12 Months To Live

Trinity Presbyterian Church of Bethesda
11.16.08; Rev. David Williams

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 25:14-30

It’s a scenario that has launched a thousand Hallmark Movies of the Week. The main character has been feeling a bit under the weather. They finally get themselves around to going to the doctor, who administers some tests. The tests come back...well...they come back indicating that they need to do more tests. So off our protagonist goes to a specialist, who administers the additional tests.

There’s much sitting around in an examination room. As time goes by, the character starts feeling more and more annoyed. What could possibly be taking so long? They’ve got other things to do that day. There’s the laundry that needs doing, and then there’s that new client they need to call and set up a meeting with. And today was the day that you’d scheduled in time to research a new data plan for your cellphone. I mean, c’mon! What’s taking so long! There’s important stuff that needs to get done!

It is at this moment that the doctor comes through the door, and they’ve got a grim look on their face. They look right at the Hallmark Movie of the Week main character, and, swallowing, say, “We’ve gotten back the test results. I’m afraid you have asymmetric uvular fargulomitis. It’s very rare...but it means you only have twelve months to live. I’m so sorry.”

Now, if you’ve seen one of these movies before, you know what happens. At first, there is stunned silence. This is followed by much screaming and weeping. That is followed by disbelief. “Die! I can’t die! Who will take care of little Timmy?” That is followed by anger, usually expressed by shouting up at the heavens while a camera pans away. “How can this happen to me? Noooooooo!!!!!” I’ve heard that shouting it loudly enough will invariably get you an Emmy. Then...well...then what?

Does the hero of the story just curl up into a whimpering fetal ball in a dark corner of their attic for eleven months, three weeks, and two days, waiting for the clock to run out?

Well, they probably do the fetal ball thing for at least a week. Then suddenly they realize: “Hey...I need to do all the things I’ve always wanted to do. I don’t have much time.” Getting that reminder that you are, in fact, mortal is something that has a tendency to focus the mind. So before asymmetric uvular fargulomitis takes it’s terrible toll, there’s a whole bunch of life to be lived. You have unfinished business, and you need to get busy with it. Every moment becomes utterly precious.

Have you always wanted to travel to India and see the Taj Mahal? Then now is the time to do it. Is there that one great idea for a novel that’s been pinging about in your head for years? Well, you’d better start writing it. Always wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle? Hey...no time like the present, and I know just the pastor who could teach you. Have you always wanted to run down one of those long smooth slopes near Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina, until the hang glider you’re running with bites into the breeze and the ground falls away and you rise up like an eagle? You have...let’s see...eleven months, three weeks, one day, twenty three hours and...um..54 minutes to get that done. So get on the stick.

Because there’s going to come a moment when the clock runs down to zero, and you’ve got no more time. The things you’ve left undone will remain undone.

Today’s parable from the Gospel of Matthew is all about things not getting done. It is a bit of a harsh one. In it, a rich man goes on a journey, and entrusts his property to three of his slaves. Upon his return, he discovers that the one who’d received the most had invested it in business ventures, and doubled it. The one who’d received half that amount had invested it in business ventures, and doubled it. The last one...well...he’d hidden it away from the world, making absolutely sure that there was no chance that any of it was lost.

The rich man gets seriously annoyed. How dare the slave fail to invest? He takes back the money, gives it to the first slave, and fires the guy with a flourish worthy of Donald Trump, casting him into the outer darkness of weeping and gnashing of teeth that comes when you fail to make it in reality tv.

it’s a difficult story to hear. It tends to strike us as a little unfair. Hey...didn’t the slave just do what they were supposed to do? It isn’t like they went to Atlantic City and lost it. It tends to strike us as perhaps a little unrealistic. What if that first slave had gone out and invested the ten talents in a nice solid business with a historic trend of solid return on investment...you know, like Lehman Brothers? How happy would the boss have been then?

That is, of course, not the point that Jesus was trying to make. This story comes to us in a section of Matthew that is dedicated to preparedness and setting ourselves right with God. This section begins back in Matthew 24:3, as the disciples gather on the Mount of Olives to listen to Jesus teach them in private. These teachings run through the end of chapter 25, and it’s the last sustained message from Jesus before the story of his betrayal and death begins. For that reason, the teachings have a consistent urgency and intensity about them, reminding us again and again of the importance of our actions in the now.

What we hear strongly in this morning’s parable builds upon the passage that Pastor Mike read to us last week. While the five bridesmaids managed not to get done what needed to get done, it isn’t just being unprepared that is the danger. It is the way in which we are unprepared. You certainly can’t say that this third servant wasn’t preparing for his master’s return. He knew what was coming...but chose to be passive and fearful in his response to that coming reality. His form of preparation for the inevitable was to refuse to take any risk, to retreat into the comfort of what was known. He hunkered down and sheltered in place.

But in our lives of faith, that approach doesn’t recognize a central part of what it means to live as a faithful Christian, that thing that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called “the fierce urgency of the now.” It is that “fierce urgency” that speaks to our need to act, and not simply remain passive and inert in our faith lives.

Every moment of our lives calls for that depth of commitment, because this life is far shorter than we’d like to admit. Every moment is infinitely precious, and we need to look to our unfinished business..and get busy.

Pushing Them Out

Trinity Presbyterian Church of Bethesda/United Korean Presbyterian Church
Pentecost Sunday, 2008 Rev. John An, Rev. David Williams

Scripture Lesson: Acts 2:1-12

Being a mom is not easy.
It’s hard for all kinds of different reasons.

Taking care of kids is hard.

They take your time.

Are they hungry?

They’ll let you know.

Are they thirsty?

Guess who gets asked to get them a drink.

They’re almost as bad as husbands that way.

Who gets to worry over kids when they’re sick?

The mom.

Who gets the call when they mess up at school?

The mom.

Who is always, always going to worry about her babies?

And they’re still your babies, even when they’re about to turn forty.

They’re always your babies.

But the part that we men always marvel about

The one that seems impossibly hard

Is how moms manage to shove the babies out in the first place.

Here you’ve got this tiny person, growing in the womb.

But they don’t stay tiny for long.

They get bigger and bigger and bigger.

And mom gets bigger and bigger

Going from that cute little size 2 you buy at Macy’s

To dresses that look like you’d buy them at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Not the clothes section.

The tent section.

The whole time, the baby is happy as a clam.

It’s warm.

It’s comfy.

It’s completely safe.

But when the time comes to go out into the world

Who manages to push it out?

The mom.

Remember that scriptural saying about a camel passing through the eye of a needle?

Remember how impossible that seems?

Well, giving birth is only very slightly easier than that.

Through efforts that most men can’t even grasp

And might not want to even grasp.

It happens.

And something new is born into the world.

It’s a new person, full of life and potential.

They’re no longer hidden away inside the womb.

They’re out there for all the world to see.

Today is Pentecost Sunday

It’s the day we Christians remember the birth of the church

We heard today about the gathering of the disciples

They were all together in a house.

Those who had gathered were still huddling together.

They were excited at the knowledge that Christ had risen.

But they weren’t out there in the world.

Jesus has promised them that something would happen.

So they were waiting around

They were comfortably ensconced in their closed circle

Surrounded by other disciples

Secure in a safe house

But when the Spirit descended, that all changed.

When the Spirit descended, they could no longer remain inside.

Instead of being isolated from the world

Talking only to each other

Unseen by all and unheard by all.

Suddenly all those around were aware of them

As they proclaimed and cried out

Telling the whole world that something new had begun.

That moment fulfills a promise made earlier in the book of Acts.

Back in Acts chapter 1, verses five and eight,

Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will arrive.

It also fulfills a promise that was made back in Luke’s Gospel.

Luke is, remember, the first part of the one book we call Luke/Acts.

In Luke chapter 24, verse 49, we also find that promise.

Jesus pledges that the disciples will be “clothed with power from on high.”

This is the day we remember that moment of power

That moment when the church was born

And this is also the day we remember that moment

That moment when a mom becomes a mom

And as we remember those two moments

We remember what they have in common.

They both mark a great effort

That moves a people out into the world

As we look towards the days beyond this day

We must strive to remember the way that God’s Spirit works.

The Holy Spirit is all about movement and life.

All of the words that describe it in scripture are about movement and action.

In the Bible, the Spirit is ruach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek

Both words mean “wind” and “breath”

Which are the embodiment of movement and life.

The Gospels proclaim the Spirit as the one who Comforts

And giving comfort or showing caring requires action.

The Gospels proclaim the Spirit as the Advocate

And a silent and motionless Advocate would be useless.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t call us to close ranks around one another

The Holy Spirit doesn’t promise us a comfy and quiet place

Where we can ignore the cries of the rest of humanity.

The Spirit labors to heave us out into the world

Out into a world that needs to hear Christ’s message

A message of both forgiveness and repentance

A message of both love and justice

As God strives through the Spirit to work in us,

That work drives us out into the world.

Like a mother, it gives us life and pushes us out

So that we can bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ

To our friends

To our neighbors

To our city

And to the ends of the earth.