Who Is Your Hero?
A Sermon For Hope Church
by Joan Shiels
October 21, 2007
The Readings
OLD TESTAMENT READING Ezekiel 36: 26 – 27
[Thus says the Lord God :] A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you.
NEW TESTAMENT READING Matthew 5:13-16
[And Jesus said] You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works.
SECULAR READING Marcus Borg in Living the Questions
When you think about it, belief is relatively impotent. You can believe all the right things and still be a jerk. You can believe all the right things and still be miserable, or still be untransformed. So the emphasis on beliefs is, I think, mistaken. In my study, I find that belief isn’t any good if it doesn’t show in your life. I think that your faith shows in your life and especially in your relationships. The way we behave toward one another and other people is the fullest expression of what we believe
The Message
Part One: A Story About A Modern Day Hero
Bill Belichick is the wildly successful head coach of the New England Patriots --the only NFL team who is undefeated this season. Last month we learned that Coach Belichick cheats. Turns out that in the first game of the season, there was some illegal videotaping of the opposing New York Jets coaches, trying to steal their signs. The National Football League punished Belichick with a fine. But in Boston? Well, when Belichick's mug appeared on the stadium video screen just before the Patriots next game, the hometown crowd cheered their hero so loud and so long that Belichick actually had to come out onto the field and wave. Some diehards unveiled a banner reading In Bill We Trust.
Nobody was really surprised by Belichik’s cheating. Patriot fans already knew that their coach didn’t play by The Rules of Right Conduct. Last spring one of his former linebackers made public that Belichick made him practice even after he suffered a concussion and that today he has brain damage so severe that he can barely get out of bed. But that –and the recent cheating --haven't hurt Belichick's popularity one bit. There's only one thing that could: losing. Fans don't really care how their teams win. They don't care about being fair to the other guys. They just want to win.
In 1940 the Cornell football team famously forfeited a victory after realizing that it had been mistakenly given an extra play. If a coach did that today, sports writers would declare him a saint. And his team's fans would boil him in oil.
Coach Belichick understands this perfectly. He knows that as long as he wins, all will be forgiven. And that once he stops winning, it won't matter if he becomes Mother Teresa. He doesn't care about being fair to the other team. He doesn't even really care about his own players. He just wants to win. As long as he does, he’s a hero.
This is the sort of hero our culture offers us. His are typical of the values our culture is teaching our children. And, make no mistake, children learn what they are taught.
It’s Sunday morning again and the kids don’t want to go to Church. Many kids don’t feel like having to go to a weekly (and very dull) testimonial meeting for a God they have never really met and certainly feel no need for. They are baptized -–even confirmed—but are far from convinced, much less converted. Many find religion as cold as calculus; clergy sermons comatose; any of that Jesus-jazz wonderfully irrelevant to where they’re at.
And we wonder if we can blame someone ---parents, schools, clergy? And parents have to decide if they’re going to drag the kids, kicking and screaming, to church.
Especially the teenagers. You know, when you’re 15 years old, being 25 is pretty much a mystery. Thirty sounds pretty darned old. Being 45 is barely comprehensible, like the concept of infinity. Contemplating being in your 60’s is like a black hole in space. You can’t even imagine it.
Most of us here have left our teens far behind, our young adulthoods were quite a while ago –and for many even middle age is now a memory. It’s hard for us to remember what it’s like to be a young person now.
But I’ve been paying a lot of attention to young people lately. Just being around them, listening to them, learning about them. And the first thing I want to say today is that kids, especially teenagers, are potential converts. They’re looking for the truth. They want to be convinced. They’re very open –and devastatingly honest. They say, “OK --if you’re going to church then you must know something about God or the Universe. If you’ve found some rock-bottom truth about human life, why can’t I see it in the way you act? You don’t seem any more joyful or free or alive than the people who stay home on Sunday morning. The way you act shouts so loudly I can’t hear what you preach!” Yep, that’s what they say. And you know what I say? “Ouch!”
So I ask myself: Do our kids see a real level of real faith, charity and love when they are here with us? Do we make it possible for kids to observe that our spiritual values make any difference in our daily lives? Do we ever share ---with conviction--- that the message of our faith offers them a different set of values than Coach Belichik does?
Part Four: A Poem When You Thought I Wasn’t Looking
Written
by a former child - Mary Rita Schilke Korzan
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator,
and I immediately wanted to paint another one.
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I saw you feed a stray cat,
and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals.
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I heard you say a prayer, and I knew there is a God I could always talk to
and I learned to trust in God.
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I saw you make a meal and take it to a friend who was sick,
and I learned that we all have to help take care of each
other.
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I saw you give of your time and money to help people who had nothing
and I learned that those who have something should give to
those who don't.
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it
and I learned we have to take care of what we are given.
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I saw how you handled your responsibilities, even when you
didn't feel good
and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes things hurt,
but it's all right to cry.
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I learned most of life's lessons that I need to know
to be a good and productive person when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking,
I looked at you and wanted to say,
”Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking.”
Part Five: Let Your Light Shine
When we look at our children we have to remember that once we were them. And one day they will be us. And the kind of world we live in tomorrow depends –not partially-- but entirely upon the model we set for our children today. We need to offer our children a different kind of hero than the Bill Belichiks of the world.
You are shining lights, each one of you. I see it every day I am among you. So I am going to ask you for something this morning. I’m going to ask you to let your light shine ---out in public, where the children can see it. You know that reading from Matthew ---the one about not hiding your light under a bushel basket? That’s what I’m talking about.
You are a community of people dedicated to doing good. That’s who you are. Good works are evident in our boards and committees and groups ---in the work of our Council and Circle Singers and our Sunday Morning Youth Ministry and in the lives of the people of this church who are working for dozens of charitable organizations. These good works form a chain of love. Every time you smile at someone, it is an act of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
We do a lot of talking about raising funds here. The roof and the windows. They are important. But I would like to see us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of cooperation, of community.
You are shining lights, each one of you. I see it every day I am among you. And I know that you may be the only Bible some of our children will every read, the only Christ they will ever encounter. The children of this church are watching you.
Do you know who else is watching you? Your grandchildren ---they are listening to you. They are watching you. Even your grown children. They are still learning from you. They are learning how to be 50 or 70 or 80. They are learning how to be retired and how to thrive well past their working years. You are such extraordinary people. You don’t have to do anything more than what you do right now, but you need to step forward and where the children can see it. Let your light shine. The children are watching. The children are listening.
Part Six: MUSIC Children Will Listen Stephen Sondheim from Into The Woods
How do you say to your child in the night?
Nothing's all black, but then nothing's all white
How do you say it will all be all right
When you know that it might not be true?
What do you do?
Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Children may not obey, but children will listen
Children will look to you for which way to turn
So learn what to be
Careful before you say "Listen to me"
Children will listen
Careful the wish you make
Wishes are children
Careful the path they take
Wishes come true, not free
Careful the spell you cast
Not just on children
Sometimes the spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you
Careful the tale you tell
That is the spell
Children will listen
How can you say to a child who's in flight
"Don't slip away and I won't hold so tight"
What can you say that no matter how slight
Won't be misunderstood
What do you leave to your child when you're dead?
Only whatever you put in it's head
Things that your mother and father had said
Which were left to them too
Careful what you say
Children will listen
Careful you do it too
Children will see
And learn,
oh guide them that step away
Children will listen
Tamper with what is true
And children will turn
If just to be free
Careful before you say "Listen to me