Sunday, October 13, 2024
The Rev. Megan Collins
We are right in the middle of our sermon series called “Odyssey” in which we’re looking at the journey of life from the past, to the present, and into the future. Today we’re finishing up our middle section on the present.
Nothing forces us to live in the present like a hurricane. Everything on our calendars gets canceled. Our regular to-do list gets set aside. Restaurants and stores and offices and schools all close. Our attention turns to the immediate needs of preparing our homes and getting ice and finding flashlights. Then we sit in our homes, watching the storm’s track move slowly inland, watching it wobble and change, watching for where Jim Cantore is. Hurricanes strip us of all the extra things - our schedules, our jobs, our schools, our appointments, our activities . . . our electricity. We are forced to be here now and we have no idea how long “now” will be.
Then immediately after the storm, we check in on the people and things that we care about. There was the first person you called or messaged to check in on after the storm passed. We examine the things in your home that you made sure you had in a safe place. You venture out to your favorite places once it’s safe to be on the road.
Hurricanes force us to live in the present.
There’s something that happens to us when we are really in the present, when we can set aside all the things that keep us preoccupied and when can stop putting off the things that really matter.
When we are really living in the present, we live according to our values.
Values are things like family, or safety or community or generosity or gratitude. These are the things that matter to us, deep down, the things that really count. When we are living in the present, we are much more likely to live into these.
During the storm, some of you suddenly wanted to gather everyone you love together under one roof. You value family, and community.
Some of you wanted to reach out and help people over the past few days, taking coffee to a neighbor without power, or going to the west coast to help muck out homes. You value altruism and generosity.
Maybe you woke up with a roof over your head and even had electricity and took a minute to thank God for that. You value gratitude.
The hurricane gave us a front row seat to our values, the things that really matter to us.
Almost every time there is a storm, you hear these great stories of neighbors reaching out and helping neighbors. People in the street moving trees out of the way, or checking on an older adult next door. We get calls from people who know us around the country, checking in to see how we are. But as the next few weeks go by, those of us who are lucky, we get back to normal. The lucky ones of us never lost electricity, or will get it back and restock the fridge. We’ll clean up the yard and get back to school and to work. Our schedule will fill back up. We’ll get all caught up in it again. These values, things like gratitude or community or generosity, we’ll lose sight of them again.
But why? If these things are that important to us, why don’t we do them when life is normal? Why don’t we live into our values everyday?
We don’t live out our values everyday because we aren’t living in the present. Our values get put off until we have time. I don’t need to live into my values today. I can be that person tomorrow. I don’t have time for family today. I’ll spend time with them later. I’ll get it on my calendar to help other people next week. I can be generous next week. Today I have to get through this list first. I’ll be grateful another day. Today I can’t believe I’m stuck in traffic again, and the line at the grocery store is ridiculous. If you aren’t living into your values today, it’s because you aren’t living in the present. You’re putting off living into these values until tomorrow.
But what if you never get around to it?
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is early in his ministry. He is beginning to pull together the group of people who would become his disciples. It says:
18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. 19And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’
Peter and Andrew are out doing their regular routine. They aren’t in crisis. They aren’t facing some big dilemma or life changing situation. They are just doing their jobs, busy with the work of casting nets over the boat, pulling in fish. Their day is planned out. Then Jesus comes up and says, hey, drop everything else, and follow me. And the text says:
20Immediately they left their nets and followed him.21As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
The disciples could have said, "You know, Jesus, I’m a little busy today. I’ll think about that for tomorrow. Maybe that’s something I could do in the future. I’m booked up for now, but I’d like to do that. I’ll be brave tomorrow. I’ll be the kind of person who follows Jesus tomorrow." But they didn’t. It says they immediately set aside the normal stuff they had to do, to follow him. Not tomorrow, not next week, immediately. That doesn’t mean the disciples always got this right.. Peter denied Jesus when he was afraid. He let his fear get in the way of his loyalty. He could be faithful tomorrow, when it’s more safe. When the crowds following Jesus were hungry, the disciples wanted to send them away. We’ll be generous tomorrow Jesus, for today let’s just take a break. They’ll figure it out. But that day, on that very first day when Jesus called them, they immediately followed him. They didn’t put off being the person they were called to be until tomorrow. They did it today.
What would you do today, if you felt the immediacy of aligning your life with your values? What would you change? What would you focus on? What would become immediate? What is God calling you to do, who is God calling you to be, and have you been putting it off, waiting until tomorrow to be that person instead of doing it today?
Here’s the problem with putting things off until tomorrow.
It’s not promised to us.
James 4 says: 13 Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.’14Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.15Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’ 16As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.17Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.
Putting off your values until tomorrow is arrogance. You do not know what tomorrow will bring. We don’t like to think that way. We like to think we have unlimited time. That we can put off important things because tomorrow will be there. But the time to align your life to your values, to do those things that are important, to live in the present, is today. So where do you start?
Determine your values
What are your values? We mentioned some earlier - things like community or generosity or gratitude. If you aren’t sure, start by thinking about a time that was meaningful to you. Take a minute now to do this. What is a memory you have of a time that was especially meaningful to you? Now ask yourself, why? Why was it meaningful? What about it felt important? This can help you identify your values. Or who are the people that inspire you? What is it about them? Do they have courage, or integrity? Maybe these are important values to you. What is something you are most proud of in your life, and again, why? What are the things someone would say about you that would make you feel the best? They likely point to something you value.
You can also ask what makes you angry? The things that make us the maddest about other people usually provoke us because they go against our own values. Maybe there is someone in your life who just spends money on tons of things they don’t need, and it makes you mad, and you aren’t even sure why. Maybe it’s because you value being frugal. Or maybe the thing that makes you more angry than anything else is when someone lies, or does the wrong thing and blames someone else. It’s probably because you value honesty and accountability.
So first, determine your values. Then:
Make sure your values align with God’s values
There are a lot of ways to do this. Definitely study the teachings and life of Jesus.
Some will be super clear. There are the values you will realize you have that need to change.
If you find your values are things like absolute power or wealth above all else, if you value safety to a point that you are held hostage by your fears, it’s time to evaluate.
Some others may need to be kept in check, values that are okay when they are given some guardrails. Maybe before the hurricane you focused on making sure you had all of the supplies you needed so you wouldn’t feel like a burden to someone else. You value independence. That’s okay. But if you were the person at Costco who jumped in front of the young mother to grab the last bunch of bananas while her children watched? Your independence isn’t lining up with God’s values for you.
Make sure your values line up with God’s. But what are God’s values? The Bible is full of examples
Galatians 5:22-25
22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
Are any of these on your list of values? Love? Peace? Kindness? Or look at Matthew 5:5-10:
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Are any of these your values? Purity? Peacemaking? Righteousness? Mercy?
Philippians 4:8-9
8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Truth? Excellence?
So first, identify your values.
Then, make sure your values align with God’s
One note here before we move onto our last step. As you examine your values, it is absolutely possible to have two values that compete with one another. Sometimes this is because one is from you and one is from God. Our flesh and our spirit are battling it out. Simply recognizing this can be the first step to letting go of the things holding you back so you can let God really change your life. Other times competing values can co-exist.
You can value routine but also flexibility, solitude but also connection with other people, predictability but also change.
Live into your values . . . today
Most of you have really good values. You value the things we just read about, things like honesty, kindness, generosity. A few of you are a work in progress. But most of you, these are the things that matter.
But are you living into them, right now? The time to live into your values is today, not tomorrow, not next week. The time to make your life reflect those values is today.
After the storm has passed over, I was reading the news and one of the headlines caught my eyes. It said “Is another hurricane heading to Florida?” Let’s certainly hope not. (and also, not helpful, news cycle). But let’s let that headline be our wake up call.
Don’t wait until tomorrow to start living in to your values.
Don’t push off the things that really matter.
Let’s not wait for another hurricane to force us back into the present, to being the people God is calling us to be. Align your life with your values, with God’s values, today, because tomorrow is not promised. This is true for us as individuals, and it’s also true for us as a church.
The time for us to be the church God is calling us to be is today. When we say our vision is to "Love Like Jesus," that means doing the right thing now, in this moment, instead of waiting until tomorrow. We can’t wait until we have extra money in the budget. We can’t wait until we have more people. We can’t put off living out our values as a church until we all have more time. Today we stand up for someone vulnerable, we give more than is comfortable, we love our community in any way that we can, we forgive even when it hurts—and we do it now.
Over the past six weeks we have been in this sermon series, Odyssey. We’ve looked at our past, and how God has been at work through it. We’ve talked about living in our present, and how God is changing us now. Next week, we will start looking ahead, and spend our final three weeks talking about our future, and where God is calling us next.
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