I love FINISHING a project - - and looking back - - on something I have completed - - or

Transcription

1 1 Unfinished Business Deuteronomy 34:1-12; 1 Thess. 2:1-8 Rev. David Hutchinson Sunday, October 29, 2017 I love FINISHING a project - - and looking back - - on something I have completed - - or accomplished. / Everything wrapped up neatly - - no loose ends. / All done. / Good work. When I finished making some BOOKSHELVES - - years ago - - I stood - and I just - - looked at them for five minutes. / The next day - I went into the garage - just to see them again. / Standing there all finished. And - - whether it s finishing - a piece of WRITING a completed LETTER to a friend a successful PARTY - remembered - just after the last guests leave or the end of a RACE the top of a hill - at the end of a long CLIMB or - - a graduation - - from school There is something SATISFYING - about FINISHING something. / Maybe that s because - so much of our lives continue to remain - UNFINISHED. / Things - - relationships - - people - - situations keep CHANGING. / They CONTINUE to need our attention. It s the nature of life. Unfinished business - - is everywhere. We re involved in PROJECTS - that take months we re members of organizations - that are ongoing. For example: once you re - - a PARENT - you re ALWAYS a parent - - so I am told.

2 2 Your husband - or wife - - changes! Your RELATIONSHIP is never neatly wrapped up it s always in need of some - - attention. The CAT-LITTER-BOX - - is NEVER - - clean - - It s the nature of life. Unfinished business is everywhere. We just got the church painted and reroofed! / So we won t have to do that again. Do you think that s what they thought when the LAST roof was put on? It s just a matter of time. Unfinished business is everywhere in life. And if you AGREE - - with THAT statement then maybe this morning s Scripture Readings - - are completely UN--surprising. / In the Bible - - as well as in life there is UNfinished business. And that s fine except unfinished business - can be - UNsettling. / And most of the time - we want MORE from the Bible - - and God - - than we find in our own lives. / Don t we?? / I know that I want - a sense that somehow - - in the END - - God is there. / God is at work - - and tying things up - - eventually. And I think we DO get that - - if we THINK about the readings - - for this morning. / But AT - FIRST reading - I am struck more strongly - by the UNfinished business. In the book of Exodus - we read the story - of how Moses life came to an end on the top of a mountain. / There was ONE MORE good climb left in his 120 year old legs. / After all that wandering in the wilderness - - Moses was still - strong.

3 3 Lots of people settled down - into the honor and rest - of old age - - at 80 or 90 years old. But there was Moses - - in his 120 year old body climbing to the SUMMIT - - of a high mountain! / You d think that would get him something! From the top of the mountain Moses would see the land that he had ALWAYS seen. / In his mind s eye as a VISION given to him by God - - he had continued to see the Promised Land. / And he had LED the people of Israel. / And NOW in reality there was the land. / For real! / Through the mist - and off in the distance. / Standing on his TIPTOES Moses glimpsed the land - - which was the destination of his people. But he would never go there. We are told - - that Moses would never complete the journey - - because he had disobeyed God - - earlier in his life. / ok But that seems like only PART of the story. It certainly seems a little - - UNFAIR: After all - - the people of Israel - had disobeyed God FAR MORE than Moses. / And they would CONTINUE to do so. And THEY got to go into this land. Why does Moses - have to leave his life s work UNfinished? Maybe the answer is that THAT is the NATURE - of the work. God s promise - to Moses - - was for the generations to come. / That the people would share this promise. / Moses work - - was not HIS work. / It was not just for him alone. And no one can BOTH - lead a people into a promised FUTURE - - AND finish their future up - for them You can lead a horse to water but well you know.

4 4 Moses BIGGEST challenge - - is the challenge of - - having the COURAGE to start something that he KNEW - he could NOT FINISH. It is the challenge of church leadership - from then to now. We are called by God - - to PASS ON the church and the Gospel. / And that work - - is the work - - of having the courage - to start what someone ELSE will finish. To finish what you can but to ALSO leave some things unfinished. TO stay OPEN ended about the future. Open to God - - in the future. It s the challenge - - of leadership - - and of parenting and of marriage and of friendship and of much of life. It s what HOPE is all about. If you have NO hope - you just focus on NOW. / Get things done and then BE done. But HOPE - - is about the FUTURE. Paul - - in his letter the Thessalonians our New Testament reading for this morning held out a great HOPE - - for the church he had started in Thessalonica. In the book of Acts - chapter we can read about how Paul and Silas worked in Thessalonica - - and were thrown OUT of the town by angry authorities - - thrown out before their work was finished. / In Paul s letter - - he wrote to encourage the leaders of that church to CONTINUE - the UNFINISHED work of building the church. Paul wrote to give THANKS for them. / For how they were an EXAMPLE to others. / And to encourage them in the face of what he knew was GREAT opposition.

5 5 Paul had to know - - as he wrote the letter - - that he might not ever see them again. / But whether he DID - or not what was important - - was continuing the WORK that they had started. / The work of building the church - - and spreading love and hope - - and the message of the Gospel - - of the RISEN Lord. It is such GREAT work - that we are ALL called to. It s described by Jesus - - in two great commandments: Love the Lord your God - - and love your neighbor - as yourself It is work that is in fact SO great - - that it is NEVER finished. If God HAD led Moses into the promised land - - the story would have been WRAPPED up NEATLY. / We could read it - - comfortably. But because it ended - - unfinished with Moses standing there - - looking across people of faith have to deal for all eternity with the UNfinished-ness of the life of faith. And - - in that un-finished-ness lies the HOPE - - for the future. The life we live - - as faithful people is NEVER - - EVER - - just our OWN life. We are part of a story in which God has ALWAYS been at work - - a story that STRETCHES for CENTURIES and will continue to do so even after us. The challenges and failures and mistakes along the way do not END the story. But that can NEVER be a reason to RELAX from the life of faith. Instead - - it is to realize that living the life of faith is NEVER over. I ran across several stories which illustrate this point:

6 6 This first story is called Mrs. Beulah s Invitations In the first story - George - - worked in a garage owned by Mrs. Beulah and her husband. Every Monday - Mrs. Beulah would greet George by saying, Good Morning, George, where were you yesterday? / We missed you in church. / You re always welcome to come with us. He knew she was sincere - - but he hardly ever responded - even verbally. She never said much MORE than that - - but each week she did the same thing. After George got married - he took another job. / But even then - when Mrs. Beulah saw him at the store - or the post office - - she would ask how he was - - and invite him to church. Week after week George - - eventually - - had a family. Mrs. Beulah congratulated him - and added The Lord - and the congregation - could help you raise those children. Eventually Mrs. Beulah died. After her death - George MISSED - her weekly invitations. In fact - - he missed them enough - - to ATTEND a worship service. Out of respect for Mrs. Beulah - of course. But something happened there. / George has supported the church ever since. He s a regular attender - - a tither - - and an elder. And the congregation - gives thanks - - for the work Mrs. Beulah STARTED but could not finish.

7 7 It would have been EASY - to give up - - early on after a few ignored invitations. / But she remained FRIENDLY - and interested. / Not overbearing - but always there. / It would have been easy to quit - - thinking that her work was finished. / But it is often - - not the FIRST breath - - we utter but the SECOND breath - - that counts. Robert C. Morris describes the beginning of his PRAYER life - this way: I didn t BEGIN to pray - in a steady - daily way until I gave up all attempts - at a prayer life. / I tried schemes - - regular daily routines - - BUT - ALWAYS - - eventually, my habit of NO habit reasserted itself. Life was just too pressured - unfinished - unpredictable - - to carve out a space for prayer. Then one day - rushing and behind schedule I stubbed my toe - on the stairs. / I breathed a frustrated CURSE and realized I was PRAYING. Not that it was a very GOOD prayer - - but ornery as it was it was a prayer. / A kind of prayer. / A groan - from the heart. O God - - I mused - - well - - if I m praying - why not go all the way? So - - on the SECOND breath - - I repeated - - in a more FRIENDLY way O GOD. On the third breath - I heard myself - pray with feeling. And instead of CURSING - - I was BLESSING. O God - - bless my aching toe and bless my spirits And the issue was NOT - - whether the FIRST breath was a curse - - or in frustration but the KEY was in what I chose to do with the SECOND breath. The second breath moment - - was a movement - - from cursing to blessing.

8 8 The second breath is recognizing - - that something is STARTING - in you that will not be FINISHED - - for a while. And maybe it s OK - - or even GOOD to leave some things UNFINISHED. What is your unfinished business? What would it be like to unfinish a thing or two that needs a little more work? To leave - - a few things - - open - to the Spirit not to wrap them up according to OUR way but to seek God s way God s often unfinished - - way. The way of hope. Amen.