Why Not?

By Bill Barney

First United Methodist Church, Schenectady

June 1, 2008

Prepared and preached while remembering the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy 40 ye= ars ago this week.

“If you work these words i= nto your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock= .” Matthew 7:24b The Message

It was about 8 AM on the morning of June 5, 1968 when I heard my mother’s voice calling to wake me up. I had just returned from Seminary for the summ= er to direct a church camp and I thought it unusual that she would be calling = this early, since I had stayed up late the night before watching the returns from the California Democratic primary on television.

Even though as a seminarian in Washington, D.C., I had been supporting Hubert Humphrey for President, an interesting primary challenge was taking place in California between Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy, the “peace̶= 1; candidates. I did not know who had won when I went to bed because of the th= ree hour time difference.

My mother’s voice was strained as she said, you’d better get up, B= obby Kennedy has been shot. Needle= ss to say, I sprang from bed and spent the rest of the day watching and listening with the rest of the world – Bobby Kennedy died the next day.

Thanks to a comment by Hillary Clinton during her campaign last week, mentioning t= he assassination, in what turned out be unflattering to her, I was taken ba= ck to those days and remembered Kennedy’s most famous line, a paraphrase fr= om George Bernard Shaw. Shaw said: “Some men see things as they are and = ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.” Kennedy said during his presidenti= al campaign: “I dream of things that never were and say Why Not?” That phrase has lingered in the depths of my memory and in my planning for ministry for 40 years. Much to the consternation of many!

Since returning from General Conference, I brought to your attention John Wesley’s “three simple rules”. The first, about which I preached is: “do no harm”. The second about which Pastor Steve = preached is: “do good”. The third is “stay in love with God”. In light of my memories of the proclamation from Kennedy and in my study of Wesley’s rules, I feel s= ure that followers of Jesus and John Wesley are “why not?’ kind of people. Why not do no harm!? = Why not do good!? Why not practic= e the presence of Divine Love!? (my own interpretation of “stay in love with God”). We are a why not people! From Christmas(Jesus’ bi= rth) to Easter(his resurrection) we see one “why not” event after another. Not accepting things as they are but acting on dreams of things th= at never were!

Furthermore, Jesus was(or shall we say is) a “why not” kind of leader. The Sermon on The Mount found reco= rded in Matthew has Jesus saying one “why not” speech after another – not literally but in their substance. Between chapters 5 and 7 scor= es of issues and teachings are addressed with the expectation that people who respond will live life differently than ever before. These are not easy sayings. The “why not” inference in every speech is obvious.

And then Jesus is reported to say in today’s reading:(fromthe= Sermon on the Mount)

"These words I speak to you= are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your stand= ard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If= you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built h= is house on solid rock.
Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them in= to your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.
When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed lik= e a house of cards."

So here’s the challenge: d= o we just listen to these teachings – the Sermon on The Mount and others -= and respond “why”? Or, do we say “why not” work the wor= ds of Jesus into a way of living, a way of doing no harm, a way of doing good,= a way of practicing Divine Love? Why not live the three simple rules? Why not, indeed!?

If we are going to faithfully practice Divine Love, we in the North American culture would say “successfully” meaning faithfully, we must always start = with that which is inside of us. O= ur spiritual livelihood must be strong before we can possibly turn our attenti= on to outward and visible signs of loving.&nb= sp; Our strength to be a “why not” kind of people must come = from within first of all.

In our culture we are so used to saying “don’t just sit there, do something!” In almost every other culture on e= arth the opposite direction is taken first:&nbs= p; “don’t just do something, sit there!” Sit there until you have the spiri= tual discipline to act on Wesley’s first two rules: do no harm and do good. They may be the first t= wo rules but without the inner strength and discipline brought to life by the third rule, the first two are impotent.

In his book, Three Simple Rules(= page 54), Bishop Rueben Job says this in quoting another spiritual giant of our time: “Spiritual disciplines teach us to live our lives in harmony wi= th something larger than ourselves and larger than that which the world values= as ultimate. In her book, Illuminated = Life, Joan Chittister puts it this way, ‘All we have in life is life. Things – the cars, the houses, the educations, the job, the money –come and go, turn to dust between our fingers, change and disappear…the se= cret of life…is that it must be developed from the inside out.” (Orb= is Books, 2000; page 14).

Bishop Job goes on to say(and I paraphrase in my own way): “Living in the presence of and in harmony = with [The Divine which we know in the person of Jesus and empowered by The Spiri= t] is to live life from the inside out. It is to find our moral direction, our wisdom, our courage, our strength to live faithfully…”

For John Wesley, spiritual disciplines were things like public worship, the Lord’s Supper, priva= te and family prayer, searching the Scriptures, Bible Study and fasting. That was fine for Wesley and these= disciplines brought great strength to his inner life, and have and do to many others ev= en today. But, this is John Wesley’s list. Not necessarily yours or mine. The point I want to make here is whether we follow Wesley’s disciplines or some others, taking time to seek inner peace and a heart full of love is essential to the “why not” kinds of acts we become empowered to do as followers = of Jesus. To love The Divine Spi= rit is to find that Spirit within each of us – that comes first!<= /span>

Then the practice of Love= or the action of Love, which we so much want to accomplish in our daily lives, will be fully empowered by the high test gas of inner strength. I have to t= ell you that I think we all, in First UMC, have to think carefully about the ti= me we are or are not putting in to gaining this inner strength. While what we = do here on Sunday morning makes a large contribution to this – I feel we= all need more.

The offerings we are making in <= /span>A Schenectady School for Wellbeing are directly targeted at giving= us many paths toward the building of inner peace and strength. I encourage us = all the consider taking the time to participate in the year ahead. From meditation to spirited theolo= gical discussions these offerings give us opportunity to deeply reflect on the wo= rds reportedly said by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: "These words= I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improveme= nts to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a l= ife on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter = who built his house on solid rock…”

I believe we in First UMC are= a people who “dreams things that never were and say, ‘Why Not’?!” We can an= d we do make a difference. I do al= so believe however that we will be stronger, bolder, more able to make a diffe= rence when we give more attention to our inner connection to Love not just= our outer action of Love.

I have no idea if Robert Kennedy= had the inner strength to lead the nation in a full blown “why not” campaign to change the world for the good. I do know, we know, that much of what he stood for has not been achieved in the last 40 years. Could it be t= hat this is the spiritual and political year for us to re-group around our need= to act from the inside out – taking Jesus teachings seriously in our par= ticular contributions to the public good?

Finally please consider again the words attributed to Pa= ul in his Letter to the Romans – The Message version here, adapted by me using the word “Love” w= here the Peterson translation uses “God”:

So here's what I want you to do, [consider Love]: Take y= our everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and hold it up to the light of Love, as an offeri= ng. [Embracing Love is the best thing you can do for Jesus as his follower.]
Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on Love. You'll be chang= ed from the inside out. (The Message adapted)

So, we have the third simple rule of John Wesley, our Methodist founder, for your consideration. This rule to “love more= 221; in a Divine sort of way will get you into all sorts of trouble with our cul= ture, as it did with Jesus in his culture. We have the way to this Love, do we ha= ve the will? Why Not!?