Sermon: Splash and Dash
May 25, 2008<= o:p>
Romans 12:1-2, 9-21 &= amp; Matthew 6:24-34
by the Reverend Steve Clunn
I admitted to the Wednesday W= orship folk this past Wednesday that I come from a long
line of worry warts. When my brothers, sist= er and I would talk, we would often
try to figur= e out who was having the most difficult time in life at that moment.
Then we would announce to the= one who won that little contest, “good, dad will worry
about you th= is week and leave me alone.”
Growing up, my father used to= say to us, “when I die, I’m going to leave you the same
thing my fat= her left me; the whole wide world to work in!” Growing up during the
depression; watching his family loose everything; going from successful business
owner to sha= re cropper; and, living in someone else’s house, on someone else’s=
farm, picking someone else’s crops… help to forge the workaholic, worry wart =
that he beca= me.
When he tried to retire, and couldn’t do it, I asked him why he wasn’t traveling and
enjoying the= life he had worked so hard to achieve, he told me that he had to keep
working, so = that he’d have something to leave us kids.
I was the youngest of four, m= arried and had two of my three children at the time. All of
my siblings = were doing o.k. financially, had their own homes and families. I said
to my dad; “what, in case you haven’t noticed, we’ve all already collected our
inheritance – we’re out there in the whole wide world and working. You need to
get out ther= e and enjoy your life; you and mom.”
He never did get around to it= .
Worry and our fear of the unk= nown, the future; can be one of the most debilitating
stresses we = put on ourselves.
Now I’m not advocating throwing away long range plans, and working for a better future;
quite the contrary. But what I am advoc= ating for; is a that we never become so
focused on t= he end that we forget the means… the how and why we are trying to
get there.
Also, I hope we will never fo= rget that the end isn’t the real issue at all, it’s the journey
along the wa= y that forms us, molds us, and ultimately enables us to work toward
even greater goals, beyond our original vision.
Let’s face it, plans ch= ange; goals shift; and, life has this uncanny knack of trying to teach
us all what’s truly important along the way.
And so my father, who used to= quote his 7 P principal at me: “Proper prior planning
prevents potentially poor performance,” also once commented on how well he
thought Mary= Lynn and I were doing in teaching our children flexibility.”
“Maybe= the most important lesson in life,” he said, almost regretfully.
A wise person once said, “Worry never stops tomorrow’s sorrows from coming, it only
saps today of it’s strength.”
I came across a newspaper car= toon from several years ago and as I took in what it was
saying, I re= alized that these worries haven’t changed much. In fact, we could add
new ones to = the list; gas prices, rising food costs and shortages, natural disasters
of monumental proportion… just to name a few.
So what am I to do? As someone who has been raised and trained in the fine art of
worrying, ho= w do I break free from the paralysis of worry that would rob me of
the joy of l= iving, the beauty that is all around me, and maybe even my health.
I’ve discovered that I = need to do what Paul and Jesus suggested. I need to focus on God,
the eternal = now, the ever present, ever loving, giver of life.
It’s when I stop focusi= ng on just me, my life, my family, my hopes and dreams, my
future, my w= ants and wishes for society, the Church, and the world; When I start
to look arou= nd to see where God is already present, already at work, already doing
no harm and = doing good; it’s then that I find myself fall in love with God and life
all over aga= in.
Life becomes clearer when I f= ind myself asking a few simple questions… Where do I see
God at work = in this situation? Who else is b= eing affected besides me and can I
keep their v= alue as a child of God at least as important as mine? Where do they
see God at w= ork here? And, How can I be involved in making a difference for the
good?
It really is all about relationships; with God, others and self.&= nbsp; But breaking the chains of
fear and wor= ry, don’t mean focusing only on those I have a current relationship
with. One of the lessons life is teachin= g us all right now, is how interconnected
and interdep= endent we all are in this world. That’s part of what makes our
problems see= m so overwhelming.
I’m reminded of how beautifully Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and
others have = all taught us that while so often the struggles and injustices of life get
played out o= n the world stage; it is on the personal level were the real differences
are made.
If you want to work for peace= and justice in this world; love your family, be a peace
and justice = worker at home, at work, and in your community. But also lend your
voice to the needed changes in the world, but remember that those who seem to
serve the Go= d of mammon, need to learn about true living, just as we do.
Does anyone want to venture to guess what inspired my sermon title for today?
In 2004, Congress passed a tax credit intended to promote the U.S. biodiesel industry.
The tax cred= it equals a dollar for every gallon of biodiesel blended in the United
States.
The idea was to encourage mar= keters of regular diesel to mix in plant-based fuel and,
thus, broade= n the use of biodiesel to help the environment.
But a loophole has producers = on both sides of the Atlantic crying foul.&nb= sp; The law simply
didn’t anticipate "splash and dash" — This practice involves bring= ing a tanker of
biodiesel ma= de elsewhere, usually Indonesia or Malaysia, to the United States,
adding just a "splash" (10% or less) of U.S.-made petroleum diesel, then shippi= ng
the "blend" to Europe at a price that, because of our tax dollar subs= idies, make it
possible to = sell at a below market price.
According to some industry officials, “Splash and dash is not illegal but makes a
mockery of t= he environmental reasons behind the introduction of biofu= els… It
involves unnecessary shipping across the Atlantic, which increases emissions of
greenhouse g= ases but also undermines European producers.”
Did I mention that this was m= ade possible by using our tax dollars?
O.K., so what came my mind was this… In a time when the world-wide economy is
hurting, the= costs of fuel, groceries and the shipping of food are skyrocketing –
when will pe= ople of faith begin to ask the CEO’s of oil corporations, who
are have been making record profits for the past two years to consider their profit
taking role = in the harm and suffering of others?
When will we question our own governmental policies that allow for such outrageous
Fortunes to = be made when we are watching more and more people loose their
homes, their= jobs and their hope for a better future?
When did we cross that line b= etween an honest days pay for an honest days work and
make it acce= ptable and unquestionable for businesses, governments and
speculators = alike to be focused more on profit taking; greed, rather than on profit
sharing and building companies that are less focused on margins and more
focused on actually bringing good things to life?
The answer for me, isn’t foun= d in trying to influence corporate practices or governmental
policies, as= much as it is in affecting change in the heart of our culture; and in the
very p= eople who sit on boards; who are voting shareholders and CEOs; who are consumers, politicians and governmental leaders…
All of us who have a stake in= the future we are building for our children and all of God’s
children in = this world… we have got to come together, journey together, plan
together, le= arn together, and hope together.
We have got to see and call o= ut the holiness that God makes possible in everyone. We
have got to = get far beyond our fears and our worries and begin to come alive to
the possibil= ities that God has in store for us all.
For those of us who are Chris= tian in this world, we have got to remember our baptism and
keep it holy… Remembering that our faith is not a “splash and dash̶= 1; loophole for
life beyond = life.
As baptized Christians, we are called to journey, work and struggle together to make
God’s = kindom real in this world, in our lives, on our journ= ey.
I want to close with the word= s of one of the young adults who spoke at General
Conference, = Andrew Craig.
He said, “’There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them
except in the form of bread.’ This profound quot= e by Mahatma Ghandi helps us to
understand the world through the eyes of the poor. ‘Poverty is one of the world’s
greatest problems.’
We all encounter the poor on a daily basis and may not even realize it. They a= re truly the
world’s invisible people. Who are the poor? They= are individuals who share some
of the same beliefs, opinions and principles as you an= d I; People...and yet the only
thing that differentiates them from us is their financ= ial status. If a few of us
missed a paycheck or two, we could easily be included = into the ranks of the poor.
If Jesus physically walked wi= th us today, what would he do if he saw a homeless person?
What would he do if he saw an unbelievably large number of persons, perhaps, in = a
wartorn, famine-ravaged co= untry, starving. Matthew, Chapter 5, verses 3 and 5
explain Jesus’ feelings towards the poor. He sai= d:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom in Heaven” and
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
Blessed are the people who remember and help the victims of racial, ethnic, social = and
gender discrimination. Regardless of our ages, weight, sexual orientations, colors and ethnicities, we are all children of God.
And God expects for us to care for each other.
Sometimes, I feel discouraged and wonder why I should just keep trying. Life,
sometimes, seems so complicated. I mean, look at any newspaper and what do
you see?
Global warming, species harming, overpopulation, drug devastation, deforestation, = war,
crime, famine, disease, rising gas prices?
Then I remember that God loves me and has put people here to help guide me throu= gh
life’s struggles. God has sown the earth with wonderful people. When we care for others, people, just like you and me, be= come God’s seeds of hope.
In the New Testament, Jesus used the metaphor of planting to help his listener= s, who
belonged to an agrarian society, understand the kingdo= m of heaven. If you break a seed into its individual parts, you’ll find the ectoderm on the outside, the endoderm on the inside, and a tiny embryo. Our components, as God’s seeds of hope, are courage and knowledge on the outside, faith on the inside, and a tiny embryo called love.
Service to God, by serving one another, provides sustenance for our seeds to grow. = Our
seeds flower when we live the life that God would have= us live. We know that
we’re fulfilling God’s plan when our plants bear fruit, or when we help others
along their spiritual journeys.
Our God cares for us and gives us reasons to hope. Our seeds are planted; they’re ready
to grow.R= 21;
I too find reason to hope, especially when I hear young people like Andrew, letting us
know that he= is ready to join in the journey. Not a splash and dash kind of trip,
but a full fledged, life-long journey to help nurture and grow God’s love. Amen.