Jogging with a Baby Stroller and Cell Phone

Transcribed from the sermon preached May 8, 2011 

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: Psalm 131, Exodus 20: 1-17, 2 Timothy 1:1-10

 
Timothy is a young guy.  I guess he is late teens early twenties.  Paul has ordained him into ministry through the laying on of hands.  It sounds like he may have run into a tough spot, a spot where he questions his ability and faith.  Paul is writing a letter of encouragement to one of his promising pupils.  You are not in this by yourself.  You didn’t come into faith by yourself, and your gifts and calling are a gift.  He isn’t called to be Atlas, just Timothy, but Timothy has roots, a family, a supporting mentor, and the Grace of Christ.

The individual choice aspect of faith runs deep in American psyche from Jonathan Edwards to Billy Graham, and certainly it has its strong points, which have been adapted by American culture as well.  Be conscious, don’t just follow others for the heck or it, or because it is easy.  Especially if the others are headed down the wrong road, better to have the strength of will and mind to go your own way.  And one of the great things about America is the individual drive to be creative and work hard to succeed.  It has helped create a society with many economically successful people.  Berkeley is big on going its own way, of being critical of the status quo. 

But what do we do when the status quo expects us to go our own way?  Then when we go our own way, it is quite possible we are just following the crowd because that is what is expected.  And then going our own way we find ourselves alone.     

Yesterday at Men’s Breakfast Zira was asked what has been the hardest part of adjusting to life in America.  He said, in India they are used to much more community connection, and the individualism here makes them feel isolated.  They are not alone at feeling alone. 

We know this is one of the drawbacks of our culture.  We are so driven and busy, we don’t have the time to really connect.  The other day I came out of my house and saw a woman jogging down the sidewalk, pushing a baby stroller with one hand and talking on a cell phone with the other.  God bless her, and God bless all mothers and all the things they have to do.  No doubt there is nothing more demanding of time and energy than a baby. 

But I wonder if anyone else she jogged by thought there was something a bit wacky with that scene?  Or are have we grown so accustomed to doing three things at once that most of us wouldn’t think twice…or even once?   And I wonder, to what degree have we chosen this lifestyle?  Is she having life her way? Is she happier, less stressed any more than say, a mother in India?
So we don’t want to go our own way just for the heck of it.  The main goal then in our decision-making is not to go our own way or to follow the crowd, but to do what will lead us down the road to rich relationship, a healthy, productive and meaningful life…in other words, our goal is to follow the Spirit of God within us.

Now here is the twist that in our business, we often forget.  This Spirit within us isn’t of our own making.  Thank God, it runs deeper than us.  It is not dependent on our being able to jog with a stroller and talk on the cell phone all at the same time.  In our baptism, we choose to acknowledge and join a community, a family, a spiritual current, which is growing and moving, and has been fed with rain and tributaries long before it gets to us, or we get to it. 

So when we hit a crisis, when we cannot jog and talk and stroll all at the same time, or when jogging and talking and strolling at the same time isn’t enough to keep up, to keep up with expectations of a do it your own way society, we can stop and breathe in God’s grace, realize we are loved and forgiven just as we are, and recognize the Spirit of God is a gift and not something earned.  We drink from wells that we did not dig.

Lamin Sannen, professor of missions at Yale Divinity School notes,
 “The Apostle Paul understands that there is no inherent conflict between the personal and communal aspects of faith. No human being is born an orphan. We are all born into a family. The Bantus of South Africa say, Umuntu, ngamuntu, ngabantu -- a person is a person because of other persons. We are born into relationship, we grow and live in relationship and we die in relationship. Our modern Western notion of personal independence and psychic autonomy distorts the truth about us. Transposed into African, the sophisticated Cartesian formulation Cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am," would read Cognatus ergo sum, "I am related, therefore I am." To the question "Who are you?" the African would answer, "I am my mother’s and father’s child, of the lineage of so-and-so, of the house of X and Y, of the tribe of Z." By which time the impatient European or American has moved on to other matters. Yet the Bible is replete with such genealogical material, and even Jesus is situated in its repetitive detail.
Although faith challenges individuals, heroic individualism does not exhaust faith’s fullness and power. At its heart is the gift of memory, the ability to recall and reappropriate. Faith does not just arouse and satisfy the craving for individual gratification or fill our hunger for self-esteem, important as those things are. “ (Naming and the Act of Faith. by Lamin Sanneh Christian Century, October 4, 1989, p. 875.)
 Faith connects us with others, grants us an identity by which we can respond to God’s call.  In baptism, we affirm the social nature of identity, and the community whose purpose it is to strengthen and nurture our well-being and visa versa…not on account of our own perfection, but by the grace of God.
So, says Paul to Timothy, let go of the idea that you are all on your own and have to do it all by yourself.:
[5] I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lo’is and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you.
[6] Hence I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands;
[7] for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.

To conclude on this Mother’s day, I would like you to think and some of you to share a story about how your mother or grandmother helped ignite the spirit of goodness and faith…a Spirit which has helped you grown into an individual who would choose and stand in faith.