Tomorrow's sermon

Here is tomorrow's sermon. Always remember this is a draft that I finish up on Sunday mornings, meaning it is fraught with errors, spelling and the such. i think it is okay.

I had to take something down to Dave last week, so I spent a little time visiting with them and playing with Jacob and Taylor. Taylor is on the verge of walking. For those of you who have had children or spent a lot of time around children know that learning to walk for a child is a series of initial acts that lead to walking. It begins almost from the time the child is born. They learn to roll over. They learn to sit up. Eventually with a enough belly time they begin to crawl. And this is where the fun really begins. Because suddenly they realize that their bodies will take them somewhere. They don’t have to be carried around to check out things—being solely dependent on their parents. So once they begin to crawl they start exploring their worlds. And they crawl up to a couch or a chair and are able to pull themselves up and suddenly they are standing. And Taylor is now at the point where he is even letting go and simply standing. But he is still not quite sure that his feet alone will carry him where he wants to go. So if he wants to go somewhere he gets back down on all fours and off he goes. And what Dave and Jeff and now Donna are doing is walking around with his hand in theirs, doing what I call the monkey or ape walk—hands and arms up in the air and walking along. And he is so close to walking. While I was there Donna would hold Taylor’s hands and then point him in my direction. And Taylor would do what I think is the most important part of learning to walk, besides actually walking, he would let go. He let go of Donna’s hands and took a step, not two steps which is really how I would define walking, not one step but at least two steps. But he is letting go.
As I said letting go is probably the most important part but it is also probably the most difficult. And I don’t just mean for toddler. We all face moment after moment in our live that require us to let go. We begin letting go of our parents when we start learning to walk and must of our childhood and adolescence is spent learning to let go of our parents. And if we are honest we probably spend most of our adulthood letting go of our parents as well. Or maybe that’s just me. This week I was remembering when I was a child, probably 9 or 10 I went to spend a summer with my Aunt Carol in Virginia. It was the first time I had ever been on a trip without my parents. I went with my Aunt June, she was staying for a week or so and then she would go home and I would return at the end of the summer. However, at the end of the two weeks I was ready to go home. So it being much easier to change a flight then, that is what we did. I went home. But I had practiced letting go and found that it was hard and scary. But I let go again and again and again. Eventually venturing out to college and then to Atlanta and then to San Francisco. When I moved to San Francisco it felt like a very big step. I had never been away from the East coast. While I hadn’t been in the same town—I at least had been a days drive. But when I moved here that would not be the case. And so I once again let go. I felt a little like I imagine Abraham must have felt. Leaving his homeland. He would take his wife Sarai with him and his cousin Lot, but that would be it. He would leave the only world that he had known. He would leave the family land in search of some other land, a promised land. That was a big deal. Without land how would they eat? Without land where would the animals graze? How would they survive? But God said it so Abram set out. And while Abram exhibits what seem like great courage in these short verses we read to day that doesn’t last. Abram doesn’t constantly trust. Abram gets scared. And thinks he had made a mistake. I remember lying on my couch the first day I arrived in San Francisco and wondering the same exact thing. Had I made a huge mistake? It is hard letting go.
However, what I know and what Abram knew, although at times we both forget is Psalm 121. It is what allows Taylor to occasionally let go and take one step. Taylor knows there is someone watching over him. Someone who will pick him up if he falls. He is still learning to trust that knowledge but it is there. And this Psalm tell us the same. I had Dave read the Nan Merrill translation so let me say the words again but this time from The New Revised Standard Version.
I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.

These verses and this awareness makes it easier to let go. I’ve talked about my friends Mark and Mary Sue before. And I’ve told you all about during concerns and celebrations about the their pregnancy. Mary Sue is in the hospital and has been for about a month now and will be there at least another 3 weeks or so. And a few weeks ago Mark called me and asked me if would help him find something. He was looking for a verse from the Bible that talked about God neither slumbering or sleeping. First I wanted to know why Mark was calling me in the middle of the day when I knew he was at work—at work at his job that does not require him to quote from the Bible. And he told me he was looking it up for Mary Sue. And I found for him this Psalm 121. It happens to be one of my favorite Psalms. But he didn’t quite know why Mary Sue wanted this verse. So I called her and she told me she was writing her church newsletter article. Which at first I chastised her for thinking about work when she was supposed to be resting. But then she first told me that if she didn’t do something she was going to go crazy and then second she told me the story she wanted to tell and it was this. Every morning while it is still dark outside and Mary Sue is asleep, a nurse comes into her room and attaches some monitors to a series of belts that are wrapped around her ever expanding belly. This is to monitor the heart beat of the babies that are growing inside her. And she talked about the fact that it gives her great comfort to know that even while she is sleeping there is someone monitoring her and her unborn children. And I would add that she is able to sleep because of this awareness as well. She is able to let go of much of her anxiety because she knows that someone is worrying about the babies for her. She knows that the one who is watching over her neither slumber nor sleeps.
But still letting go is hard. Nicodemus was having problems letting go as well. But he wasn’t leaving home. Not a physical home. Nicodemus was being asked to leave a way of thinking. No Nicodemus was being asked to leave thinking behind. He was being asked to feel something. And I have to say I understand Nicodemus. I’ve been talking about lot about this recently. Nicodemus is asking legitimate questions. How can one be born again? After you’ve grown old? Can you crawl back into your mother’s womb? Of course you can’t. Don’t be so silly Jesus. Nicodemus is coming to Jesus with all the knowledge that he has gained. All that he knows about the natural world, the physical world. And Jesus is saying, you have to leave that behind. You’ve got to leave all the thoughts and the reasoning behind and trust. Trust that the one who watches over you neither slumbers nor sleeps and wants to shower you with love. The God who loves the world, loves you and is inviting you to receive that love. And most of us know that love isn’t always something that can be reasoned it is something that has to be felt. I want to reason things out. I think if I garner enough information then all will be revealed. But all cannot be revealed through information, some things have to be felt. Real transformation often comes from letting go of our old ways of thinking so that we can discover something new. Jesus was saying I am not what you expected. I am not going to be what you have been told I will be. I am more than that. Now I think Jesus understood that this would be difficult. So Jesus says we don’t all these things on Earth so that you will know but if you don’t even believe this then how can I show you something more. Let go Nicodemus, let go. Jesus desired to show Nicodemus who he really was, but first Nicodemus had to let go.
I’ve been practicing centering prayer four about 6 months or so now. I don’t have the time today to explain centering prayer to you, but suffice it to say that centering prayer is silent prayer that usually involved sitting in silence for about 20 minutes. Centering prayer is about letting go of your thought with the intention of receiving God’s love. As thoughts come into ones mind the prayer gently lets them go, lets them float on by, with the intention of returning to God. And that is what Jesus is saying, let go of the thoughts and feel it. God is here. God is neither slumbering nor sleeping. God desires to show you love, love that comes through Jesus. Love that comes to us. But in order to feel it we have to let go. We have to let go of the anxiety and fear. We have to let go of the need to reason everything out. We have to let go of old ways of thinking. In the church it often means we have to let go of old ways of doing things. We have to be willing to let go of our families and our old kinship circles so that we might find a new promised land. And in doing that we know that letting go is hard, but the good news is this: When you lift your eyes to the hill in search of from where your helps comes The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore. Thanks be to God.