Sermon May 9, 2010

Fearless Living

Sermon series on being Mentally Healthy

Psalm 46 read responsively and Romans 8:14-39

May 9, 2010 – Mother’s Day – Celebration of the Gifts of Women

Preached by Linda Jo Peters

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

From Paul to Martin Luther to Mother Teresa believers have struggled with fear and doubt. Even our precious Lord Jesus cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Luke 23:35) But over and over believers have reclaimed their faith and faced their fear. Martin Luther in his darkest hour wrote the great hymn “A Might Fortress is My God” which based on this psalm. With such hope let us read Psalm 46 responsively.

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;

3though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah

4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

5God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.

6The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.

7The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

8Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth.

9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.

10“Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations; I am exalted in the earth.”

11The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Romans 8:14-25

Paul has just gone to great lengths to explain that the only way to release human beings from the dreadful condition of moral paralysis where they affirm what is good but don't do it; is to hear the liberating news that God meets us with generosity and grace. That generosity sets aside condemnation and offers forgiveness and a new relationship, which in turn frees us to be what we were made to be and do what the Law rightly demands but also do so much more. How is that possible? Love, acceptance and forgiveness empowered by the Holy Spirit to transform our lives from ones of fear to ones hope. When the Spirit is able to flow into and through our lives we will end up doing far more than just what the Law stipulates as good. We will live fearlessly.

14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. 18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

SERMON

Celebrating the Gifts of Women Sunday honors women who contribute their gifts to the church and community, and lifts up issues of women’s rights. March 7, 2010, is designated as a day to Celebrate the Gifts of Women. It is the day before International Women’s Day on March 8. Our congregation or has chosen to celebrate the gifts of women on Mother’s day.

From the life-giving role of mothers such as Eve and Sarah, through the tears and prayers of a queen named Esther, the wisdom of Judith and Debra, a young woman named to Mary, through two sisters of faith even at their brother’s death, through the women who came to the tomb, to Paul’s baptism of Lydia and commissioning of Priscilla, to women in the church today, God’s word is kept alive. From sermons preached to lessons taught, from inscriptions on papyrus to internet blogs, the message is still being heard and sent out by women. We rejoice in and celebrate God’s message, along with the way women continue to keep God’s word alive. As we celebrate the gifts of women, one particular gift seemed most important to as we consider our own mental health. That gift is fearless living.

Living in fear degrades the spirit as well as the body. But I am not talking being fearless as demonstrated in the rage of a mother bear when her children are in danger. But the wise and consistent service born of love and sacrifice lived out without fear by abiding and trusting in God’s grace. These gifts we celebrate and thank God for pouring them out into our families, on our community and for the whole world through amazing news worthy women to ordinary mothers, wives, sisters, daughters living as disciples of Christ Jesus.

So I have been reading about women who have lived seemingly fearless lives. Margaret Moth was a CNN photographer when very few women were in front of the news camera let alone behind it and in war zones. Her attitude made other colleagues, many of whom were interviewed for the documentary "Fearless: The Margaret Moth Story," strive to be better at what they did. Sound techs and correspondents would often follow her lead, whether they felt ready or not. She was known to outrun her own security. Photojournalists viewed her as a bar-setter. Then July 23, 1992, she is shot in the face as she is filming the war in Sarajevo. Half her face is torn away. She holds it on and fights to remain conscious. In Margaret’s hospital room among the many visitors is Christina Anapour who receives a call to go back to the war right while she is with a terrible wounded colleague. She realizes that if she had said no then she would never have gone back and never have had the career in journalism that she has had. Margaret was her model of courage. After numerous surgeries, Margaret also returns to her work.

The Rev. Steve Hayner recalled taking his adult daughter to Rwanda two years ago, where they visited a village leader who had been gang-raped and mutilated during that country’s genocide 10 years ago before escaping to Burundi. The woman returned home after recovering from her attack — pregnant and HIV+. Hayner said, “Our hearts were sinking as she told us her story,” “but she was joyous because she cares for 10 people in her village who are dying of AIDS. ‘I feel so blessed because I can care for them,’ she told us.” Another nameless woman doing living fearlessly.

Judith Rock tells how she found strength in the face of an injury. She writes:

The first thing God does in Genesis is wade into chaos, which is exactly what the human artist does. Chaos, the raw material for human makers as well as for God, is fortunately abundant. In 1987, in the midst of a performance at the Sacramento Jazz Festival, I tore a calf muscle and ended up in a cast from toes to knee. Four weeks before an East coast dance tour. The dance company was, by that time, three of us. In order to do a full concert, all of us had to be able to perform. The doctor told me he would take the cast off the day before I left for Boston.

I went home, dragged a folding chair out of the closet, and plunked it down in front of a mirror. And started making a dance out of that particular chaos: the injury, the cast, my anger, frustration, and urgent need, the chair as the limited space in which I would move, since I could barely walk. That chaos took me into new, fruitful, and fascinating movement territory. I called the piece Learning to Sit Still.

When I got the cast off, I made them cut it very neatly, so that I could put it back on and tape it together. It was now a stage prop. The next day, holding onto walls in order to walk, I got on the plane, the cast and the chair in our company luggage, and went to Boston. Learning to Sit Still stayed in my solo repertoire for years. The chaos of injury, worry, and necessity out of which I made Learning to Sit Still forced me where I didn’t want to go, into artistic territory I would not otherwise have explored.

I was a strong, fast, athletic dancer. A good jumper, fearless in movement. All my life I’d hated sitting still. I still don’t love it. But having to go there, I learned how movement is to be found in confinement. I learned the deep and wide territory of slowness. The imposed limits of the situation forced me out of what I loved best into the new possibilities of what I didn’t love at all. None of that made Learning to Sit Still a happy dance. To make a happy dance would have meant making it a false dance. Not that you couldn’t make a happy dance on a chair. But a happy dance wasn’t what I could make out of that particular chaos and still tell the truth of that particular chaos. Fortunately, happiness is not a pre-requisite for making.

We’re all makers. We all create out of chaos. All of us can develop our ability to create, we can experiment with it, we can push it farther… We help heal the world when we step out of the way things usually are, out of our familiar normal, and do things more flexibly, more unexpectedly, less defensively… Making (something) out of chaos is () hard, scary, intermittently joyous as opposed to happy, teeth-grittingly detailed, glorious, obsessive, pig-headedly stubborn, hilarious, terrifyingly focused, often apparently useless, low to no-paying, often nuts-in-the-eyes-of-the-world, and it has long boring stretches that make going to meetings look like a good time.

Remember the three things we talked about to encourage our mental health: Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness? Where in your life do you need to live fearlessly and make something out the chaos around you? The ingredients for living fearlessly are the same as for moving beyond our pain and hurt. They are love, acceptance and forgiveness. Margaret Moth loved her work so much that she accepted the risks and forgave the sniper. The unnamed woman in Rwanda became a leader in her community by loving others, accepting her limitations and forgiving those who had so horribly abused her. Judith Rock took her love of dance and combined it with her acceptance of her injury and created a meaningful message with her art.

Today we celebrate with joy the women and men who live fearlessly through love, acceptance and forgiveness. Remember always that “you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.” Amen.

Sources: http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20071119JJ.shtml published by Journey with Jesus Foundation.  Reflections By Dan Clendenin, essay posted 19 November 2007; www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/03/21/margaret.moth.obit;  www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2007/07792 , Fearless Humility by Jerry L. Van Marter Presbyterian News Service, Lousiville, KY December 5, 2007 Rev. Steve Hayner, a professor of evangelism and church growth at Columbia Theological Seminary, told the Association of Presbyterian Mission Pastors at its annual gathering here Nov. 28-30. www.pcusa.org/olderadults/pdf/armss07keynote.pdf, The Word Made Flesh and the Body in the Mirror

Rev. Dr. Judith Rock ARMSS Convention Denver, June 15, 2007