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10.04.09

World Communion

SMALL STEPS

LAMENTATIONS 1:1-6; LUKE 17:5-10

• Creating Energy
• The Power of Simple Tasks
• Did you know that every time you take a step, you generate six to eight watts of energy?
• Each of us is a miniature power plant
• The problem is that the energy we generate is wasted because there’s no way to capture it
• The six to eight watts of energy we generate with each step we take instantly disappears into the air
• A London architectural firm is looking into ways to capture that energy on a large scale and turn it into electricity
• In cities like London, Paris, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, thousands upon thousands of people dash through airports, train stations, and subway stations every hour, creating a lot of energy
• So the thinking is that if we could harness the energy generated from all those steps, we could turn it into a useful source of power
• This London firm is working to develop vibration-harvesting sensors that would be implanted in the structure of train stations, bus terminals, airports, bridges, factories, or any structure through which large crowds of people pass to capture the energy we generate
• Those vibration-harvesting sensors could also be used to capture the energy created by vehicles on our roadways and bridges and by machinery in factories
• Those sensors would then store all that collected energy into batteries which would be used to provide power
• There is definitely power in small steps
• Making the Most of Power
• It’s amazing what we can do with just a little bit of energy
• Who would ever have imagined that the energy we produce through a simple activity like walking would be able to be used to generate electricity?
• While we Americans consume more energy than any other nation in the world, we are also concerned about conserving energy
• Tremendous strides have been made to make so many of the products we use on a daily basis as energy efficient as possible
• That includes everything from our air conditioners and furnaces, to small household appliance, to our refrigerators and dishwashers, and even our cars
• Long gone are the days when the cars we drive are like luxury cruise liners on wheels, where we computed gas consumption on the basis of gallons per mile rather than miles per gallon
• And even the vehicles we label as gas guzzlers today still consume far less energy than those of a generation ago
• We are finding new ways to generate more power from smaller amounts of energy
• Generating Spiritual Energy
• “More Power”
• At the beginning of our reading from Luke 17, we hear the request the disciples made to Jesus: “Increase our faith!”
• This request comes in between some of Jesus’ teaching about sin and forgiveness and his teaching about the power of mustard-seed faith
• Listen to the words of Jesus that precede our text—vs. 1-4
• Immediately on the heels of those words, the disciples make this request for Jesus to increase their faith
• It’s as if they were saying to Jesus, “We don’t have the power to do that.  To be that forgiving takes more energy than we can muster.  Give us more faith so we can have the power to do as you say.”
• To their request for more power, Jesus responds, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you”
• One of my favorite TV shows is Home Improvement
• If you’ve ever watched that show, you have seen Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor rewire or reconstruct every electrical or mechanical gadget imaginable in order to give it more power
• “More Power” is the motto by which this guy lives
• Yet, every product he reconfigures to give it more power ultimately blows up in his face
• The power he seeks results in his inability to get the job done right
• The lesson from Tim’s antics on the TV show is that our tools and appliances already have the power they need to do the job they were designed to do
• More power doesn’t make them work any more effectively
• Tim’s efforts to increase the power output actually decrease their effectiveness and result in a waste of energy
• And this is the point of Jesus’ words about mustard-seed faith
• We don’t need more power to do the things Jesus asks us to do; we only need to use the power we’ve got as efficiently and effectively as possible
• Have you ever seen a mustard seed?
• It’s only about one-twentieth of an inch—it’s very, very small
• So what Jesus is doing here is underscoring the notion that faith doesn’t have to be huge to have an impact
• It doesn’t have to make the news to make a difference
• In our culture, where everything is super-sized, Jesus says that we don’t need to super-size our faith in order to have an impact
• We do, however, need to use the power of our faith as efficiently and effectively as we possibly can
• Using Faith for Peace
• Today is World Communion Sunday, a day on which Christians around the globe gather together as one body to feast at the table of the Lord
• This celebration is a foreshadowing of the day when the redeemed of all the earth will feast together in the Kingdom of God
• The Kingdom of God will be a kingdom of justice and righteousness and peace
• As Presbyterians, we use this day to reflect on the ministry of peacemaking
• Hearing Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” (Matthew 5:9) we pause to reflect upon our efforts to bring peace to a troubled world
• We live in a world bloodied by violence every day
• It’s easy for us to be overwhelmed by the challenge of working for peace and reconciliation
• We don’t know how to respond to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, to bloodshed in Palestine, to gang violence in our cities, to murder in our schools
• All this hostility makes us want to run for cover
• But more than that, the news of such suffering and pain desensitizes us to the impact it has on those who are affected by it
• We find ourselves thinking, “It’s just another killing, another random act of violence.”
• It’s become so common that it’s just another trivial detail of the daily routine of life, and we find it difficult even to grieve with and mourn for those who suffer
• Often, we don’t even notice the suffering that is occurring around us
• Lamenting for Those Who Suffer
• In the opening words of Lamentations, Jeremiah mourns over the sufferings of Israel
• He sees the anguish of people who were once great but who have been stripped of everything—their home, their belongings, their life
• Right in front of his eyes there is suffering and grief and pain
• Throughout this book, Jeremiah laments over all the suffering he sees
• This is a scene of reversal, of sudden loss, and it’s a scene that’s not unfamiliar to us
• TV has brought scenes such as this into our homes
• People being swept away in the raging waters of a tsunami
• Home ripped apart and lives uprooted by winds of hurricanes
• Refugees fleeing from burning cities seeking refuge as a result of war
• The joy and glory of former days are quickly lost and become memories of what will never be again
• But Jeremiah did more than simply feel sorry for the people of Israel
• He had a calling from God, and his calling was to minister to these people who were in crisis
• His calling was to bring hope to those who had lost all hope, and to help them, in some small way, to begin to rebuild their lives, to put the pieces of their fractured lives back together
• What he sees is an overwhelming sight, and that’s the reason for his lament
• He might well have complained that the task was too great, that there were too many needs for his ministry to be effective
• He might have even prayed for God to increase his faith
• Yet, he used the power of the faith he had to begin making a difference in the lives of people who were hurting
• I fear that we have become so accustomed to the suffering and pain of poverty, homelessness, oppression, abuse, and violence, not only in our world, but just outside our doors, that we no longer feel compassion for those who suffer
• It’s more than just that the problem is so big we fear the little bit we do won’t make a difference
• It’s that we’ve become so numb to the suffering of others that we don’t even feel their pain
• We can’t even bring ourselves to lament over all the suffering that exists around us
• Blessed are the Peacemakers
• Yet, we are called to be peacemakers and we are charged with the ministry of reconciliation
• In 2 Corinthians 5:18, Paul reminds us that God “has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”
• In light of the world’s circumstances, that’s an overwhelming task, and we may find ourselves praying with the disciples, “Lord, increase our faith!”
• But Jesus’ words about mustard-seed faith remind us that we already have the power to do what he wants us to do
• What we need to do is to learn how to use it
• The key is to start small and work for peace in our own families and communities
• The most striking example of the power of faith to bring peace and reconciliation occurred three years ago on October 3, 2006  in a small Amish community in Lancaster County, PA
• What we saw there was a group of Amish men and women who took a stand for forgiveness after a gunman murdered five young girls in their schoolhouse
• What amazes us is how these peace-loving Christians, who were victims of this tragedy, reached out to the other victims who are often forgotten—the wife and children of the gunman
• As we develop habits of reconciliation, those habits become small steps we can take that can have a huge impact
• Unfortunately, many Christians today have lost the courage of their convictions
• We’re more comfortable debating internal church issues rather than taking a risk for reconciliation in the world
• Instead of arguing among ourselves, our denomination might instead focus on finding ways to use faith to curb the violence in our culture rather than arguing over issues that influence violence
• Collective Power
• Thousands upon thousands of people walking through train stations, bus stations, subways, and airports generate energy without giving it much thought
• In the normal routine of daily life, those people collectively can produce a significant amount of usable energy
• This is a picture of the church
• As the body of Christ, we number millions worldwide
• Think of the difference we can make simply by the way we walk in the daily lives we live before others
• If Christians around the world simply practiced the faith they profess, the world would be changed
• The work of reconciliation is our responsibility as followers of Christ
• It’s part of our job description, along with ministries of comfort, service, encouragement, healing, lifting the fallen, advocating for the oppressed, weeping with those who weep, listening to those in despair, overcoming differences
• All these and more comprise our mission as obedient servants of Jesus Christ
• And it’s inconceivable to think that Christians walking faithfully through life aren’t going to generate a ton of world-changing energy