The Dash That Lies Within

It’s a somber day. You’re in a church, not like this one. Its grand woodwork and pews seem to extend for miles. The stone on the inside stretches to engulf the brightly colored stained glass. The gentle church organ is playing something unrecognizable but it seems to set a very melancholy tone. People are sitting on the hard wooden benches, dressed in black. Someone has died. And as you walk up the aisle you see certain family members and some friends. You remember reading something in the paper about a death occurring, however it seems strange that you’re there. The casket is now before you. You gather enough strength to look in and inside ...there you are…dead. You listen to what your family, friends, coworkers say about you… what are they saying? The scene changes as you see your body get lowered into the grave.

The grave stone says
RIP
Here lies YOU
This year – that year

Then all of the sudden the earth starts moving near the grave stone… you might think it’s a earthquake when all of the sudden you see a hand clawing its way towards the sky… Its you … the dead… coming to rise again …cause this is thrillah….

Sorry… I know totally lame to bring up MJ. I’m so Bad…but I left my other sermon in my billy jeans… so if you don’t like this one you can probably Beat It…. Its All hallows eve eve today, and you can’t get away from the spooky… and what’s spookier than a graveyard … am I right?

I guess the reason why I’m thinking about the spookiness of headstones is that two weeks ago I began helping my dad archive pictures onto the computer. These were pictures different people I’m related to… it just so happened that these were of my grandfather’s dad. There were pictures of him as a baby, the house he was born in, his football pictures at University of Oregon. As we looked through all 14 of his pictures, we selected 8 that we actually knew who was in the photos or what exactly was happening. We found his death certificate, and some newspaper clippings about him. Typesetting it we realized that the sum of his life could be compiled into 8 pictures, 3 pages of text, and a death certificate. After about 2 hours worth of work, my dad looked at what we had and he told me “well there’s your great grandfather… an entire lifetime and we only have 11 pages.

And it got me to thinking about an even more grim scene.. I realized that on a gravestone below the RIP and the person’s name is the year they were born *dash* the year they died. An entire lifetime can be abbreviated into a mere dash.

Close your eyes and feel the mortality of the human body you’ve been given. Death is certain for us—only the time of death is yet to be discovered. Imagine yourself to be at the end of your life—next week or next year or decades from now…sometime in the future. Now cast your memory back across your whole life and bring to mind two good deeds that you have done, two things that you did that were good. They don’t need to be grandiose; let whatever wants to arise show itself. In picturing and remembering these good deeds, also become aware of how these memories affect your consciousness, how they transform the feelings and state of the heart and mind, as you see them.

Look carefully at the quality of these situations, at what is comprised in a moment of goodness picked out of a lifetime of words and actions. Almost everyone who is able to remember such deeds in this meditation discovers them to be remarkably simple. They are rarely the deeds one would put on a resume. For some people a moment of goodness was simply the one when they told their father before he died that they loved him, or when they flew across country in the midst of their busy life to care for their sister’s children as she was healing from a car accident. It could be that you thought back to a crowded street where you and someone else got to a parking spot at the same time, and you gave it to that person.

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another, when we are there in the most attentive or caring way. This simple and profound intimacy is the love that we all long for. These moments of touching and being touched can become a foundation for a way of life, and they take place in the most immediate and direct way. Mother Teresa put it like this: “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”

I did this exercise 10 years ago and found myself drawing a blank when it came to any good deeds. The reason why was because everything that I had flagged as a “good deed” was also something that had an ulterior motive with my benefit at the end of the road. I racked my brain over and over to view something that I had done in my life that I did purely for the betterment, or love of someone else. I found nothing. Perhaps you are in this boat. You close your eyes and all you see is what you’ve done to others to benefit yourself, and what you’ve done to get where you’re at today. Let me tell you this morning that this is no life. Your dash in the middle is a self centered life, one that doesn’t have charity built in, it doesn’t benefit others. In fact it is this sort of life devoid of love that people do not miss, if not even give a sigh a relief when this person passes away.

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul pleads with the church in Corinth to let their dashes…the ones that comprise their lives, to be filled with love. For it is his view that as everything falls by the wayside unless you fill your life with the love of God.

But what does this look like? We’ve already heard from Ken this morning on what his experience. I have another story that is similar. It just happened recently that a friend tried to extend his comfort zone to try to begin loving people. He writes this.

Well, I headed out to meet everyone at Pioneer Square tonight for the hang out and giveaway. But my lame ass didn't get up out the house until 7, and when I arrived downtown clutching a package of socks, there was no one to be found.I was a little mad at myself for missing [the gang], but oh well, I thought. I'll bring the socks the next time ... I was going to just go browse Powell's… and head home.Then I met George. I was walking along and passed him panhandling on Broadway, near the Heathman. I pulled out my last 5 dollars and dropped it in his basket, and I smiled and greeted him, and he thanked me, and I said "anytime" and told him God bless. I was walking away when he said "Thank you for treating me like a human being." I turned back around and said "hey, don't mention it, that's what it's all about." I leaned against the store window next to him and we [started] talk[ing].We talked for over an hour. That $5 and eye contact were the price of admission to the life of George, and it was well worth it. And if things had gone as planned, I'd have never met him.George is in his fifties and has been homeless for 30-some odd years. He has no cartilage in his knees, plus arthritis. That's what I learned in the first two minutes. The rest of the time was spent talking about life, the universe and everything, and learning what George thinks and feels. Things like, if you love your enemies, you can have no enemies. Like, God loves us and looks out for us, even in the hardest of circumstances. Like, They can jail your body, but you have to LET them jail your spirit. Like, he would rather be homeless and alert to the world with its beauties and dangers, than comfortable and complacent. Like, we don't have to grow senile and decrepit, if we … care [for] our bodies and spirits we could live longer… in … health and vitality. I tried to help George out, and it's HIM that blessed ME. Our conversation veered from the Chronicles of Narnia to Tibetan monks to the societal changes wrought by the internet. Every moment in his presence was joy, every word and gesture of his dripped love.Our conversation only ended when George pulled up stakes to go camp out of the rain. Whatever else happened (or didn't) happen the past day, I was fulfilled in meeting and communing with George. We hugged, twice. We parted as brothers. Oh, and I gave him the socks. I'll buy more for the next time.

That is his experience in the dash that we call life. And as someone typesets my epitaph I’m not sure they will get the nuances of what my life has been about. When I think back on my life what pops up as one of my “good deeds” is simply giving my sweatshirt away. I met a guy downtown, a huge New Yorker, and I happened to have on a New York sweatshirt. He commented on it several times. I felt that it would be nice to give it to him. He was taken aback, weirded out, at first couldn’t accept it… as I insisted and he put it on. To this day we are great friends.

What is the value of your favorite piece of clothing? Is it more valuable than lets say … your soul? I’m not advocating going and giving away all of your stuff. I am questioning our priorities! What are you doing during your week? How much of your life is devoted to loving others?

We are a creative community, and I want to be clear on one thing. Art is not Love. What was written about this mans experience is inspiring, and inspired by what he did. We can write about love, sing about love, paint, write poetry, and speak about love… But all of these are inspired by the ACT of loving. Don’t fool yourself into complacency and oblivion by allowing your inspirations be what should be your aspirations. Please by all means write, compose, paint, be as creative as possible, but realize that the act of loving someone else with no agenda is what will inspire your artistry.

James, in talking to churches all over the map, says “do you say you have faith in God? Then do something!” He says that true religion stems from caring for those who have slipped through the cracks. Loving, caring, spending time and energy blessing other people with no agenda is NEVER GOING TO BE EASY. Like my friend who met George…Things won’t go as planned! Yet it was in that seemingly negligible space of availability, and effort….that loving someone with no agenda brought its reward. What was that reward? Lives were changed on both parts. Connection with a loving God happened to both parties… however small. And that is what God is calling you to do every day.

We’re so conscious of our time, yet we spend none of it doing the things that would truly make it remarkable. Let’s be remarkable…This week I want to ask you to take one half hour out of your week and spend it doing “a good deed” for someone else, with no expectation of payback… none…. Think about it… How will your life change years from now if you begin to prioritize love in your life. Doing the small things with great love… What will your dash look like?

I'm One Sick Preacher!

It was a grim scene. I was driving like a bat out of hell towards a place called White Salmon. I had never been there; I only knew that at a particular fork I was to turn left. I was calming myself by saying that I somehow would know when to turn. Then a voice floated on my right making the scene even more cinematic. “loves” the voice said. It was my girlfriend who was uncomfortably lying in the passenger seat. I glanced over, careful not to careen off the cliffs on my right. “yeah?” she wearily uttered ”3 taps means I love you. OK?” After which she taps on my hand 3 times with her finger. At that point my mind goes into any sort of schmaltzy “Beaches,” Fried green tomatoes type of movie. You know the kind my mom loves to go to. Or sit up and watch round about Christmas time, bawling her eyes out between Hallmark commercials. The one where the cancer patient tells the faithful husband of 25 years “3 taps means I love you” before entering into a coma. And he sits next to her side and at one point before they’re about to pull the plug she gives him 3 taps. I’m thinking “is this how it ends?” as my girlfriend in stuntman type of gusto has been launched from a 9 foot teeter totter to come plummeting to the earth. I could only pray, I could only think of one destination I needed to get to, As we are racing towards the hospital, I felt the gentle touch of her finger 3 times - tap tap tap. All I could think about was when we get to the Doctor, we’ll know.

Have you ever had the experience of needing a doctors help? You feel utterly helpless, and completely needy. We all have gone sometime, and we all will need to go sometime. What are feelings you have associated with doctors?

I think it could be odd to picture. But in Ireland, after the family that was hosting me was asleep, there I was, in my shorts, on doing squat thrusts in front of my old college roommate. I know it looks sordid, and when I say he was checking me out it might sound sordid, however my old roommate is a physical therapist and I had a sports related injury. Doing capoeira outside on Alberta street in May. And Messed up my knee. He was checking it out because I never saw anybody for it. (insurance reasons) Anyway, he ended up looking at my knee. After doing a couple tests on it and having me squat and other things, he said “good news, it seems like it’s a muscle tear and you can probably do up to 98% of what you did before.” He told me that I needed to use it. I said “I’m scared because it might hurt again” So he proscribed a couple exercises and encouraged me to try to use it equally with the other. 2 months later…I’m able to run on it.

Now I know that you all have doctor related stories, times you got better and times that you got sick, and you might tell me this isn’t health class, or this isn’t an insurance seminar, where are you going Geoff?

Well it’s been on my mind because I’ve been sick the past three days.
And being sick is never fun for me.(as if its fun for anyone else) My body tends to shut down. It’s completely lame because … I have stuff to do. I’m an important person. I can’t be in bed. I have to have a personality. And what sucks is that one of the first things that go out the window when I get sick is I lose my personality. I begin this routine of Frankenstein versus the rest of the world. Questions get shot my way and my response is ahhhhhhh. How are your doing “ahhhh” do you want anything to eat “ahhhh” what do you want to eat “ahhhhh”. But more than the last three days I’ve found out that I’ve been sick my whole life. And the scary thing is…its terminal. Yeah, I haven’t told a lot of people yet, perhaps you have noticed it in me before but I am sick… sick…and wrong.

Only someone as sick as I am would tell you this joke:
“Three vampires walk into a bar. One orders a blood on the rocks. Another orders a double blood. The third simply asks for a mug of hot water."Why didn't you order blood like everyone else?" asks the bartender. The vampire pulls out a tampon and says, "I'm making tea!" ”

I know… I know…I don’t condone vampires either, anybody who dresses in goth without dangling a huge crucifix around their neck has something wrong with them. Anyway, Oh yeah… I’m totally sick. The fact that as I was studying for this message I got detracted for a good ten minutes reading about some guy’s explosive diarrhea experience that caused him to vomit into his elastic ankled sweatpants. Gives you a good indication on how sick I really am.

So again you’re asking… Geoff I get it, you now no longer have any credibility? So why are you still talking?

I’m trying to shake you up. Make you think differently. You probably got up this morning and said. I wonder what the lord has for me this morning. You probably came to church thinking, we’ll get to sing some songs and hear a message that will make my heart be excited for being a Christian for today. Little did you know that sick ol’ Geoff was going to tell you about the fabled launching of his girlfriend in ’05 or explosive diarrhea?

But there was a toppling of people’s religious contexts in the year 30 AD as well. And there was a man who seemed a little nuts and was noticed by the religious folks in the crowd. This man asked people to follow him, because he told them that he was the Son of God. Sound nuts? Maybe not to you because you’re in a church, but to the religious of the time, only a very sick person would make such claims.

“9 Passing along, Jesus saw a man at his work collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. Jesus said, "Come along with me." Matthew stood up and followed him. 10 Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew's house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. 11 When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus' followers. "What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?" 12 Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? 13 Go figure out what this Scripture means: 'I'm after mercy, not religion.' I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders." (MATTHEW 9:9-13)

And if the Religious leaders at the time looked up that scripture. They would have looked up Hosea 6:6 that was talking about a group of people that were doing all of the correct religious sacrifices but had no concept of the reasoning why. They were doing it with pride, thinking they were top of the food chain when God saw that they were clueless.

Are you sick this morning? Are you seen as a crook, riffraff, disreputable, maybe an outsider? Or do you see yourself as someone who has it all together, upstanding, and healthy.

I was hurt this week as I was reading a website of a church that proudly expresses that John 3:16 states that Jesus died only for those who believe. And that in itself didn’t hurt me because it does say “JOHN 3:16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It hurt me because they used this scripture in conjunction with a predestination scripture to form this particular stance: if you do not believe in Jesus, Jesus didn’t die for you and therefore you are Not worth the church’s time. Not redeemable ..possibly even subhuman. They use this view to fuel a rage that is teeming within them that allows them to look upon humanity. And those that are crooks, riffraff, disreputable, sick, or maybe simply outsiders are targeted, and they get a message. But it isn’t a message of a Jesus who stayed in their dysfunctional home, or came up to them on the street, or saw them for who they are. It is a message of judgment. A message of anger.
These insiders are allowing the “good doctor”, “the great physician”, “the wonderful counselor” to give only and singularly the bad news of judgment. No wonder people want a second opinion.
No wonder people want to hear better news of a god that doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus. No wonder people only switch on the Trinity Broadcasting Network if they want a good Chuckle. No wonder people are so confused about whether Christians are actually safe people or are they SICK?

In a very difficult time in my life, I had just seen my counselor that day, when some news came my way that was devastating. I knew I didn’t want to freak out and call my counselor after I had just seen her 3 hours previous. But I didn’t know what to do. Immediately I sat down on my couch and began looking at the chair in front of me. And I began to think that Jesus was sitting in the chair, very much like my counselor would be. I then talked to the chair for an hour, the way I would my counselor. Am I a nut? Perhaps… Do you think I’m sick? well I’ve already proven that one. But did I gain incite into myself that calmed me down, yes. Did I view this as a prayer to God, yes. Why do I keep asking questions and answering them? I don’t know.
Perhaps because I want us to see this: Doctors have that ability to tell you what’s wrong, and if they pinpoint it correctly, even though you still hurt, somehow the effect of knowing tends to put you at ease and have the effect of making you feel better. The Doctor’s diagnosis is one that can be good news or bad news, but it is the news that allows you to move into a better place for yourself.

The interesting thing was when my friend told me that my knee injury wasn’t permanent… I believed him. So I began walking on it squatting on it and not favoring my other leg. And it is in fact getting better.

And Today …Doctor God has some bad news for us… Your sickness, is terminal. If you do nothing for your sickness it will eat you alive. But God has some good news too… Its referred to as Gospel… good news, our sickness has a cure. It has a miracle healing everlasting cure. What is that cure you may ask?

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us! (Romans 5:8)

Regardless whether we view ourselves as insiders, or outsiders, sick or well. It is God’s desire to see that you become who you’ve been created to be. Whole. And no matter how healthy, sick, uppercrust, or riffraff you are… God wants you to know that you are loved, we are loved, all on an equal playing field, whether you feel like you are reaching your potential or just barely making it. Jesus is your cure. You can believe it or not.

His love. Grace, in turn should cause us to become a great lover of people, whether they are reaching the maximum potential or not. A lover of mercy, and lover of forgiveness. One of the great commandments is Love your neighbor. How can you build up the person next to you? Across the hall. Downtown. How can you get to know them outside of their labels. Your labels…Economic, spiritual, or other.

Where is God’s heart this morning? Its where it always is. Its where it always has been. Its asking you to be whole. The Doctor sees you and even though you have quite a bit of therapy ahead of you. Its beckoning you forward. Its pulling you out of your circumstance and saying that “you are mine.” The great physician’s heart is always in love with you. You, as you were meant to be. God’s heart is compassionate towards your life. The Doctor Knows exactly who you are and where you’ve been. The Counselor knows beyond a shadow of a doubt what makes you wince about your life, what sickens you about yourself, and what you feel trapped in. The Doctor is “in” and he is here to speak into that that trap, that sickness, and say “come.” Those habits are not who you’re meant to be. “Come,” You don’t need to be embarrassed. “Come with me,” “follow me” and you will be well.