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As I look out among you all today I wonder how your lives are going. Are any of you struggling with physical pain or debilitating disease? How many of you are facing financial worries? Who among you has serious questions about the future of your marriage? Do you worry about your children and the choices they make? What about your aging parents living outside? Do you struggle with certain parts of your job and think about making a change? Who here just had a heated argument with a spouse or child this morning? What are your addictions, those behaviors you want to keep secret? Is it food? Sex? Gossip? Material stuff? Do you find yourself wanting to go to a store even though you have nothing specific to buy? What is it lately that has been making you fearful? I wonder about your lives, the factors you cannot control as well as the ones you can. I also wonder about your readiness to talk about some of your issues. Are you here this morning just aching to find a friend to talk with about your wounded marriage or the anger in your heart? Would it help to know that the parents sitting behind you also yelled at their kids this morning? Would you like to talk with another person who faces guilt at living far away from an aging parent? Or perhaps you are not ready to talk about your addiction to sex. You don’t want to let anyone know about your financial pressures. You are not prepared to share about the newly discovered cancer in your body. Not every issue in our lives needs to be talked out with a friend. But many of them do. What we need is the wisdom to know when to share with others and with whom. Scientific studies show that people who regularly share their struggles in life lead healthier lives than those who do not. The author of Psalm 31 is obviously suffering. In verse 4 he writes, "take me out of the net that is hidden for me…" What are your hidden nets? What is it that is holding you back and entangling you? What invisible restraints are trapping you, keeping you from being open with God and others? The best example I can think of is Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics who are in recovery have admitted the net that has trapped them. The net is no longer hidden. But many others are living with a "hidden net", a net that they believe others cannot see, but one that entraps them with alcohol on a daily basis. We may not realize it but we do have a choice in how we respond to the nets that paralyze us. Noted spiritual author, Henri Nouwen, believed that there are two great temptations in life. Do you have any idea what they might be? I admit that I was surprised when I read them. These temptations have nothing to do with power or money or control. For Nouwen they are boredom and bitterness. When you think about all the bad things that can happen to us, we still get to choose how to respond. We can respond with faith and perseverance OR we can be bored and bitter. Nouwen writes, "When our good plans are interrupted by poor weather, our peace of mind by inner turmoil, our hope for peace by a new war, our desire for a stable government by a constant changing of the guards, and our desire for immortality by real death, we are tempted to give in to a paralyzing boredom or to strike back in destructive bitterness." Let’s talk about boredom. I must admit that I dislike the word. I especially dislike it coming from my children. Kim and I have four teenagers, with three of them still at home. I have observed that what would have excited me to no end when I was a teen can be very boring to today’s teenager. I remember being thrilled to get a wrecked 1962 Ford Falcon in my senior year! I fixed it up and it became my pride and joy. Nowadays, parents want to provide lots of experiences for our kids. There are so many good activities and things from which to choose today! But in exposing our children to so many options, we may be inadvertently creating a kind of immunity in our kids, thereby raising the level of excitement needed to conquer their boredom. Today it simply takes more novelty and excitement to keep kids interested. The entertainment bar keeps going up. A ten-year old study reported that 25% of teenagers who drink said they drink because they are bored. 70% of 7th-12th graders are either tired or bored at school. But it’s not just the teens. 41% of adults are sometimes or often bored while at work. But I’ll tell you what. As long as there are unread books in our home and unplayed board games, I refuse to listen to my kid’s cries of boredom. Call me heartless, but that’s the way it is. The other temptation in life according to Nouwen is bitterness. One New Year's Eve at a London club, British dramatist Frederick Lonsdale was asked by Seymour Hicks to reconcile with a fellow member. The two had quarreled in the past and never restored their friendship. "You must," Hicks said to Lonsdale. "It is very unkind to be unfriendly at such a time. Go over now and wish him a happy New Year." So Lonsdale crossed the room and spoke to his enemy. "I wish you a happy New Year," he said, "but only one." My guess is that there is no one here today who would consider themselves a bitter person. But we do get angry and we do have difficulties letting go of anger at times, don’t we? The fact is that bitter people are not much fun to be around. The negative energy in their heart easily spills out to others. Sigmund Freud died at the age of 83, a bitter and disillusioned man. Tragically, this Viennese physician, one of the most influential thinkers of our time, had little compassion for the common person. Freud wrote in 1918, "I have found little that is good about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash.". It is well known that he had broken with each of his followers. And he died without a friend. Contrast that story with this one about former president Jimmy Carter. He wrote, "Perhaps because of my Navy training, punctuality has been almost an obsession. Rosalynn has always been adequately punctual, except by my standards. A deviation of five minutes or less in our departure time would cause a bitter exchange. One morning I realized it was Rosalynn's birthday and I hadn't brought her a present. What could I do that would be special for her? I hurriedly wrote a note: 'Happy birthday! As proof of my love, I will never make an unpleasant comment about tardiness.' I signed it and delivered it in an envelope, with a kiss. More than four years later, I still keep my promise. It has turned out to be one of the nicest birthday presents for Rosalynn - and for me." The point is that we do have a choice in how we respond to the challenges of life. We don’t have to give in to the temptations of boredom and bitterness. We can look to God. The psalmist wrote, "Take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God." When I was pastor of Soldotna UMC I enjoyed nearly 8 years of living with and knowing the 140 members in that faith community. Now I find myself as the lead pastor of about 670 members. No longer can I afford the luxury of knowing you as deeply as I knew the Soldotna church. There is a kind of sadness for me in this. But there is also a joy. There is the joy in knowing that St. John church is truly about hundreds of lay people sharing their gifts for ministry in the name of Christ. We are clearly not a pastor-centered church. Smaller churches often struggle with pastor-dependence. My role is to cast the vision and create an environment where the needs of our people are connecting with the gifts of others. In other words, the ministry of Rose, Randy, Diana, and myself is to equip you to minister to each other. You are the ministers of St. John church! You can help St. John be a place where it feels too big and impersonal. All you need to do is come to worship without ever speaking to someone and asking about their lives. Or you can look to God to remove your hidden nets with a new friend. You know it really doesn’t matter how big we get. What matters is how involved we are with each other’s lives. When we know each other we create conduits for the love of God to flow all through this congregation. It may not be now. But at some point in our lives we will need a Christian friend to listen to us, to support us, and to help us remove our hidden nets. In one of Charlie Chaplin's great silent films, he plays a prisoner being transported to jail, but his boat has been shipwrecked. At the film's beginning, Chaplin is sitting on a beach looking at the clasp around his leg attaching him to a ball and chain. The whole film shows him relating to this ball and chain and attempting to escape its weight. First, he thinks to humor it. "When its guard is down, I will dash away." So he makes little jokes to accomplish this purpose. He walks the length of the chain and falls into the sand. Scratching his head, wondering what to do next, he decides that he can outsmart it. He gets up and tries to walk away -- and again falls into the sand. Now, he becomes more thoughtful. His next strategy is one of reason. "I know. I will talk to it! I will reason with it!" But down he goes again into the sand. Do you have an idea of what chains or hidden nets are entangling you? Do you know what is keeping you from living a full, free, and whole life? Maybe you’ve tried to live your life as if the net is not there. But you keep falling down. Do you want God to remove your chain, your nets? The promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that you can be free! You can live in freedom. You can walk in wholeness. Let’s take a moment to pray in silence. Ask God to reveal to you your hidden nets. And if it is your desire to be freed from those nets, ask God to remove them. Let’s pray. |
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04.28.02 - Hidden Nets (Psalm 31)
