The Reformed Church of Locust Valley Christmas I December 30, 2001 Is. 63:7-9, Heb. 2:10-18, Mt. 2:13-23
“Immanuel”
“In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them and carried them
all the days of old.”
- Isaiah 63:9
Why do golf balls have dimples?
My daughter Elizabeth and I were walking on the elementary school grounds while we waited for the turkey to finish cooking Christmas day, early in the afternoon. It was a bright day, sun gleaming, the air just crisp enough to let you know it was December. As we crossed the grass, Elizabeth stopped and reached down and said, “Look, daddy, a golf ball.” Nothing in the world looks like a golf ball. You spot it right away. And one of the unique things about golf balls are the dimples.
I don’t pretend to know physics. I passed college physics, pretty well, but I don’t know a whole lot. But as I understand it, and I quote from the NY Times (magazine, 12/9/01) “A golf ball presents a complex fluid dynamics challenge. A blunt sphere pulls air along with it as it flies, creating a wake, and the energy needed to pull this air – the drag – slows it down. The challenge is to reduce the drag, allowing the ball to fly farther. That’s why golf balls have dimples: they reduce the drag by disturbing the air and keeping it in contact with ball longer.”
Okay, whatever you say.
Anyway, we are told the ultimate in golf ball technology was finally achieved in 2001. As the old year departs, this leap in golf ball technology will be the event of the century.
Up till now, dimples covered about 65 to 75 % of the ball. But now, former Boeing executive Steve Ogg has designed a golf ball that is aerodynamically perfect. Ogg covered the ball with a series of ridges, aligned as interlocking hexagons and pentagons like chicken wire, which is touted as a “tubular lattice network.”
Ogg achieved what the Times calls the “holy grail of ball design;” 100 percent surface coverage. Technically, the ball, called the “Callaway HX,” has no flat spots and is the best aerodynamic ball in existence.
Only golfers, right?
What does this have to do with our faith? Lots. Because your life too, doesn’t have lots of flat spots.
By flat spots, I mean easy times.
Your life is like a golf ball – dimpled…and the irony is, the dimples make it fly better, and the flaws reduce the drag.
Put another way, the suffering you have faced and will face does not ruin your life. Enhancement of your life may actually come from all those trials and tribulations.
You lose your job. That’s a dimple. Your boss has it in for you. That’s a dimple. You get up the courage to ask her out and she says “no.” That’s a dimple. Your son gets in trouble. That’s a dimple. The doctor finds the lump malignant, that’s one of life’s tribulations. You get the idea. Your life resembles the surface of a golf ball much more than the surface of a beach ball – the beach ball is smooth and gleams shiny on sunny days. The golf ball, already dimpled gets cuts and grass stains and mud on it. Just like you and me.
But on the golf ball, the more dimpled the surface the better – it reduces the drag. How can that be? Again, the physics confuses me a little, but in life we grow stronger the more challenges we face.
Ironically, our fears and worries are of what might be. But when it comes, sometimes we grow stronger in adversity.
The same is true of steel. Just made, steel has some strength, but to make it really strong, it is folded over and over again, then tempered, then it is really strong. Strong because of the strain it’s gone through in forming it.
Look at the history of the church. In its early centuries, it often suffered fierce persecution. To confess Jesus as the Son of God could mean a death sentence. What happened to the church in those years? It grew closer to God and stronger. Just the opposite of what you might expect.
Contrast that to the church in the Middle Ages when it reached the zenith of its influence and power. Those were dark times for the church, spiritually. The church became horribly corrupt and worse – distant from the people, who were denied access to the scriptures in their own language and access to the sacraments. It was a time of the church at its worst, even though things were smoothest for them then.
Dimple the church, it thrived. Smooth the surface and it dragged.
Which churches today have the most vitality? Churches that repair broken lives. Where is the church growing by leaps and bounds? Where the poor and oppressed meet the savior for the first time. Where dimpled people and God come together.
Likewise, Israel’s closest times to God were the darkest hours – the exodus from slavery in Egypt, the wilderness wanderings, the rag-tag nomads going into the promised land with nothing more than a promise. Even Jonah in the belly of the whale – I often wonder if this isn’t one of the story’s most profound messages – that here, in that miserable place among the stomach acids and half-digested fish, God came to him. No matter where you are, God will come to you, and God will deliver you.
In the reading from Isaiah this morning we read that in our affliction we are not alone, God shares our affliction. Christianity comes with no guarantee we won’t be hurt and suffer, but it guarantees we do not suffer alone and we will not be defeated.
In the reading from Hebrews this morning, we read that Jesus was a pioneer through suffering. God could have sent a savior who would have skimmed across life’s problems like a flat stone skims across the surface of a lake when tossed just right. But God didn’t. God sent us a savior right into the thick of it.
We forget what the birth of Jesus came with. It came with heavenly hosts singing, angels announcing, wise men bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh, yes, but it also came with an order of jealous and violent Herod to kill all infant male babies. That is horrible. But it is part of the price of salvation. And often when good comes into the world, evil resists violently.
But God has sent us a savior who walks ahead of us; ahead of us so he can walk with us.
The name of the Messiah, Immanuel, means “God with us.”
God is with you right in the midst of it.
You are not alone, nor does it depend only on you.
I remember a very cold night long ago. I had returned to my high school from a wrestling match. We chatted and yucked it up and one by one the other kids drifted off to their homes. Soon only one guy was left and he hopped in his car and drove out of the lot. Now, I lived seven miles from the school. There wasn’t much around except fields and the occasional farm, and most of them at a little distance. I hopped into my parents Chevy Impala, and switched on the ignition and gunned it as only 17 year olds can do. But I gave it too much gas too fast, and it stalled. Then I made the mistake of grinding the starter motor on that bitter night and still too much throttle till the battery died. I was alone. Everyone else was gone. It was going to be a long walk. Then what, knock on a strangers house?
Loneliness is awful. There are people in church who are lonely. It is possible to be alone in a crowd.
We need a God who is not just above us, but one who is with us.
A terrible malady affects our country. 7o million Americans have it and 38,000 die from it each year.
This condition costs $70 billion dollars in lost productivity every year.
Many teens suffer from this condition…studies show that 64 percent of teens blame it for poor school performance.
The most severe cases are in those aged thirty and forty.
It is estimated that 50 percent of people over sixty-five are impacted by it.
Treatments are many and varied but often prove ineffective.
Can you guess what the malady is? Substance abuse? Divorce? Some disease?
None of the above…It is insomnia.
That many people have trouble sleeping. If you have ever had trouble sleeping, you know why…Often worry is the culprit. You can’t get it out of your mind. And the harder you try, the worse it gets. Then you start worrying ABOUT worrying and the vicious cycle goes on. (from Max Lucado, “Traveling Light”)
What can be done? Listen to sermons? Count sheep? Don’t count sheep. Talk to the shepherd. When you can’t sleep next time, remember this…the shepherd is right there. He literally sleeps with you. The good shepherd out in the wild stays right with the sheep protecting them from thieves, wild animals anything inimical to sheep. That shepherd is with you.
Immanuel.
You are held in the hand of God.
There will be hills and valleys in your journey. There will be broken ankles and stones in your shoe annoying you with every step. There will be icy patches on the road. There will be sunburn on the back of your neck. But this there will not be – isolation, or futile self-reliance. God is with you.
Your golf bal will be dimpled by your trials, but it will sail all the further for it – right to eternity, thanks be to God.
Fred D. Mueller
