Joy or Depression

When I was about 8 years old, I joined the Cub Scouts. I’m not so sure it was my decision, for my dad was involved in the local Scouting group. In St Marys, we must have had thirty boys into scouting in about 4 or 5 different packs. And when I became a Cub scout, I got a subscription to Boy’s Life. And in Boy’s Life at that time, there was a regular column written by a young man named Bobby Fischer – who would later become the world chess champion. I read everything in Boy’s Life – including the chess column. And so I learned to play chess.

Since we traveled back and forth to Parkersburg every week, and took vacations, to keep me occupied, my parents bought me a little portable chess set. It was about 9 inches square, folded up and kept the little plastic pieces in yellow foam cut-out holes. I played hundreds of games on that set. But somewhere along the way, I lost a pawn. The game set was now incomplete. It bothered me – I must have looked all over the car and all over the house for that missing pawn. But I never found it. I put a penny into the set to replace the pawn. I took the set to college with me.

I came across the set about three years ago. I opened it up – there were all the pieces in the now-deteriorating yellow foam – except the missing pawn. And it made me sad. All those good memories from my youth – but the set was incomplete. And that incompleteness made me sad.

When I left college, I moved to Johnson City, TN to a job with Texas Instruments. Soon I was managing a line of products. It was exciting, I was busy, the job kept me at work many evenings until 7, 8, or even 9 o’clock, and I’d go home and rest and then be at work at 8 o’clock the next morning. But after a year or so, I had my job and my product line under control. Now, I was home by 6 pm most every evening. I had time to spare. And I realized I was lonely – I was in my mid-twenties and was not dating, didn’t have a girlfriend, nor even a pet. Things were incomplete in my life and this made me sad. So I bought a kitten, which helped until I met Saundra a few years later.

Today, I talk to people who have sad eyes, and they ask me a question. “When can we get back to normal in our church?” And I look beyond the eyes and see that great sadness – where are my friends? Where are the rituals I could depend upon? Where is the stability in the country? Why do I feel so sad?

Today’s world has a name for this. Depression. If sadness is a twilight, depression is midnight. It is the sadness that continues day-after-day. I want to explore this a bit today, because we or friends or relatives of ours are depressed. Covid has put many people into a dark time. We all know sadness – and most of us are depressed or have someone close to us who is depressed. But, as usual, God has the answer!

Our minds and hearts and souls are very much attuned to having things complete. Whenever I look at my chess set, I see in my mind the missing piece and I am sad. If I had dwelt upon it, I would have become depressed. It is a minor thing, though, and I was able to complete the set – sort of – with a penny. But there is always a twinge of sadness when I think about that lost piece.

Jesus spoke of the missing piece. In Luke 15:1-10, Jesus tells two stories:

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’  In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The missing piece. Incompleteness. It probably wasn’t worth the shepherd’s time to hunt down and chase down that missing sheep. It probably wasn’t worth the woman’s time to so carefully search for the missing coin. But neither could be joyful, neither could be happy until they found what they were missing. When I was single, I was not happy until I found my wife Saundra, who made me complete.

The psychologists talk about the causes of depression. To simplify, they believe that there are physical causes, events, and chemical imbalances. Let’s take a look at these causes and then come back to what the Bible has to say. First, the physical causes: 

Physical Causes of Depression

The people who live in Scandinavia – Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland – speak of a disease we call “SAD” – Seasonal Affective Disorder. It is a physical issue. And it affects those of us who live in America as well. Put simply, it is feeling sad or depressed because we are not getting enough sunlight. It really hits us beginning this time of year as the days grow shorter and darker. Bright sunlight, particularly in the morning, is critical for our body to be upbeat. In fact, Sweden has a law which requires all employees to have access to natural sunlight at their desks, which has led to interesting business architecture with skylights and big windows. In particular, they make sure that their lighting is that bluish-white light that says “wake up” rather than the yellow light that says, “Go to sleep”.

I had two grandmothers. They lived next door to each other. One was an optimistic woman, her home was filled with light, curtains wide open, decorated in yellows and greens, and she was almost always joyful. The other lived in a dark home, with dark browns and orange decorations, dim yellow lights, heavy, closed curtains. A visit to her was sad and heavy.

One day, she moved across the street to a new home with a big bay window and other open windows. She became cheerful! If you are feeling sad, brighten up your home – particularly as the darkness of winter approaches. Make sure you have some of the blueish white lights, for that will lift your mood.

The Bible talks of “leaving the darkness and entering the light.” God knew this relationship and pointed out to the Bible writers time and again that darkness is related to sadness and light is related to joy. In the beginning was darkness and God had to create light. One of the Ten plagues that hit the Egyptians was a plague of darkness – “darkness that can be felt”, it says in Exodus 10. In 2 Samuel 22, David sings a song. Part of the song is this: “You, LORD, are my lamp; the LORD turns my darkness into light.” This verse points out that God is like a lamp – God ‘turns my darkness into light.” Brighten up your room with light and you may chase away your depression darkness. Come close to God and you will have joy!

Another physical cause of depression is illness. If you are ill, your body slows down in order to save energy to fight the illness,. We become sad and withdrawn, for the body wants us to stop running around and instead, sleep. If you know you are ill, expect a bit of sadness and even depression. It’s normal. Get your sleep when you are sick!

Perhaps one of the biggest causes of sadness in America today is caffeine. Now I know that caffeine lifts you up. A cup of coffee or a glass of cola perks us up! But about 4 to 6 hours later, the caffeine goes away and that lets our body down. We “crash” off the caffeine, whether it was delivered by coffee, cola, tea, or chocolate. The caffeine temporarily blocks receptors that tell our brain our body is tired. Then, as your kidneys clear the caffeine from our body, those receptors suddenly are open and our brain figures out that we are tired – or even exhausted. And we either have to go to sleep or get a new charge of caffeine.

But if we don’t recognize what is happening, we may experience a sudden wave of sadness. Nothing has truly changed – except our caffeine has gone away and we suddenly feel down. We may cry. And if you are one of those people who says coffee doesn’t affect you – well, my doctor friends would just say that’s further proof that you are very addicted to caffeine. Many college students experience sudden depression – but the true cause of this depression is the let-down from the morning or the late-night coffee. And the let-down that happens to the meth addict is ten times worse.

Notice that each one of these physical causes of depression is incompleteness. We are missing enough sunlight, we are missing good health, we are missing caffeine that we previously had.

Chemical Imbalances

Much of the same thing happens in other cases. We all have heard that we should average 8 hours of sleep a night. As we go without enough sleep, night-after-night missing just a couple hours of sleep, getting six good hours of sleep, chemicals begin to go out of balance in our body and in our brain. We begin to over-react to situations – we break a dish, a cheap glass, and we begin to cry. We hit a suicidal bird that has flown into our car and it bothers us the rest of the day. We drop a cup of coffee and it just destroys us for the next hour. Once again, something is incomplete – and the root problem is that our sleep has been incomplete for the last four days. The only solution is to hit the bed three or four hours early.

My son pointed out to me that in ancient times, people looked at sleep as a time of preparing for the new day, not, as we often do, as a time of recovery from this day or an annoying time that we cannot work or be productive. No, look at sleep as a necessary preparation for tomorrow and guard it carefully. Ask yourself – is the fourth quarter of the football game really important to see? Do we really need to watch the eleven o’clock news?

Saundra and I head to bed around 9 pm on Saturday nights, because we have found that if we don’t get enough sleep our sermon delivery will suffer because our brain chemicals go out of balance without enough sleep. And similar problems happen with too much alcohol, with certain cold medicines, and with too much sugar in our diets. Each of these can mess with our brain chemistry and lead to sadness.

Life Events

But there are big life events that cause sadness or depression. We lose a job – and we have just lost our daily purpose in life. We lose a loved one – and part of our purpose for living is gone, part of our day is gone, a good friend is missing. A relationship breaks up or there is a divorce. Half of our soul is now missing. Our home burns, floods, or disappears in a tornado – and many of our “things” that have memories attached to them are gone. In every one of these cases, the root problem is that something in our life is incomplete. Something is missing. Something is gone and can not easily be replaced. We will not feel right until we replace what is missing.

Have you ever seen a cat or dog whose child owner goes away to college or to camp? The animal goes from room to room, looking for the missing child. When the bus runs, they run to the door to wait for their return. The animal is confused, lonely, missing their human friend. Their world has become incomplete.

The Bible - Job

In the Bible’s Old Testament Book of Job, Job, a good man, has had a bad day. His oxen and donkeys were taken by raiders, His servants were killed by those raiders, he has lost his livestock and shepherds to lightning, and all his sons and daughters, who were partying together, were killed by a tornado that collapsed the house where they were. Soon afterwards, he was struck by a disease that gave him painful, itchy sores. So Job may have become depressed. You can judge. Listen to his comments beginning in Job Chapter 3:

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:

3 “May the day of my birth perish,
and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’
4 That day—may it turn to darkness;
may God above not care about it;
may no light shine on it.
5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more;
may a cloud settle over it;
may blackness overwhelm it.
6 That night—may thick darkness seize it;
may it not be included among the days of the year
nor be entered in any of the months.
7 May that night be barren;
may no shout of joy be heard in it.
8 May those who curse days curse that day,
those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9 May its morning stars become dark;
may it wait for daylight in vain
and not see the first rays of dawn,

24 For sighing has become my daily food;
my groans pour out like water.
25 What I feared has come upon me;
what I dreaded has happened to me.
26 I have no peace, no quietness;
I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Do you think Job was depressed? Darkness had entered Job’s life. Major catastrophe had struck. And Job feels terrible.

When we watch the television news, when we read negative and arguing Facebook posts, when we watch tension-filled tv shows that kill off favorite characters, it can set us into a depression. It is like everything that happened to Job is happening to us!

The British show “Downton Abbey” was a favorite for many years on PBS. A few seasons into the show, the actor that played a favorite character decided to move to America to take more lucrative movie roles, and the character was killed off. The fans were both angry and depressed for months! And this was because of the death of a character, not even a real person! How many of you remember the let-down when WVU failed to make a bowl game? The season was incomplete!

Turning Sadness into Joy

What can we do when bad things happen in our lives? How can we turn that dark sadness into joyful life? How do we climb out of the darkness into the light?

There are several steps to this. The first thing we need to do is to recognize that sadness happens because something in our life is incomplete. We’ve lost a chess piece, we don’t have a complete relationship, we don’t have health, we may not have enough sunlight. We may have a chemical imbalance because we’ve lost sleep or have a new medicine that messes with us. So we need to first sit and think and try to find the missing piece. We need to find our missing sheep or find our missing piece of silver.

But what if we can’t figure out what is missing in our life? That’s when we sit and ask God for help. We pray, asking what is missing in our life. Sometimes it is a comfortable person in the room with us, sometimes it is a set of friends from a job. It may even be something as simple as missing a particular food because that restaurant has closed.

When we moved to the Adamston neighborhood of Clarksburg, after a time, Saundra and I became sad and somewhat restless. And then we figured out what the problem was. We were missing the woods. We could not walk outside and enjoy the trees that had come up close by our home at Quiet Dell. And so we began to get in the car once a week and drive out along a couple of rural highways, and watch the leaves skitter in front of the car. It really helped.

But what if the life event has taken a loved one from us? What if it is the loved one that is missing? This is where God really steps in. For God is here beside us, watching every move we make and every word we say. And Jesus has told us about the lost sheep and the lost coins: “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

Joy comes in Heaven when people turn to God. And this joy isn’t just for the first time we turn to God. The joy is there every time we turn to God for help in our lives!

It has been said that despair is one of the worst sins. Perhaps. But we have the word of Jesus that “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons.” If despair is a sin, then turning back to God for hope is surely repentance. And Heaven is joyful because you just turned back to God. Let that joy flow into you!

Turning to God for Answers

Above all else, God wants us to turn to God for answers. For God knows the answers and we often don’t. But a deep time of prayer, speaking and listening to the Holy Spirit’s response, will often provide us the answers.

I was in a hospital room a few years ago with an older woman and her husband, who was in his final coma, heading toward Jesus. They had been married for over 60 years. Both of them were strong believers and were in their late 80’s, had led in the church, and raised their children as believers. They had relied upon what they read in the Bible and what the Holy Spirit of God told them. And now he had just a few hours left. It was at that possibly sad moment that the woman said words the effect that “This is when we are grateful for the years we’ve had.” And, knowing her and her wisdom, I know that she was thinking that the next week would be terrible, the next few months would be difficult and things would never be complete again, but she also knew, looking back over all those years, that God would get her through until she went to be at home with Jesus and her husband, and that that time would not be so long, even if it was another ten or 15 or even 20 years.

For you see, everything terrible that happens in this life is temporary. Everything is a blink of an eye compared to eternity. Our great mistake is believing that bad things last forever and good times are short-lived. Just the opposite is true. God designed the world so that just the opposite is true.

Think of terrible times in your lives. The unemployment only lasted a few months, a year or two at most. The relationship ended, and the only thing that keeps the sadness going in your life is your refusal to let go and step forward to live again. JFK was shot and buried a week later. Johnson was putting forth his proposals a couple months later. Even World War II lasted less than five years for America, despite all the shows that have covered every angle for the last 75 years. 9/11 was almost twenty years ago. The bird of sadness has come and gone. It flies away quickly - if we let it.

Depression happens when we take the bird of sadness and allow it to build a nest in our emotions. Depression happens when we believe that we can never be complete again. Depression happens when we refuse to stand up and search for the missing sheep, the missing piece of silver, the missing chess piece. And sometimes, we can’t find that missing chess piece, but a copper penny will do for most purposes. Chase that bird of sadness away by inviting the dove of the Holy Spirit to talk with you.

So stand up, figure out what is missing, ask for God’s help until you know what is missing, and then ask God to replace what is missing.

But God won’t replace the missing with a duplicate of the missing. God is not that cheap. If we will search for life and pray for God’s help, God will replace the missing job or the missing relationship with something or someone much better. How do I know? I look once again to the story of the man in the Bible who lost his family and his wealth in one day.

Job's Trust in God

That horrible day, Job lost 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, a large number of servants, seven sons and three daughters.

Job spoke to God and God spoke to Job. And because Job never lost faith in God, because Job maintained his integrity, trusting that God was just and fair and trustworthy, God restored to Job everything that he had lost – giving him twice as many livestock – fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys, seven sons, and three daughters who were considered the most beautiful in the land. He lived to age 140.

That’s the story of Job.

But there is another reason I know that God will make the bad times temporary and the good times last for eternity.

Jesus

One day in Jerusalem, a good man, Jesus of Nazareth was arrested, beaten and killed for claiming to be God walking upon the earth. Jesus was buried that Friday evening in a rock-hewn tomb. On Sunday morning, reports began to circulate that first a group of women, then his two closest students, then two more students and finally a group of ten students saw Him alive again. Over the next forty days, He was seen in at least eleven different appearances, in different places, by over five hundred people, He walked with them, He talked with them, He ate with them, He even made breakfast for seven of the disciples on the shore of the Lake of Galilee. And He promised all who choose to follow Him will live forever, which definitely will be a good time. He promised this would happen if you chose to follow Him. You will live forever and walk with Jesus on the riverbank in New Jerusalem under the Tree of Life in that city which does not need sunlight for God gives the light.

You know, I sometimes wondered why Jesus only met with seven of the disciples on the shore of the lake after His Resurrection. Until I realized that throughout the Bible, from Genesis Chapter One when the days of the week were set, to the candlesticks and churches of Revelation – seven is the number of completion. When Jesus is around, everything is complete. Nothing is incomplete. There is no reason to be sad. There is no reason to be depressed, for Jesus completes everything.

Amen?

Father God,

I pray for the people of this church and all those watching and listening online and on the FM radio. I pray especially for those who have been feeling sad, lonely or depressed. Let them feel Your presence beside them every day. Help them find what has been missing in their lives, how they have been incomplete. And help them learn to listen to Your Holy Spirit and read Your Holy Scriptures, so they will recognize You have been with them every day and are ready to replace what is missing. This we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, Your Son. Amen

Listen to this song: I'll Fly Away

Benediction

Now Go into the world, listening to the Holy Spirit, declaring the Word of God and speaking of the glory of Jesus our Redeemer. And be blessed by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Finding Peace in Tumultuous Times

Are You at Peace?

I remember a day long ago. I must have been five or six years old, playing in the front yard of my parents’ home. There, among the green fescue that covered the front lawn, I had found a pathway an inch or two wide between the clumps of grass where I could just barely drive my fleet of Matchbox cars, trucks, and construction equipment. I proceeded to built a two-lane highway between two hollows that were hidden under the grass, moving my construction equipment like I’d seen the big dump trucks and road graders move. Soon, I had a road cleared of twigs and blades of grass, and my cars drove back and forth along that superhighway under the bright blue sky that was always present that summer. Time passed and I never noticed.

There were no arguments with my friends, for my friends were somewhere else that day. There were no worries – lunch would be ready when I was called into eat, the house would be there, other people more wise and more powerful than I took care of everything. My parents were happy to look out the front window from time to time – I don’t even remember them checking on me. The biggest problem that arose was when the large black beetle ran across my road – but he kept running, and I let him go. My life was at peace.

How is your life? Are you at peace? Are you able to relax and let time pass without the panic of thinking, “What must I do today? What are today’s deadlines, meetings, problems to solve?”

The Apostle Paul wrote several times about peace. Not the peace that comes when armies do not cross the land, but the personal peace that happens when we are safe in the arms of God.

The surveys today tell us that we are not at peace. About one in six Americans take some form of legal mood-altering drug, mostly for anxiety or depression. Another 1 in 8 meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder. 1 in 5 Americans over 12 years old use illegal drugs. In addition, there are many people who are anxious, depressed, or have trouble sleeping who have not sought help from the psychologists or from chemicals, keeping things together but not truly at peace. And these surveys were from 2018, before the COVID lockdown and the wild events of 2020. Where do you fall on this list? How much at peace are you?

The Lord is Near

In his letter to the Philippians, beginning in Chapter 4, Paul writes about a couple of women, Euodia and Syntyche, who apparently are having disputes about Christ. Paul urges them to be of the “same mind in the Lord” and asks the recipients to help these women.

Paul then gives us this wonderful passage:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

To Paul, it is enough for us to remember that Jesus is near. Therefore, we should rejoice in the Lord always. He emphasizes this by saying it again. Rejoice! If we are upset, if there are problems, if anything is bothering us, we are to pray to God about it.

When I taught at Parkersburg Catholic High School, in the teacher’s restroom there was a poster which said, “If it is big enough to worry about, it is big enough to pray about.” This is sound, based upon Paul’s teachings. “If it is big enough to worry about, it is big enough to pray about.”

But I want you to notice something buried in Paul’s sentence. We are to pray and present our requests to God with thanksgiving! It is a reminder that our lives are never completely gloomy – there are always things which God has provided us that we should be thankful for. And there is a key point in removing our anxiety.

After all, if we will remember all the times God has answered our prayers – or simply given good things to us – then we don’t adopt the attitude of Chicken Little. You will remember Chicken Little, who was hit in the head by an acorn and told everyone that “the sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

Chicken Little would have done well to remember that God has always been there for her.

Think About Good Things

Paul, after telling us to pray with thanksgiving about every situation, then gives this advice:

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Have you noticed that government-funded studies often do the equivalent of telling us that most horses have four legs? I’ve found it isn’t just an American phenomenon. A British study recently discovered that people who lived with more trees around them were happier than those who lived in concrete-covered areas.

Duh! The study concluded that people should walk in parks or the woods more often, that it would make them feel better, less anxious, and more peaceful.

Why? Perhaps it is because trees are lovely. “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”

You know, Paul has a good point here. Our peace is lost when we think about lies, when we think about the vulgar, when we think about the wrongs of life, the impure, the ugly, those things we don’t admire. We lose our peace when we think about failures, and those events that we are ashamed of. It is the opposite that brings peace - “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”

And the promise that Paul gives us? “And the God of peace will be with you.”

Our God is the god of beauty, of truth, of goodness. He is not the god of ugliness, of lies, of evil. Our soul achieves peace when we come close to God and begins to take on the attributes of God. That is why we are to think about “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” These are all attributes of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

When you were a child, did you fall asleep in the arms of your father, your mother, your grandfather, your grandmother? Did their warm embrace bring you to peace and rest? Were you carried into the house from the car in their arms, snuggling down secure and happy?

Escaping Stress

We lose that peacefulness as adults, for we worry about the bad things in the world. We feel vulnerable to COVID-19, we are upset by violence, arguments cause our adrenaline to flow and we feel stressed. We don’t like being around these things – and yet, where can we go to escape the stress in today’s world?

Many people have turned to chemicals. But chemicals have a nasty habit of turning around to cause us more problems. For example, caffeine, like the simple caffeine found in a cup of coffee will make most people slightly, all-so-slightly anxious as it speeds up our metabolism. Our body takes that speed up as a signal to be more alert, looking around for danger. If you have several cups of coffee, you probably know about becoming jittery or even more subject to jumping when someone in a quiet room begins to talk suddenly. Even a low level of caffeine from a daily cup of coffee or tea or a bite of chocolate increases our anxiety. I know. A couple of years ago when I cut out drinking tea and cola, I lost thirty pounds in six months because I wasn’t as anxious – and I eat when I worry. Maybe you do, too. Cut out the caffeine.

Other chemicals like nicotine make you irritable and anxious when its been a while since your last dose... er, cigarette. If you’ve been around someone who has been on illegal drugs, their anxiety level goes through the roof as the effects of the drug dose wears off – We call it withdrawal, and it is the main reason people stay hooked on the drugs. The same happens, just less intensely, with the legal prescription drugs – your body can tell when the drugs are wearing off, and your anxiety level goes up until your next dose. But don’t quit the legal drugs without talking to your doctor first.

The stress of our modern world leads to much anxiety by generating subtle fears. When we become fearful, our body begins to put out stress hormones, chemicals that prepare the body to run or fight. Our heart rate speeds up, our blood is more likely to clot, our reactions intensify, our hearing and eyesight improve – we are ready to run from the tiger or the wolves and ready to kick them in the nose as we climb a tree. But when the stress is a worry about our job, our children’s school, the chance of a riot in our town, a vague worry about our retirement income, the news of friends dying from a virus, the stress hormones can flow for days and weeks and months on end – and that harms our hearts, our kidneys, our sleep, our brains, our peace. Long-term stress has been shown to harm much of our body through increased blood pressure, higher blood sugar levels, and lack of rest. We need peace to live a long, happy life.

Many people have turned to other religions, particularly Buddhism and Hinduism, practicing Hindu yoga and Buddhist mindfulness. These religions have taught that life is suffering and so they have developed techniques to avoid suffering and anxiety. They search for answers, but really only find partial answers, for while these religions offer some good things, they do not have the whole truth as Christianity has offered for 2000 years. Christianity points out that suffering is only a part of life – life has much goodness in it – and anything that causes suffering is caused by human sin. God is the source of all goodness. 

Jesus Defeated Death

For from the beginning, Christians pointed out that the root cause of all anxiety is a fear of death. Death is what we fear – whether we say we are afraid of homelessness, of unemployment, of loneliness, of poor health, behind the fear we name is the fear we have, which is the fear of death. And Jesus Christ was the solution to death.

For when Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, was arrested, beaten, and crucified onto death for that claim, He took with His death all of our sins. And then, on Easter morning, He arose from Death, having totally defeated Death, and promises eternal life to all who will follow Him. His Resurrection proves that Jesus is the Son of God and that His promises are true. We who follow Him shall live forever – Death has no power over us except as a time of sleep. Temporary Sleep. A temporary rest. A short intermission between Act One and Act Two of our eternal life.

Beyond that time-out is our resurrection, promised by the sinless One, the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. And remembering this promise is the key to throwing away our anxiety. For with what can you threaten a person who will live eternally? As Jesus said in Matthew 10:28 28 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”

In Galatians Chapter 5, Paul speaks us the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to Christians during baptism, as the hands are laid upon the new Christian after the water has been applied, and the Holy Spirit is asked to come into the heart of that new Christian. And what does the Spirit do for us? If we listen to the Spirit’s gentle, whispered voice and do what the Spirit asks, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. “

Notice that this is the fruit of the Spirit – it is what happens when we continually learn to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit – we begin to love, we show joy, we have peace, we show forbearance or patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Too many times I’ve heard these fruits of the Spirit preached as goals for the Christian believer. No, these are too hard to achieve on our own – these come, though, when we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and follow the gentle words of the Spirit. “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. “

Turn Off the TV

Would you have peace in your life? Then the Apostle Paul says to remember that you have been saved from permanent death through the sacrifice of Jesus. You have the Holy Spirit, which will give you eternal life and the fruits of that Spirit – if you will listen to the Spirit – instead of the insistent voices of the world who continue to speak of chaos, death, gloom and destruction. Turn off the evening news. Turn off television shows and movies that are filled with fighting, for our minds were created to watch fighting as a form of protection – for when a man fights with a wolf in your home, it is important to know who has won so you can run away properly. Tension, fighting, conflict attracts our attention and that is why the very smart people who write and produce these shows emphasize that conflict – whether it be a spy thriller, a family drama, or the evening news. Conflict holds our attention – but conflict also destroys our peace.

If you want to find peace in your life, turn off the television and spend an hour each evening reading. Read your Bible. Read good Christian authors – ancient authors like Augustine of Hippo, Irenaeus, Jerome – medieval authors like Martin Luther, Jean Calvin, Thomas Aquinas. Later authors like John Wesley, C.S. Lewis, CK Chesterton, and John Piper.

God is With Us

But there is another level of peace beyond removing the daily stress of the news, and our daily worries, beyond the peace that comes in saying, “If I die I’ll be with Jesus, so what can harm me?”

That is the peace of knowing that the powerful transcendent God who created the Universe has not only promised us eternal life, but that same God loves us each tremendously. The theologians call this the immanence of God. The transcendence of God is the idea that God is in charge, all-powerful, Creator of the Universe, always everywhere, larger than the Universe. A Being much more wise and more powerful than we are has everything under control, just as we felt that our parents or grandparents had everything under control when we were children. That is the transcendence of God. But the immanence of God is that God is also right beside each of us, sitting or standing beside us, listening to us, giving a hug to each of us wherever we are if we ask for that hug. God is here, right now. And that is immensely important to understand for our peace.

For there is another part to the stress in our lives. It is the stress of feeling that we are alone. Have you ever felt alone in a crowd? I have. It can become a harmful feeling. But when we realize that God is not only that big, powerful Being somewhere beyond the sky, but is also right here beside us, caring deeply about each one of us, listening to our prayers even more intently than a good parent or grandparent listens to the troubles of a child – we can begin to realize that we are never alone.

• We are not alone when we sit alone in our home, isolated by social distancing requirements. God is there on the couch beside us, listening to our every word.
• We are not alone when we walk through our neighborhood, listening to the birds sing as God directs us.
• We are not alone when the rough family in the neighborhood is shouting at each other, threatening each other and our friends, for God is there with us, reminding us that God is in control of this, too.
• We are not alone when our national leaders and news media and celebrities argue and fight, when foreign governments threaten war and nuclear missiles. We are not alone when the world seems to spin out of control. God is still there, right beside us, reminding us that one day He’ll take us home – it may be decades from now, it may be this evening, but God will be there at the end of this Act and again at the beginning of the next Act in our eternal life.

God has the Battles

Peace comes when we realize that we are not alone and do not have to fight the battles. God will fight the battles for us, for God loves us even more than we love ourselves.

Peace comes when we realize that nothing important happens this year or next year except when someone says, “NOW I choose to follow Jesus”, for that is the only thing that has eternal significance.

Peace comes when we realize that God can replace the damaged pickup, the broken dishes, the water-soaked carpet, the broken marriage, the injured kidney, the tumor-ridden lungs – as long as we are trying to follow His Son. And God knows our intent. God knows if we are trying to follow the path His Son laid out, even if we stray from the path from time to time. It is only when we completely walk away from the path and don’t care that God stops waiting on us.

I’ve given away two hundred dollars to someone I could not trust, but the voice of the Holy Spirit told me to give the money away. Within 24 hours, I received a surprise check from another person for two hundred dollars. God took care of us.

Saundra and I gave away five chairs after we arrived here to a young woman who needed them. Within two days, we were given two nice recliners. God always takes care of us.

Peace comes with knowing that God will take care of you. Peace comes with knowing that God does not need our help, but enjoys watching us help. Peace comes with knowing that God has a plan even when the bills are overdue, even when the employer shut down, even when one of you is in the hospital, even when your spouse walks out, even when hospice has been called. Peace is there when you accept that God is in charge, knows much more than we do, and…when we completely accept God’s will.

John Wesley spoke of complete sanctification – complete holiness. It is when we finally come to the point where we truly don’t want anything in our lives except God’s will. And that isn’t easy, for we always seem like we have a better plan than God has. We’re always trying to tell God which way to turn, how to handle the situation, which way to fix the problem – and that, my friends is truly the biggest barrier to our peace. 

Let God Drive

I came across this writing from Anne Lamott: “I heard an old man speak once, someone who had been sober for fifty years, a very prominent doctor. He said that he’d finally figured out a few years ago that his profound sense of control, in the world and over his life, is another addiction and a total illusion. He said that when he sees little kids sitting in the back seat of cars, in those car seats that have steering wheels, with grim expressions of concentration on their faces, clearly convinced that their efforts are causing the car to do whatever it is doing, he thinks of himself and his relationship with God: God who drives along silently, gently amused, in the real driver’s seat.” (Operating Instructions)

As long as we insist we know more about how the future should flow than God does – we will not have peace. We will only have peace when we settle into the ride of life, knowing that it isn’t going to be the Lazy River, but it’s going to be the Runaway Log Flume Ride, with terrifying drops and swooping curves – when we settle into that ride, sit back and relax knowing that God designed the ride that way and has a nice safe pool for us at the bottom. That is when we have peace. For it is our desire to control things that takes away our peace. Our desire for control takes away our peace.

Have you ever seen a loving father toss his beloved child up into the air and then catch her and repeat this five or six times? The child holds her breath and then giggles after every toss, right? For the child trusts the father.

Do you trust your Heavenly Father to catch you when He tosses you? Do you see His presence and His plan in each toss?

One Final Aspect of Peace. 

This is the most difficult part for most people. This is the advanced level of peace, kind of a "post-graduate" level of peace. This is only for those who are really beginning to “get it”.

To have peace, we must have spare time. Unplanned time, time with God, time to sit and dream and talk with God.

The Dutch talk about “niksen” Niks means “nothing”. Add the -en and it becomes a verb. Doing nothing. Sitting without an agenda. Day-dreaming. Talking with God informally. Talking and listening. Niksen.

Rigidly schedule at least 15 minutes a day to do nothing. Intentionally become “unbusy” for 15 minutes a day. It is not a time for planning. It is not a time for reading a chapter of your Bible. It is not a time for a nap. It isn’t time for television or radio or Facebook or phone games. It is a time to let go of our need to control the universe, to control anything.

It is truly a time to sit and daydream. Sit in the sun or watching out the window. VEGE! Enjoy a time of doing nothing and letting God handle the world around you. In fact, you might start by setting a timer and saying, “Ok, God, you’ve got the next 15 minutes – You can run the Universe without my help.” And then, just watch God in action. At least 15 minutes a day. Part of humbleness is knowing that the world can operate without your help for 15 minutes a day. Learn this humbleness 15 minutes every day. Become un-busy. Let God handle the world. Know that you aren’t needed, but you are welcome to join in. Do nothing for 15 minutes. Niksen.

If you do, you will have peace.

Share that peace with others by pointing out God’s presence and God’s plan to your friends, neighbors, and family.

Father God,

I pray for the people of this church and all those watching and listening online and on the FM radio. Let them see Your presence and Your plan in their lives. Let them learn to trust You as they are tossed into the air by the life You have given them. Let them feel Your presence beside them every day. And help them learn to listen to Your Holy Spirit and read Your Holy Scriptures, so they will recognize You more quickly each day. This we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, Your Son. Amen

Song: I’ve got Peace like a River

Benediction

Now Go into the world, listening to the Holy Spirit, declaring the Word of God and speaking of the glory of Jesus our Redeemer. And be blessed by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Fruit of the Kingdom

Good morning and welcome again to Cedar Grove United Methodist Church. I want to thank each of you who come to the live 10:30 Sunday service for your faithfulness and your concern for the other people in our church family. I’ve noticed that you have continued to wear masks and practice good social distancing, which has allowed us to continue our live services safely so far. I realize that the temperature in our sanctuary isn’t always ideal, but keeping open the sliding doors to the outside are part of what keeps us safe. I also appreciate each of you who watch and listen on our Facebook Live stream and who share it with others, as well as those who listen at 9 AM on V96.9 FM and who are telling their friends about our broadcast. And I especially appreciate all those who are making these new technologies and our twice-monthly newsletter possible with their talents and financial gifts. If we are making a difference in your life, please let us know – and perhaps send in a gift or donation to help us continue to reach you.

You will remember that a few weeks ago, I asked each of you to make a list of twelve names, a list of people who apparently know little about Jesus Christ nor follow him. I asked you to begin to pray for these people and to attempt once a week or at least once a month to engage them in a discussion of God and Christ.

There are many reasons to pray for people and to help them understand what it means to follow Jesus Christ. I could point out that those who attempt to follow Christ make great neighbors. I could point out that those who acknowledge and fear God are usually good members of our community. I could point out that Jesus has directly asked us to tell others of His love and teachings. But perhaps the greatest reason we tell other people of Christ’s love is so we can one day have a chance to be with these other people when this life is over, walking under the Tree of Life beside the river that flows through New Jerusalem on the New Earth.

Of course, many people in this world say they don’t want to hear about Jesus. They believe that they’ve heard quite enough about Jesus, and furthermore, they’ve met people who claim to be followers of Jesus who were obnoxious, abrasive, and generally weren’t the type of people that the world says to associate with. Maybe you’ve had these feelings yourself – or even have them this morning. I’ve even had these feelings! But I’ve learned a few things over the years, and so this morning, I’d like to share some of these nuggets of wisdom with you today.

There is an episode in Matthew 21:33-46 where Jesus has met up with some of the religious people of the day, people who were more concerned that the rules were followed than understanding that the purpose of the rules was to help people. Rather than deal with them head-on, Jesus tells a teaching story, a parable. He talks about a wealthy landowner in ancient times who plants a vineyard, like one of those big Napa Valley vineyards that we’ve seen in the news lately. The landowner puts a wall around it, builds a winepress in it, and even puts a watchtower in the middle so a guard can watch for fire or wild animals or thieves that might steal the grapes. It is a substantial investment. Then, the man rents the place to some farmers and he moves to another place. And when it is time for the harvest, he sends three of his servants to collect his share of the grapes, the fruit.

But the tenant farmers grab the servants, beat one up, killed the second and threw stones at the third. So the owner sent more servants, and the tenant farmers treated them the same way. Finally, he sent his son to the vineyard, saying “They will respect my son.”

But when they saw the man’s son, they decided to kill him and take his inheritance. And so they killed him.

Jesus asks the people around him what will happen when the owner of the vineyard comes? And the people respond that when the owner shows up, he’ll have the farmers killed or put into prison and then he’ll rent the vineyard out to a different group of farmers who will give the owner his share of the crop at the harvest.

Now clearly things were a bit wilder in Jesus’ time than today, because we know that today the police would have been called in at the first attack, but in those days there were no police, so wealthy men had their own private armies. But nobody in Jesus’ audience disputed that the farmers were in the wrong and deserved whatever happened to them.

Then Jesus quotes Psalm 118 to the people around him. He reminds them of Scripture that says: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Those of you who work construction probably realize that a cornerstone, the first stone laid in a foundation, must be a particularly good, strong stone, and this scripture talks of a stone that is rejected by the builders; they don’t even want to use it, but God has made this rejected stone the cornerstone of the building. It is an example where the builders have used their human wisdom, but God has used the much greater wisdom that He, the Creator of the Universe has, and put the rejected stone in the most important spot in the foundation. God can see things that ordinary people can’t see.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Jesus then says to the people listening, a group of very religious people who followed the religious rules, but did not treat people well: I tell you that the kingdom Of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

Jesus was talking to a proud people, a group of people who were very proud of their standing in society, a group of people who were mainly wealthy, respected, well-dressed, had political power, and were seen as the leaders of the community. But Jesus spoke this parable against these well-off people.

In the parable, God is the wealthy landowner who had built up the vineyard, which was the land of Israel and in particular Jerusalem. The tenant farmers were the people who lived well in Jerusalem because of everything that God had done before they were born – they had a safe city, a productive land, and primitive factories, for decades and centuries before, God had led other people to build the city wall, God had fine-tuned the land to be fertile, God had given the weather, and God had led other people to build the barns and storage bins and cisterns and homes that these people lived in at Jesus’ time.

The servants that God sent to the people were the Old Testament prophets. Now many people believe that a prophet is a person who can speak of the future. That’s only partially right; a prophet is simply someone who speaks on behalf of God. Sometimes that’s about the future, but it doesn’t have to be about the future. It can be about the present. What is consistent about prophets is that they speak on behalf of God, usually because they have been given a message by God.

Throughout the centuries, God sent prophets to Jerusalem to bring souls to God, the harvest that is spoken of. But also, throughout the centuries, the prophets had been beaten and killed and rejected by the leaders of Jerusalem who didn’t want things to change – people who didn’t want to change their behavior, their attitudes, their daily lives. They preferred to follow the religious rules as they interpreted them rather than bow down to God.

Finally, God sent His Son – Jesus – to speak to the people of Jerusalem. But they killed Him also. In this story, Jesus is predicting His own death at the hands of the leaders of Jerusalem. And He has just drawn out the leaders into predicting what should happen to those who kill the prophets and the Son of God – God should and will bring them to a wretched end, and give the city over to a different people, people who will provide fruit at harvest time.

The parable was told directly to the people of Jerusalem. But it could just as well apply to most parts of our country today. This parable can apply to America today, for we have leaders – both political leaders and social leaders like actors, actresses, sports figures, news anchors, journalists, company leaders, and even leaders of churches who are not listening to Jesus, the Son of God, just as they did not listen to those who spoke on behalf of God over the last centuries. Our leaders are more concerned with being leaders than with leading people to God.

Do you realize that the Bible does not mention America anywhere? There is no promise made to us that was not also made to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Greece, of Rome.

Thirty-some years after Jesus told this story, the city of Jerusalem was attacked by the Romans and burned. The Temple was destroyed in the year 70 AD by the Romans to end the Jewish War. In 135 A.D. after a second Jewish War, the Romans ordered all of the Jews to leave Jerusalem. They were not able to return until the 1900’s, many centuries later.

There is nothing in the Bible that says we Americans are more special than the Jews of Jesus’ day. God has given us grace – a beautiful land, ancestors who were very focused upon doing what God asked, borders which protected us from our enemies. But there is nothing that says our country must continue until Jesus returns. There is nothing that promises we will not be defeated by enemies.

What has kept our country strong for many years has been the fact that most of our leaders have truly believed that Jesus Christ was and is God’s Son, and therefore everything He said was of great importance. They studied Him, listened to Him, and made decisions knowing they would one day face Him. But starting about 50 years ago, it became fashionable among our political leaders, our professors, our social leaders to say that they knew better than those who believed that Jesus was and is the Son of God. Our leaders began to believe that they were wise, and thus they became foolish. Worse yet, they led other people to become foolish, doing things that were fun for the short term, but which led to trouble for the long term. And we followed them because we thought it more important to make money than follow God. We thought it more important that our children played sports instead of learned Biblical ideas. We thought it better that someone else taught our children subjects we had found difficult rather than buckle down, learn those subjects ourselves, and work directly with our children so they would learn good character skills and Biblical values at the same time they were learning their literature and history and math.

But there is hope for our country – and for each of us. For Jesus compared himself to the cornerstone that was rejected, yet made into the foundation cornerstone of the building. He said that anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces and anyone on whom it falls will be crushed. He was reminding us that He is the Son of God and will not be defeated. He is still there, waiting for you and your family to return to Him.

The chief priests and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time, when they heard Jesus’ parable knew he was talking about them and looked for a way to arrest him but “they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that He was a prophet.”

Today, there are many members of the crowd who know that Jesus is the Son of God. Whatever happens in this election – there are many members of the crowd who know that Jesus is the Son of God. You know, some people claim to be Christians but don’t recognize Jesus as Son of God. Some people go to church regularly, but have not bowed down to Jesus as the Son of God. Some leaders of the church and our country claim to be Christians but can’t tell you what Jesus Christ did to merit a religion named after him. They say, “Jesus Christ founded Christianity” as if He opened up a shop one day like a businessman and things kind of took off from there. That’s not really true. But millions of people around the world in the crowd know exactly what Jesus Christ did.

They know Jesus claimed to be God on the earth and was arrested for this crime, for the crime of blasphemy. They know Jesus was put to death for this crime on a Friday afternoon, and then came back to life on Sunday morning and was seen by over 500 people in over eleven separate appearances. And those people in the crowd know that Jesus promised that those who follow Him will also have eternal life.

"But people don’t come back to life, pastor!" Exactly. Yet we have the witnesses. The witnesses have always been there in the crowd. We have seven recorded witnesses who wrote the New Testament. Those writers have always been there in the crowd, writing what they know of Jesus. We have other facts that are backed up through archeology, through historians, and through literary analysis. Those specialists have always been there in the crowd. And ordinary people in the crowd knows that Jesus is the Son of God.

Have you ever been to a hospital? The first hospitals were built by Christians, who recognized that Jesus’ teaching of “Love your neighbor as yourself” meant something needed to be done to help sick neighbors. Hospitals are a fruit of the kingdom of Jesus.

Do we have humane prisons compared to many countries? This was largely an effort of Christian clergy and lay people forcing law changes, for in the old days, prisons didn’t even provide meals. That was up to your friends if you were a prisoner. Humane prisons are a fruit of the kingdom.

Do most people know how to read? That’s because early American Christians thought it important that everyone know how to read the Bible, to search out for themselves the words of Jesus and learn what He asked of each of us? Widespread reading is a fruit of the kingdom.

Have you thought about attending college or even attended a college? That is because the first colleges were all established in England and America to train pastors – even Harvard and Princeton and Yale were originally to train Christian pastors. Colleges and universities are a fruit of the kingdom.

Have you purchased something from Good Will Industries? Founded by a Methodist pastor in Massachusetts. Have you every enjoyed the low prices of Walmart – Founder Sam Walton was a Christian deacon. Low-cost stores are a fruit of the kingdom of Jesus.

Were your ancestors slaves? An evangelical Christian, William Wilberforce, led the charge in England which abolished the slave trade and started the dominos falling which eventually brought down slavery in America. A slave-free country is a fruit of the kingdom of God.

It is the kingdom of God that Jesus began that has changed things for the better over the centuries, the kingdom that is inhabited by the crowd of Christian witnesses. And it is the crowd of Christian people who know that Jesus is the Son of God who will continue to change things for the better as time rolls on.

And today, those who would accomplish good in this world associate with other Christians in churches so that working together, they may accomplish that good. It is the people of the crowd who know that Jesus is the Son of God who have the real power in this world, for they are supported by God, the One who Created the Universe and continues to create all things. Join a church. Work together as part of the crowd.

Father, I pray for these people in this church and all those watching and listening at home. Fill them with your Holy Spirit, teach them Your ways, help them bring the Good News of Jesus’s love into their hearts so that they may do great things by trusting and following Your Son Jesus and Your Holy Spirit. Give them the courage to step away from their old life, to forgive others daily, and joyfully do Your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.