“Finding God in the Ordinary”
Matthew 6:24-34
Once upon a time, there was a far- away land that was ruled by a vicious king.
His iron fist reached into every corner of his subjects’ lives.
Every corner, except one.
Try as he might, he couldn’t destroy their belief in God.
In his frustration, he finally called his advisors together and asked them: “Where can I hide God so that the people will forget about Him?”
One suggested hiding God on the dark side of the moon.
This idea was hotly debated, but was eventually voted down because the advisors were afraid that scientists would one day figure out a way to travel into space and God would be discovered again.
Another suggestion was burying God in the deepest part of the ocean.
But there was the same problem with this idea, so it was voted down.
Idea after idea was suggested, debated and rejected.
Until finally the oldest and wisest advisor had a flash of insight.
“I know,” he said, “why don’t we hide God where no one will ever even think to look?”
And he explained, “If we hide God in the ordinary events of people’s every-day lives, they’ll never find Him!”
And so, it was done.
And they say people in that land are still looking for God, even today.”
Are you still looking for God, even today?
If so, where are you looking?
You know, life itself is an absolute miracle.
Why do we take it so for granted?
And why do we worry so and complain?
One day, about eleven years ago, I had a 10-year-old dachshund named Wesley.
Go figure, a Methodist Minister naming his dog Wesley.
In any event, Wesley had developed congestive heart failure.
She became weaker and weaker until she was having a hard time standing.
Yes, my female dachshund was named Wesley.
One morning, I awoke to sounds of banging against the metal doors of the closet.
I looked down from my bed and there was Wesley, looking up at me and struggling to stand.
I got up, carried Wesley downstairs and took her outside to go to the bathroom, but this was an effort in futility.
I walked back in house and as I cradled her in my arms, she stroked out and went limp.
My sweet dog died in my arms.
I put Wesley on a pillow and my father-in-law drove as we took her to the vet.
We didn’t know what else to do.
In any event, I had Wesley on my lap, and it looked as if she were sleeping.
Her hair was still shiny and soft.
She still looked like a puppy really.
My dog was still there…except she wasn’t.
The breath of life had left her body.
There was no bringing it back.
God has breathed into us this mysterious breath of life.
It causes these shells—these bodies we live in to be living things.
We can move our arms.
We can think deep thoughts.
We can create.
We can admire the beauty of creation, whether it is a flower, a field, a snowstorm or a painting of one.
But without that breath of life, we are just an inanimate object.
I saw this when my father died a few years ago.
I saw this happen when my sisters and I spent two weeks sitting with my mother as she slowly deteriorated from the effects of colon cancer…
…first talking and laughing…
…and eventually calling out to Jesus to take her…
…until she stopped breathing and I watched her final heartbeat occur through a vein on her neck.
I think we take the ordinary for granted.
I think we lose God in the ordinary.
I think we lose our blessings in the ordinary.
They are well-hidden because we take them for granted.
They are well-hidden because we worry, we fret and we run after and serve the wrong gods or god.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning, Jesus tells us: “No one can serve two masters.
Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.
Therefore, I tell you, do not worry…”
Do you know that just about every facet of American society sets itself up against this message from Jesus?
And therefore, it is one of the most countercultural sermons Jesus preaches.
I mean, let’s all ask ourselves this question: “What makes me worry? Is it whether or not I will have enough money to eat, pay my bills, buy my toys, provide for my kids at Christmas, go on vacation, retire?”
Or “Do I worry because I serve, love and trust in God and God alone?”
This is why trusting in God is the most important thing we can do in this life.
I have a colleague who shared with me the following story this past week.
Approximately 20 years ago, he was serving as Associate Pastor of a nearby church.
And he had been ministering to the people on the streets.
Eventually, some of those people started to come to worship.
One afternoon, a wealthy member of the church knocked on his office door.
He entered and said to my friend, “The reason we founded this church was to get away from the…” and he used the N-Word.
“Now you are bringing them into our church. We want you to stop!”
My ministry colleague looked at the guy and said, “When you die and go to hell, I hope you have to sit next to a black person who happened to die and go to hell as well.”
As you can imagine, this got my friend into all kinds of trouble.
He got a call from his District Superintendent telling him he was being moved to a church in rural Virginia.
He told the District Superintendent, “I can’t go to Rural Virginia. My ministry is on the streets.”
Again, he was told, “We are sending you to Rural Virginia.”
My friend replied, “I’m not going.”
The District Superintendent said, “This is your source of income. You go where we tell you to go.”
Again, my friend said, “I’m not going to Rural Virginia.
God has taken care of me my entire life and God will continue to take care of me.”
“Is that your final answer?” asked the D.S.
“Yes,” my friend replied.
Today, this pastor runs one of the most successful and fruitful homeless ministries in Chattanooga.
Jesus said to His disciples; Jesus says to you and to me: “Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air…your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?...
… “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
And isn’t that the key?
“You can’t serve two masters…”
If my friend were seeking to serve money rather than God he would have stopped his ministry to the street people, stopped inviting people of all and any colors and lifestyles to that church and just nodded his head, agreed and apologized to that wealthy member who didn’t want “those kind of people” in his church.
But that wasn’t God’s will.
My friend chose to “seek first [God’s] kingdom and [God’s] righteousness” and God took care of him.
How many of us are doing that, truly trusting in God?...
…Standing up for what is right, even in the face of the possibility we might lose our job or our standing in the community or the church?
I know I don’t always do this.
But I want to.
“Why do you worry?” asks Jesus.
“You cannot serve both God and money.”
“Trust in God, seek God’s Kingdom and God’s righteousness—God’s will for your life…”
…and don’t worry.
God has your back.
God will take care of you.
It’s not necessarily the easy way.
But it’s the right way.
And in the long run, we will find it was much more “fulfilling” than trying to follow our own way!
Look at the birds of the air.
They don’t worry or fret and yet look how well God takes care of them.
Look at the flowers, see how they grow.
They don’t worry or fret and yet God makes them more beautiful than the best dressed person in the world.
Trust in the God Who takes care of the birds and the flowers…
…if He takes care of them, certainly He will take care of you.
There was a man who served as a medical missionary for many years in India.
He served in an area where there was progressive blindness.
People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they matured.
Well, this medical missionary developed a process that would stop progressive blindness.
So, people came to him and he performed his operation, and they would leave realizing that they would have become blind, but now they were going to be able to see for the rest of their lives.
The people never said, “Thank you,” to this missionary who had cured their blindness because that phrase was not in their dialect.
Instead, they spoke a word that meant: “I will tell your name.”
So, wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness.
Have we received something so wonderful that we eagerly proclaim it?
Are we able to see God, even in the ordinary.
One time in college, I was struggling with my faith.
I was walking around on campus on a Spring day thinking about these things, when I laid down on my back in the grass.
Staring up at the clouds an insect flew straight at my eye, and my eyelash naturally fluttered and closed and kept that bug from hurting my eye.
I thought, how amazing, what a miracle, what a gift.
God created eyelashes so that bugs won’t get in our eyes.
What an amazing God we have, and I was thankful.
That was an “ah-hah” moment…
…a Thanksgiving moment which happened in the ordinary.
I think one of the cures for worry, anxiety and a lack of trust in God is Thanksgiving.
Most of us will gather around a table this Thursday, perhaps with family and friends for fellowship and great food.
We will thank God for the people around us, for the food on our tables, for the miracle of life we enjoy, and maybe…just maybe we can thank God that He can be found in the ordinary…
…in the way He clothes the flowers in the field and the way He feeds the birds of the air.
Most of all, maybe we can thank God for His great gift of love shown to us most clearly by Jesus Christ’s death and Resurrection…
…for the gift of faith which He offers us…
…and the salvation we experience through this gift.
And, maybe we can thank Him, not just on Thanksgiving, around a table, but in how we live, what we do with this great news, this salvation.
Maybe we will even proclaim it!
Perhaps we will tell others about it not only through what we say, but by the kind and loving acts we do for others in His name.
May it be so.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Amen.
