[This the second sermon that is based on Reinhold Niebuhr's prayer/poem "The Serenity Prayer." This sermon is about asking God to grant us the courage to change the things that we can.]
Once upon a time, a caterpillar crawled inside a hare’s house when the hare was away and set about making himself comfortable. When the hare returned home, he noticed some strange new tracks on the ground going into his cave. He called out, “Who’s in my house?” The caterpillar boomed: “It is I! Yes, I who crushes rhinos to the earth and tramples elephants into dust.” The hare hopped about crying: “What can a small animal like me do with a creature who crushes rhinos and tramples elephants?”
A jackal soon happened by and the hare asked the jackal to talk to the terrible creature who had taken up residence in his home and convince him to leave. The jackal agreed and barked loudly into the cave: “Who is in the house of my friend the hare?” The caterpillar replied: “It is I! Yes, I who crushes rhinos to the earth and tramples elephants into the dust!” On hearing that, the jackal thought, “Certainly I can do nothing against such a creature,” and he quickly skulked off with his tail between his legs.
The hare then fetched a leopard, a rhinoceros, and even an elephant. All their hearts shrank when they heard the caterpillar’s menacing claim. None of them dared to challenge this fearsome creature with the earth-shaking voice.
A frog, who had been watching all this, went up to the hare and told him that he knew what to do. The frog hopped up to the mouth of the cave and asked who was inside. He received the same reply as had been given to the others. Then the frog went nearer and shouted: “I, who am the strongest of them all, have come at least. I am the one who crushes those who crush the rhinos! I am the one who tramples underfoot those who trample elephants!”
When the caterpillar inside the cave heard this, he trembled. He inched out of the hare’s den along its edge, trying not to be noticed … but the animals that had collected around the hare’s house seized the caterpillar and dragged him out into the open. “What … you?” they all cried in disbelief. “I would never dream of staying in that cave!” said the caterpillar with his nose in the air. “An echo like that is far too crude for a refined creature like myself!” As he sniffed away, all the other animals laughed at the trouble he had given them. (Eugene Loh, “A Slice of Life,” 2006).
God … grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
God … grant me the courage to change the things I can.
Why did I read it like this? “God … grant me the courage to change the things I can.” Because, to me, it seems like “God” gets swept away or pushed aside for the “I” … “… the things ‘I’ cannot change … the things ‘I’ can change … and it’s important … to me, at least … to remember that it is God who is granting me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and it is God who is granting me the courage to change the things that I can.
Last week I described how I assumed that God would give me serenity and THEN I could accept the things that I could not change. The reality, in my opinion, is that my level of serenity is directly proportional to my acceptance of the situation. Remember, my serenity is directly proportional to the level of acceptance that I have in my life and inversely proportional to the level of expectation that I have in my life.
We find another interesting paradox in Niebuhr’s prayer when we pray for God to grant us the courage to change the things that we CAN change. Here’s the unspoken part. God will grant me the courage to change the things that I CAN change … if I ask … but He will, in fact, take care of everything else … the things that I cannot change … and the things that I cannot change takes me back to the first verse … the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Beautiful, eh? I’m human. I can only change so much. Most of the time I’m like that hare hopping around in front of his cave. Fear sets in and I wind up not changing the things that I can change because I don’t try.
The prophet Jonah as like that hare. When God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and “cry out against it” (Jonah 1:2), Jonah’s response was to tuck tail and run in the opposite direction. In fact, the Bible says that he tried to “run away” from God. Jonah didn’t believe that God would grant him the courage to do the thing that God was asking him to do, nor did he ask God to grant him the courage either. Fear just took over and he literally ran with it.
Before we judge Jonah, his fear was understandable. Nineveh’s name meant “gift of God” … not the gift of the Jewish God, Yahweh, but the gift of their pagan goddess, Ishtar. Ishtar was the goddess of war and love and the Ninevites had a well-earned reputation for being ruthless and cruel. They plundered the wealth and the people of the cities they conquered and dragged their captives back to Nineveh with hooks through their noses (Tee, D. Biblical Jonah Visits Nineveh – The Evil City” AncientPages.com; November 9, 2018).)
Located on the Tigris River and two major trade routes, Nineveh was a huge, wealthy city. According to the Bible, it took three days to walk from one side of it to the other. The most famous king of Nineveh was Sennacherib, who built himself a 70-room palace that was rivalled by none (Ibid.) Later, King Nebuchadnezzar would build “The Hanging Gardens” of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the world at that time for his wife, Queen Amytis, because she missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland. Is it any wonder that Jonah was terrified by God’s request to go into the dragon’s den?
When we ask God to “grant” us the courage to change the things we can, what do we picture? Do we picture God waving a wand over us or sprinkling us with “courage dust” and suddenly we have hearts like lions and charge off into the fray of life? What God did to Jonah may not seem like He was granting Jonah courage but was forcing him to go but I believe that acceptance and courage are related just as serenity and acceptance are related.
Jonah got on a ship headed for Tarshish. During the trip, a storm came up and the crew of the ship were convinced that the storm was a sign of some god or gods’ disfavor and their attention focused on Jonah, who confessed that he was fleeing from the presence of his God, Yahweh. “Pick me up and throw me in the sea,” Jonah commands them, “for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you” (Jonah 1:12). Hum … sounds like Jonah is gaining a little bit of courage … asking to be tossed into a raging storm at sea, amen? Why? Because he didn’t want others to suffer and possibly die because of him? We often find courage and rise above our fears when we see others suffering or in danger, amen? Cowardice is fleeing to save one’s own skin. Courage is risking one’s own skin to save the lives of others.
Okay … here’s where a little Hebrew will shed some important light on what happens next. The Bible says that the “LORD provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17). The word that the writer used for “fish” is “ketos” … which means “sea monster.” Jesus himself said that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a ‘sea monster.’ Jesus said that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a sea monster to prepare him for his mission to Nineveh just as Jesus would spend three days in the heart of the earth in preparation for His resurrection. Jesus also said that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a sea monster and He would spend three nights in the heart of the earth as a sign that “something greater” was at work … and that something greater was God. And knowing that God was there, that God was at work, should give us courage, amen? That we are not alone. That God has a plan and we have a part to play in God’s plan … and that He will give us the strength and courage to do our part but His part is far, far greater than what He’s asking us to do. As the Apostle Paul observed: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose…. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us” (Romans 8:28, 31). And, in the case of Jonah, who can resist God or run from Him, amen?
Remember, serenity is the result of my acceptance. I won’t say that Jonah was filled with serenity when the sea monster spit him out on the shore but he was a lot more accepting of God’s command to “go to Nineveh … and proclaim to it the message that I tell you” (Jonah 2:2). And so, Jonah set out and went to Nineveh and began proclaiming God’s warning to Nineveh: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4) … and the people, including the king, listened and heeded God’s warning. The king declared a fast in the hopes that Yahweh “may relent and change His mind [and] … turn from His fierce anger … so that [they] might not perish” (Jonah 3:9). The Bible says that when God saw that they had turned from their evil ways, He changed His mind and spared them (Jonah 3:10).
Remember, my serenity is directly proportional to the level of acceptance that I have in my life and inversely proportional to my level of expectation. Jonah’s “expectation” when he reached Nineveh was that he would be killed … or at least imprisoned and made a slave … when he delivers God’s message to the people of Nineveh. He not only survived but his courage … his obedience … saved the lives of 120,000 people. “So why the long face?” God asks him.
Jonah says that he ran when God called him because he knew that God was a “gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing” (Jonah 4:2). I know that Jonah says that but … I still believe that his real reason for running was terror for his life. When he got spit out by the sea monster and headed towards Nineveh, he probably bolstered his courage by convincing himself that it was going to be worthwhile … that he was going to see a spectacular show … that God was going to destroy the evil people of Nineveh by raining down fire like He did on Sodom and Gomorrah. Oh, yeah! I mean, if God swallowed me in a sea monster and spit me out and forced me to go to Nineveh, well, I expect it should be for a good reason. And so, once again, we see that our serenity is inversely proportional to our expectations. Jonah is so disappointed when God doesn’t destroy Nineveh that he asks God to kill him and put him out of his misery. He has been a part of God’s plan to save a city and got to witness a powerful example of God’s mercy and forgiveness … and he is so miserable that he wants to die.
This is a perfect example of how subtle and powerful the “ego” or the “I” is. I ask God to grant me the courage to change the things that I can and then, when I change the things that I can, well, “I” want to pat myself on the back [reach around and pat myself on the back] and take credit for “my” courage. And when I face my challenge and I come through it, well, again, I have a sense of expectation … that I am owed … or at least should get some attention or some affirmation … you know, a medal or a story in the local newspaper at least … when in fact I should be thanking God for granting me the courage to do … not my will … but His will … as God points out to Jonah through, of all things, a caterpillar.
“The LORD God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head …. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’ But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?’ And [Jonah] said, ‘Yes, angry enough to die.’ Then the LORD said, ‘You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand person who do not know their right hand from their left” (Jonah 4:6-11).
“You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow” (Jonah 4:10). So far, Niebuhr’s prayer has two challenges and two gifts. In the first line … “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change” … the challenge is to “accept the things I cannot change” and the gift is the serenity that I receive when I accept that things are exactly as they should be. In the second line … “[God] grant me the courage to change the things I can” … the challenge is to change the things I can and the gift is the courage from God to do the things that I can and then rely on Him to take care of all the other things that I cannot change or control.
The key here is the phrase “do the things I can.” The gift is the revelation of my own limitations. What “I” can do … with the help of God … is, frankly, not very much. All Jonah had to do was go to Nineveh and tell them what God told him to tell them, but it was God who called forth a storm … it was God who summoned a sea monster to swallow Jonah and force Jonah to head in the right direction … and it was God who held the fate of 120,000 people in His hand and not Jonah.
You see, like Jonah, my gut reaction, my default response to God’s challenges is “I can’t.” But when God grants me the courage to face those challenges and I get to see the power of God manifest through my limited actions, I discover that I can’t but God can, amen? When I am not only a part of God’s plan but get to see God’s plan come to fruition … what a gift, amen? What if Jonah ran to Tarshish and God let him go? Would God have destroyed Nineveh? I doubt it. He would have sent someone else and Jonah would not have witnessed the love and grace and mercy of his God, Yahweh. Jonah completely missed the privilege of seeing God’s power because of his expectation when God didn’t destroy Nineveh but spared the people of Nineveh instead. I mean, if God would give an evil people like the Ninevites an opportunity to repent, how much more would He be willing to do for the children of Israel and for us who know Him and love Him, amen?
It is when we are defeated … it is when we have reached the end our limited power that we find the true power of God. When God spoke His words of encouragement through His prophet Isaiah, it was nearly impossible for the Jews in exile to find any hope in them. So God reminds them of Who’s speaking to them … not Isaiah … who is only a humble servant of flesh and blood … but Yahweh! … Who is everlasting … Who is the Creator of the ends of the earth … Who does not grow weary … Who’s understanding is unsearchable … and, here’s the key … “gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless” (Isaiah 40:29).
“God” gives power to the faint. “God” strengthens the powerless. The Hebrew word for “power” that God uses is related to the Hebrew’s word for “bone.” Our bones are what give our flesh, our bodies, stability and durability. God is the “bones” of our faith, giving us the stability and courage to face the challenges of life.
Those who “wait” upon the LORD shall renew their strength. The word “renew” means to “exchange” … as in taking off old clothes and putting on new. We exchange our weakness for God’s power. The One who is everlasting, the one who is the Creator of the ends of the Earth, the One who does not faint or grow weary, the One who’s understanding is unsearchable is the One who gives power to the faint … is the One Who strengthens the powerless … so that they shall run and not be weary … walk and not faint.
After living as slaves and servants in Babylon for 70 years, they were weary. Their hearts were filled with fear and doubt and concern. Their nation … destroyed. Jerusalem … a pile of rubble. The Temple … God’s House … gone. They were weak, they were weary, they were beaten, and they were hopeless. They felt alone and abandoned by God and it is as this point that God tells His beloved people: “Comfort, O Comfort, my people” (Isaiah 40:1). The Hebrew word that God uses for “comfort” is “naham,” which means “to breath deeply.” “Naham, my people” … ‘breathe deeply’ … heave a sigh of relief … because your time of exile is almost over.”
We translate “naham” into the English word “comfort,” which is also a very interesting word. It’s made up of a combination of two Latin words … “com” and “fortis.” “Com” means “with” and “fortis” means “strength” … together … “comfortis” … means “with strength.” When we “comfort” someone … a friend or a loved one … we are coming beside them and trying to “comfortis” them or give them strength to keep going. When we “encourage” someone we are literally trying to give them “cour” or “heart” … giving someone “heart” gives them hope … and hope gives them “fortis” … or strength. Got that? To “encourage” someone is to give them “cour” or “heart,” which gives them hope, which gives them “comfortis” or “strength.” Good stuff, amen?
But God wants to do more than give His Beloved “cour” and “fortis” … heart and strength. He wants to lift them up … He wants to give them wings so that they can soar like eagles. Since God wants us to follow the example of the eagle, it might be important for us to learn a few things about eagles so that we can apply their example to our lives, don’t you think?
To begin with, ornithologists … or “bird experts” …. say that birds basically use three modes of flight. The first … and most common … is called “flapping.” Flapping involves keeping the wings in constant motion during flight to counteract gravity. Hummingbirds, for example flap their wings up to 70 times a second. Flapping, as any hummingbird can tell you, is very labor intensive … it makes a lot of commotion or noise … it uses up a lot of energy … and it doesn’t usually get the bird very far … which is why you see most flapping birds going from branch to branch or tree to tree.
Perhaps you are a “flapper” … making a lot of commotion … using up a lot of energy … never making much headway … always flapping from one problem to another.
The second method is called “gliding.” The bird flaps its wings … keeps going until it reaches a certain height … and then “glides” back down to earth. It’s not as labor intensive as flapping and is good for longer distances …. but it still involves fighting gravity. The bird goes up … and then comes down. The bird goes up … and then comes down … up … down … up … down … flap … then glide … struggle … then relax.
I think that most of us are “gliders.” We struggle … we rise … and then we glide until we encounter the next problem … and then we struggle … we rise … we overcome … and then we glide until we encounter the next problem, the next obstacle, the next barrier.
And then we come to [pause] … SOARING! Very few birds are capable of soaring. Soaring is powerful … soaring is graceful … soaring is a thing of great beauty if you’ve ever had the chance to watch an eagle soar in the wild. It flaps its wings until it reaches a certain height and then it spreads its wings and rides the thermal drafts and unseen currents in the upper atmosphere. Sometimes it just seems to hang there. At other times it can hurl through the sky at speeds reaching 80 miles per hour … all without flapping its wings or moving a feather.
“… those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). The key word in this passage is “mount” … “they shall mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). The word “mount” means “to climb.” The word is used to describe “riding” something. When we “mount up” on a horse, we climb up on a horse and we go a whole lot faster and whole lot further than we can on our own because we’re not doing the running, are we? The horse is doing all the work, we’re just holding on. When an eagle rides the currents, it is riding on the air. It needs strength to rise to the heights so that it can catch the wind but once it catches the wind, it rides the currents. When we do our part and we rise to the level that God calls us to, we “mount up” … we ride God’s “ruah” … God’s “wind” … God’s “breath” or “spirit.” But I can’t ride God’s breath, God’s spirit just like the eagle can’t ride the currents until it reaches the heights where the currents are … and neither can we soar with eagle’s wings until we reach the heights or the point where God has called us to be … and for that, we need to pray for the courage to do the things we can, to change the things we can, so that God can do the rest … like He did in Nineveh.
It takes humility to pray: “[God], grant me the courage to change the things I can.” It takes humility because I’m asking God to give me the courage to do the little bit that I can because, like Jonah, my initial reaction … my default mode … is to throw up my hands, loudly profess that I can’t, and then run in the opposite direction. When I say that “I” can’t, I’m a hundred percent right … I can’t but God can, remember? When I say “I can’t,” I’m like Jonah or the hare at the beginning of my sermon. When I say “I can’t,” I’m like the Israelites who cowered before the challenges of the giant, Goliath. When I say “I can’t,” I’m like the spies who came back from their reconnaissance mission in the Promised Land and said that it would be impossible for them to take it because “to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them” (Numbers 13:33).
Instead, we pray and ask God for the courage so that we can face our giants, like a boy named David, and profess: “This very day the LORD will deliver you into my hand” (1st Samuel 17:46). We pray for God to grant us courage so that we, like Joshua and Caleb, can remind ourselves and the people that “the LORD is with us; do not fear them” (Numbers 14:9). We pray for God … GOD … to give us courage because we know that “that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose…. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us” (Romans 8:28, 31).
So … join me now in praying for the courage to do or change the things that we can do or change:
“God … grant us the courage … to change the things we can. Amen.”
