Thanks,

Milt Merritt
 

Futuring: A Letter to Graduates

A crystal ball is not one of my resources as I write this epistle on futuring to graduates of Anno Domini 2000. Nor am I overly optimistic about what lies ahead on your pathways of life. For that matter, not all that pessimistic, either. Realistic, yes.

In the coming days you will hear a lot of talk about the opportunities that will challenge you. So I will refrain from commenting on those matters, and confine my observations to some caveats, and what I think you must have to live into the future with worthy success, satisfaction and life fulfillment in terms of the highest destiny.

Almost paradoxically the heavy emphasis on individualism in our culture is creating a herd mentality that runs counter to individual wellbeing. History repeats itself, and we continue to experience an age-old phenomenon: the very persons who call for the greatest freedoms and tolerance are the most restrictive and intolerant of those who differ with their views. You need strength of purpose to resist their pressures.

These continuing trends of subtle fascism demand of graduates that you develop authentic individualism. Avoid the phony and trendy. Look beneath the surface of things. Keep clear of the starry-eyed naivete that oversimplifies human nature, obscures and rationalizes human failings, calls slavery freedom, turns wrong into right all the while completely ignoring vast areas of human and divine realities.

We live in a culture that is bent on rejecting time-honored, proven and objective values. There is an almost cultic obsession with moral relativism and what amounts to in your face social anarchy. Already we are reaping a bitter harvest.

Our generation is handing you enormous social ills, tax burdens and environmental problems that you must bear and seek to solve for decades to come.

Genuine social responsibility must rest on some form of objective and measurable moral foundation. It is not helpful that so few are willing or able to talk morals any more. Anything goes, nearly everything is permissible or so we imagine.

We live in a culture in which greed is honored; shifty deals are applauded; ethics are out of style. The mood is more Get what you want at any cost to anyone. That life today  and probably for many tomorrows before people come to their senses.

How will you respond? Will you join the trend, and get sucked into the shabbiest of human attitudes and attributes? Everybody's doing it is  a moral copout as old as human history. It the very essence of the herd mentality, and signals moral death.

We all need a resource for value choices that truly is timeless and that transcends all human boundaries. You will find that resource only in the ever contemporary, always relevant Word of God.

To be sure the Bible runs counter to human trends and notions. God Word calls for swimming against the current  for making decisions about who you are and what you stand for that will not win a popularity contest among today effete and eclectic.

For persons obsessed with notions of comfort, ease and as few hassles as possible, deciding for Jesus Christ and His norms and standards for life is not a very attractive proposition. He is viewed as out of synch with our culture, and His demands run completely counter to the baser human propensities that people find so alluring.

God Word in the Bible and His Word in the Person of Jesus Christ are the only islands of moral, spiritual, emotional and intellectual sanity in the midst of a culture determined to immolate itself on the altars of the gods of materialism, hedonism and incredible tolerance for the most heinous acts of human perversity.

I close this letter with some comments about relationships. If what I have written so far has any truth to it, you can imagine the impact on attitudes toward marriage and family life. The norms have become casual, temporary and ego satisfying.

Develop your relationships with care and thought. Search out persons who share your convictions, values and morality.

Build relationships with persons who want to harmonize with Jesus Christ, who deplore the trends of modern society, and who refuse to join the thundering herd  simply because our Lord is not in their mindless running.

If you develop closeness with persons whose gods are greed, comfort and self-preservation at all cost, at best you will have relationships without depth, fair weather friends, and instability and unpredictability as the basic components of all your relating, including marriage.

There is much more  but the above is basic and needful. I wish you well. But above all I pray that you will turn to the basics of life given by our Creator, outlined in His Word, and exemplified in the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Your wisest choices and actions are to move into your future with Him as your Guide and constant Companion. In the final analysis what will matter is not arrogant human opinion and the illusory freedom to do as we please  but what the Creator commands.

After all like it or not  He is the Judge Who will have the final say.

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From: Rngjdg@aol.com <Rngjdg@aol.com>
Here is a homily from 94 on the subject--grace Richard N. GalbreathRichard N. Galbreath,

 9/11/94, 16th Sunday of Pentecost B,
Psalm 19, Proverbs 1:20-33, James 3:1-12, Mark 8:27-38

 "WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM ?"

    Reference:
    OT        Exodus 3:13-15, "I am the I am"
    Epistle   I Cor. 15:8-11, "But by the Grace of God,
    I am what I am".

  (The scripture (Mark 8: 27-31) is read as the opening of the sermon.)

"Who do the crowds say that I am?"  Jesus and his disciples were strolling along the way to Caesarea Philippi, and he asked this question, "Who do men say that I am?"  And the disciples began replying, "Oh, some people say  that you are John the Baptist; others say you are Elijah, and still others say you are one of the other prophets."  But Jesus again looked at them, and said,  "I ask you, who do you say that I am?"  And on Peter's declaration that Jesus was the Messiah, he began his journey to Jerusalem. It mattered to Jesus who they thought that he was.

That is a question we all ask of ourselves and to some extent we allow others to determine the answer.  "Who do you say that I am?"

Last week I mentioned that some experts claim that our self image is most determined not by what we think of ourselves, and not by what other people think of us, but by what we think other people think  of us  or who that they say that we are.  In other words, to a great extent, my own story of who I am is very closely linked to what I think others think of me.     Have you ever
considered the influence you are, or may have been in determining someone else's self-image or their self- story.

Think of the power people have on other people's lives.  Imagine a parent telling a child that they are stupid over and over again; that becomes the story that the child begins to believe, and to a great extent this created self story can influence his whole destiny.

Think of the student who is seen by his teacher as a low achiever and finds themselves in a track of low expectations for the rest of their life.   On the other hand, think  of the person who was able to achieve high academic success despite numerous obstacles because a teacher believed in them so strongly.   What we think and communicate to others about who we think they
are can be extremely destructive or exert a strong positive influence.  There is also the failure of not communicating at all.

Diane and I saw a wonderful movie on Labor Day, it was Forrest Gump.  Little Forrest Gump was born with both a physical handicap of a crooked back and legs that wouldn't walk and also a very low I.Q. as measured on the testing scale. But Forrest Gump's mother kept telling him that "he was not stupid, stupid is  as stupid does." He did not let his crooked back and weak legs slow him down, he mastered how to run and became a football star. His mastery of ping-pong and endurance running were made possible because of the story that his mother told him of who he was. You are Forrest Gump and you are not stupid. It is a wonderful movie and you need to see it because it shows a life lived out of hope and optimism, not of pessimism and negativism.

Because it is true that self stories are often created by some outside force, we need to be careful who we are listening to.

In our materialistic, money-dominated culture, we are brainwashed and manipulated by the images and stories that we constantly see and hear and read.

Decisions about our clothes, food, cars, homes, and how to spend leisure time are greatly influenced by the advertisements that fill our TV, radios, newspapers, magazines and all forms of media.  There is a constant bombardment of advertising and subtleties carefully designed to create the story of "who do we say that we are."

After the movie, Diane and I walked through the mall and we became conscious that 90% of the shops were selling something that is to be used as an outward appearance. We noticed how many shops are selling some type of designer clothes. If it wasn't clothes it was some type of jewelry. It is all aimed at identifying you as who you are with your outward appearance. Our
society wants to create the myth that "Who you are is what you wear." It was obvious from the attire of the teens in the mall, that it is doing a good job.

Most of us have experienced the first question that often comes after an introduction to another person.  "And what do you do?" is most often the question that follows the first greeting. It is like being asked "Where do you work, what is your position, how much do you make?"  Our culture has made us believe that our titles, positions, income and possessions determine who
we are.  We begin to use this story or  myth to help establish who we are.

What is the self story that we live out of as the church? Are we the small rural church that can't meet the budget,  waiting for the conference to close and bull doze the buildings and grounds? Are we going to sit around and moan with the self story of "Woe is me, all we have here is old tired members and no money?" Or do we say that we are alive and Disciples of Jesus Christ.

Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am? " and " Who do you say that I am?"  Peter's response to Jesus's question was his declaration of how he saw himself in relationship to Jesus.  For Peter, he was the Christ.  The question becomes for us, "How do we see ourselves in relationship to Jesus as we define who we are?"

"I am the true vine, and you are the branches", Jesus said.  Do we dare believe that we are a branch, an offshoot of Jesus.  How would that understanding effect our self story.

"I am the resurrection and the life".  Do we dare believe that we could die to the self story of a full life and success based on money, pride, and possessions that our society and culture have convinced us are the essentials of life.

"I am the vine, and you are the Branches."

Jesus said that you and I are the branches.  If we were to ask Christ, "Who do you say that I am?", he might say to us, "You are a unique gift and child of God and all who love the Lord and earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another is forgiven.  You are a forgiven person.  You are accepted and received as you are.   You are loved by God and
changed and transformed through Jesus the Christ. It is this story that we and our children, our neighbors and our world need so desperately to hear.  It is this story that should be the overriding understanding of who we are- not what we do, what we earn, or what we own.  It is the message that the church needs to share with a world of people struggling to  respond to the
"Who do you say that I am?" question.

We are the Body of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, with a mission to love God with all your heart, might and soul, and to love our neighbor as yourself.

Let Us Pray:  Help us Lord, as Believers,  in accepting our acceptance and forgiven lives, and to know that we are justified by grace through faith for service and deeds.  This is proclaimed by Jesus the Christ. Amen.

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From: Bass Mitchell <bassm@va.tds.net>
Title: That We May Become Wise
Text: Ps 90

When I was in the high school concert choir, back in the dark ages
(according to my children), a new song came out that we learned and sang:
“Time in a Bottle,” by Jim Croce. It begins with these words:

“If I could save time in a bottle,
the first thing that I’d like to do,
is to save every day til eternity passes away
just to spend them with you…
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do once you find them...”

We liked the song but really did not have a clue then what the song was
about. When you’re young, you don’t think about saving time in a bottle. You
might even wish to speed it up! You think you are immortal!

Well, I am older now and I sometimes wish I could save time in a
bottle, you know, freeze it or at least slow it down just a little. If only
life was like a football game so you could call out, “Time out!” so the
clock would stop. But, as Sir Water Scott wrote, “Time and tide wait for no
man.”

I really began to realize how time flies after I became a parent. I look
around sometimes for that little boy who it seemed only yesterday was
bouncing on my knee but find him only in my memory. In his place is a tall,
handsome young man who is about to graduate from high school! And in stead
of the tiny girl whose fingers could not even wrap around one of mine, there
stands a lovely young woman who is starting high school this year.

I will never forget something that happened to me recently while walking
down the sidewalk in a city. I came to the city cemetery. There was
something unusual about it. There was a tall stone column in the middle with
a clock on each side, so that wherever you stood in that cemetery, you could
see a clock. Why in the world would anyone put clocks there? The residents
certainly did not need it. As I stood there watching the cemetery clocks
began to chime, and the time of day went echoing throughout the cemetery and
out into the city. Suddenly I realized that it was not just telling us the
time of day, but something much more profound:

“Time is the stuff life is made – your life, all lives, the lives of all
those who once lived but lie here now. Time is God’s precious
gift to you. Do not waste it. Learn to use it wisely.”

Psalm 90 is also a kind of clock, chiming out the very same message:  “Teach
us how short our life is, so that we may become wise.”

For all of us, time is not without end.  It is for most of us threescore and
ten, that is, 70 or perhaps eighty (Psalm 90:10).  And because it is
limited, it needs to be used wisely.  It requires that we set priorities.

If we are to wisely use this precious and limited gift of time, what should
our priorities be?

First, notice how the Psalmist begins his song:

“O Lord, you have always
been our home.
Before you created the hills
   or brought the world into
being
   you were eternally God,
   and will be God forever…
A thousand years to you are like
one day… (Ps.90:1, 4a TEV).

WHAT’S TO BE OUR FIRST PRIORITY?  By CENTERING
OUR LIVES ON THE ONE WHO GIVES THIS PRECIOUS
GIFT.  Only a life of trust in and dependence upon God is a wise and
good life.  The message of the whole Book of Proverbs is, “Fear or
reverence for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  It is smart to love and
serve God.  It is wise for mortal creatures to build their lives on One who
is immortal and eternal!

Get out your daily planner, your calendar, my friends.  How much time have
you scheduled for God?  For worship?  For prayer?  For reading God’ word?

But it’s not a matter of squeezing God into our schedules.  There should be
nothing on our calendar but God!  Every appointment every day should have
God written beside it!  God does not want bits and pieces of our lives, an
hour now and then.  All our time is God’s time!  A truly wise life is lived
every second in the awareness of God’s presence and seeking God’s will.

THE SECOND PRIORITY for the wise use of our time is what I
would call THE “ENRICHMENT PRINCIPLE.”

Michael Medved, a movie critic on PBS, recently spoke on a college
campus.  He talked about movies that had enriched his life.  Almost
preaching, he spoke of  how or time is limited – finite – how, therefore, we
should use our time on activities that enrich us – that inspire, uplift,
make us “rich” in new insights – compassion – understanding.  Part of Medved
’s point – I take it – is that a lot of what we call entertainment actually
impoverishes us rather than enriches us.  Movies that glorify violence numb
our sensitivity to violence, for example.  How we use our time, especially
our leisure time, should end up making us better people, Medved says, better
fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, neighbors.

Apply the enrichment principle to all those things that scream out for
your time:

· Will this book, this movie, this activity truly enrich me?

· It’s going to cost me hours of my life.  Is it worth it?

· Will it give me something valuable that I do not have?

· Will it enhance the quality of my life and my relationships?

· Will this activity bring me closer to God?

Let me suggest something else to you.  I know you children and young people
want time to speed up.  It’s like a young man told me recently, “School is
boring.”  You want to get to that next grade in school or out of school
altogether.  You can’t wait until you’re sixteen to get your driver’s
license.  But don’t miss out on the present.  Savor the time you have right
now.  “Carpe diem.”  “Seize the day!”  Make the most of your time right now
where you are in your life.  Learn all you can from your teachers.  Make the
most of every opportunity you have right now.  This time, these
opportunities will never come again.  So, don’t cheat yourselves.

And let me suggest something to those of us who tend to live too much in the
past.  Do not spend a second worrying over what you’d do with your time if
you could live it over again.  Get busy with the time you have left.  “Seize
the days” you have right now and make the most of them with God’s help.

I would like to suggest that the THIRD PRIORITY for our time be
that of ENRICHING THE LIVES OF OTHERS.

We ate at a Chines restaurant this week.  Debbie got a fortune cookie that
read, “The lives of all you touch are enriched.”  It was a perfect
description of Debbie.

What better, wiser way to spend our precious time than enriching the lives
of all those we touch?

I think this means giving a higher priority to relationships in our lives.
Sometimes we take one another for granted.  We will not always have each
other, at least in this life.  There is no time for being at odds, for
arguing and holding grudges.  What a waste of time!

It has always bothered me that we sometimes wait too long, for
example, to share with others how much they mean to us.  We wait until they
are leaving, moving, or until those conversations after a death to share how
they enriched our lives.  Don’t wait.  Use time right now to let those
special people know how much they have meant to you.

And take time for one another, especially for members of your own
family.

In HOOK, a movie that’s a lot about time, Robin Williams plays a
grown up Peter Pan.  In fact, he’s a lawyer.  And he’s so busy wheelin’ and
dealin’ that he has no time for his children, not even to attend his son’s
baseball games.  In one moving scene his wise wife, Myra, says to him:

“Peter, your children love you and want to lay with you.
How long do you think that lasts?…We have a few special
years with our children when they’re the ones who want us
around.  After that you’re going to be running after them
for a bit of attention.  So fast, Peter.  Just a few years and
it’s over.  And you are not being careful.  And you are
missing it.”

No one on their death bed ever said, “I wish I had spent more time at
the office.”  You know what they say, “I wish I had spent more time
with my family, with those relationships that now I realize are the most
important things of all.”  Don’t miss it!

                                              Conclusion
A woman who had just celebrated her one-hundredth birthday was
being interviewed for a television show.  At one point, her young
interviewer asked, “What was life like in your day?”  With a polite but
cool smile, the elderly lady said, “THIS is my day!”

This is your day!  This is your time!  Use it:

· To walk daily with God,
· On those things that enrich you and draw you closer to God,
· And to enrich the lives of all those you touch,

“Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may become wise.”
 

<><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><
Bass Mitchell
HOMILIES BY E-MAIL/BIBLE STUDY BY EMAIL
bassm@va.tds.net
visit our web site at http://www.homiliesbyemail.com
toll free number 1-877-681-3349 (for USA, Canada)

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From: Bass Mitchell bassm@va.tds.net
Homily: “For the Great and Mysterious Opportunity of My Life”
Text: Isaiah 5:1-7

A few years ago I was strolling downtown Charlottesville, Virginia
when I passed an old bookstore. It was one of those stores that
some guy started who just had a love for books. And books were
crammed everywhere. Thank God they were in sections. I
immediately went to the religious section in the basement and there, to my
great delight, was a copy of a book I had looked for many years -A DIARY OF
PRIVATE PRAYER, by John Ballie (hardcover at that). That was over seven
years ago. And each day since then I have started each day by reading one of
the magnificent prayers here. In one of the prayers I read this week Dr.
Ballie lists reasons he has for praising and worshipping God. And one phrase
he used really spoke to me. He said that he gave thanks “For the great and
mysterious opportunity of my life....”

“For the great and mysterious opportunity of my life...”

Have your ever thought of your life like that? As a “great and
mysterious opportunity”?

You are alive now. You are you right now on this planet in this
century. You have only been given this time, this life. It IS a “great
and mysterious opportunity” that you will never have again.

What are you doing with it?

Are you making the most of it?

Are you making it count?

This is the message, the warning I heard in the reading from Isaiah
5 today. Isaiah was a prophet, a messenger from God. And one
festive day, perhaps in the marketplace in Jerusalem where farmers
and merchants where selling their produce fresh from the fields and
vineyards (barley, olives, grapes, figs...), Isaiah comes singing a
song through the streets, a love song, a song about a man and his
vineyard. It was love at first sight..this fertile hill that beckoned to
him to plant there. So he did. He dug the soil, he cleared the stones,
he planted the very finest vines. He even built a stonewall around it
to keep out the animals, and even added a tower in which to stand
watch over it, dug a pit in which to tread the grapes...

...but every grape was sour!

“What more could my friend do?” the prophet sings to the farmers
and customers in the streets on Jerusalem “He invested so much of
himself in that vineyard, but it did not produce good grapes. What
would you do with it?” he asked their advice.

And no doubt everyone of them had had such an experience or
could imagine what it would be like to work all spring and summer
but have no harvest, no fruit to show for their labor. So they shout,
“Dig it up! Burn it! Tear down the walls and let the wild animals
trample it! Don’t waste one more moment on that worthless
vineyard!”

“Ah, that is what my friend thought also,” the prophet says. And
they nod their heads and smile.

But then the prophet added another verse to his song,

“You, Israel, you are this vineyard of the
Lord Almighty;
    you, the people of Judah, you are the
vines he planted.
He expected you to do what
was good,
  but instead all the fruit he found in you
was murder.
God expected to see the fruit of
justice hanging from your
   branches,
but all God hears are the
  cries of the oppressed (Isaiah 5:7 - writer’s translation)

I hate it when ministers do that, don’t you? They get you into a
story and you’re feeling all good about yourself and suddenly,
Wham! They add just another line, just another verse that ruins the
whole thing by making it so personal! As someone has said, “They
stop preaching and go to meddling!”

God’s people, uprooted by God from Egyptian soil and
transplanted in a land flowing with milk and honey. Lovingly
nurtured, watered, fertilized, bathed in the light of God’s love,
protection and cared for so long...but so little fruit for the effort...so
little return for the investment...just some sour grapes...so many
squandering the great and mysterious opportunity of their lives...

And what of us? God has invested so much in us too - to give us
this “great and mysterious opportunity” to bear fruit, to help make
the world a better place than we found it.

How many persons also invest so heavily in us - to give us this
“great and mysterious opportunity” of life - parents whose
sacrifices we will never fully know - family and friends - soldiers
who fought and died on foreign soil - teachers who give so much of
their lives to give us an opportunity to learn - are we taking
advantage of it? Are we making the most of it?

For this “great and mysterious  opportunity” comes only once. Our
life is one growing season in a way..then comes fall...then
winter...and, God willing, one day another spring in a heavenly
field. But opportunities by their very nature are not without
limits...They come and they go...

I think life is like the manna that God gave in the wilderness...it
could not be hoarded...it had to be consumed each day...and so is
life...time cannot be saved in a bottle, but is used one way or
another...are we using it well?

Last week I went to see the movie, “Saving Private Ryan.” It’s
based on a novel by Max Allan Collins. It’s partly D-Day, Omaha
Beach, and probably the most realistic version of that day ever
filmed. The movie centers on a small band of soldiers who are lead
by Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks), who was before the
war an English teacher. After the initial siege, Miller and his group
are given a new assignment - to find a Private James (Jim) Ryan
who had been part of a parachute group dropped behind enemy
lines as part of the operation. They had to find him because all three
of his brothers had just been killed. He was the only one left in his
family and they were ordered to find him and get him out of harm’s
way - back to his mother. Well, they eventually do find Private
Ryan but it costs many of them their lives. I shall never forget the
closing scenes with Captain Miller, mortally wounded himself
saving Private Ryan,

“Earn this,” Miller said softly to Private Ryan.

“Sir,” Ryan asked.

Now the Captain repeated it firmly, like an order:

“Earn this!”

Captain Miller was telling him, you see, don’t let our sacrifices be in
vain. Do something with your life. Make the most of this
opportunity.

Then we are transported into the future...to at the Normandy
National Cemetery directly behind Omaha Beach, where an elderly
Private Jim Ryan stands before the white cross gravestone of
Captain John Miller. He falls on his knees, tears streaming down his
face, and all his family, several generations, are standing behind
him, a family, a family tree really, the best fruit of his life perhaps,
people who no doubt enriched their communities and the lives of
others, a family that reflects the values and goodness of Ryan
himself, and they are  looking at him with great love and concern.
His wife, Alice, comes up, kneels beside him and puts her arm
around his shoulder.

“Alice...have I lived a good life? Am I a good man?”

“Jim...what?”

“Just tell me...tell me if you think I have earned it?”

“Oh yes...Yes you have!”

Private Ryan stands and silently salutes his Captain and all those
had given their lives to give him the great and mysterious
opportunity of his life.

Let us “earn it,” my friends. Not that we ever could earn it, as if we
deserved this life. No, let us see our life for the great and
mysterious opportunity that it is...a life God and so many others
have so heavily invested in...let them have a good return...let us
bear abundant fruit...let us take full advantage of this “great and
mysterious opportunity” of life God has given us...

<><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><
Bass Mitchell
HOMILIES BY E-MAIL/BIBLE STUDY BY EMAIL
bassm@va.tds.net
visit our web site at http://www.homiliesbyemail.com
toll free number 1-877-681-3349 (for USA, Canada)

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From: Bass Mitchell <bassm@va.tds.net>
Homily: "A Most Enjoyable Companion"
Text: Exodus 33:12-23

I was recently talking with Dan Jordan, Director of Monticello,
Thomas Jefferson' home.  He shared something that astounded me.
One of the biographer's of Jefferson said this to him: "Jefferson has
been a most enjoyable companion over the years."

"Jefferson has been a most enjoyable companion over the years...."

My first thoughts were, "How can this be?  Jefferson has been dead
over 150 years."

Then I realized what this man was saying.  He had spent his life
studying Thomas Jefferson; reading everything Jefferson wrote or
that had been written about him.  I imagine that his circle of friends
was made up of those who had done the same thing.  For him,
Jefferson was a living presence, indeed, "a most enjoyable
companion."

Harry Emerson Fosdick, the great preacher at Riverside Church in
New York for so long, has been a "most enjoyable companion" for
me over the years.  He dies some time ago, but when I read his
sermons and the many books he wrote, he becomes a living
companion.  I continue to learn much from him.

Is this not true in your life as well?  Perhaps there are persons alive
or even long deceased who maybe you have never personally met
but you would call them "most enjoyable companions."

The thought comes to me, my friends, that if the power of human
personhood is such that it can transcend time and distance, so as to
become enjoyable companions, than how much of an enjoyable
companion can the Living God be for us!

You see, what this biographer said so elouqently about Jefferson is
what I strive for more than anything else in my life - to have God as
my "most enjoyable companion."

As I read today’s text from Exodus, it came to me that this is
exactly what Moses wanted. In fact, verse 11 not in our reading
says this, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as
one speaks to a friend.” But Moses wanted even more that this. He
wanted to know God in all God’s fullness. He wanted to walk and
talk with God all the way to the Promised Land, knowing God as
his “most enjoyable companion.”

That’s what I want for my life, to know God like that. How about
you?

In his wonderful little book of collections of children's prayers,
David Keller shares this prayer from an 11 year old named Frankie:

Dear God,

I feel very close to you.
I feel like you are
beside me all the time.
Please be with me on
Thursday.  I am running in a 3
mile race then.  I will need
all the speed in the world.
If you are not busy with
other things, maybe you could
be at the starting line, the
finish line, and everywhere in
between.

                        Frankie
                        (age 11)

The problem is not God being with us.  We do not have to beg God
to be with us.  God is with us.  In fact, as the Psalmist writes,
there's no place we can flee or escape God's presence.  The problem
is our being in tune to God, our consciousness of God's presence.

Have you ever been with someone else who didn't even seem to
know you were there?  I see a lot of wives nodding there heads.
Even though you were present, you were not really present to that
person because he or she was too preoccupied to focus on you.

The greatest of tragedies is to run the race, to live our lives so
preoccupied with other things that we never notice that God's right
there running beside us - at the starting line, the finish line and
everywhere in between!

We are not alone.  Never!  Ever!  No matter what the situation.  No
matter what the obstacles in our path or how steep the pathway.
There is One who always runs beside us, wanting by the sheer
awareness of his presence to encourage and strengthen us.

God is with us every second of everyday, yet how many days go,
how many miles of the race do we run without acknowledging that
Presence?

You can never have a more enjoyable companion or better friend
than God.  Just ask Enoch, Noah, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus...For
what characterized their lives was an intimate fellowship with God.
They walked with God.  God was REAL to them.

I have been a Christian most of my life and have been a part of the
church all my life.  I have seen, heard and experienced a lot in my
Christian pilgrimage.  You know what?  I think it all boils down to
this: Is God Real to us?  Is God our "most enjoyable companion"?

I am convinced that this is the fundamental spiritual challenge that
most of us face - to know God as a living, vital presence in our lives
each step of the race!

The simple truth is that all too often God is not REAL to us...

I am not saying we are atheists.  We believe in God, but that hardly
makes us different than the majority of Americans, who, according
to recent polls, believe there is a supreme bring.

God must be more than a name in a creed we repeat each week.
God must be more to us than some ethereal being we have a warm
feeling about from time to time.

Fosdick once said in a sermon, "Most of us confess our belief in
God on Sunday but we would be immensely surprised if we actually
caught God doing something in our lives on Monday..."

It is not enough to merely believe in God.  We must go beyond
belief - to companionship, to trust to dependence every mile of the
race!  I believe that the rings around Saturn are probably made up
of ice crystals but that belief makes no difference whatsoever in my
life.

"You believe that there is a God," James says (2:19).  "Good!
Even the demons believe that - and tremble."  "The demons have
more real faith than some of you," James is saying, "for at least
their faith makes them tremble.  But where does your faith
impact your life?"

Is our faith something that we leave at church?  That we hang up
like our Sunday clothes until needed again?

"Real Christianity," Fosdick says, "is not just believing in
God...Real Christianity is daily, personal, practical reliance
on God..."   In other words, real Christianity is walking with God,
knowing God as your "most enjoyable companion."

Perhaps God would be more real to us if we sought God at times
other than when we really had no other choice.

You see, it will be ever so much easier to know God's presence
during the needy times, if we have stayed in touch through the good
times, through all times.

Life has a way of forcing us to realize our need to walk with God....

I love that phrase about Enoch. It says, "after he became the father
of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God..."  To be sure he walked
with God before he became a father, but it is true that parenthood
has driven lots of people over the centuries to seek God...

Isn't it interesting that the church often loses late adolescents when
they go off to college but when they marry and begin to have
children, they get much more interested in the church? (at least sme
of them do)

No matter how self- sufficient, intelligent or wealthy we may
become, there will come responsibilities and turning points in our
lives when we realize we can't make it on our own, that we need a
source of strength that mere human companionship cannot
provide.

It's like the man said to the nurse when she asked him, "Mr.
Thomas, is there anything you need?"  He replied, "Yes.  I need
God."

And God will be there.  God was there for Moses and the people,
even when they were disobedient. God wants to help.  When we
call upon God, God hears and acts.  But God wants to be more
than some kind of spiritual aspirin in a bottle we turn to when we're
in pain and then put back on the shelf when we feel better.  God
must feel sometimes like parents who only hear from their children
when they need something.

A little boy pushed open the door of his father's study and quietly
stood beside his father, who was sitting at a desk.  After a few
minutes, the father reached up and took a piece of candy from the
desk and offered it to his son.  The little boy shook his head. The
father, a little puzzled, put the candy down and continued with his
work.  After a few more minutes, he took out a quarter from his
pocket and offered it to his son.  Once again the boy shook his
head.  At this the father stopped working and looked at  his son.
"Do don't want candy.  You don't want money. Are you feeling
okay?"  The little boy nodded his head. "Well, what do you want?"
his father asked.  "Nothing," came the reply.  "All I wanted was to
be with you."

That's what I want you to leave this place today being able to feel
and say.  This is where it begins - with our desire to want to be with
God, to love God with all our mind, strength and being.  To desire
God so much that the awareness of God presence permeates ever
minute of your day. That’s what Moses wanted.

But how can we have a closer walk with God?  How does God
become our "most enjoyable companion"?

If we are to walk with God, then we must talk with God.

How can you get close or stay close to anyone without
communicating with them?

I like the way brother Lawrence defines prayer - "practicing the
presence of God."   I believe that's what Paul means when he tells
us to "pray without ceasing."

They are not talking about staying on your knees with your hands
piously folded together 24 hours a day.  They are talking about an
attitude, an inner consciousness.  They are encouraging us to
always be in touch with God, open to and aware of God's presence
with us, to insticntively seek God's presence and will in all things.

One of my favorite movies is Fiddler on the Roof.  Tevye, a
Russian Jew, is the main character.  From the beginning to the end
of the film Tevye talks to God, lots of times the topic was his
five daughters who do not seem to value tradition as much as
he does.  When he's walking down the road selling milk, or
feeding his cows in the barn, whether he's feeling joy or sorrow, he
talks with God.

Tevye walked with God.

Like Tevye, go around looking up to heaven and pouring your
heart right outloud if that's what it takes.  But talk with God.
Discipline your mind to be in dialogue with God as you go about
your daily activities.

Try this for one week and see if it doesn't make a difference in your
walk with God.  Let your first words in the morning and last words
at night be to God.  They do not even have to be outloud, though
that would be great.  Lots of days I like to begin and end simply
with, "Lord, I love you."

Or keep a journal for a month.  Write down your prayers to God or
whatever you feel that you want to say.   A friend of mine writes his
journal as letters to God, like you would write to a good friend.
There's not right or wrong way to do it.  Just write to God wants
on your heart.  Your sense of fellowship with God will grow by
leaps and bounds.

If you would walk with God, talk with God.  But also seek out and
walk with those  who walk with God.  Make them "most enjoyable
companions."

I'm trying to say to you: Make God your best friend, your most
enjoyable companion.  And then seek out companions who do the
same thing.  Find your own Enoch or Noah, or Moses, or Ruth,
persons who walk with God and can help you in your walk with
God.  They are there...in your family, church, school, where you
work.

Make friends with the Christians over the centuries who have
walked with God.  Persons from our own United Methodist
tradition like John and Charles Wesley, or Anna Oliver, Frances
Willard, Ann Hollingsworth Willis and many more.

Study the lives and read the writings of Thomas a Kempis, St.
Teresa of Avila and Augustine.  They can be "most enjoyable
companions."

Best of all, read and study the teachings of Christ.  Make him your
most enjoyable companion.  "I and the Father are one," he said.  To
walk with Christ is to walk with God.

                                             Conclusion

Friends change.  We change.  Friendships can end.  But our
friendship with God will never end.   God will be our most
enjoyable companion for eternity.

It's like a little girl who was telling the story of Enoch in her own
way.  She said, "Enoch and God used to take long walks together.
And one day they walked further than usual and God said,
`Enoch, you must be tired; come into My house and rest.'"

Let us pray.

Dear God,

We feel very close to you.
     We feel like you are
beside us all the time.
     Please be with us this
day and everyday, for we have
a race to run and we need all
the help you can give.
     And help us to not be so
busy with other things that we
forget that you ARE with us at
the starting line, the finish
line and everywhere in
between.
     We love you.  Amen.

<><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><  <><
Bass Mitchell
HOMILIES BY E-MAIL/BIBLE STUDY BY EMAIL
bassm@va.tds.net
visit our web site at http://www.homiliesbyemail.com
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From: Robert P. Morrison <rmorriso@orednet.org>

THE EPISCOPAL PARISH OF ST. JAMES, LINCOLN CITY          9th. JUNE, 1999
        BACCALAUREATE SERVICE FOR TAFT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATING CLASS
1 CORINTHIANS 12:4-13       PSALM 150    MATTHEW 28:16-20

     There's an old story about a rich rancher from Texas who
decided to reward all his employees with a huge Bar-B-Q, and to give
out gifts to everyone for their fine work on the ranch. The party was
grand, the beef delicious, and the gifts were the usual ones for the
occasion: wrist watches, savings bonds, and so on. But the rancher
decided, for the best gift of all, a new BMW 3 Series Convertible, to
make a contest out of it. He announced that he'd give this wonderful
and beautiful car away to the person who'd jump into his olympic-size
swimming pool and swim to the other side.
     Unfortunately, for all to see as they crowded around, the pool
was teeming with hungry looking alligators that he'd placed in there
earlier. All of a sudden there was a "splash" and  "shout" and there
was this one brave soul swimming and thrashing across the pool for all
he was worth, with alligators swirling and nipping at his ankles.
Finally, the man heaved himself up on the other side of the pool,
dripping and out of breath.
     The ranch owner came up to the man to congratulate him. He
praised him highly, and held out the keys to the car. The man replied
in a huff, "Forget the car, I just want to know who pushed me into the
swimming pool!"
     For some of you, preparing to graduate may be a little bit that
employee's experience. When viewed with the eyes of a Freshman,
tonight and Saturday afternoon may have seemed an awfully long way
away. But here you are, Seniors for three more days, and then you'll
be on your own.
     Of course, you're never totally on your own. Most, if not all of
you, have a least one close friend with whom you can share your hopes
and your dreams. And it doesn't matter whether you're continuing your
education in college or in beginning a new career, there'll always be
people to whom you'll be related through responsibilities as well as
pleasure.
     Still, graduation may seem a little like being shoved into an
alligator-infested pond. Things will take on a different perspective,
and there may be times when you'll wonder whether or not High School's
four years was adequate preparation for everything that'll be expected
of you.
     In that regard, however, I'd like you to think on the verses from
Matthew's Gospel that we heard just a moment ago.
     Jesus had been crucified. He'd been raised from the dead. He'd
met with His disciples again, and then, just before He disappeared from
their sight, He called them to one last meeting at which He told them
that they had to leave the security of their friendships, they'd to move
on from any comfort they'd derived from their surroundings. They'd to
graduate to something else and take on enormous risks.
     We know from what we read elsewhere in the New Testament,
as well as from secular writings, that the disciples weren't too
thrilled at this prospect. After all, how could they be expected to
teach and to take leadership roles among people they'd never met? On
what were they expected to draw in order to prepare to spread the word
about Jesus' ministry and sacrifice?
     They themselves had only been with Jesus for three years. Surely
they must have hoped for more time to talk, and to argue about what
they'd been taught. I know that I would've put in for more opportunities
to digest what I'd been fed, had I been among that group.
     But Jesus didn't hesitate. He said, "Go! Go to all nations."
     Three years, that's all the time the disciples had before they
were given those instructions. So you're already one year ahead of all
the disciples!
     Therefore, if any of you have any questions about your ability
to accomplish anything in life with the gifts with which God has
blessed you, and which your teachers and your friends have tried to
show you that you have, if any of you have doubts that you're too
young, or too inexperienced, or indeed too anything to be able to make
a difference for yourselves and others, then remember that Jesus'
disciples had one year less training than you, and some of them were
the same age as you right now when they went out with the message of
God's love for the world.
     Of course, we know that the disciples couldn't and didn't set out
with nothing but their own power. Whatever Jesus asked them to do,
He told them to do it in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit. He'd already told them that God would ensure that
they could count on divine inspiration to give them the thoughts and
words necessary for whatever situation they'd encounter. And the
spread and acceptance of the Gospel is proof of that.
     And this is a promise that's extended to each one of us here.
Maybe the phrase sounds too trite, but I'm here to remind you that you
too will "never walk alone". No matter where you are, no matter what
you do, Jesus promised that you'd never do it alone. The power of the
Holy Spirit is there to sustain you whenever you ask for it.
     As an example of this I'd like to jump forward almost six
hundred years after the day when Jesus dismissed the disciples to go
into the world with His message of hope.
     Often, in the Christian calendar, we celebrate the lives of those
whom we call saints, people who've witnessed to the desire and ability
of God to transform their lives. Today is such a day. Today we're
called to remember a man called Columba. He was an Irish prince, a
monk, a soldier, who hadn't always been on the winning side in
debates and battles. There were times when he was considered a misfit
in his society, someone who was a royal pain to be around. Yet he
sensed that even he could be used by God to bring guidance and
encouragement to those who were confused and  uncertain about their
lives. And indeed that's how he was used.
     Columba left the security of Ireland, landed on a very small
island off the western coast of Scotland and established an abbey from
which he and his twelve friends carried the Gospel of Jesus' teachings
of morality, and justice, and love across the whole country.
     Another example of the power of God to address someone who
didn't appear to have a very promising future, and to transform that
individual in such a way that countless other lives were enriched and
blessed.
     And I could go on, listing people down through history, who've
accepted the promise of Jesus. But what would have more impact for
you, I'm sure, is to think of those who've had the greatest influence on
your own lives as individuals. Some of them may not even have
realised what they were doing or what they were saying, yet each, in
her or his own way, may have felt drawn to do the one thing God felt
was necessary for you at that particular moment. That's what the
disciples were called to do, and that's what everyone one of us here is
called to do also.
     But I want to address the graduates specifically. Will the Taft
High School Class of 1999 please stand?

     Right now, some of you are pretty sure where you're headed in
your lives. Some of you may know how things may line themselves up
for the four or five years. Some of you may not have any clear picture
what lies ahead. What I want to tell you is that, wherever you feel you
are just now, no matter how you've reached this day, through good
times and bad; no matter how confident you feel you are each called to
be minsters of Christ.
     That's what Paul was getting at when he addressed the first
Christians in Corinth. He ran through that long list of gifts of the
Spirit, but nowhere did he say that you have to be a college graduate,
or successful in business before you are a minister. In fact, all that's
necessary is that are baptised, as Jesus said, in the Name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
     Each of you, then, has a wonderful future ahead of you. No
matter what you do you are called to acknowledge, as the quote which
is your class motto says: "This is not the end. This is not even the
beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
     And if I can add two more quotations to that let me offer you
first, the words of Ben Sweetland, who said, "Success is a journey, not
a destination." And, secondly, the words of Jesus Himself, who offered
what to me is the greatest comfort and the best encouragement when
He said, no matter where you've been up to this point in time, no
matter what you feel may happen to you from now on, "I am with you,
always."
     With these words, then, your parents and grandparents, your
sisters and  brothers, and your other friends can let you go, knowing
that you will be safe with our Lord, no matter how many alligator-
infested ponds you may encounter in your lives.
     Hold firm to what you have learned. Don't be afraid to ask
questions. We all thank God "for the wonderful grace and virtue
declared in all your saints, who have been the chosen vessels of your
grace, and the lights of the world in their generations." 1 We thank God
for you, our friends, and we wish you God's peace and joy as you
continue to minister in His Name. Amen

Note
1       Book of Common Prayer: Proper preface for A Saint 1

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Then I gave my own life as an example. When I left High School and became a college student, I thought I could do far more than I was actually able. I didn't now my own limitations, or the extent of my own abilities, and took on far more than I should have. Consequently, the second semester of my freshman year, having become a pre-med student, a member of the University
Chorus, a member of the cross country and then the track team, as well as rushing a fraturnity, I realised too late that I was doing too much. I sudenly felt trapped. I couldn't do any one thing well, and had to drop out of school for a semester to sort through everything . I was terribly depressed, I even thought of the possibility of suicide. Standing on the parapet of a deep drop one night, I decided that I needed God's help. I gave my life to God, and proceeded to find ways to listen to God before I did anything else. "Whatever you would have me do, God, or be, or become, I am yours. I have made a mess out of my
life trying to do it all on my own. You take it. I give it to you."  I began to listen for God, to look for those little nudges of the Spirit, to atune my inner ear to the "still small voice." And God led me, a step at a time, in no apparent coherent order it seemed to me at the time, to ministry, which has turned out to be just the right thing for me.You, of course, might use your own
story instead of mine as an example.

I ended with a story I once heard of a great ship that had been built in a Scottish shipyard (I think this came from one of the commentaries in the Interpreters Bible.) which when launched, found itself in an ocean bay, helpless, in an approaching storm of ferocious proportion. The owners had not had time to really know what this ship was capable of doing, and desperate to
save their new ship, called the famous shipwright who built the boat, and asked him to captain it out of the bay and into the deeper, safer waters of the open ocean where it could better ride out the storm. Only the shipwright, who created it, knew the true potential of the ship itself. He responded, took the helm and saved the ship.

 Invite them to put their lives in the hands of the loving creator who made them, and who knows far more about their own capabilities, gifts and talents, than they do themselves.

Hope this is helpful, gives you a few new ideas to work with... Take care and God bless!
David Leeper Moss, Pioneer UMC, Auburn, Ca. USA

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