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Rev. Steven Davis

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What I Learned On Vacation 3: Pennsylvania Has Stop Signs In The Strangest Places! - September 4 2011 sermon

 

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. (2 Timothy 3:16-4:2)
 
     Here's one of the great truths of human life – we all love souvenirs! I watched a movie a while back called “My Life In Ruins.” It was about a tour guide in Greece who was frustrated among other things by her tour group's obsession with shopping for souvenirs rather than wanting to see the historic sites of ancient Greece – even though most of the souvenirs they were buying were made in Korea! But there's truth in that movie. If we go on a trip we like to be able to pick something up that's going to remind us of the good times we had. I have to confess that I'm no exception. On my desk in my office here at the church I have this miniaturized version of a terra cotta warrior as a reminder of my trip to China a few years ago, because I have nothing else in my life that would remind me of my trip to China! I'm thinking that the miniature warrior is probably even made in China, but I could be wrong. This summer I picked up some souvenirs – not from Virginia, but from Pennsylvania, where we stopped on our way to and from Virginia. At a Wal-Mart in York, Pennsylvania, I picked up this really nice t-shirt for $4.50. It's made in Indonesia, but so what! But on the way back I really hit the jackpot. I got this wonderful souvenir printed on beautiful yellow paper and personally signed by the person who gave it to me. It's called a “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Citation/Summons.” I picked it up in Clearfield County at 11:26 am on August 13. It has a little note printed on it by the nice man who gave it to me. It says “Driver failed to stop at a posted stop sign within an intersection.” And this beautiful yellow piece of paper only cost me $110.50. Maybe with it being signed and all, it will appreciate in value!
 
     Now, lest you think I'm a dangerous driver, I need to explain the circumstances around this particular souvenir. I was on an on-ramp, merging from one Highway onto another Highway. It was a pretty long on-ramp, and at the very end of it, it turned sharply right. By the time you get to that sharp turn, you're already looking over your left shoulder at traffic to see if it's going to be safe to merge. As we made the sharp right (around which you couldn't see until you had made the turn) Lynn suddenly yelled “there's a stop sign.” I could only say to her “Sorry. There's no way I can stop now. We're right on it.” Of course there was a police car parked on the shoulder at the time. When I saw the flashing lights turn on, I said to Lynn “Oh golly!” - or words to that effect, anyway. The officer was very nice. He told me that since I was from out of state he could hold me to see a judge which probably wouldn't be until Monday, but he asked me if I'd promise to pay the ticket when I got home. I promised. And the following Monday I went to the Royal Bank and got a US dollar money order for $110.50 and expressed it to the “Magisterial District Office” where it was signed for three days later by someone named S. Brennan. I have paid my debt to Pennsylvania society. And so ends the story of my most memorable souvenir from our summer trip, which leaves me asking only one other question – why in the world would you put a stop sign at the end of an on-ramp to a Highway and where no one can see it? (I suspect the locals know it's there, but the County probably does big business from folks passing through!) Anyway, if you're ever in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania do be careful and do be prepared, because apparently Pennsylvania has stop signs in the strangest places! 
 
     As with several other of my vacation experiences, I've been able to draw some spiritual wisdom from this incident that I want to share with you today. The spiritual wisdom is essentially the same as the advice I just gave you about driving in Pennsylvania – be prepared for anything and everything! Being prepared is an important part of a Christian life. We have to be prepared – we have to be prepared to share; to share about the gospel; to share the good news; to share about God's love; to share with those in need; to share whenever and wherever the opportunity comes up. Maybe sometimes we even have to create the opportunities to share. We have to be prepared to share not because we must share, but because what we know, what has been revealed to us and what we have felt is so precious that we can't possibly keep it to ourselves. We have to be prepared to share because as Christians we should be vessels that are overflowing with such wondrous news that it's impossible to contain that news within ourselves. We are vessels that should not only be willing to be opened so that a little bit of what we have can leak out, but rather we are vessels that should be willing to be broken apart to that what we have flows out and soaks the hearts and souls of those we share with. In 2 Corinthians 4:7, Paul wrote about the good news of the gospel that “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” We are like jars of clay because clay is so easily broken open to release whatever is inside. Our passage today from 2 Timothy gives us essentially the same advice: “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.” We have to persist in proclaiming the message whatever the circumstances might be because the message itself is so important. Proclaiming the message can be a scary thing, and it brings to mind a lot of negative stereotypes, doesn't it. The result of that is that I suspect we don't proclaim the message enough, or that when we do we don't do it with enough power or conviction. I suspect that all of us sometimes look for obstacles that make sharing the good news difficult, and we see those obstacles so clearly that we fail to see the opportunities that are so equally and clearly in front of us.
 
     What are the obstacles? What prevents us from sharing? There's basically three obstacles that get in the way of sharing the good news. Sometimes we just come to a stop sign and we actually stop! Something just prevents us from going to the next step. Lat week I mentioned the sermon preached by Rev. Brent Hawkes at the funeral for Jack Layton. He was so close to the good news. He spoke of Jack Layton's life and then he spoke of a conversation close to the end of that life in which Jack Layton had admitted to mistakes and hoped that people would forgive him for them, and then – with that hanging in the air -  he moved on to Jack Layton's politics. The loose gospel thread was left hanging and could have been so easily tended to: “Jack, whatever other people may do, God loves you and God forgives you,” which would have been a gospel message to everybody who watched that service, but somehow a stop sign popped up in the midst of that sermon. Don't be stopped, whatever the circumstances. Don't leave the gospel hanging by a thread. When the chance is there, offer it.  The second obstacle is pretty simple: some people think they don't know enough. They're afraid that someone will ask them a tough question and they won't know the answer. The reality, though, is that the message we're called to share isn't all that difficult. “God loves you and God forgives you” really isn't that hard a message, is it. The tough questions will come from people who aren't going to believe that message anyway – either because they don't believe in God at all or they don't believe that God loves them, so you're not likely to turn anyone away from Christ by not having the answer to a tough question, and people who really are searching and troubled and feel a need for something deeper in their lives than what they have (and those are the types that “God loves you and God forgives you” is most meaningful to) aren't likely to then ask you in response to explain the meaning of Ezra 5 or to discuss in detail the various theories related to substitutionary atonement or to ask you to identify “the abomination that causes desolation.” They won't. I promise you that. And whatever question that group of searchers may have you have the best answer for already, and it doesn't come from books or theological college – it doesn't come from the head, it comes from the heart: it's your own experience of how God has touched you and loved you and seen you through. To people with need, that's what they'll respond to. To those who don't perceive a need, nothing you say will matter. That second group will reject what you offer, and that's the third obstacle - some people are afraid that they'll be rejected. In fact they're sure they'll be rejected and some people don't handle rejection very well. “No” tends to be a nasty word in our society, and so if we believe that the answer will be “no” we don't bother asking the question. Hannah does that all the time to her mom and I. She'll say “I was going to ask you something,” and I'll say “what is it?” and she'll look at me and say “never mind. I know what you'll say.” And sometimes she never does reveal what the question was. Maybe the answer would have been “no” (and maybe it would have been “yes”) but there would have been no harm in asking. Do you know that I read once that according to their own statistics, Jehovah's Witnesses have to knock on about 100 doors before they'll find one person even willing to talk with them seriously – never mind one who'll agree with them! That's a lot of rejection. And they go about that job cheerfully and faithfully. I'm not asking you to go and knock on doors this afternoon to share your faith (but if you want to, I won't stop you!) I'm just saying, let's set aside our fear of rejection; let's set aside our fear of “no;” let's “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.” Let's move beyond the obstacles and let's seize hold of the opportunities!
 
     It really isn't that hard! It really isn't that scary! And it really is what the world needs to hear. The world needs what you already have – and you already have it in such abundance that you can allow yourselves to be broken open and have it poured out and you'll be no worse off than you were before, and you'll probably be better for having shared! If you believe in the love of God, and if you've felt the love of God, then teach people about the love of God, and about the love that God has for them. And bless you! Bless you for being willing to do that for God, and bless you for what you've done to offer the good news for the sake of those who so desperately need to hear good news! Bless you!
 
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