At first look this gospel lesson seems to have nothing to do with us. This reading is an allegory – meaning that if you were interested in the details of the reading we could discuss who the owner is, what the watch tower represents, the son, and crumbling rocks, etc.,. You could pinpoint this story in a particular time in history with particular players. Essentially, the message in this scripture is that the Jewish authorities of the time had or were about to reject Christ, which in the end results in Jesus’ execution on a cross by the Roman authorities. And so the story is principally about the rejection of Christ. But what could this possibly have to do with us? We are all here on a Sunday morning when we could be doing something else. We are the faithful. We are followers. We are here.
But the reason that the readings in the gospels contain allegories and parables is that they challenge us with their timelessness. When we are confronted with an allegory, or a parable, or even a metaphor, the Holy Spirit says to us “Not so fast. Don’t disregard this teaching. God still has something to say to you here, so don’t move so fast.”
So, it seems to me that we do not so much deny Christ in our lives in the way that is depicted in our gospel lesson, but we sometimes exist as if we are functional atheists – which is a term that was coined by the famous Quaker educator Parker Palmer. To clarify this term, “functional atheism,” [is] the belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us.” He was speaker to Christian leaders by the way. And he goes on to say,
“This is the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen here, we are the ones who must make it happen—a conviction held even by people who talk a good game about God.”
I want to invite you to think of places where you operate in this manner. I know that I can fret about things that I have planned and done the best I can, and then still worry incessantly. I remember I had put together a retreat several years ago, and had researched a brilliant presenter, hired her, ordered great food, prepared the material, bought books to accompany the retreat, and then during the last couple of days leading up to the retreat, about 1/3 of the participants dropped out for various reasons. And I was really worried. I was worried the speaker might be disappointed, what would I do with all the extra food? Could I return the books I had ordered? etc., etc., And as I was fretting about this, I all-of-a-sudden thought, “do you really think God can’t handle this? Do you think because things aren’t going according to plan, that the retreat will be a disaster?” And I realized I needed to hand it over to God.
And this is a rather trivial event – so if I, or we, feel this way about a small insignificant things like a day retreat – how much more so we can fret about way bigger, more threatening things.
And when Paul says in our reading for today, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection” I feel like this is what he telling us is that if we are tired of carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders, stop and say to yourself “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.”
As Roy our choir director and organist, knows, my heart lies in early church music –Bach, Handel, Haydn and Gibbons. But one of my favorite contemporary hymns which relates to this very topic of needing God in our lives to lift us from our worries and concerns is Precious Lord, Take my Hand. I think all of us have probably heard it at one time or another. It was written by Thomas A. Dorsey who was born in Georgia in 1899. Dorsey’s father was a minister, and his mother was a piano teacher. Dorsey learned to play the blues piano as a young man, and went on to become the Father of Black Gospel Music. He wrote Precious Lord, Take my Hand after a tragedy in his life. In 1932, Dorsey’s first wife died in child birth and two days later his son died. In his grief he wrote this gospel hymn – in his grief and suffering he knew that he could not move on without God’s help.
It is hard to ask for help – and we try so hard to soldier on, and to take care things of by ourselves. But we are only human, with limited time and energy – we can operate like the weight of the world, or our families, or our communities are on our shoulders, and operate like functional atheists, or we can say enough already, Precious Lord, Take my Hand.
So let us sing it together now…
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I’m tired, I’m weak, I’m lone
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
When my way grows drear precious Lord linger near
When my light is almost gone
Hear my cry, hear my call
Hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
When the darkness appears and the night draws near
And the day is past and gone
At the river I stand
Guide my feet, hold my hand
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I’m tired, I’m weak, I’m lone
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home (Lead me home)
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