Sermon of January 19, 2003
Rev. Mark Trotter, Guest Preacher
“How's Your Hearing?”I Samuel 3:1-20
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I want us to look at the two stories read as our scripture lessons for this morning. They are both “call” stories. One, the call of the prophet Samuel, the other, the call of the disciples, Philip and Nathaniel. They are just two of the many call stories in the bible. In the Old Testament everybody who was anybody had a call. The Patriarchs were called. Moses was called. The prophets were called. At least two kings were called, Saul and David. And of course, the nation Israel was called. So, in a sense, in the Old Testament, everyone has a call, either a special call to leadership, or a call to live up to the responsibilities of a Chosen People. And in the New Testament, you find the same thing. Jesus had a call. It happened at his baptism in the River Jordan. The heavens opened, the Spirit descended as a dove, and a voice said, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.” Immediately after that, Jesus called the twelve disciples, one version of which you heard read this morning. But he doesn't stop with the disciples -- he keeps on calling. The call to the disciples was a special call. But there is another all, to you and me: the call to enter the Kingdom, to live by the teachings of Jesus, to strive to be the kind of person God created you to be. At Caesarea Philippi Jesus said to the “disciples and the multitude...” The phrase, “disciples and multitudes” is critical. Whenever it appears in the gospels it means that this teaching is for everybody, for the twelve disciples and everyone else. “To the disciples and the multitude,” he said, “If anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will find it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life.” Now that's a call. Give your life to something greater than yourself and you will find out what life is all about. In the bible, one way or another, everyone has a call, and the call comes to us as a call to get outside the self and live for something greater than the self. If you turn to the Old Testament lesson, the story of the call of Samuel, you will notice it begins, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days.” That is the biblical way of saying the people weren't listening for a call. It is my observation that the “word of the Lord” is rare in our day as well. I doubt that people in our time expect a call. I think there is a reason. There is a strong tradition of “self-reliance” in our history. Its most eloquent advocates were the New England divines, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Back in their day, 150 years ago, self-reliance was a great thing. They were talking about the worth and value of an inner life, a cultivation of the spirit, a kind of personal integrity, over against what they saw as the “quiet desperation' of most Americans in an increasingly materialistic society. But 150 years later, in our time, self-reliance has been reduced to “self-esteem,” which is a different breed of cat. Self-esteem, as it is preached today, amounts pretty much to liking yourself a whole lot. It has been proposed as a cure for whatever ails you, and for what is wrong with society. California even established a “Task Force On Self-Esteem.” It was supposed to cure the drug problem, among other things. It didn't. Some psychologists have begun to question if self-esteem, thinking highly of yourself, is really the cure. Some are even suggesting it may be part of the problem. Maybe what is needed is not so much pride, but more humility. Not so much self-esteem, but self-discipline. One of the nice things Jean and I have discovered about retirement is we can go sponge off the children. In one of our visits to our grandchildren in San Francisco we visited our grandson's kindergarten room. We saw the art work, the crafts, the achievement charts on the wall with the names of all the children in the class. (Our grandson had more stars after his name than anyone else) All of this was praised by teachers, parents, grandparents. Building up the self-esteem of children. It is a good thing. But that wasn't all. Tacked to the wall was a list of rules. I remember some years ago there was a piece being passed around entitled, “All I Needed To Know I Learned In Kindergarten.” Well here was the real thing. I copied down the rules. Be Honest. Never cheat or steal. Play by the rules. Take turns. Be a good listener. Treat other people as you would like them to treat you. Understand that all people are different. All people have feelings. Be thoughtful. Forgive others. I thought, “How terrific!” These kindergartners are not only told they are wonderful human beings, they are also being told there are other human beings in your world, and they are as important and precious as you are. So there is an expectation that you will not only think of yourself, but think about other people too. Which sounds a lot like Jesus' commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That's the call that comes to all of us, each one of us: Get outside the self in order to find the self. Fifty years ago, after the II World War, Viktor Frankl came out of a concentration camp with a new school of psychoanalysis. He challenged what was the orthodox psychoanalytic theory of that day, that we are motivated solely by drives and impulses hidden from us in our subconscious. In the concentration camp he saw something different. He observed that those who survived were those who had a sense of meaning and purpose in life outside themselves. They believed their lives were involved in something greater than themselves. They weren't driven by impulses. They were drawn by ideals. He concluded that we have a will, the power to choose to live for something outside the self. And in the prison, those who did survived, and those who were absorbed in themselves died. He told of lecturing at Melbourne University in Australia, and given a boomerang as a souvenir. He used the boomerang as an illustration of the human predicament. He said one generally assumes that the boomerang returns to the thrower. Actually it returns to the thrower only when he has missed his target. Similarly, “Man returns to himself, to be concerned with his self, only after he has missed his mission,” only after he has failed to find meaning in life beyond the self. Frankl stumbled on what is called “the paradox of the gospel.” Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever would lose his life will find it. That's the call. You find yourself to the extent that you give yourself to something greater than the self. In our day an increasing number realize that something is missing in the quality of our life, in the ethics of our institutions, both public and private. We have been wracked with scandal. I believe Tom Brokaw's book, The Greatest Generation, was such a hit because he clearly outlined what is missing today; a sense of duty or obligation to anything beyond the self. What made the men and women in the II World War remarkable was that they demonstrated qualities we don't seem to have. And yet those who were interviewed refused to think they did anything remarkable. They were acting out of a belief that life is found by responding to a call, in their instance, a call to sacrifice their lives for their country. Likewise we look with nostalgia to the founding fathers of our country. It is amazing. The country was a fraction of the size it is today. Today there are almost 300,000,000 Americans. In the 1790 census there were fewer than 4, 000,ooo. Yet in 1790 the nation produced statesmen in abundance. Today all we can produce are politicians. The difference between now and then is the difference between turning inward and turning outward. Turning inward, all you hear is an echo of your own voice. Turning outward, you can hear the call of God. The founders of the republic realized they lived in unprecedented times. With the establishment of the republic on these shores there existed now the possibility for a new era for the whole world. A new age. They phrased it in Latin: Novus Ordo Seclorum, a new order for the ages. That phrase today is on our dollar bills. And to respond to this call they needed to live morally, avoid corruption, govern with disinterestedness, and compassion, because they were embarked on a great mission. Both generations, the founding fathers, and the World War II veterans, had one thing in common: They heard a call and responded with greatness. I have been thinking lately about America, and the times in which we live. The world has changed dramatically in the last decade, and I have the feeling most people are not aware of it. This may be the way all ages shift, silently, like the way the sun rises on a new day, and it just takes some people longer to wake up. But someone needs to wake us up to the fact that that world changed in 1989 when the Soviet empire fell and the Cold War ended and America emerged as the only superpower. Since then that power has multiplied. The military might of our nation is unprecedented, and almost incomprehensible. The United States military today is bigger in dollars spent than the militaries in the next fifteen nations combined. The United States economy is now larger than the next three largest economies combined: Japan, Germany, and Great Britain. I wondered -- are we at one of those moments at which our ancestors believed they were called to give themselves to something greater than themselves? Our history is marked by such moments. You can see it in the founding father's phrase, Novus Ordo Seclorum, which is only one of several images they used to express their faith that they were acting for the sake of all mankind and future generations. President Lincoln believed America was called to behave righteously in the crisis of the Civil War because, he said, “America is the last best hope on earth.” The issue of slavery was not just an American dilemma. It's resolution would effect the future of the world. President Wilson led the nation to enter the I World War because we had a call to “save the world for democracy.” President Bush, this president's father, in 1989, at the beginning of the new era, said, “What is at stake is a new world order where diverse nations come together to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind.” That was a glimpse that something new, something unprecedented had happened, and America was being called to seize the opportunity, not to promote its own welfare, not “to the victor goes the spoils,” but to lead the “diverse nations to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind.” Now that's a call. There are those in our time who say that the call is to military dominance, and that is as far as it goes. That is the voice of those who believe the only function of the state is defense, and its only policy is self-interest. They say we have always acted that way. All nations have acted that way. That is what nations do. That is Real-politik. But that is not how you build a new world. That is to perpetuate the way things have always been. So, what if we were to think differently about our time? What if we were to think biblically? To do so is to listen for a call. Here is a nation with more power than any other nation in the history of the world. A nation founded on ideals, lofty ideals about new eras, new ages, being “the last best hope on earth”. Or as President Reagan liked to put it, quoting Thomas Paine, “We have it in our power to begin the world again.” Actually we have it in our power to do whatever we choose. That is what it means to be the lone superpower. All this rhetoric in our heritage about new ages, new eras, beginning the world over again. Is it just rhetoric? Political platitude? Or do we really believe it? If we really believe it -- then we have been called. The world is waiting for America to use its power and wealth to help cure the endemic problems that have plagued most of the people on earth from the beginning: hunger, poverty, and disease. We have it in our power to do it. Take the instance of plague. 20,000,000 have died of AIDS in Africa. An additional 44,000,000 have been infected with the HIV virus. And now the disease is spreading with even greater ferocity into Asia. We are heading for a plague of medieval proportions, when in the 14th century the Black Death wiped out three fourths of the population of Europe. How can the most powerful nation in the history of the world not hear that as a call? The President's advisers tell him the war in Iraq, if it comes to pass, will cost us $50 to $100 billion. His advisers also tell him that we are so wealthy that we can spend at that level and still cut taxes. It is amazing! So why not take, say 10% of that amount and spend it on another war? After all another of the President's advisers, the Secretary of Defense, has declared that we are capable of waging two wars at the same time. Of course he had in mind North Korea, but evidently we are not going to do that now. So why not take $10 billion and wipe out AIDS - - and still cut taxes! The United Nations says with just $4 billion the number of those infected with the virus can be reduced by 60% by 2010. If we got serious about it, and spent $10 billion instead of only $4 billion, think what could happen. If you want an example of the power to begin the world over again, I think that would come close to doing it. Imagine, a strong powerful nation, believing it had a call, not to dominate and exploit, which is what empires do, but to reach out and heal, and feed, and empower the least among us in our world. It would change the world. And it would change America. I mean, we've got our problems, but they are mostly spiritual, and there is a biblical prescription for that. If you try to save your life, you will lose it. If you lose your life, give of yourself, you will find new life. Maybe future generations will say of us, “This was the greatest generation, because it heard a call -- said yes -- and found its life”. |
