I started this sermon last Sunday afternoon before the elections were held and was going to share several stories about past elections and voter apathy. And do you know that the events of this past Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday has some commonality with these illustrations? The first is from Robert Ripley, who is, I believe, behind one of America’s favorite newspaper columns Ripley’s Believe it, or Not! that has been popular with millions of people over the years because of the interesting and unusual items that it has reported to the general public.
Ripley reported several years ago that a mule named Boston Curtis was elected Republican committeeman from Wilton, Washington by a 51-vote plurality. The mule was sponsored by the Democratic mayor of the town - to prove a theory that many voters are careless. The filing notice was signed with the candidate’s hoofprints and his sponsor signed as a witness.
In another case, reported by a different source, I believe, involves the election of a cigar store Indian to Justice of the Peace in Allentown, New Jersey. The statue, clothed with the fictitous name of Abner Robbins, was duly placed on the ballot and elected with a plurality of seven votes over the incumbent Sam Davis. Judge Davis, who held office many years, resigned in indignation when he learned his successful opponent was a wooden Indian.
I don’t know about you, but this election year was somewhat hard to stomach. Even though I was excited about one candidate at a certain point earlier in the year, I found myself just getting tired of the whole thing in the last few weeks.
There seems to be so much cynicism and weariness regarding public officials
now days. Maybe it is because of the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship or the events of the past four decades - Vietnam, Watergate, and all that went on regarding those situations or maybe it is because we the pace and demands of life have so overwhelmed us that it seems government is incapable of finding problems to the solutions of our modern society that we have given up hope and become complacent rather than committed.
The same danger holds true in our faith and Satan will try to prevent committment to God and the Church by encouraging complacency while God wants us to become more committed and faithful.
In the 6th chapter of Galatians, verses 7 through 10, Paul writes to the Galatian church these words:
(Read the passage)
Verse 9 is the important verse for us this morning because it is a word of encouragment to the weary hearted, the exhausted, even apathetic, followers of Christ who seem to be just hanging on.
"So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time."
Before us this morning are three items that are used in everyday life. A light bulb, a personal computer, and a tire. Each of these items are important to us. In fact, our automobiles use all three - light bulbs for headlights, tires for motion, and small computer systems to help mechanics, now called service technicians, to diagnose problems.
The first computers, built around the end of the Second World War, were large machines that could have taken up most of this sanctuary. But, over a period of 30 - 40 years, they shrunk in size and grew in power.
A man by the name of Douglas Engelbart, a former Navy Radar Technician, established research center at Standford Research Institute in 1964. By 1968 he, according to authors Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman had "already made two startlingly originial breakthroughs in the embryonic art of personal computing - the mouse and windows."
But Engelbart failed, for a wide variety of reasons, to gain crediblity for his discoveries and the commercial success for the personal computer would not start until 20 years later with the introduction of the MacIntosh computer by a company called Apple Computers.
Think about all the uses of artifical light these days. Where would we be with out the light bulb, besides in the dark?
The primary challenge that Edison faced in his efforts to invent the lightbulb centered around the filament. He did countless experiments with countless kinds of materials. As each failed, he would toss it out the window. The pile reached to the second story of his house.
He sent men to China, Japan, South America, Asia, Jamaica, and other parts of the world in search of fibers and grasses to be tested in his laboratory.
One weary day - after 13 months of repeated failures - he succeeded in his search for a filament that would stand the stress of electric current.
Casually picking up a bit of lampblack, he mixed with tar and rolled it into thin thread. The the thought occurred: Why not try a carbonized cotton fiber? For 5 hours he worked, but it broke before he could removed the mold. Two spools of thread were used up. At last a perfect strand emerged-only to be ruined when trying to place it in a small glass tube. Edison refused to admit defeat. He continued without sleep for two days and nights. Finally, he managed to slip one of the carbonized threads into a vacuum-sealed bulb. And he turned on the current.
He is quoted as saying, "The sight we had so long desired to see finally met our eyes."
Charles Goodyear after years of patient toil, charged up with visions of wealth and attacked by the reality of poverty, discovered the process of vulcanizing rubber, which made it possible to produce rubber tires. However, no one outside of his family could be convinced of the value of his discovery. Two years would pass before he could secure the money to perfect the invention.
Each of these inventions, so vital to our lives today, were created at a great cost becuase there was a vision and a passion in the minds and hearts of the people who created them. They were committed to seeing their dream become a reality.
There was also another group of people who were encouraged to create a life that allowed them to live above and through the realities of human existance that they were facing. We don’t know their individual names, only God knows that. We know them as Galatians.
They were a group of people who lived in what is now Eastern Turkey. They had been visited by St Paul on his missionary journeys and now, several years later, recieved a letter from them encouraging them to stay faithful to the spiritual journey which had begun when Paul had introduced them to Christ and the Christian faith.
The letter is this Biblical book from which we just read - Galatians. Now there is a challenge before the Galatian Christians from those who believe that before you can become a good Christian you have to become a good Jew and follow the Jewish Law.
Paul is incensed by this idea and we hear that anger in the opening paragraphs of chapter 1 beginning with verse 6: "I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who in his love and mercy called you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ. You are already following a different way that presends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all.
You are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ.
Paul goes on to remind them of what he had presented to them years before and his own story of encountering God on the Damascus road and having to build a credible witness to the church leadership in Jerusalem after his conversion. But there was also conflict over what constituted a right relationship with God.
This debate reaches the Galatians and creates all sorts of trouble for them and frustration for Paul. It also has another effect on them.
It creates both discouragement and, complacency because the Galatians are drawn into a battle between Paul and his message of salvation by faith alone in Christ and those who say that the Law is a part of that as well. The debate wearies the Galatians. They begin to struggle in their relationship with God and it spills over into their relationship with one another as we read in chapter 5 verses 13 - 15. "For you dear friends have been called to live in freedom - not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole Law can be summed up in one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." But instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another."
Paul is concerned for these believers. He wants them to grow and thrive and be all that God wants them to be. And so, in his closing remarks that we have read, he encourages them to not get tired of doing what is good. Of not getting discouraged and giving up but remaining faithful because the time of being rewarded will come along.
The same is true for us today. Complacency is an easily inhabited place for us as we struggle to remain faithful to Christ. Our committment is challenged at every point by Satan who uses all sorts of items to try and keep us down and discourage and ready to give up. What are some of them?
1. Multiple demands on our time. It is a struggle to stay focused these days. There are so many demands on our time.
The challenge is to determine what is the good, what is the necessary, and what is the best. There are a lot of good things to occupy our time and there are those necessary things that must occupy some of our time, but there are also the best things that we need to incorporate into our lives.
They are:
A. Worship - individual and corporate. Worship includes prayer and Bible reading, study, and application. We cannot sustain our relationship with God without worshipping Him individually and together. We need to seek God through prayer and through the reading of the Bible. These are the ways, in addition to His spirit, that He speaks to us.
B. Service - We have a place of service not just in the church but on behalf of the church. We are to be "salt and light." We are to influence public policy not as a member of a particular political party or interest group, but as a member of the Kingdom of God. We are to take the gospel out there and not wait for "out there" to come here.
C. Participation - Worship and service require us to participate. We cannot worship and serve without making the choice to get involved. Participation involves make a decision to prioritize our priorities and then follow through on our committments by showing up. In doing so, our time management becomes easier.
What would happen if we gave 10% of our workweek or, if we are retired, 10% of a week’s total number of hours to the ministry of the church. That’s both "church work" and "community service." Think about the impact that we would have.
But, it would require us to give up some
other things. And there’s the hard part.
A second way that Satan will use us is by feeling inadequate to the task of serving God.
Moses is a good example of this. When we read his encounter with God in Exodus 3, we find that he begins to feel inadequate to the mission that God has called him and he begins to make excuses. He gets God angry with him for his lack of trust and faith but, agrees to the mission with Aaron at his side.
At a certain level we are going to feel inadequate becuause of the nature and demands of ministry. I feel that way.
I know that God has called me here. But, the task of being your pastor is a very demanding and, at times, an overwhelming task.
When God calls us, He will give us what we need to serve Him. What He needs from us is our willingness to serve.
The third way that Satan can get complacency to take root in our lives and congregational life is by getting us to have no support system. God did not make us to exist without human fellowship. We need one another.
The stories that I told you earlier have some interesting things in common. First of all with the exception of Goodyear, there was a team of people involved in the projects.
Edison did a lot of the work himself but he had a team of people helping him find the right materials to use. The development of the personal computer had certain individuals who needed to lead and start the process. But, it require a team effort at places like Apple to make it
happen.
We become suspectible to complacency in our relationship with God when we do not have a support system in place that will help us during the rough spots. I know, I’ve been there.
The other thing these stories have in common is that they were driven by a vision and a passion to achieve something that would allow them to, as Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer said, "put a dent in the universe."
Their passion gave them focus and purpose when the process of creativity was pushed to the limit and they needed reminding of why they were there in the first place.
Scripture says, "Without a vision the people perish." What is your vision? What is our vision? We need to discover, affirm, and embrace that vision becuase it will help us when we ask, "Why are we doing this?" And when complacency comes calling, and it does, and it will, an affirmative answer to that question will help us push through the temptation to be complacent and move forward.
Wishing to encourage her young son’s progress on the piano, a mother took her boy to a Paderewski concert. After they were seated, the mother spotted a friend in the audience and walked down the aisle to greet her.
Seizing the opportunity to explore the wonders of the concert hall, the little boy rose and eventually explored his way through a door marked "NO ADMITTANCE."
When the house lights dimmed and the concert was about to begin, the mother returned to her seat and discovered that the child was missing. Suddenly, the curtains parted and the spotlights focused on the impressive Steinway piano on stage. In horror, the mother saw her little boy was sitting at the keyboard, innocently picking out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
At that moment, the great piano master made his entrance, quickly moved to the piano, and whispered in the boy’s ear, "Don’t quit. Keep playing."
Then leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part. Soon his right arm reached around to the other side of the child and he added a running obligato.
Together the old master and the young novice transformed a frightening situation into a wonderfully creative experience. The audience was so mesmerized that they couldn’t recall what else the great master played. Only the classic, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
God is saying to us this day,
"Don’t quit, keep playing."
