November 6, 2011

Rev. Justin Spurlock

iPath

Let’s see what our Scripture passage has for us this morning. Acts Chapter 3. “One Day at three o’clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way to the temple for prayer meeting. At the same time, there was a man crippled from birth, being carried up. Every day he was set down at the temple gates. The one named ‘Beautiful’, to beg from those going into the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked for a handout. Peter, with John at his side, looked at him straight in the eye and said ‘look here’. He looked up, expecting to get something from them. Peter said ‘I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’ He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. And in an instant, his feet and ankles became firm. He jumped to his feet and walked. The man went into the temple with them, walking back and forth, dancing and praising God. Everybody there saw him walking and praising God. They recognized him as the one who sat begging at the temple’s gate, Beautiful, and rubbed their eyes, astonished, scarcely believing what they were seeing. The man threw his arms around Peter and John, ecstatic. All the people ran up to where they were at, Solomon’s porch, to see it for themselves.” Let’s consider how we’ll apply the word of God to our lives today.

An iPath in the midst of iPods and iPads and iTouches and iEverything else, we are embarking today on a three week journey – a path, if you want to say it, on stewardship. Ah – an exciting path, right? Some of you are ready to just get up out of your seats right now, right? Well, I hope by the end of these three weeks that you’ll understand that stewardship is more than me standing up here and asking for your money. Although it does involve a little bit of that.

But really, stewardship has to do with our whole lives. Every aspect of our beings are things that are meant to be stewarded. And part of that is looking at our own individual path and seeing where it’s going. Now over the past many weeks, we’ve been doing the series on “Sent”. We’re learning about our free will and the choices that we make and choosing between life and evil and good and bad and all these things, and that ties into this whole stewardship series and the iPath and what it means to be a good steward of our lives. We have choices. We know that. We have choices from the very moment we get up in the morning. And what do we do, and what do we decide and how do we go about making those choices? And which decisions and what choices are altering our lives? The very reason you are sitting here this morning is that at some point in the past, you made a decision that altered your life that converged into this place right here. And for some of you, that choice truly transformed your entire life. Your friends and your rhythm during the week and what you’re involved in and even your person and fulfillment and happiness may be tied up in your faith life, your church life and the people around you.

For some of you, even the decision to come here this morning may have been a huge choice. To say, can I make it there? With everything going in my life, can I literally get up out of bed and go to church this morning. And those choices, those decisions can literally change the course of our entire life, of our futures.

For me, and the way I define stewardship, is the management of those choices, essentially. All of those groups of decisions that we make all the time – that’s stewardship. That’s what it means to steward something. To make choices – to make decisions and are those decisions good, bad, ugly – somewhere in the middle. How do we make those choices? What happens when we do one path verses the other? Stewardship has to do with you. Your path, your journey – where you’re at. And so, I’m hoping this morning that this evil word that often appears in church can be shifted for you. That you will see that your life and your choices have to do with this whole stewardship thing. And that three weeks from now, you’ll look at all the various aspects of your life and you will begin to consciously say “how am I going to steward these things” and “how does that intersect with my life here at Columbine United Church?”

Now, interestingly enough, the person in this picture looks awfully like Rich Boorom’s daughter – looks a little bit like Grace. It’s not – I just called if off of Google. One thing I want you to know - what Steve wants you to know about Stewardship, is that right now, at this moment in Columbine Untied Church’s history, we are nose to nose with the future. The phrase that he used a few weeks ago in a stewardship meeting – we are nose to nose with the future. With the changes that have taken place in this community life over the past year. We’re on a verge of doing something different and new and that will take us in a whole different direction. And for some of you, that’s probably a little scary – what is this new direction – what are these new things – what does that mean?

Well, when an entire staff changes over the course of about a year and a half time period, things change. The future will look different than it looked five years ago. And as we imagine the future and what this place is going to be – what we are going to be as a group of people, we are literally nose to nose with the future saying “what is this going to look like?” And those decisions that each of you make in your lives and those choices that you make here regarding your life here, will alter our future. It will transform it. The decisions that I make as an associate pastor here at the church will alter our future. The choices that Fred makes as he decides how he’s going to be a part of this worshiping community, will shift things as we look on to the days forward. And that is true for every single one of you. How you decide to participate in this group – how you participate in this life as we move forward, will shift everything. And that’s what stewardship is – it’s those choices and how we involve ourselves – how we participate in life.

Now as we’re going along this iPath, your journey, my journey, our journey together – there are a few factors along the way that truly transform things. And the factor I’m going to talk about today and next week is what I call the “generosity factor”. Now, with generosity, there’s lots of nice cliché phrases that we’ve learned throughout life, and here’s one of them. “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.” And we’ve said that. You’ve probably said it to your kids at times, you’ve said it to other people, you’ve heard it said to you. It’s more blessed to give than to receive. And yet, as much as we can say that phrase, do we truly believe it? And how does this generosity factor change and shift and alter our journey and our path, our way of stewarding our lives? How does generosity make the next step that I take along my journey different than what it may have been before?

Now here’s the thing you need to know. Throughout the history of the Catholic church, one thing that was repeated often by priests is that the worst sin, never confessed in the confession booth, was greed. Can you imagine, right? Pride – sure. Lust – sure. Infidelity – sure. Dishonesty – sure. Steeling – yes. Even murder – yes. But greed? Never. By nature, we are greedy people. It is not by nature to be generous. Now all of us know a few people in our lives that we consider generous people. And often they are few and far between. Right? It’s just the one or so people that you can say is a generous person. And it exudes from them – it’s not just about their money. It’s not just about what they’ve given to you, it’s throughout their entire personality and everything in their being, you just go “wow – that’s just generous.” It comes out in the words they say and the encouragements that they give you. It comes out in the time that they give to various functions and things. It comes out in their abilities that they offer up to people and it comes out in their checkbooks, their credit cards and cash from their wallets. Generosity is something that involves the whole person.

In Buddhism – just to let you know – in the Catholic church, greed was never mentioned. It’s one of the seven deadly sins in the Catholic church. Even in Buddhism and other world religions and philosophies, greed comes up constantly as the number one thing that is the problem for humanity. This is not just something that we look at and go “well, we’re just trying to guilt you here”, you know – coming from some deep, ancient way of being in church. This is something that is spread across the globe. Greed is an issue for us. Being generous is difficult. It’s hard for us to think beyond the self and what we can gain and get for ourselves. Right? It’s pretty tough.

Well, stewardship, classically often defined by three Ts – time, talent and treasure – and many of you have probably heard that over the years. You’ve probably heard some sermons about it – about how we use our time, how we use our talents, how we use our treasure, and it’s the three Ts that is a standard stewardship thing.

Well, I’m going to talk about one of those Ts today, but I, alongside of some other people across the United States – some of us are adding a fourth T to this – it’s one of the things I really want to touch on today and that is – touch. The fourth T. Time, talent, treasure and touch. Because really, when you think about your life and what you do, pretty much every decision falls into one of those four Ts. From the moment you get up to the moment you go to bed at night, pretty much every choice you make in the day involves one of those four Ts – and what are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with your time? What are you going to do with your abilities? And your talents and your skills? What are you going to do with your treasure – your finances? What are you going to do with your touch? With your hands – with the people you encounter? And so today, I want to talk about time and touch. Next week we’ll talk about talent and treasure. We’ll talk about them in a little different way next week, don’t worry.

But today, time and touch. Now we read this passage in Acts. It’s a common story, obviously. Peter and John are going up to the temple for prayer, kind of three p.m. in the afternoon, and they’ve just came off the day of Pentecost in Acts, Chapter 2. And this is a phenomenal moment in the life of the church and history, even. Peter, James, John and the rest of the Disciples, up in the upper room, this is after Jesus has left the earth, Jesus has ascended up into the Heavens. Peter, James, John and the rest of the disciples – about 120 other people are in an upper room in a house in Jerusalem and they are praying together, eating together, they are spending all this time in this room, obviously, in houses and other things, but they are mostly fellowshipping, worshiping, praying every day in this room for about ten days. And during the Feast of Pentecost, which is a major Jewish festival, the Holy Spirit descends on this room full of people and they go out into the streets and begin preaching to the people gathered for this Festival of Pentecost about Jesus Christ and how Jesus Christ has changed their lives. And in the course of it, 3000 people gather together and begin to worship and follow Jesus. And in the course of the time period after this – between Chapters 2 and 3 – what begins to happen, is that these disciples, now termed the apostles, begin teaching all these three thousand converts and the many people who become a part of their community in the days afterwards, and they begin breaking bread together from house to house. You know what that means. If I were to show up at your door and we sit down at the table, and we share some tea, coffee, something – that’s what it means to break bread. It means to have a little bit of fellowship with someone else and to be there and be in their lives and hear about what’s going on in their life – and to share life together. The Apostles begin sharing about Jesus Christ with these people and kind of giving them a vision and a dream about what God had for Israel, from way back when and how that relates to what was going on right then in the midst of this Roman occupation of the whole Palestinian area and how this whole good news – this gospel of Jesus Christ has the ability to kind of turn the world upside down and turn their lives in a whole different way and transform this group of people who have been oppressed by the Romans into a group of people who are literally going to bring the dream of God to the world. And so this is a very energetic, emotional moment in Acts. And then it turns into Chapter 3, what we just read there, and it’s a more low key moment. Peter and John just going up to the temple to pray. And so this first church is coming off the Pentecost and now we’re in this slower moment – just prayer at the temple and what’s going on there.

This early church was feeding people all across the city. The poor – the widows, the orphans, the people who did not have what we have today – Social Security – in a way of caring for an entire city full of people. So this first church begins feeding everybody – all kinds of people across the city. It begins to change people’s lives, as you can imagine. And so what happens is, as they are coming in for this prayer, devout, pious Jews would go and pray at the temple in Jerusalem, several times during the day, like how Muslims do today where they pray several times throughout the course of the day – well back then, Jewish people often had certain hours of prayer and especially if they were in Jerusalem, they would actually go up to the temple and pray during those hours. Our pastor, Steve Poos-Benson, right now, in Israel with 20 people – and they are going to be in the Temple Mount in a couple of days – when they’re there, they will find even today, the devout, pious Jews will go up to the temple wall, what is left of it, and they will pray at certain times throughout the day and they just go there constantly, throughout the day, throughout the weeks, to pray. And the same thing was true in the first century.

Well, what you need to know about the temple, though, is that in the first century, it had different quarters in it. And depending on who you were, and basically how holy you were considered, depended on how close you could get to the holy of holies. The holiest place where, in their lingo, God resided. It was the place where God took up residence in the temple. And obviously, you wanted to get as close to that as possible. And so the high priest was the only one ever allowed in the holy of holies. And the group of priests and religious elites were allowed into the holy area just outside of that. And then if you were Jewish male and considered to be a holy person, you were allowed in the small court right outside of the holy area. And if you were a Jewish woman, you couldn’t even get that close. You were in another area, excluded – farther out – and if you were not a Jewish person and not holy and were a gentile from the Nations, then there was literally a court of the gentiles outside of all of that. And so when you went to the Court of the Gentiles, there were various gates with people to prevent you from going any farther. And so in our story, we’re at the “Beautiful” gate. And the Beautiful gate is the one gate – if you look through it – you could see the actual temple where the holy of holies resided. So there was this way of kind of looking straight on from one door to the next. And the temple was set up so that most gates would not give you that kind of a view. The Beautiful gate was the one where even if you were a woman, or a gentile, you were farther out – if you were at the Beautiful gate, you felt you were still a part of it because you could look all the way through and see the building that housed the holy of holies. And it was, of course, beautiful.

And so what would happen with anyone who was diseased or had some sort of handicap or physical limitation, you were considered defiled – contaminated – unholy. So as you can see, how it was set up, there were lots of classes of people, and for all you women out there, you were automatically – so 50% of society was already relegated to farther out. And of course if you were a gentile, you were even farther away than that. And even if you were a Jewish male and considered to be a pious person coming up for prayer, if you had some sort of infirmity of any type, you were considered contaminated and unholy and you had to be outside as well. So this early church, for them, everything changes. They may have been living under these rules and regulations before they met Jesus, but now afterwards, everything has changed. The people they are associating with, shifts. This worshiping community is no longer just about men, it’s about men and women. And as we get farther into Acts, you find out it’s not just about Jews, it’s about Jewish people and everyone across the Roman Empire. It is not just about going up for prayer at the temple, it’s now about sharing bread from house to house. It’s no longer just about giving some money to the poor and kind of tossing it to them as you walk into the temple, it’s now about feeding them bread. All over the city.

And so the relationship, the processes, the time, the talent, the treasure and the touch all shift for this early church community. And thus how we get to this person who cannot walk at the Beautiful gate. Contaminated, defiled, unholy. Not allowed any farther than that gate. What’s smart, in that his friends would drop him off at that gate every day because those pious, holy, religious people walking to the temple, like most people who are religious, holy and pious, are willing to give a coin or two to the homeless and the beggars who are there at the gates. And so it was a smart move for them to be there and to get some of that charity, a little tiny bit of generosity from those people. And so Peter and John walk up to the temple for prayers. And they stopped. And they look at this man. Now, put yourself in this story real quickly. What is that like? What does it mean to be outside of the temple? To not be acceptable, to go day after day after day to not be allowed any farther in, to occasionally get some coins thrown at your feet, no one touch you, no one really give you the time of day. No one look at you – to gaze at you – to give you any time – any touch – any attention.

Now we all probably have some sort of experience that let’s us in just a tiny bit into that person’s world. We’ve all had moments where we don’t feel like we’re on the inside of a group. When we’re not allowed in to the elite circle. It may be now in your life. It may be a time – if you think a long way back to school – a time when you felt you were an outsider. How do we deal with that? How does that feeling- uh – right? We know what that feels like – to be rejected. And this was a man who was rejected day after day after day and Peter and John walk up and they literally stop and they look into this person’s eyes. Everything shifts for this man at that moment. Peter and John are giving this guy their time, their touch, their gaze, their attention. And they look at him and say “look at us. Look at us. We’re here at this moment. We’re aware to what is going on in your life. You’re not allowed in and we’re about to change all of that.” And they look at the man and say “In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk. Get up and walk.” Now yes, it’s a physical healing, yes they change this person’s physical world and that’s fantastic, but what’s really going on in this story was taking place here was not just about a person’s body, it’s about their entire religious and social experience. Because the minute that man could get up and walk, it’s not just “hey I’m healed and I can go about my life, I can walk through those gates now.” Those gates are no longer just beautiful now because there’s a temple through them, they are beautiful for this man’s world. His life can go through the Beautiful gates, finally. He is now acceptable. Because Peter and John took the moment to stop. Took a moment in their day, in the midst of trying to get to a good seat in the temple, they took a moment – they looked – they saw – they spoke – they touched; and this man’s life is changed forever.

Who has the time to speak to anybody? I mean, really. When was the last time you encountered someone who you aren’t supposed to take time for? That you’re not supposed to touch. When did that happen for you? I had an experience about a week ago. I was down on the 16^th Street Mall in downtown Denver. Of course there’s a lot of homeless people down there and a man came up to me and asked me for a dollar. A dollar for him and his wife. They’re cold and I had one of those moments – and you’ve all had these moments too. What are you going to do? How are you going to approach this person. It’s doubly worse for me because I’m in this position up here – right? And I happen to be with someone from the congregation at the moment. What am I going to do? And I end up getting out some money and handing it to the guy, but the thing that was going through my head was not generosity. It was not charity. It was not grace, it was “this is wasting my time and I just want to move on.” And really, the reason why I handed the person the money was so that I could move on instead of actually giving that person any sort of attention. It would have been better for me to stop, to look at the person, to have a conversation with that person, whether I give them money or not. To just give a little grace, a little love, a little generosity, rather than think “Hey, it’s just easier to hand off some cash and move on with my life.” And so I come away from that experience – person from the congregation there – you know – my wife and I and them and this homeless couple – and I’m thinking about the rest of the evening and then I’m thinking about the rest of the week – now I’ve been thinking “wow – how warped am I? Why couldn’t I be generous for a moment, even if it was just with my personality and time and touch and gaze and attention – to say I notice you – you are there – you’re in troubled time – you are not where I’m at” And just look at them and say “you know what – I’m going to bring just a tiny bit of love, a little bit of God’s Kingdom, a little bit of God’s dream of humanity between two people in this moment, right now.” And I failed to do so. I failed to do that.

And I can’t say what would have happened otherwise. I don’t know exactly what the consequences would have been to engage in that. I don’t know if the person would have stood up and been jumping down through the streets, because that’s all beside the point. Because it’s about me and my path and my journey and my generosity factor and what I’m going to do with this. How is this going to affect my life in this future and perhaps that person’s future. But we fear being contaminated. Of messing up our time. Of messing up our touch - of literally putting ourselves in the situation that feels terribly uncomfortable. A little ying and yang going on right here. On the red side, we have selfishness filling up most of it, the little tiny bit of selflessness. And the blue is mostly selflessness with a little bit of selfishness. In our fear, in our anxieties, in our fears of other people and the other and what they may be or do, and our fear of losing our time in what we’re trying to get to next and our anxieties about trying to get through life, prevent us from being with other people. Those things in people that we consider to contaminate us, to defile, to mess up our grind. Right? We need to move to faith. The kind of faith that says “I’m going to reach out and touch a person at this moment, just for a minute. Just for a little bit of gazing time. Just a little bit of attention given to someone else.” What does that mean for us? And sometimes, it is the homeless person on the street. But often times, it’s our spouses. It’s our family. It’s our kids, our parents, our siblings, our neighbors, the people we walk in to church with. It’s that person you watch as you’re going out and maybe you look across the room and say “something’s going on in that person’s life” and you just walk on by. Even though you know something’s going on, you think maybe I should just go up and ask – maybe I should just go up and put a hand on that person’s shoulder and say “I’m thinking about you – I’m praying for you. God has put you on my mind.” Just to take that moment to be generous. Just for a moment. To move from this focus right here to looking around and saying “It’s not just about me – I have all kinds of stuff going on in my life. Very important things. But so do you. And so do they. And so do others.”

And when we really begin in that generosity thing and looking at our path through life, we begin to say, is it more blessed to give than to receive? Jesus Christ, the ultimate example. Jesus Christ, who often times needed to take a moment from the crowd, who had to have those places and spaces away in order to get away, meant even when interrupted, most of the time, just gave at least another moment to look at someone – to touch them – and that way healing them. Physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually. Just a gaze in someone’s eyes and nobody else was paying attention to them.

I want to end on this. There’s a movie out right now called “In Time”. I think, Joe, you’ve seen it, right? It’s with Justin Timberlake and it’s an odd movie – it’s a science fiction based movie about the future when time is the ultimate commodity. Time is the currency of the future and they go around with these times displayed on their arms. Justin Timberlake, in the opening scene of the movie, he only has less than 24 hours left to live. But as he works, and as his mother works and you get into the movie and as people do what they do, what we do for pay, for money, they do for time. And so for every hour of work, they get more time so that they can live longer. And the thing I like about the move is that even though it’s a science fiction thing, taking place in the future, it really is a commentary on our world right now. We live in a time, in a moment, when time is the currency. And anyone who has faced the end of life abruptly, who walks into a doctor’s office and says “you have six months to live”, knows that time is the ultimate currency. That every other thing that we’re trying to earn in life basically gets pushed aside because now it’s all about time and who am I going to spend my last days with? What am I going to do with my time? Peter and John walking up to the temple that day, walked up to pray. But what they found, beyond their own holiness, their own spiritual rhythm and way, was there was a person who needed them at that moment – who needed their prayers, their touch, their time, way more than the temple needed their time.

Generosity, stewardship goes far beyond this place. And that’s why I say, it’s not about me just standing up here asking for more from you for me and for this place. This is really about your life. What choices will you make as you go through your week? Who will you take a moment for? Who will you touch? Being aware of who God is, where God’s at. When you look across and see a face that is just exuberant and happy and wonderful and saying “God’s blessing that person’s life and I’m going to give a little time to that and see what’s going on.” Or to look at someone else’s face and go “they’re world looks like it’s falling apart” and you give them a little touch. You say “I’m going to try to be here with you in the middle of this.” Who do you have time for? Who do you refuse to have time for? Who will you touch? Who do you normally refuse to touch? Who do you not give any attention to? Who needs that attention, that awareness, that presence in their life at this moment? The generosity challenge I give to you this week – five minutes for five people who need to be seen, heard, touched, given some sort of attention to. It may be a simple thing when you are getting gas, or at a restaurant or in the grocery store. You look at someone and say – a complete stranger – and say “hi – looks you’re having a bad week.” I know that seems strange to say to a group of people – to go up to a stranger and say something. But that’s exactly what Peter and John – it’s part of what it means to live out faith. It gets us past those fears and anxieties. It may be someone you know. It may be a co-worker or neighbor who needs a little bit of time from you. It may be a family member or a friend. How will you give your time and touch? How will you be generous? What will your path look like this week, this day, and how will that alter your future? How is stewarding those choices of your touch and time change and transform your life?

It’s about being generous. It’s tough to do. It takes decisions and choices to be generous. But I offer that cliché, it is better to give than to receive. What will you do with it?