“Waltzing With God”
Have you ever spent time watching a young child walk? I have. Of course, for the child, walking is still a relatively new skill, so those chunky little legs don’t always do what they are supposed to do. Sometimes, one… or both… legs go off to the sides, instead of straight ahead… or the knees buckle, instead of locking in place… or the edge of a tiny shoe catches on unseen debris… and the child suddenly lands on her padded bottom, clearly startled… and puzzled… at this completely unexpected turn of events. There is a brief pause while the child looks first at one leg and then the other… as if trying to determine culpability… or trying to figure out what happened. Then… a decision quickly made… she puts her hands down… palms flat on the ground… pushes her bottom into the air … pops upright… and, without hesitation, takes off walking again undeterred. Whatever minor inconvenience slowed her down in the first place is clearly forgotten in her determination to get to where she is going.
This same child, now walking again… though with no noticeably greater skill than before… suddenly catches sight of a favorite aunt or uncle. Breaking into a wreath of smiles, she holds her hands out in front of her and those little legs start to move faster. Unfortunately, her body often moves forward toward her target faster than those little legs can churn and, once again, she ends on the ground… this time flat on her stomach… face forward in the dirt. Now, she is dismayed and frustrated, her little face crumpling up into tears… more in anger than pain … and a loud wailing cry announces her displeasure to the world. True? Would that we would pursue the kingdom of Heaven with the single-minded determination of a young child learning to walk. But that is a sermon for another day.
What I have noticed, when I observe young children walking, is the amazing number of people who are willing to help these children get on their feet and get going again! Mothers… fathers… brothers… sisters… aunts… uncles… cousins… grandparents… even total strangers … will stop what they are doing, or interrupt their own conversations, to bend down and pick the little one up off of the ground… brush her off… and set her back on her feet again. And often, this is done with a word of love or encouragement that is designed to keep the tears away and help the child achieve her objective. Those who reach out are clearly concerned with helping the child learn… as well as helping her redeem some of her self-esteem. Of course, I have also noticed that, more often than not, the child simply brushes the helping hands away in her rush to get to where she is going.
I want you to have an image of that eager, chubby little child in your head as we talk about the passage that the writer of James presents to us today. My first question to you is: Why? Why do people rush to help a young child who is struggling to walk? What is it that touches us and draws us to help a young child… turning us into surrogate parents… even if just for a moment? Do we do that for anyone else? OK, the elderly, perhaps. But, I would argue that we reach out to help a young child who stumbles more quickly than any other person we meet? Why?
Perhaps it is because we do not see that child as a threat. Unlike the co-worker in our office… or the person driving the next car on the road… we do not see that child as a potential obstacle to our own success. That child is a distraction, perhaps, but not dangerous. We can clearly see what her problem is, and we realize that helping her will 1) not inconvenience us too much and 2) not provide her with an opportunity to succeed in something that we were personally interested in. But, boy, let her be the driver of the car ahead of us… or let her be the co-worker that is being considered for that promotion that we want… and our willingness to help suddenly vaporizes. Now, we have a goal. That goal is to clear the path to our own success by 1) cutting him off in traffic the first chance we get… if he is the driver of that other car… or 2) simply withholding our assistance and watching her struggle with her task alone… if she is our co-worker.
Why do we do that? What changes us from a warm, sympathetic Dr. Phil when there is a child who needs help… to the Pirates of the Caribbean when that person is another driver on the road or one of our co-workers? The writer of James claims that it is our own selfish ambition or motivations. There is something that those people have… or have the opportunity to obtain… that we want for ourselves.
Perhaps the television show that best illustrated this was the long-running comedy hit, “Friends.” Why did millions of people gather around the television set each week to watch six self-centered twenty-somethings struggle to best each other… using any unanticipated opportunities… underhanded tactics… outright lies… and sometimes brutally cruel words as weapons… all in an effort to be successful in the eyes of the world? What was it that drew us in? Psychologists say that we watch such shows because we can identify with the characters… that somewhere in the struggle… the successes… the defeats… the lies… and the unvarnished selfishness of those young men and women, we see ourselves… either as we are… or as we want to be. What does that say about us?
The writer of James says that we fight and quarrel among ourselves because of the cravings that are at war inside of us. We murder and we covet because we want something… and don’t have it or can’t get it. And those desires turn us into different people… people filled with greed or ambition who turn a deaf ear to the concerns of others and concentrate only on their own paths to success.
Several years ago, when the economy was not doing well, a good friend of mine lost his job. He was an executive with a Fortune 500 company and had worked for the company for more than a decade. In a major downsizing aimed at middle management, his position was eliminated. He was offered a severance package and released. For weeks, he looked for another position… without success. No one was hiring. During this time, I spoke with him often by telephone. At first, he was energized by this opportunity to try something new. Then, he was puzzled. Then, dismayed. Then, hurt and angry. Then, one day, when I called, I heard something new in his voice: confidence and hope. I asked him what had changed.
One day as he was looking for work, he said, he had been feeling discouraged and depressed. He stopped making telephone calls and had lunch with his wife and daughter. During lunch… for the first time… he shared his feelings with them. In the conversation that followed, he learned something about himself. “We like you the way you are now,” they both told him. “When you were working, you were a different person. You were too busy to listen. You never had time for us. You didn’t laugh very much. Now, you are more relaxed. You really seem to hear us when we talk to you. We like the person you are today a lot better than the person you used to be.” The more he thought about that conversation, the more he realized how much his work as a mid-level executive at this major corporation had changed him. The pressure to succeed in that environment had alienated him from his daughter and estranged him from his wife. He now realized that he had missed something important… something more important to him than his success in the business world. As a result, he is now doing something totally different… for less money and less prestige … but, he says, he experiences less stress… enjoys life more… and likes himself better. Not only that: his family and his friends have noticed the difference.
When was the last time you stopped to examine the person you are today? Do you like that person? Would you want to be a friend to someone like you? The last time that you fought with your spouse or your significant other, what did you argue about? Was it money? Or time? Or priorities? What cruel or brutal things did you say… or do… in that argument? Was it worth it? Did you destroy more than you gained in that battle?
Think back now to that young child struggling to walk. Do you realize that, in reaching out to help that young child, we are… in that moment… being the best Christians that we can be? In that moment… with that child… we have no selfish ambitions. Our actions are those described by the writer of James as coming from heaven. They are pure… gentle… and full of mercy… without a trace of hypocrisy.
Every day, all around us, are people who are struggling: young people who are struggling with peer pressure… school… and the temptation of experimenting with drugs and alcohol; women who are struggling in abusive relationships; the driver in the next car who may be late for work and may lose his job; or the co-worker who may be a single parent struggling to feed her family, whose mother is dying of cancer. Every day, we have the opportunity to help other people. But, most of the time, we are like the Pharisee on the road in the story of the Good Samaritan: We pass by on the other side… unwilling to stop… unwilling to get involved… unwilling to reach out to help… because we have our own goals and objectives in life. Sometimes, we don’t even see the people who need us… even when they are standing right in front of us.
OK, so you are not a saint. Neither am I. And… surprise, surprise… this is not news to God. Just as Jesus with his disciples in our reading today, God knows what we have been thinking about… and talking about… even when we don’t share that information with him. It is not that we are deliberately vicious. I do not believe that we spend our nights thinking about how we are going to purposefully wreck someone else’s life… and yet, the very next day, we do something or say something that is thoughtless … vicious… or cruel. The words… or the actions… just seem to pop out of nowhere. They seem to be a part of us… genetically ingrained. So, what’s the solution?
The writer of James says that the solution is to “submit ourselves to God.” For these ways of thinking… of speaking… of acting… toward our fellow human beings are evil. They are of the devil and we are to resist the devil and, if we do so, the devil will flee from us. Finally, he says, we are to draw near to God and God will draw near to us. Not that God is ever far away. In fact, God is usually standing right behind us. He is on our side. If we seek God’s help, God can teach us how to be truly Christian… and how to resist evil.
Think back again to that small child. When I was a child, slightly older than the one I spoke of earlier, I remember watching my parents dance together as music played on the record player. (Yes, this was before CD’s were invented, which clearly puts me in the “older generation.”) It was a waltz and, to me, it was beautiful… magical. My mother and father were swaying in time to the music. When they, laughingly, broke apart and Mom went on to the laundry room, I walked up to my father and I told him that I wanted to dance with him the way that he danced with my mother. He smiled gently at me and took my tiny hands in his. “Put your feet on top of my feet,” he said… and I did. I put my right foot… shoe and all… on top of his left foot and my left foot, shoe and all, on top of his right foot. Then, holding on tight, we slowly danced around the room together, my feet on top of his feet, and his feet moving in time to the music. I laughed out loud with delight. I was dancing! Even though I did not know the steps… even though I had never danced before in my life… I was waltzing with my father around the room.
God can teach us how to waltz through life as a Christian. Even if we do not know the steps… even if we have never danced before in our lives… God can teach us what we need to know to waltz with him through life. Everything that we need to know about being a Christian and living as a Christian in the world today, God can teach us. All we need to do is to put our hands in God’s hands and put our feet on top of God’s feet and hang on tight. The music will play and we will waltz… as if we’ve been waltzing all our lives… supported and lifted up the One who loves us and has redeemed us by the blood of his Son. And, as we grow in God’s grace, our dancing skills will improve… just as young children become confident and competent in walking on their own. I hope that as I waltz with God through my life, I will catch a glimpse of you waltzing, too… holding tightly to God through every turn. Amen.