Wasatch Prebyterian Church Sermons
November 13, 2011
Sermon: "enCourage"
Scripture: Judges 4:1-9a, 1st Thessalonians 5:1-11
Preaching: Rev. Scott Wipperman
Description : Paul calls the Thessalonians to encourage one another. In Judges, Deborah encourages Barak to leadership. With imagination we may be able to see encouragement opportunities that we’d otherwise have missed.
“enCourage”
Judges 4:1-9a, 1st Thessalonians 5:1-11
Debate in High School and college is a competitive activity. The team does not need to believe in the position it is arguing for - often arguing for something you believe against is seen as the better exercise. The goal in High School and college debate is to make the best possible argument for whatever position you are defending. You win the competition by making stronger arguments than your opponents.
Debate in the recent Presidential Debates has been a little more akin to Roman Gladiators in the ring. I am not picking on any political party, for I believe that if the situation was reversed we’d likely see very similar behavior. Granted, in the first and the most recent debates, the candidates read from the same book against the positions of the opposing party for the most part. But in the majority of the debates the goal of the engagements has been to show that the other candidates are off in the weeds and that the speaker - solely - is on the right path; the goal is to put down the others.
It would make for a very pleasant world if this behavior was limited to a handful of Presidential hopefuls. Unfortunately, as these candidates engage in public put-downs, the other 7 Billion of us engage in private gossip. Technology may have opened new venues for gossip, and stretched its reach, yet technology did not birth gossip; it is hardly a new phenomenon. From the best I can determine gossip has been inextricably woven into the human condition from the beginning of time. And the extreme majority of gossip centers around the gossiper’s disapproval of the actions or condition of the gossipee. It is an act of putting down the target of the derogatory comments.
Why this is so ingrained is mysterious. I suspect it arises from our insecurity, from the doubts that we are acceptable. If one is “stylish”, what need would there be in criticizing another for being “style challenged”? Would it not be obvious to any observer that you have more style - what is the need in pointing it out? Does the impulse rise from an insecurity that our being “in style” may just be a fortunate accident, that we secretly suspect we are incapable of increasing our “stylosity”? If we are incapable of raising ourselves, then only way to create separation/distinction is to push others down. And of course, as our conversation travels from full tone to hushed whispers, our gossip demotes “an other” not privy to the current conversation.
Paul is writing to the Thessalonians, urging them to live in the light. ‘Do not hide in the dark, do not be asleep’ he says. ‘For those who get drunk, get drunk in the dark; those who gossip, gossip in the dark. But choose to live in the day, in the light of Christ; choose self control, be the embodiment of faith and love, let the hope of salvation shine forth from you.’
‘Keep building one another up, encouraging one another -- as you are doing! Remind one another of their strengths and gifts, both the realized and those talents we see in them that they have yet to claim.’
Encourage, not flatter. “enCourage”: to embolden another with courage to venture into personally uncharted waters, to develop beyond their current perimeters. In the Judges reading, Deborah is encouraging Barak to take on leadership and be an instrument of freedom for the people cruelly oppressed by King Jabin and his 900 iron chariots. Deborah is encouraging Barak to hear God calling him into a new role, to have the confidence to employ the gifts God has bestowed upon him.
“The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”
But Barak is still not sure of fulfilling this role. He needs yet more encouragement. He says he will not go unless Deborah, the leader of the people, ventures with him into battle. And to in order to lift Barak, she agrees to accompany him.
Do we retreat from encouraging others due to the apprehension that in lifting up another we will be overshadowed by the one we are encouraging? Deborah did not fear letting the spotlight fall on another, to let Barak bask in the glow of being the “freer” of the people from oppression. She chose to inspire Barak to rise to a new level despite the risks to her (going into battle at his side, the possibility of popular acclaim installing him as the new leader). This quality of encouragement is one of the talents that made Deborah perhaps the greatest of the Judges.
We may shy from encouragement out of a self-oriented concern over the obscuring effect it could on others perception of us. In the process of lifting another up by necessity do we slip down? Is this a “zero sum game”? But it may also stem from a lack of imagination.
The world is a complex place. Daily we encounter a raft of people, objects, events, positions, etc. And navigating all these encounters is much easier if we can categorize each entity we come into contact with. Very rapidly we analyze the event, judge it, and put an appropriate label upon it - this helps us know how to deal with it - this person is “old”, that idea is “liberal”, his action was “mean spirited”, that event was “chilling”.
Maybe we should engage a little imagination instead. Maybe we should just experience the events of our lives, the encounters with others, etc. The more we feel that our reaction to the event is troubling (to us) or out of place, the greater the signal we need to bracket our analysis, judgement, and categorization for a while - and just experience, just feel without interpreting or placing values. Simply recognize what our senses are telling us. And let our imagination run wild with all the ways these sensations surrounding the event could be perceived. Let imagination amaze us with the number of interpretations possible.
The author John Patton repeats a story relayed by one of his mentors that illustrates this point.
It is a story of parents concerned about their pre-school son: quiet, sensitive, lonely, nervous, and afraid of, and highly excited by, other children. He stammered in the presence of strangers, and was becoming more shy and withdrawn, The parents were embarrassed and did not want to expose their fears, but wanted some professional advice before the child entered school. The father solved their dilemma by calling a college friend whom he had not seen for years, and who had become in those years a well known clinical psychologist. For “old time’s sake” an invitation for a weekend in their suburban home was extended, and with some curiosity, accepted. After dinner, the mother “casually” mentioned their concern about the child; the father amplified this and suggested that after lunch the next day, the boy might be observed at play for a psychological appraisal. The visitor understood now the purpose of his visit, asked appropriate questions about the history and behavior, and prepared to take up his assignment. He watched, unseen, from a balcony above the garden where the boy played by himself. The boy sat pensively in the sun, listing to neighboring children shout. He frowned, rolled over on his stomach, kicked the toes of his white shoes against the grass, sat up and looked at the stains. Then he saw an earthworm. He stretched it out on the flagstone, found a sharp edged stone, and began to saw the worm in half. At this point, impressions were forming in the psychologist’s mind, and he made some tentative notes to the effect: “Seems isolated and angry, perhaps over-aggressive, or sadistic, should be watched carefully when playing with other children, not to have knives or pets.” Then he noticed the boy was talking to himself. He leaned forward and strained to catch the words. The boy finished the separation of the worm. His frown disappeared, and he said, “There. Now you have a friend.”
Through happenstance, or possibly through letting the event speak for itself, the clinical psychologist arrived at bracketing his early assessment, his quick categorization, of the boy. We can imagine how his recommendations shifted - from language about needing to “watch” and “keeping the boy away from” - shifted from limiting - to encouraging the development of this boy’s desire that others not to be lonely, to coaching the boy how to channel his talents into helping that desire materialize.
In bring our imagination to the events of our lives to illuminate multiple perspectives of where the event may be leading, or coming from, we can listen to our senses for what an event is sharing before categorizing it. And in that imaginative moment we may be able to see an opportunity for encouragement we’d otherwise have missed.
Let’s return to “debate” for another short example. With imagination we may see “debate” as it was intended. Not as it is so quickly classified by our modern sensibilities, as a contest to win, or as a means of disemboweling one’s opponent. With imagination “debate” can emerge from the rubble these assumptions and presumptions have buried it under to rise as its true self, “the search for truth”. That in a debate our only goal is seeking the truth, to learn from the arguments we from, and those made in support of a counter perspective. Such imagination, rather than categorizing “debate”, may forever change how we go about “debate”, enabling us to see it now as an engagement of encouragement towards truth.
In our Epistle reading today, Paul opened speaking of the Lord coming “like a thief in the night”. This is often viewed as the final judgement, something dark and apocalyptic.
What if we bracket our judgement about this nocturnal visit for a moment, what if we employ our imagination? Might a perspective emerge of God coming in the night to take from us something that needs to be removed? That in “stealing” from us, God is encouraging us? That this “thief” is removing obstacles which discourage/inhibit us from realizing the life we were created to live?
Possibly - and maybe one of the first things to go missing will be that which keeps us from encouraging one another - encouraging as the Thessalonians did.
If we can let our imagination run with our senses of “a thief in the night”, maybe our prayers tonight should not conclude with “Amen”, but rather “Lord, the doors are unlocked, the windows are wide open.”
“enCourage one another and build each other up.”
