and the sea. If they were to survive they had to go forward. So Moses led them into the "midst of the sea" and God divided the sea and gave them dry land to walk across. They escaped to the other side. They had been liberated from their oppressors, because God intervened on their behalf.
This is just one great moment in history where people had to cross the sea for their salvation. Our own country was discovered by men and women who were willing to cross the Atlantic Ocean. There were the adventurers like Magellan and Columbus who crossed the ocean and discovered new worlds. There was Admiral Byrd, who reached the North Pole, and Neil Armstrong, who crossed the Sea of Tranquility and landed on the moon. And there was George Washington who crossed the Delaware.
By the beginning of December 1776, there were only 3,400 men under Washington's command and he decided to leave New Jersey altogether. After securing every boat from the Jersey side for miles around, he crossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania. Washington struck at Trenton, New Jersey, a town held by three regiments of Hessians under the command of a Colonel Rall.
Washington started them across on Christmas night. The crossing took nine hours due to the extra artillery taken along, and the horrible weather. At 7:45 a.m. the Americans reached the town and launched a spirited attack. Their attack was nothing short of miraculous, but attack they did. The battle lasted all of ninety minutes and ended in a complete Hessian defeat.
The crossing of the Delaware was a turning point for the revolution just as the exodus was a turning point for Israel. Because Washington and his army had made the crossing it boosted their morale and gave new spirit to the freedom for which they were fighting.
After Moses and the Israelites had crossed the sea they looked back, only to see the Egyptian army totally consumed by the water. Their powerful chariots had gotten stuck in the mud and they were unable to cross. The powerful oppressor was destroyed.
Unlike Washington, who used boats to cross the Delaware, Moses and his people moved ahead only on faith. Both crossings however depended on their faith in God.
Many of you have seas to cross. Some are starting new jobs. Others are beginning a new year of school. Still others are starting retirement and some are moving out of the old homestead and downsizing to a smaller condominium.
When rough waters are ahead, we often panic and get anxious. Moses told his people that "the Lord will fight for you, but you have to be still." In other words, following the Lord requires not only trust but patience. The bridge will open, the way will be clear, but some waiting is required. And so we look back to those critical moments in history where God was with us and we moved forward in faith.
Rev. Dr. Keith Wagner is the pastor of St. John's UCC in Troy, Ohio. He and his wife, Lin, live in Springfield, Ohio.
*****************************************
StoryShare, September 14, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. 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., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
