Well, happy new year, folks! Happy 2010! That’s
where we are… I can hardly believe it; can you? And… it’s not
just a new year, is it? It’s also a new decade…
a new decade in a century that seems
like
it’s just barely started… Does it seem that way to you, too?
The article in the newspaper read “The 2000s from Apps
to YouTube: 50 things that changed our lives in the aughts.” Did
you see it? Well, first, I had to figure out what apps and aughts
were—and I discovered that this math major really knew what aughts
were, but I’d just never seen them expressed quite that way… and
I had vaguely heard of apps, although I rarely refer to them much… For
those of you who might be with me, the “aughts” mean those
years between 2000 and now, while I read that “apps” originated
in Apple iPhone advertising and could apply to this past decade’s
explosion of gadgets.
While the change in terminology is happening faster than
I can keep up with it, I am all too aware of that gadget explosion.
Just think of the things we were not dealing with just 10 years
ago—this microphone, our cell phones, iPods and blackberries, cable
phones and bundles, advances in satellite systems, kindles and
E-readers, GPS systems, those digital cameras, DVRs… with all the
expanded capabilities they brought, such as Facebook, Twitter,
Google, Wikipedia, Netflix, reality TV, blogs, internet dating,
YouTube, WII games and of course, texting, which is now making
e-mails outdated.
In addition to our new gadgets, there are the other
items of pop culture that came into our lives, or at least the lives
of our kids or grandkids—things like Starbucks coffee, Crocs,
tattoos, purple or pink hair, Uggs… you know, the things that
cause us to spend more money than we normally would, or maybe to just
“grow” in understanding…
It almost seems like a new world out there, rather than
a new year, doesn’t it? We could expand our look even further,
but we have enough to deal with for now…
There are two questions we can reflect on today about
all this stuff that is coming into our lives: first, what is going
to happen to all of it when it eventually becomes outdated, even if
we’ve figured out what to do with the stuff it has replaced that we
no longer use now… and secondly, and most important, I would
submit, although certainly related to the first question, what is
going on inside all of us while all this external change is
happening—and, as part of that same question, what can we expect
will happen inside us in the future? These are both especially
good questions for a new year, when we talk about such things as
resolutions, getting rid of the old and bringing in the new…
Leonard Sweet is an author and theologian who has
written a book about just that topic. Now Leonard covers a lot more
than just today’s subject in his book, so this is just the first in
a series of sermons that George and Nancy will be following with, to
lead you through the book. But the topics are all good, and I think
you’ll find them helpful, for Leonard’s book was created as a
biblically based “lifeware design” guide for all of us—“for
work, for play, for love, and for everything else,” he says. It
is “not a timeless edifice,” he reminds us, because “like any
cathedral worth its candles, the guidance it offers will be
renovated, reroofed, altered, and added to many times during its
lifetime.” He offers it “as a part of the ‘long trip, first
step’ methodology of any voyage into the unknown.” And that
doesn’t even consider what I am doing with it today! Leonard
Sweet entitles his book “Soul Salsa,” and the basic question he
asks, for all of the book, is “Shall we dance?”
“Dance,” you might say? Some of us even remember
when dancing wasn’t considered appropriate in the church. (That
was way before the aughts) And yet Rebecca did a lovely job in our
special music, didn’t she? We can ask, “Why not dance—when
it’s beautiful, gracious, and Christ-centered?” Watching Rebecca
makes it easy to see why Leonard’s daily mantra is
“We hold a treasure not made of gold
In earthen vessels wealth untold.”
That happens to also be the signature song of the St.
Louis Jesuits.
So “Soul Salsa” is a sort-of theology with legs,
revealing dance, in its purest sense, as a dance of theology… His
book was created to teach the treasure—that’s all of us—how to
dance the Salsa! Why the Salsa? First, because it’s a global
rhythm in its popularity—it started in the Caribbean but was
“cooked” in New York City; and because it is theology in motion. You
really can’t define that, you can only dance it. Leonard’s
description is that “all participants—singers, musicians,
dancers—converge into one kinesthetic sound and at the same time
diverge into parallel dimensions of kinesthetic light. I came, I
saw, I salsa’d.” It’s a total experience and a
God-experience—and, if it doesn’t feel like a good fit yet—wait,
because we are diverse souls and we do have different lifestyles—and
one size does not fit all. What makes one soul sway may singe
another, so if you don’t feel it today, maybe next week is better
for you…
But we’re also reminded that this weekend is our
annual celebration of Epiphany, that time when the wise men came from
so far away to discover Jesus, that small infant, lying in the
manger… They could not fully understand at that time, yet they
knew he was so very special, and they went on to tell others what
they had seen…
Which brings us back to our topic for today, the garbage
of our lives. What will we do with the garbage of today? What are
our plans for our “stuff” that is no longer useful to us? Leonard Sweet
has a total of 17 practices that we would incorporate
into our lives as “soul artists”—for that’s what we are all
called, as we respond to the call—those of us who would “dance
the salsa,” as we live our lives, recognizing life for the art it
is.
As I say this, I’m reminded of something else I
recently read called “Great Truths that Little Children Have
Learned.” It included such words of wisdom as “No matter how
hard you try, you can’t baptize cats,” and “You can’t trust
dogs to watch your food…” It was kind of a dance by itself,
and, while that is fun, Leonard goes on with some very specific—and
practical—guidance, because soul artists
transform and reuse all kinds of waste.
First, with anything you are getting rid of, consider
recycling. It’s very true that what may be your trash, might be
someone else’s treasure. Consider items that might be useful to
Open Door, or that could be given to a thrift shop and sold to
someone else, benefitting both the purchaser and the organization
that runs the thrift shop, or perhaps given to someone else who can
use it. Maybe you have a friend who uses old jewelry for crafts… There
are artists who make sculptures out of old metal parts. Maybe
your old cell phone can benefit a resident of a care center. Some
computer service businesses will recycle computers for those in need.
Goodwill and Habitat take used appliances. I hope we all know
that our local Lions Club collects paper in those large bins that are
placed in the supermarket parking lots. They do a lot of good for a
lot of people, with the money they make on that paper. There are
many out there who will appreciate donated items, before you throw
something away… Just ask.
When I was in India, several years ago, I couldn’t
help noticing that nothing there is wasted. Everything is re-used,
in some form or other. The Chinese recognize the possibilities in
their maxim “All waste is treasure.”
If you do end up throwing items away, check first for
the recycling guidelines for the city you live in, to see if they
will take the items. The City of Prescott’s list is printed in
your bulletin, and if you pull that out, you can see they will take
many things, but standards may be different for surrounding areas, so
check your town’s website if you live in Chino Valley, Prescott
Valley, or anywhere else. Recycling is a gift for others as well as
for ourselves, as the materials go on to create new, useful items and
benefit us all by not contributing to the landfill. While necessary,
landfills are expensive and we all pay the price in many ways to have
our trash so well cared for…
But what about organic matter, you ask? The sloppy,
often wet and decomposing, really messy residue of our feeding and
eating… the real garbage of our lives? Have you ever thought
about the earth under us as a large compost pile? Think of the
years of trash and waste that have just accumulated from all that has
been left on the ground. Actually, our earth is a giant garbage
dump. As we reflect on that, we realize that we might try to burn
it, bury it, ban it, dump it, or drown it—but we can’t get rid of
it! All we can do is change it to one form or another—which is why
the compost pile is such a good idea. The planned, well tended
compost pile is an art-form in itself. Consider growing one.
It takes so little effort to maintain this work of art. You’ve got the
instructions on the sheet inside your bulletin, so
you can see how simple they are to follow. Your main need is an area
protected from animals or other visitors who might tend to get into
it. Consider a compost pile as a way to make something wonderful of
the garbage that you have, for the composted material can go on to
beautify your flower garden, grow your vegetables, and revitalize
your shrubs and trees. Whatever is growing around us can grow better
with compost. As the nutrients you contribute to the pile work
together in a great way, they become super-nutrients that have the
ability to replenish the earth, wherever it is placed. That mass of
leaves, banana peels, egg shells, rotting tomatoes, earthworms, and
all kinds of decaying organic matter, full of fungi and bacteria, is
a thing of beauty. Compost is the densest fertilizer imaginable.
In a compost pile, you simply layer the ingredients
together—and let God do the rest. Everything God made is
biodegradable. Rottedness and rootedness go together. Think about
it. That’s the lesson we can learn for the environment, that is
passed on to become a life lesson that we can incorporate into all
that we do each day. So how do we manage the waste of our lives by
composting?
In composting, one season’s refuse becomes fertilizer
for the next season’s growth. We are reminded that, in the least
likely of situations, God does God’s greatest work. If we
remember that scripture we read in I Corinthians, we saw that God
does not call just the wisest and smartest and strongest, but God
uses the weakest and the foolish and those who are “low and
despised,” we’re told, not just those who in our human estimation
might be the superior ones, to accomplish God’s purposes. God uses
all the refuse of our lives to make something wonderful as God alone
provides the nurturing, the caring, the support and strengthening—the
wisdom that can come. Out of the smallest beginnings can come the
greatest work of God.
Stephen Ministers know this. Their training provides
knowledge, understanding, and sensitivity to the many crises and
problems that people go through in their lives—what some might say
is garbage… They take the hurting, the sick, the grieving and
pained, including the mistakes and sins people have committed, to
provide listening, support and care, while God alone accomplishes the
cure, using all that they have in their past as the fertilizer that
nurtures their future. Their mantra, which is a good one for all of
us, is “We are the caregiver; God is the curegiver.” God can
take the worst and restore it to wholeness.
Our scripture further reminds us that the infant in the
manger who came to us so lowly, from the smallest beginning, born to
the Virgin Mary and found in a feeding trough in a stable where
animals lived and contributed to the compost on the ground, became
for us wisdom from God, the Christ child to our world in need, the
greatest work of God.
When we take out the garbage, we need to only remember
what God did with that situation, that we might all be saved. As
we recycle and compost, may each of us give all our life’s garbage
to God, that God’s grace may so fill our lives that the created
result becomes living and breathing fertilizer for all whose lives we
touch as well as our own.
As we do so, may we know that Jesus came to make all of
life a dance, as expressed in Matthew 11:17, when he shared his
observation to the people that, “We played the flute for you, and
you did not dance.”
It’s worthy of knowing that the Aramaic word for
“rejoice” is the same as the word for “dance.” Carry this
with you in your soul. George and Nancy gave an introduction to the
manure pile last week, you have added to that today, and now you can
watch for the “joy of living”-- the “dance of life”-- in the
weeks ahead, when you will add so much more. Build your pile!
This is our hope for the new year and this is our
epiphany. As we now prepare to take communion together, we will eat
of the bread and drink of the juice, as shared by our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Let that become the compost of our souls, that
we may become as Christ to each other and to the world, enriched and
fertilized. To God be the glory. Shall we dance?
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