To the overextended
John 11: 1-10
January 11, 1981
Not long ago on a TV show a woman was brought up from the audience. The MC asked the lady contestant what she did, and this is what she said. I am a mother of three children. I do volunteer work. I teach Sunday school. I am a den mother. I am on the auxiliary. I raise money for charity. I show for my kids to school activities and sometimes I Moonlight as a personal chef.
It is to that woman and men like her that this sermon to the overextended is directed
Several years ago in a different state, I received a phone call from a man who was the epitome of dedicated humanity. He was a leader of the community on the school board president of the United Way a committed church man. In fact he was as useful and involved a human being as I have ever known.
He called me to meet him at the local jail. His teenage son had been arrested on a serious charge when I got there the man was sitting alone his son having been locked up. He told me that just a few minutes before they’re in the jail, he and his son had their first serious talking years. When he asked his son what had gone wrong, how things had got to this point The sun said
Maybe because you were never around. You were so busy with school board meetings that you never had time to help me with my homework. You were so involved raising money for the Boy Scouts that we never went on a camping trip together. You have not done anything bad Just too much good. It is to that man and many like him that the sermon to the overextended is directed. One of the great spiritual gifts is a book which I kept on my bed in seminary, called a Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly. Kelly speaks of the power of life that can result from over overabundance of opportunity. The first time I read that since I thought it involved a contradiction in terms, I find myself asking how poverty can result from over abundance. When I went back and read those words, I found it is possible for a person to embrace too many possibilities. Is it possible to be in the midst of plenty like sitting down to a Rich banquet table and eating too much. When this happens, the very food that could nourish and delight winds up making you sick. Kelly suggest in the book that the same thing can happen in the case of activities. We can get too much, just as our stomachs do with food and when this happens, we become spiritually sick and physically exhausted. This sermon is directed to those of you who might be overextended.
One of the honest, insightful and active Christians is a man by the name of Charles Clancy in an article on the state of the church you said the most notable characteristic of church people is their listlessness. He wrote, we added up all the whole list of things to do people to reach causes to a spouse in the average parish and it was endless. I’ll be Frank I have known too many people far too many Christians clerical and Lehman. We’re trying to be Everything to every hurt to respond to every sense of communion whenever possible and today most of them have withdrawn from the front lines they are burned out cases. Clancy concludes that most of us are very naïve in developing the discipline to respond of being contemplative of exposing causes and seeking rest to those naïve burned out people that their sermon is directed
And so we turned to Jesus as we meet him in our gospel lesson let me set the stage. Jesus just completed admission to Jerusalem. Very confronted the religious leaders of the day. After a very difficult series of meetings, he went with his friends to a place beyond the Jordan for rest and reflection. Sometimes we get the feeling from reading scripture that everything Jesus was at break neck speed, but anyone who studies the gospel closely will soon realize that they were periods of action mingled with periods of rest.
And isn’t this true of most of our lives? At least we would hope that it was. Every so often I throw in an illustration from the world of sports. I do this to hold the attention of the women in the congregation. Here is one to try on your friends The afternoon as you watch the Sunday football.
In professional football game that we would all think of is being excessively active for at least 60 minutes of playing. How much time is the ball actually in motion. The answer is between seven and 7 1/2 minutes. The rest of the time is spent getting ready for the next play lining up or slowly walking back to the line of scrimmage.
Well, the same was of Jesus. He took time to reflect, to rest, to gather his disciples, to get to the next goal, to build a sense of community and while he was doing this, the word came to us of a friend sickness.
Who can deny that assisting a friend who is very ill is not important? In this instance, Jesus did not immediately respond. He waited a full two days before setting up for Bethany. He had a test to perform that was more crucial than sitting by the bedside of a friend.
If we are ever going to sort through the thousand and one good opportunities that wash over us all. Jesus going in the daylight in contrast is stumbling around in the dark. I believe he was referring to the capacity to say yes to things no to others, and yet still another set of demands.
And so the word of God to the extended as a simple one this morning learn the difference between rest and activity and make sure you practicing though as well as yes Jesus said, am I not there 12 hours in the day if anyone walks in the day he does not be because if anyone walks at night, he stumbles because the light is not light. Let it be Lord