Finding Our Center

 Sermon by Calvin Genzel

 September 3, 1995

 Jeremiah 2:9-13

My sister, Connie, has a set of Christian videotapes designed to teach children about the principles of the Christian faith. Each tape deals with a major topic such as forgiveness, telling the truth, caring for others, telling others about Jesus, and lending a helping hand. The name of the series is The Donut Repair Club. And in each tape the Donut Man and the children who are members of the Donut Repair Club perform skits and sing sings that illustrate the theme. The major premise of the Donut Repair Club is that our lives are empty when they are not grounded in the love of God. In fact, the Donut Repair Club sings a little song that illustrates this theme:

Life without Jesus is like a donut,
 like a donut, like a donut,
 Life without Jesus is like a donut,
'cause there's a hole in the middle of your heart.

The aim of the Donut Repair Club is to proclaim that God's hope for us is that we will ground our faith in the loving compassion and care of God. Watching these tapes caused me to pause and ask myself some important questions: Who or what is at the center of my life? Who or what plays a pivotal role in my day to day living?

These questions are at the heart of today's scripture passage as well. In this passage the prophet Jeremiah speaks angry words of confrontation to the people of Israel because they have turned away from God and placed false gods at the center of their hearts. "Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit." (Jeremiah 2:11)

According to Jeremiah, the people have committed two evils: "They have forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (2:13). In other words, the people of God have substituted false gods, cisterns that can hold no water, for the true and living God. God is no longer at the center of their lives.

We live in an era not so different from that of Jeremiah. The creation and worship of other gods, things or people that are not gods at all, is not unique to Jeremiah's day. We, too, live in a time where people are searching for spiritual meaning and find meaning in different ways-through the god of work, the god of achievement, the god of money, the god of sports, the god of pleasure. We, like the people of Israel, "hew out cisterns for ourselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

Like Jeremiah's peers, we live in a time when lots of false gods, substitute gods, fake gods, attempt to seduce us and pull us away from the real God, our neighbors and ourselves. There have always been lots of false gods around. And the temptation to worship "broken cisterns" that hold no water has always been strong.

Sometimes we place our religious faith in people, rather than the true and living God. In an August 21, 1995, TIME Magazine article about the death of Jerry Garcia, the late leader of the rock band, The Grateful Dead, the authors wrote that it was not uncommon to see fans wearing T-shirts that said, "Jerry is God" at Grateful Dead concerts. The article went on to say that one group of fans, who called themselves the Church of Unlimited Devotion, had members known as "Spinners." The Spinners performed whirling dervish maneuvers at concerts, took vows of celibacy, and purportedly worshiped Garcia as a divine being. It was reported that Garcia indulged the Spinners, but told one rock magazine, "I'll put up with it until they come for me with the cross and nails." So we search for meaning and something in which to place our hopes and dreams and we sometimes place them in charismatic or interesting people-cisterns that hold no water.

Sometimes we place our religious faith in activities such as our jobs, our recreational activities, even sports. In the movie, "Bull Durham", Annie Savoy is a devoted fan of a minor league baseball club. At the beginning of the movie, she asserts that she worships at the Church of Baseball and that baseball is her religion. She says,

"I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the other major religions and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahman, Vishnu, Shiva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. . . You see there's no guilt in baseball and it's never boring. . . I've tried them all, I really have. But the only Church that feeds the soul day in and day out is the Church of Baseball."

Baseball can be a wonderfully entertaining, enjoyable, and exhilarating experience. Here in Boston it is also often a frustrating pastime. While it is fun to support and cheer on a hometown team, especially during a winning season such as the current one, our faith ultimately cannot be in Wakefield's knuckleball, Vaughn's homeruns, the Red Sox roster, Duquette's deals, or a magic number. To make baseball the center of one's existence is to hew out a cistern that does not hold the living waters our souls seek.

Sometimes we place our faith in mood-altering substances of behaviors, rather than the true and living God. In a recent Parade Magazine interview, Johnny Cash recalls that despite his faith in God at an early age, he because addicted to amphetamines, tranquilizers, and alcohol in part to numb painful feelings related to his childhood and to cope with the pressures related to his success as a country western singer. Although he was financially and creatively successful, his addictions gradually took a toll on his life and after a few years his life began to fall apart. He was arrested at the Mexican border for drug possession. He crashed cars in automobile accidents. He sank two boats. In 1965 he smashed some footlights at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and for a time was not welcome there. His voice and his health began to deteriorate. His marriage began to fall apart. In 1967 he reached bottom and there seemed no way out.

He went on to relate a powerful spiritual experience, which he described as an epiphany, through which he began his journey back to God. He noted that he was on amphetamines and had been up five or six nights in a row, without eating or sleeping. He went for a drive in the country, near Chattanooga, to hide out, to get away from it all. He drove his Jeep into the Nikajack Cave and related the following experience:

 "With my flashlight I went walking in this cave. I new I was going as far into the cave as I could until the flashlight burned out. When it finally went out, I lay down and gave up. I thought, "surely my heart must have worn out by now so I'll just lay here and die." I had no strength. I had not idea how long I'd been walking and crawling to get where I was. Then I felt something-that love, the warm presence of God that I knew as a boy. I understood that I wasn't going to die. There were still things I needed to do. But how can I? I don't know how to get out of here. I've got no light. Then the voice seemed to answer back, 'Get up and go.'"

Johnny Cash went on to relate that he stood up and found his way out of the cave by walking into the air currents. He noted that this incident was a revelation for him, a reminder that he had misplaced his faith, that he had lost his center in God and that he needed to ground his personal life and his professional career in the presence of God.

So we are not so different from the people of Jeremiah's time. Perhaps that should not surprise us. For one of the constants of human life in any era is the search for meaning: Who am I? How did I get here? Why am I here? Who else is here? To what or whom am I committed? And sometimes we misplace our faith in false gods, cisterns that hold no living water.

How do we find the Fountain of living waters? Leslie Weatherhead, a 20th century theologian, writes that a relationship with God is like a relationship with a friend. Like a relationship with a friend, our relationship with God needs time and energy in order to develop and grow. We need to spend time with God, get to know God, talk to God, listen to God, be with God, allow God's presence to touch our lives. Hence, it is important for us to take time to participate in activities that nurture our relationship with God and improve our conscious contact with God.

What activities help improve our conscious contact with God? There are as many paths to God as there are people. But many persons find that they are sustained in a faith grounded in God through regular prayer. . . meditation. . . journaling . . . spiritual reading . . . going on a retreat. . . participating in worship. . . engaging in ministries of social justice. . . attending church. All of these activities can help us develop our relationship with the Fountain of Living Waters, the Love that will no let us go. What is most important is that we find ways of connecting with God that deepen our relationship with and understanding of God.

There are as many paths to the Fountain of Living Waters as there are people. But the Fountain of Living Waters is a loving God who cares for us deeply and passionately and who loves us, guides us, confronts us, forgives us, sustains us, challenges us every day of our lives. Recently I read a meditation written by Steven Garrington from Iowa in the Upper Room Magazine that captures for me the nature of this Fountain of Living Waters:

 "My 18-month old son, John, discovered a new game last night. I squatted as low as I could, opened my arms wide, and called his name. He grinned, spread his arms and came running in the stiff-kneed, wide-toed, unstable run of a toddler. His little body collided with mine, and his arms half encircled my chest in a hug. Then he stopped, rather awkwardly backed up about three feet, spread his arms again, and ran to me for another hug. He seemed to really enjoy this, for he repeated it over and over again."

That is the Fountain of Living Waters that Jeremiah is talking about. That is the kind of God who longs to be the center of our lives-a loving God who opens God's arms to us, who calls us by name, who invites us to come close-a God to whom we can run, barrel into and hug-a God who holds us, comforts us, releases us, and lets us come back again and again. That is what the Fountain of Living Waters is like. That is the God who longs to be at the center of our hearts.

I want to close with a final story that speaks to the nature of the Fountain of Living Waters. An usher at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, writes about Miss Agnes, a retired schoolteacher and lifetime member of the church. Every Sunday following the worship service Miss Agnes would shake the pastor's hand and eloquently praise the sermon's content. "What did you find most helpful about the sermon today?" he asked. Miss Agnes admitted that she could not recall much of the specific content of the sermon. But she went on to say, "I guess I'm like a wicker basket. If you put me down in a well and bring me up, I don't hold much water, but I feel a whole lot cleaner." I think there is an important message in that for us. We may not be able to define theologically or philosophically who or what the "Fountain of Living Waters" is for us. This is a lifetime task and our understanding of God is likely to change due to our life experiences. What may be more important is our realization that there is a "Fountain of Living Waters" and when we spend time in the fountain we find ourselves a whole lot cleaner and our lives more grounded, hopeful, and secure.

My hope for us is that we will discover and participate in activities by which we can live our lives more closely grounded in the loving God, who offers us grace peace, hope, challenge, and sustenance for the journey. Amen.