SPECIAL DAYS: Annual Congregational Meeting

January 20, 2002 - LESSON: Matthew 5.1-2, 6

SERMON TITLE: Fulfillment

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INTRODUCTION:

Take an Old Cold 'Tater (And Wait) (1)

When I was a little boy around the table at home
I remember very well when company would come
I would have to be right still until the whole crowd ate
My Mama always said to me "Jim take a tater and wait."

CHORUS:

Now 'taters never did taste good with chicken on the plate
But I had to eat 'em just the same
That is why I look so bad and have these puny ways
Because I always had to an old cold 'tater and wait.

And then the preachers they would come to stay awhile with us
I would have to slip around and raise a little fuss
In fear that I would spill the beans or break the china plate
My Mama always said to me, "Jim, take a 'tater and wait."

CHORUS:

Well I though that I'd starve to death before my time would come
All that chicken they would eat and just leave me the bun
The feet and neck were all that's left upon the china plate
It makes you pretty darn weak to take an old cold 'tater and wait.

CHORUS

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  1. What is in this song, beside a little humor, that inspires your thought?
    1. Do you sense the desire for more than an old cold tater?
    2. Its there.
  2. Now you can look at me an you know that I have never been hungry or thirsty.
    1. But that is not entirely true.
    2. There are a lot of things that I have wanted that I could not have.
    3. But the one most important and vital part of life is what I want.
  3. I would suggest that there are at least four questions that we ought to ask ourselves.

MAIN BODY:

  1. What do you want?

Story of Charlie's birthday Party.

He was a rather selfish self-centered only child.

His mother didn't know what to do until she hit on a plan to have a birthday party.

With a few extras thrown in, mom prepared all of Charlie's favorite things.

All during the meal Charlie couldn't keep his eyes of several plates that were on the table.

The fruit was passed and he grabbed for the largest apple. It was awful.

There was a dish of chocolates. He grabbed for the biggest piece, but it was bitter.

He thought to himself that the individual pies ought to make up for the disappointment that he was experiencing.

When the pies were passed he couldn't wait for the plate to come his way. There was a large one that looked delicious. It was hollow.

    1. Charlie had a lesson to learn.
    2. We also learn to distinguish between what is necessary and what is not.
      1. We learn to determine what is helpful or not.
      2. We learn what is temporal and what is eternal.

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  1. How bad do you want it?

The story is told of the young man who came to Socrates and told him that he wanted knowledge. "Follow me" the philosopher told the student and led him to the edge of the ocean and into the water, without warning Socrates grabbed the young man and plunged him beneath the water and held him there until the struggling stopped. He dragged the boy to the shore, left him gasping on the sand and returned to the market place. When the boy recovered he sought out the teacher again and asked him why he tried to drown him. Socrates replied, "When you were under the water what did you want more then anything?" The reply of course was "air". And Socrates responded by saying, "When you crave knowledge like you craved air, then you won't need me or anyone else to guide you."

    1. That is certainly not the way that Jesus would treat a disciple.
    2. We must want what Jesus is offering not to the exclusion of everything else.
      1. It must be the most important.
      2. This is more than life, it is life.
  1. What do you have to pay to get it?
    1. It's free, though its not free
    2. It requires faith.
    3. Consider Abraham and his decedents.

3For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Romans 4:3 (NRSVA)

5But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. Romans 4:5 (NRSVA)

9Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, "Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness." Romans 4:9 (NRSVA)

11He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, Romans 4:11 (NRSVA)

13For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. Romans 4:13 (NRSVA)

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  1. What do you have to do to get it?

Migan McKenna in Parables tells the story about a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart, but was very frustrated. The world seemed to be falling apart. She would read the papers and get depressed. (2)

One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random. She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter. She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she'd seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. She finally got up her nerve and asked, Excuse me, are you Jesus?

I am.

Do you work here?

No, I own the store.

Oh, what do you sell here?

Just about everything, Jesus said. Feel free to walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want and then come back and we'll see what we can do for you.

She did just that, walked up and down the aisles. There was peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources. She wrote furiously. By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list. Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled. No problem. And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up and laid out the packets. She asked, What are these?

Seed packets, Jesus said. This is a catalog store.

She said, You mean I don't get the finished product?

No, this is a place of dreams. You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds. You plant the seeds. You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits.

Oh, she said. And she left the store without buying anything.

    1. You have to work for it.
      1. It takes time.
      2. It takes effort.
      3. It takes the development of concept of righteousness.
    2. We are not left to our own devices.
    3. Paul wrote:

10He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 2 Corinthians 9:10 (NRSVA)

    1. Jesus also told the parable of the vine and the branches.

5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 (NRSVA)

    1. The fruit that is born is the fruit of righteousness.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. It is all important to realize and accept the proposition that the way is long and narrow.
    1. We will at times lose our way.
    2. We will at times do the wrong thing for the right reasons.
    3. We learn from our experiences like the boy in the story.

Keith Larson tells the story of a young, husky 13-year-old farm boy who was very ambitious. He worked from dawn to dusk, and his parents were very proud of him. For the boy's 14th birthday, his father bought him a secondhand Gravely mowing tractor. The Gravely Company made very fine tractors, and the boy was thrilled. He began to earn extra money by mowing yards and fields for neighbors and the people in the nearby town. The boy took great care of his machine; he washed and cleaned the motor and shined the exterior. (3)

One day he noticed the blade was dull. The boy very carefully drove the tractor into the barn and turned it over to take the bolt off that held the blade on. Having been around machinery a lot, he knew to loosen a bolt you turn it counterclockwise, so he put a big wrench on the bolt and gave it a turn. It only moved a tiny bit, and then it wouldn't budge. Now, this boy was very proud of his physical strength. He was a star lineman on the school football team. But he couldn't move that bolt at all, and he wasn't about to ask his dad for help on such a routine matter.

Just then he remembered what his father had told him in a similar situation. Get a longer piece of pipe, and put it over the wrench handle to get some leverage. So he got a pipe and put it over the handle. Then he pulled on the pipe. Nothing. Then he got under the pipe with his back and tried to lift it. But the bolt would not move. Finally, in humiliation, the young man took the tractor in the family pickup to the Gravely dealer in town. When he got there, the mechanic looked at the stuck bolt and said, Wait a minute. Let me check something. And he looked up the model number. Then he said, I hate to tell you this, but for several years the Gravely Company reversed the threads on that bolt. You've been tightening that sucker trying to loosen it. And don't worry about being strong, son. You've tightened it so bad, we are going to have to burn it off with a torch.

    1. He was not afraid to go to the one who could help him fix his tractor.
    2. He had to admit that he did not know what to do.
    3. There is no shame in this.
  1. God is the one who offers help to obtain the objective that has been set before us.
    1. 6"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
    2. They will be filled with good things from the bountiful table of our graciosus God.
    3. There will be no one to say, take an old cold tater and wait.

      1. Digital Tradition Mirror: Take an Old Cold 'Tater (And Wait): (Bartlett) Recorded by Little Jimmy Dickens, GG, Apr 97

      2. Migan McKenna in Parables, cited in Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spiritual Literacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 359.

      3. A Hunger for Healing (Harper, San Francisco, 1991), 132-133.

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