More Than You Bargained For...

I grew up in a very small town about seven miles west of South Bend, in northern Indiana.

I was born in 1945.

In the 1950s and early '60s, when I was growing through childhood and my teen-age years, Lydick was the world I knew.

My parent's home was on a gravel road...as I remember, there were only two main paved roads in town: Edison and Quince.  There was a four-way stop where those two roads intersected.  No stop lights, no street lights, no police department.

Lydick had one grocery store, one gas station, one tavern, one Gleaner's Hall, one barber shop, one volunteer fire department, one grade school, one middle school (no high school...we went to New Carlisle for that adventure), one brick church, and one Ice Cream Parlor.

The Lydick Ice Cream Parlor served up hamburgers, french fries, soda fountain drinks...and great malts.  I loved the chocolate malts.

Those malts always arrived on the soda fountain counter just as pictured above.  A glass full of cold malted milk and ice cream...and more in the metal container in which the delicious drink was mixed.  How great is that?  More than enough.  More than you would expect.  More than you bargained for!

Fast forward.

I now live in Bloomington, in central southern Indiana.

I think every street in town is paved.  We have four-way stops, but we have way more stop lights...heck, we even got roundabouts.  There's not just one of anything...so far as I can tell.  Two institutions of higher learning, we got.

I eat lunch at 5 Guys probably once a week...on average.  I always order the same thing: Single hamburger (ketchup only), regular order of fries, and a small soft drink.

Look down into that bag.  That's how my lunch order at 5 Guys arrives.  See that container of fries?  And do you also see all the other fries that come with the order but will not fit into the paper cup designed to hold the fries?  How great is that?  More than enough.  More than you would expect.  More than you bargained for!

Truth is like that, I think.  Love is like that, I think.  And God is like that, I think.

Like those malts served up at the Lydick Ice Cream Parlor. And like those fries served up at 5 Guys.

There's always more to truth, and love, and God than fits neatly into a single container.  There's always truth, and love, and God that spills over and needs more space than what is allotted.

Anybody...or any group...or any institution...serving up "all there is to know" about truth...about love...about God...ain't worth your time. 

Hold out for the people, groups, or institutions that offer up servings like the ones in the pictures above.


  

Only 18...

Its almost over.

In fact, its close enough to say that "Its all over but the shouting!"

In June of 1974, I preached my first sermon...I can still remember the title of it..."God Is Not a Spaceman"...at an evening service in Edgewood United Methodist Church.  Other than the title (which has stuck with me for no explainable reason), and that the theology I employed to develop that sermon would most likely turn me off all these years later, I can remember nothing about what I said...and cannot begin to imagine what people must have heard.

BTW: I am very much aware, all these years later, that what I say in a sermon is not always what people hear when I preach that sermon.  And so, at the beginning of each of my sermons I always say, "Might what I say, and what we hear, be for us...at least in part, this day...the Word of God."

It is 41 years later and I am ready to keep in a digital file on my home computer only 18 sermons that I would want to possibly read again at some point...or reflect on, if the mood ever strikes me.  Now, during the early years of my preaching, sermons were either hand-written on legal pads or typed on my manual typewriter or produced on my Brother word processor...so no copies of those relics are extant.  Basically, during 8 years as the Executive Director of Metro Ministries, and 8 years as a District Superintendent, and now 6 years at St. Mark's here in Bloomington...I have whittled what I have to say down to only 18 sermons. 

To my mind, these 18 are pretty good sermons.  They repeat certain themes over and over again.  Themes like:
-God Creates
-God Loves
-God Redeems
-and God Continues. 
That's pretty much the drum I have been beating for the bulk of my preaching career.

From those 4 Theological Themes come 4 real-life applications.  The applications read this way:
-We ought to take into account who others are, and what others do, and think, and believe.
-Anyone not willing to risk is not really willing to live.
-We either get better or we get worse...and its always the right thing to choose getting better.
-Its important to find ourselves in harmony with God's activity in the world.

Yup, that's it...41 years and 18 sermons (worth keeping).

I do want to thank the many people who listened to these 18 and all the others didn't make the cut.

I have also tried...really tried...to never ask people, in a sermon I have preached, to believe the unbelievable.  These 18 meet that self-imposed standard, according to me.

Every Single Day...

To quote Henry David Thoreau:
"In the long run (we) hit only what (we) aim at.  Therefore, (we) had better aim at something high."

Back in 2013, Dick Christopher died.  Dick was one of the finest District Superintendents I served under (as an appointed United Methodist pastor).  He was a good man.  The world would be a better place with more like him around in every generation.

Rev. Andy Kinsey presided at Dick's memorial service, and remembered out loud that one of Dick's favorite Bible passages was "Make love your aim."  (1 Corinthians 14:1)

In the Message translation of the Bible (which I prefer), the verse comes out this way: "Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it - because it does."

Got me to thinking...if we want to aim high, we could do a lot worse than to aim for love.

Of course, that would be a daily task...

 Every Single Day we are allowed to choose to forgive and to seek forgiveness in our most near and common relationships.



 Every Single Day we are free to release grievances, let go of resentments, and get beyond self pities and jealousies.

Every Single Day we can choose to ditch our attempts to control situations and control other people.

Every Single Day we can actually choose grace over judgment, and mercy over self-justification.

Every Single Day we can choose to see beyond the end of our nose, and beyond our own wishes and desires.

Every Single Day we try hard to express the Really Good Stuff that is within us...instead of the junky stuff that too often spews out.

Every Single Day there is the chance to choose gratitude over complaint, peace over disharmony, and hope over despair.

And if...
If our daily routine produces fear...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine is self-diminishing...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine motivates hate...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine produces shame...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine robs us of grace...then love is not our aim.

"Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it - because it does."