IT'S AS SIMPLISTIC AS THAT

A preacher decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. At the beginning of the sermon four worms were placed into four separate jars. The first worm was put into a container of alcohol. The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke. The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup. The fourth worm was put into a container of good, clean soil.

At the conclusion of the long, long sermon, the Minister reported the following results: the first worm in alcohol: dead. The second worm in cigarette smoke: dead. The third worm in chocolate syrup: dead. The fourth worm in good, clean soil: alive. So the Minister asked the congregation, "What did you learn from this demonstration?"

Maxine was sitting in the back and quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke, and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!" Well, it doesn’t get any simpler or more simplistic as that, does it?

Because we live in an age of 30-second sound bytes, we have become accustomed to wanting the answers to complicated and complex questions in simple-to-understand terms. We do not want a long discussion about the finer points, without which, of course, any response will be insufficient. What we get now are not simple answers but simplistic answers which somehow become dogma as in “Smoke, drink and eat chocolate and you will be fine.” Sure.

In this highly-politicized season we are being bombarded with simplistic answers to very, very difficult and complicated questions and issues. “A free market will solve our problems.” “Just get the government off our backs and all will be well.” “Tax the rich and the deficit will be drastically reduced.” There are no simple solutions to very large problems and you can take that to the bank, as an old TV character used to say.

We know the truth of that politically even though we too often buy into those simplistic answers. We also know it to be true from a faith perspective that simple answers, while often true, often are simplistic when put into practice. Jesus gave us, following up on the Old Testament, a simple answer to the way we should live and thus, if we all lived that way, to solving all the world’s problems: love God above all else, with all our heart and mind and strength, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Simple answer, but in many ways, in actual fact, also simplistic. Jesus loved everyone equally and totally, even those who were putting him to death; but his love did not prevent his death. Just as a freer market of less government or high taxes on the rich will solve some problems, they will not solve all of them and may even create more problems.

Simple/simplistic answers always sound good. Yet most of the problems we deal with every day are always more complex than any simple or simplistic answer can resolve –  like smoking, drinking and eating chocolate to stay healthy. Be aware of the simple and beware of the simplistic. It’s as simple and simplistic as that!

TAKE TIME TO RESPOND

We live in a world, or at least in a country, where consumption seems to be the calling card. We eat more than we should, certainly eat more of the wrong foods and not enough of the right ones. We consume more of the world’s natural and dwindling resources than we have a right to while, at the same time, making it more difficult for the rest of the world to obtain its fair share.

We seem to be so preoccupied with getting, obtaining more and more. Perhaps the word “seem” is incorrect. Perhaps the truth is that we are preoccupied. We tend to think, or seem to be convinced of the truth that more is better rather than realizing that less is more. Who hasn’t eaten so much at a wonderfully delicious and even nutritious meal that the stuffed stomach mitigated against our being able to really enjoy the meal. Too many of our children have more toys than they can possibly enjoy any one of them.

All that is bad enough; and even though it is a guilt trip, this reminder that we spend too much time, energy and money in obtaining and consuming that which we deem will make us happy or happier, there is another point to all this. It is an important point and one that we all too easily overlook, take for granted or, even worse, do not recognize at all as being something of which we should be aware.

The point is quite simple: when we allow ourselves to be preoccupied, even at times consumed, with getting – getting food, getting possessions, getting money, getting – we become unable to respond to what God gives to us, freely gives to us at no cost and asks nothing in return other that we appreciate what we have been given and to not misuse that gift in any way.

One of the reasons why more is less is that when we have little, we always appreciate what we have. The more we possess the less we seem to appreciate and enjoy those possessions. We sometimes have so many possessions that we have to store them in the attic, the cellar, the garage or even rent one of those storage facilities somewhere across town almost to the point where we even forget what we have and certainly have no way of enjoying them.

Then, too, one of the reasons why we seem unable to respond to what God gives us is that we either have taken for granted what those gifts are or we can’t grab hold of them and store them away for future enjoyment. They are meant to be enjoyed all the time but can only be enjoyed when they are recognized for what they are: God’s free gifts to us. Once recognized, then and only then can we respond appropriately.

What are those free God-given gifts? They are too numerous to mention, but consider some: life itself, each day, the sunshine, nature in all its glory, the fruits of the earth, God’s total love for us and the ability to love God and others and be loved in return, God’s forgiveness and the ability to forgive and be forgiven. Each of us can add to that list of the gifts God gives to each freely, unasked, with the only request that our response is to recognize these gifts, to be thankful and never, ever take them for granted.

ROSE GARDENS                                                                                       

It’s been almost 40 years since Lynne Anderson recorded “Rose Garden”. I know that because I was one of over 3.6 million people who listened to her sing that song on YouTube. The opening words are fascinating: “I beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, there's gotta be a little rain sometimes.” Sunshine and rain do go together. We need both. However, life is really about living in a rose garden, analogies being what they are.

When I was growing up, my Mom had a large rose garden in the back yard along with her vegetable garden. She also had rose bushes scattered around outside the house. They were always beautiful when the roses were in full bloom. There were times when she asked me to pick some roses to put into a vase for us to enjoy inside our home. Doing so was always a somewhat dangerous business.

Rose bushes come with thorns. One must be aware of those thorns when both tending to the bushes and when picking the roses. Many a time I came away with a scratch or two because I was not very careful. On a few occasions those pesky thorns went deep enough that I started to bleed. And while the injuries inflicted by those thorns were not in any way life-threatening, they did hurt.

Isn’t that what life in this life is really like? We live in a rose garden: a wonderful and beautiful world, God’s marvelous creation all around us to behold and enjoy and revel in if we so choose to do so. And who wouldn’t? Who shouldn’t? And yet this world of ours, as beautiful as it is, is full of thorns that cause us pain and suffering. And no matter how careful we are, we will sometimes be scratched. There are times, too, when those scratches will draw blood, real blood.

If we had our druthers and had a choice of which garden to live in, the biblical Garden of Eden or the real world’s Rose Garden, we would all choose paradise, or what is described as paradise. But that is not an option for us. The garden in which we live, as wonderful and as beautiful as it is, is also a dangerous place at times. As much as we might wish it were not so, it is so.

This world has always been a rose garden. That is the way God created this world, the biblical description of The Beginning notwithstanding. While we live in this Rose Garden, we will all receive our fair share of scratches, some more than others, unfortunately. We will also suffer puncture wounds from the thorns that are part and parcel of life among sinful human beings, some wounds deeper and more painful than others. There is no escape and no other Garden to flee to.

But amid all the thorns and enduring all the scratches and wounds that come our way, what still remains is the infinite beauty of the Garden itself. Even more is our faith that in the end, as beautiful as this Garden is, what awaits us is a Garden of unspeakable beauty where there are no thorns to cause any more pain and suffering. When our pain is so deep that we cannot see the beauty, that faith is what keeps us going until we can once again.

“WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THEM?”                          

 At the end of John’s Gospel Jesus appeared to his disciples who had gathered in that upper room because they were afraid of what might happen to them as followers of Jesus. They believed that the Jewish authorities who had had Jesus executed would now come after them and demand the same punishment. So they locked the doors and waited to see what would happen next.

What happened next was that Jesus suddenly appeared in the room and wished them peace, peace of mind and peace of heart. Then, according to John, he told them he was sending them off to be his disciples just as God the Father had sent him. Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23)

In other words, Jesus is giving his followers the power to forgive sins – his followers, those who believe in him, you and me. We can forgive the sins of those who have sinned against us. We don’t have to, of course, just as Jesus said. Sometimes we don’t. And sometimes, probably more often than not, even when we do forgive, it is not easy to do so. In fact, the only way we can forgive someone who has selfishly hurt us, sinned against us, is through the power and strength of the Holy Spirit.

That power and strength is always there to be accepted and utilized – or not. The choice is ours. We have that freedom. Over the years we have used it and we have rejected it. What I find telling about this ability to forgive or not forgive are Jesus’ words in another translation of the Bible, Eugene Peterson’s The Message. Thus, “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive, what are you going to do with them?”

That is the question, is it not: What are we going to do with all those sins that we refuse to forgive? Well, what we do do with them is hold onto them. We all have over the years, and I dare say we are all holding on to some of those past sins even today. We have not forgiven and are still not ready to forgive; and until we do forgive, we hold on to them. They weigh us down and hold us back. They are a burden and they become more and more of a burden the longer we hold on to them.

It is not easy to forgive someone who has deliberately hurt us, for all sins are deliberate. The other knew what s/he was doing when s/he said or did whatever it was to hurt us in whatever way we were hurt. For us to forgive that deliberate hurt is very, very difficult. The greater the hurt, the greater the difficulty in forgiving. It can’t be done unless we want to forgive and unless we allow the strength of the Holy Spirit fill us with the ability to do so.

The choice is always ours: we can hold on to the sins others have committed against us or we can unburden ourselves, forgive and move on with our lives, freed from the heavy load those sins truly are. The heavier the load, the more difficult life is. The lighter the load, the easier it becomes. What are we doing with those sins?