Passionate Worship Searching for Stability in an Unstable World Sunday, August 26, 2018 Rev. Dr. Robert Hundley
Searching for Stability in an Unstable World August 26, 2018 Rev. Dr. Robert Hundley Ephesians 3: 16, 6: 10 13 Psalm 84 Prayer It wasn t many weeks ago when I was searching desperately for stability and there was none to be found. During my recent sabbatical, my wife and I enjoyed a bucket list-type of trip in the form of a cruise along the northeastern sea-board of the United States. We saw beautiful scenery and experienced lovely communities like Martha s Vineyard and Provincetown, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; as well as Portland, Bar Harbor, and Rockland, Maine. We had never been on a cruise before and our maiden voyage was eleven days long. We began the journey in Boston, went north to Portland, then on to Bar Harbor, then back south to Rockland on our way to Newport and the Cape. We had a delightful Sunday in Rockland, Maine, walking through the quaint village, visiting stores and enjoying a great restaurant for lunch. As we were heading back to the dock, the staff of the ship were scurrying around announcing that we needed to get moving early because a nor easter storm was headed our way. They were saying that we were going to try to get ahead of the storm (to out-run it, if you will). It seemed like an ill-advised plan to me. I thought Why, if we are in port, why not stay there until the storm passes? But what do I know! So the captain and crew, in consultation with the home office of the cruise line, made the questionable decision to head out to sea. It wasn t long until the ship (a relatively small ship of about 175 passengers) was rocking, rolling, groaning, rising up and slamming down in ways that are beyond verbal description. As the night went 3
on, it got worse. The curtains in our room and clothing in the closet were swaying back and forth. Anything that wasn t nailed down was moving all over the room. For most of my life, I have been susceptible to motion sickness, and I was sick. (Sick doesn t really describe the way that I felt!) I took meclizine every day for the entire trip, but it did not help in the face of what we were facing. I lay in bed, sick, for nearly 24 hours. I tried to sleep through it all, which was of no comfort whatsoever to my wife. When I woke up and attempted to go from the bed to the bathroom, there was nothing that I could hang on to that gave any stability. Being home and sick with the flu was a precious memory compared to what we endured for those 24 hours. Somewhere around 3 o clock in the afternoon, I woke up to the sudden change of movement. I felt it instantly. The rocking and rolling stopped. The slamming and banging ceased. I got up and opened the curtains in our room to discover that the ship had entered a channel near Sandwich, Massachusetts. While the rain continued, as did the cold wind, there were boundaries created by the land on the right and left. Pigeon had brought me some food from lunch and I could finally eat, take a shower, and got dressed for dinner. The storm that we weathered along with the instability that I felt during that long night and most of the next day is an unmistakable metaphor of life. Who among us has not endured a season of storms? Who among us has not been looking for stability when everything seemed unstable? We all search for stability, don t we? Most of us are trying to develop the internal equilibrium to endure whatever life throws at us. We long for stability and we search for it with regularity. 4 Instability, on the other hand, is that feeling that blossoms in response to stimuli that is often out of our control. Currently, we are living through an era where there is extraordinary fear, anxiety, and stress that is brought on by the potentially explosive circumstances that many of us face nearly every day! I cannot remember a time where the volatility of instability is greater than it is today. In the face of fear and instability, we look for security. And yet, what we hear or read in
the daily news, feeds our fears, anxiety, and instability. We feel it within ourselves, within our families, in our work environments, as well as the fragileness of our health or financial security. Instability puts us on edge because most of us are one decision or one crisis away from moving from stability to instability. Like that ship at sea, the world is rocking and rolling in ways that often make us sick. All we can do is hang on and endure. Looking for stability may even be why we come to church and why we search for God. And in faith, we believe that the spiritual character that we work to nurture and develop will help us survive in tough times. We believe that faith, hope, and love feed our internal resilience so that we can endure the storms we must face (and we all face them). Yet - in the midst of the storm, our spiritual, emotional, and mental health is fragile. Stability is temperamental. And so we search, we pray, we believe (or want to believe) that God IS the rock in a weary land, a shelter in a time of storm (as the old spiritual so poignantly states). The message that Paul delivered to the church in Ephesus was focused on giving the people the spiritual tools to survive a storm. Paul was writing from a Roman jail cell. He had been arrested for his faith. The authorities tried to silence his leadership and belittle his influence. Even though that fledgling church in Ephesus was made up primarily of Jewish believers who had converted to Christianity, they had gotten self-righteous, with an exclusivism attitude that was causing more harm than good. And so, from the midst of the personal storm that Paul was facing, he wrote an instructive letter to the people in order to help them understand a larger perspective about the role of faith in the world. He told them that the root system they develop based on love and faith would produce results. And the result would be their ability to identify the difference between good and evil. Paul wrote an observation to the Ephesians that makes 21 st century Christians squirm a bit. He wrote, We are not fighting against human enemies, but against rulers, authorities, the forces of cosmic darkness, and the spiritual powers of evil in the world. Now while we may quibble with the militaristic imagery, we would be foolish to dismiss the possibility that there are rulers, authorities and 5
forces of darkness whose disruptive presence are producing evil in the world. Friends, there are leaders today (elected leaders) who have influence and authority who are ushering in a pervasive darkness in our world. We read about it or hear about it every day in the news reports. The moral and ethical responsibility of leadership is seemingly evaporating. The corruption, the lying, the fraud, the arrogance COMBINED with the lack of accountability is the storm that we are facing today. It is happening in seats of government around the world, but it is also part of the culture in Washington. It s happening in state governments, in local governments, in universities, school systems and yes, even in the church. Who among us is not lamenting about what we see and hear every day? I lament over the unbelievable crisis at Michigan State in the case of Larry Nassar and its aftermath. I lament at what is happening at Ohio State and Maryland and all of it, after the crisis at Penn State. When are we going to learn? It all makes me sick, just as much as the storm did on the boat. I lament every time that I hear about another investigation that produces more information about sexual or financial misconduct within the Roman Catholic Church and the years of cover-up that seem to inevitably accompany the news reports. My heart breaks for my Catholic brothers and sisters. But it s not just in the Roman Catholic Church! Inappropriate behavior and misconduct happens in every denomination or independent church where clergy, staff or laity are engaged in ministry without accountability! I lament at what appears to be another Watergate-type of situation that may be unfolding before us where truth is being re-defined or covered up with money or playing political games. I lament the crisis that we are facing with immigration policies and procedures, and the rise of hate crimes and gun violence. I lament the overwhelming challenges we face regarding poverty, affordable housing, along with a broken system of mental health care. I grieve at the racial discrimination that still haunts us, along with the inequalities that we continue to face regarding how women as well as the LGBTQ community are treated. 6
You and I are living in the storm and we cannot (we dare not) sleep through it! While we may be sickened by it, While we may grieve and lament at what we see and hear, While we may be seeking and searching for stability amid all of the instability, It s not enough to simply seek and search. We must understand that as followers of Jesus, we are not fighting human beings, we are fighting a pervasive spiritual darkness that is eroding our culture from within. The values, morality, and ethics that are the foundation of any society are being attacked. That is the storm that we must weather. It is unavoidable; we must become the change that we want to see in the world. Indeed, the storms of life ARE raging and yet, here is the Good News! (And there is always some good news!) God is with us in and through it all. In our search for stability, God is there. God is with us IN the storm. God s presence is the stability in the midst of instability. 7
Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors. Welcome to our historic congregation in the heart of Grand Rapids a center of worship, hospitality, faith development, care, mission, and outreach. We look forward to connecting with you! First United Methodist Church 227 Fulton St E Grand Rapids, MI 49503 (616) 451.2879 www.grandrapidsfumc.org revised 09/11/2018