​Again – For the First Time

AGAIN - FOR THE FIRST TIME

​“For God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten Son.”
 
 
TWO MONTHS AGO, I sat on a park bench on Esplanade Street overlooking the Missouri River. I'm sure it was the same bench I had sat on many times during my teenage years. I was in Leavenworth, Kansas, once again, where I graduated from high school in 1945.
 
Fifty–five years have passed; the buses no longer were in operation, the drug store where I worked was gone, and the high school building had just been closed for its final year and sold to First United Methodist Church, next door, where three of our four children had been baptized.
 
I was alone in the early-morning hours, looking over the river again, but in so many ways for the first time. Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher, was right. You can never step into the same waters twice. The river keeps flowing– day after day, year after year. You see it repeatedly — each time is like the first time, for you always see something different.
 
On this particular morning, I saw my father walking beside me, warning me of the dangerous waters below, voicing very softly but discreetly that I must never try to swim in the Missouri River. It is too treacherous with so many whirlpools ready to take you under at any moment.
 
I also saw my oldest daughter when she was only nine. I had taken her there to tell her that I had decided to enter the ministry. I explained to her that we would leave Leavenworth in a few short weeks. At that moment, I looked across the river. And suddenly realized that while I was in Kansas, the state of Missouri was just on the other side. I saw all of this again for the first time.
 
You surely must know what I'm talking about, seeing something again but for the first time. How many patients have come into my office over the years, and on their tenth or eleventh visit, they notice a picture or a decor for the first time, even though it has always been there? I've erred a few times like this by complimenting my wife over a new dress. One she has previously worn, so she reminds me. But I'm seeing it now again for the first time.
 
I have experienced such a sensation in reading and studying the Bible. I want to address that area this morning. Please allow yourselves to get caught up with me in such an experience, so you can understand and share the unfolding of a beautiful picture and work of art in what we have come to call The Good Book.
 
As an adult, I still remember the Bible stories I learned as a child from the Old Testament. Stories like “Noah & The Ark,” “Eli & Samuel," “David & Goliath,” the “Wisdom of Solomon,” and “Daniel in the Lion's Den.” Years after returning to the university, at the age of 31, we studied and read these same stories from the Old Testament in my classes. It was like reading the stories again but for the first time.
 
In my earlier years, I had no idea that the Old Testament was divided into three categories — The Law, The Prophets, and The Writings. I learned that the Old Testament was the chronicle of the Jewish people’s struggle. Their everyday joys and hardships. And how they were caught up in their economic, political, social, and religious world. I learned about their faith — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I discovered that the first five books were considered the Law or Torah in Hebrew — and served as a value system and a way of life for the Jewish people.
 
The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings are known in the Hebrew Bible as the Former Prophets, while such books as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Hosea belong to the Latter Prophets. These books help us to understand the Jewish people's faith in their struggle between good and evil. The Writings consist of such books as Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. They offer us lessons of wisdom, give us comfort, and often challenge our faith.
 
Each time I turn the pages of the Old Testament, it is like reading it again, but for the first time. God chose Moses to set his people free, who were held in bondage by the Egyptians, crying out to them, “Let my  people go.”
 
God is still imploring us to listen. After I left prison service at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas, and found myself as a parish minister, I started writing a book yet to be finished. I gave it a simple title, Out of a Prison to a Prison House. I saw many people in those early days who were very active within the church but still in bondage.
 
They were very religious, attending church every Sunday and actively involved in church life, but utterly oblivious to what was happening in their world. The Bible, for them, was full of events that occurred several thousand years ago. And in which there was little they could relate to in what was happening in the present moment.
 
The Bible comes alive only as we allow ourselves to become a part of that historical narrative, which set the initial course for where we are today.  It parallels our very existence, for our nation is much like the nation of Israel when the prophets of old echoed their voices of proclamation.
 
Vision of the Plumb Line
 
7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
 
And I said, “A plumb line.”
 
Then the Lord said:
 
“Behold, I am setting a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel;
I will not pass by them anymore.
The high places of Isaac shall be desolate,
And the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.
I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”
 
Amos prophesied to people enjoying wealth and prosperity but neglecting those in need. Our nation spends millions of dollars investigating each other's political party while there is no money for prescription drugs with those on Medicare. At one point in his utterance, Amos says:
 
18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light. – Amos 5:18 (NKJV)
 
Let's paraphrase that today by asking: Why are you waiting for the Second Coming? Why would you look for and have Christ the Messiah return? Of course, this would be of no avail to you. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
 
Again – For The First Time!
 
On Father's Day this year, I found myself with my two sons, attending church, breaking bread, and sharing our lives. My oldest son gave me a book I had not previously read. It was by Marcus J. Borg, Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University. He titled it, Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time. Now you know the spin-off for the title of my sermon.
 
What impressed me so much about his book is his affirmation of my understanding of Jesus' life and ministry. Remember the words of Paul, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” 
 
We have a granddaughter who just turned eleven. We have noticed lately that she acts more like a young lady than a child. As she grows older, her roles are shifting, and her thought patterns and reasoning abilities are shifting and evolving.
 
As a child, I took Christ’s miracle stories to be just that – a bit of magic like we read about in the Harry Potter books. I'm on my fourth one. Which ones are you reading? But then — perhaps not; after all, magic is for kids. As a child, I thought it was cool how Jesus healed the leper, the woman hemorrhaging, or the blind man from birth.
 
I had some idea what it must be like not to see, but I had no idea what leprosy was and certainly had no knowledge about the woman hemorrhaging.
 
Reading the book Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time affirmed my belief that Jesus was not religious but spiritual. There is much difference between the two, for a religious person may belong to an institutional church, be they a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, or another faith. On the other hand, a spiritual person cares deeply for humanity. They care for humanity without considering a person’s religious or nonreligious beliefs. Jesus was a spiritual person; Jesus was a compassionate person full of God’s lovingkindness.
 
Looking back over the years, my life's journey has been fulfilled in many good ways. My cup has overflowed many times. I have been blessed because I have touched the lives of so many beautiful people. Two months ago, when I made my trek to Leavenworth, I rented a bike for the first time. I rode up and down those hills, just as I had when I delivered prescriptions for a local pharmacy as a teenager.
 
I soon learned that those hills were much more challenging to climb than 60 years ago. My bike then was not a 12-speed, but multiple speeds, depending on how fast I pedaled. Those were the days when older people had no means of transportation or not enough gas for their cars; in World War II, they rationed gas. Or people might be too sick to leave their homes, so they waited patiently and gratefully for you to deliver their medicine.
  
I remember my years in O.R. in the VA Hospital in Leavenworth, trying to calm and assure the pre-op patients that they would be okay. And my years of prison service found me interacting with criminals who were still children of God despite their offenses. My latest gift was given to me two years ago when I was asked to work with sex offenders.
 
Our last session before Christmas this past year found me putting two chairs in the middle of the room. One by one, I would have a member within the group sit in one of the chairs while I was in the other. I would take three or four minutes to say positive things to the person and end by saying, “I love you.” A seventy–four–year–old was so emotionally overcome. He said this is the first time I have been told that someone loves me since I committed my offense.
 
My favorite story in the Bible is the Prodigal Son, the one we read in Scripture this morning. As a child and even a teenager, I thought that was neat – spending all the money his father gave him. And then head back home. That's what a lot of young people do today. They move out of their parent’s house, find they can't make it, and return home. 
 
There is a vast difference between youth in society today and the prodigal son, yet they share a common humanity. Something very unusual happened to this young man. He came to himself. Now, what does that mean? It means he turned around. He was converted — that's what conversion means — to turn around. 
 
His father loved him so much that he set him free – even giving him his inheritance. It is often painful to let our children go. We tend to hang on to them long after they are gone. We still want to tell them what to do and how to live their lives. The Father of the prodigal son let him go. He wasn't even sure where his son had gone. He didn't know what had happened to him or that he had lost all his money. He only knew he loved him. His love and compassion were so great; that he ran toward him – embracing and kissing him. 
 
The father threw a celebration because he was elated. He gave his son the best robe they could find, a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. Then they killed the fatted calf, so they would eat and make merry. 
 
What a celebration! Why? 
 
Because… “This, my son, was lost and now is found.” 
 
There are so many people lost and alone out “there” in the world. We need to have compassion for them. This is our calling, our ministry. 
 
“For God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.”
 
This is God's gift to us that we might love, even as we are loved. 
 
Hear what our Lord Jesus saith: 
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the Law and the Prophets.    Matthew 22:37-40
 
Amen.
 
 
 
 
Rev. Robert Paul Starbuck MDiv, PhD

Sermon delivered at Sunset UMC, Pasadena, Texas, July 2000.