NOTE: I am putting my weekly sermons on the church website. It will be on for two weeks (usually posted on Friday) and then placed in the Archives area by date. You can download in a matter of seconds.

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766

Sunday, July 11, 2004
Sermon: "Reducing Stress Points"
Scripture: Colossians 1:1-14
Reverend Larry Gerber

Consider a truly divine initiative for creating peace, meaning and fulfillment.

Joyce Kilmer, early 20th-century poet, wrote many poems before dying in action in France in July 1918, but he is remembered for only one: "Trees."

It begins, "I think that I shall never see/ a poem as lovely as a tree ..." And it concludes, "Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree."

Ogden Nash, the 20th-century iconoclast who produced 19 volumes of poetry and wrote for many years for The New Yorker, wrote the following words about 35 years after Kilmer: "I think that I shall never see/ a billboard lovely as a tree/ Indeed, unless the billboards fall,/ I'll never see a tree at all."

This sums up the crisis of the modern urban ecosystem: How does one live a stress-free life amid urban sprawl, crowding and congestion, gridlock and noise, smog and pollution, poverty and despair — and boom cars with turbo-charged sub-woofers stashed in the trunk that thump in the traffic, inflicting tinnitus on a captive audience?

It's so bad that some subscribe to the "breeder" hypothesis when considering the cause of schizophrenia — urban stress "breeds" mental disorders. Not everyone buys it.

But the coroner in Birmingham, England, ruled that noisy neighbors had pushed John Vanderstam to his death when he committed suicide at only 46 years of age.

In Pennsylvania, John Bereznak shot and killed a young dirt biker who was riding on mounds of coal only 200 yards from his house. Bereznak, 70, then went into his house and killed himself.

The noise and stress of urban living, not to speak of the anti-social, narcissistic and passive-aggressive behavior of its urban citizens, have led many communities to adopt innovative approaches to control the noise, including noise abatement barriers, noise pollution statutes and regulations limiting the hours construction crews can be on the job.
But no one has been more creative at tackling the problems of urban stress than Jeff Peckman. He was responsible for putting stress on a municipal ballot in Denver last fall which — had it passed — would have required the city to "ensure public safety" by utilizing "stress-reducing techniques or programs."

The anti-stress proposal was the first of its kind in the nation and attracted attention from media outlets such as USA Today, and national television networks.

In Denver, the proposal was greeted with consternation by some, hoots and hollers by others and thoughtful consideration by a minority. Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriquez found the debate distracting and exhausting: "I'm getting stressed over this bill." Other council members called it fantasy, frivolous and "lunatic."

If only it were so easy: voting stress away!

And yet, dealing with stress doesn't need to be stressful.

The question should not be: How can I get rid of the stress in my life? But rather: How can I live in such a way as to experience peace, meaning and fulfillment?

Some try to fight stress, others try to flee it. Elijah fled from Jezebel and the prophets of Baal in the north for a bush in the desert of the south. He still wasn't at peace.

Augustine fled North Africa and Carthage, a city he called a "boiling cauldron of lust" for Rome, and was equally uncomfortable there.

Jerome, who translated the New Testament into Latin, fled Rome for the desert to be free of the temptation of the "dancing girls," only to find that the temptation followed him there, too.

Finding peace is not a question of site, or place; it's a question of sight, what one sees.

It's not a matter of geography; it's a question of spirituality.

It's not an issue of locationship but relationship.

Do we have the vision, do we have the spirit and soul, do we have the connection with the Christ that will ensure a calm-in-the-storm kind of peace?
And it is in terms of this quest for inner peace and a sense of being whole — having it together — that the apostle Paul speaks in his opening remarks to the Christians at Colossae.

Granted, Colossae was not a city characterized by the urban malaise of the typical American city today, or even the larger city's of the ancient world. It was a city in the country of Phrygia, on the Lycus, a tributary of the Maeander River, about 12 miles above Laodicea and near the highway that led east from Ephesus to the Euphrates. It was a city of some, but not major, commercial importance; not a city that could compare to, say, Corinth, in economic and social significance. And after an earthquake shortly after Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians, the city ceased to exist.

But that's not the point.

It's not the size of the city that's important here; it's the size and the temperament of the heart. And that's why this text offers us REST POINTS rather than STRESS POINTS, and Paul begins with his first words to these Christians. They are the formulaic but meaningful: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father."

Rest Point One: These words are addressed to "the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ" (v. 1). Paul knew that it's always helpful to remember who we are. When we are arguing with our spouse, when we're sitting in rush-hour traffic, when we're coping with the complexities of our job — it's easy to forget who we are.

Fundamentally we are "saints" and we are "faithful brothers and sisters in Christ." That is, we are "set apart" and called to be true to our position "in Christ."

To us, then, who are saints and faithful, Paul extends "grace ... and peace from God our Father" (v. 1).

What more can we ask for than grace and peace? And they come from God.

Rest Point Two: Then Paul moves on to discuss, not just who we are, but what we have: faith, hope and love.

He notes that these Christians have faith "in Christ Jesus." This is faith both as a noun and a verb. They have faith, or the faith — that is, they are committed to the faith as a body of truth, the truth that is enfleshed in Jesus Christ. And they exercise faith, or trust, or belief, in Jesus Christ as the One who alone is trustworthy and faithful. Surrendering control, falling back into the hands of God, like crashing — exhausted — into the depths of an overstuffed chair, will go a long way on the road to peace, grace and stress-less living.

They also have hope. That is, they're not just living for this world, but for the world that is to come. Theirs is a different mindset from others who live day to day for themselves, with obsessions for possessions, afflicted with affluenza, fighting fear factors, going for makeovers, or trying not to get fired and kicked out of the boardroom. They are in the world, but not of the world, and their behavior, anchored in this hope, is reflected in the third grace: love.

Their love, Paul notes, is well known in the region. It's a love they "have for all the saints" (v. 4). It's a love they have "in the Spirit" (v. 8). It comes from God and is a sign that God is at work among them.

No stress here; only a grateful recognition of who they are and what they have.

Rest Point Three: Now, Paul can share what God wants for us in his prayer for these who are "saints" and "faithful brothers and sisters in Christ," and who have faith, hope and love. He prays that they might:

• "Be filled with the knowledge of God's will"

• Have a knowledge of the will of God "in all spiritual wisdom and understanding," as opposed to secular, worldly wisdom

• Have this wisdom into order to "lead lives worthy of the Lord"

• Live a life "fully pleasing to him"

• "Bear fruit in every good work"

• "Be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power"

• "Be prepared to endure everything with patience"

• "Joyfully [give] thanks to the Father"
• Recognize that God has "rescued us from the power of darkness"

• Recognize Jesus Christ as the one "in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

In other words, he prays for Knowledge, Wisdom, Right Living, Good Works, Strength, Endurance with Patience, Thanksgiving, Enlightenment and Forgiveness.

There's no denying that outside forces continually conspire to afflict us with pressure, temptation, stress and dis-ease. These pressures are enormous. No one would deny that.

We live in a warp-speed culture where the foot of the oppressor is too often and too quickly lodged against the neck of the oppressed; a litigious culture in which people are loathe to accept responsibility, where commitments have no more staying power than a Britney Spears marriage.

We try to function in a hyper-reality in which we're operating at twitch speed with our eyes wide shut and we don't know how to slow down.

We go through cycles of compassion fatigue. We fight for instant upgrades amid a media-centric matrix of moral deregulation, politicians hyperventilating, globalization, loss of jobs and wardrobe malfunctions — and in the end we feel as though we're simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

No wonder, then, that often we'd like to pick our poison and crawl into a spider hole and forget the whole thing.

Paul's words to the Colossians, however, help us to refocus on what is ultimate in our lives.

Perhaps grace and peace — rest-ful and stress-less living — is something we can vote for! We can choose to live this life by reordering our sense of who we are, by remembering what we have and by actualizing what God wants for us.

It is that easy, and it is that hard. Choose restfulness, sit in the comfort of God's overstuffed chair, or choose stressfulness, and sit in the arms of the worlds stiff back chair. We can choose, and we do choose, everyday. We can reduce stress points, only when we increase restpoints. Only you can make that choice, and only you.

Rejoice ye pure in heart, because you have rest points in God. My Jesus I love thee, are words that remind us tht we are in God's mercy, and in God's love. Blest be the tie that binds, helps us to focus on the peace and restfulness that comes when human hearts are combined with God's love.

Knowledge, Wisdom, Right Living, Good Works, Strength, Endurance with Patience, Thanksgiving, Enlightenment and Forgiveness: these are the things that reduce stresspoints in our lives.

Will those who wish to join the fellowship of Christian love, with others members of this church, come forward at this time. As they come forward, you can see their names in the bulletin. Be sure to connect with the names and the faces, and help our newest members feel the love of Christ, as well as your love. Please come.

Closing hymn: Bless the Tie That Binds
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Sources:

Conversations with Jeff Peckman, author of an anti-stress ballot measure in the November 2003, Denver city election.

O'Driscoll, Patrick. "In Denver, stress is on the ballot." USA Today, August 13, 2003, A1

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766