This Week's Sermons

Sermons for the Month
"Stay in Touch"
DATE: October 4, 1998
SERVICE: Pentecost XVIII
TEXT: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
"To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

We Lutherans are a reserved bunch aren't we? I can remember in my previous congregation when started passing the peace in the worship service, nobody would stand up or turn around. I think we have come a long way. However, we still tend to dismiss gushy, emotional, illogical displays as "touchy-feely." Partly this is because ours is still a "non-contact culture." We Lutherans especially regardless of our ethnic background are still generally reserved. Our German, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegians mix, has resulted in being most attractive to the more reserved segment of American culture. We are far more comfortable with wrapping our minds around an idea than with flinging our arms around a person. We have traditionally liked our worship controlled, predictable, formal. In more physically demonstrative "contact cultures" (Arabs, Latin Americans, Southern Europeans), touch is as much a part of communication as are words. Backslapping, cheek kissing, bear hugging and hand holding are the grammatical rules of a contact-culture language. But for most of us in the United States, and especially within the sanctuaries of our faith communities, ours is a "hands-off" culture. A "Don't touch me" spirit pervades both the sacred and the secular spaces in our lives. Consider this: The United States is one of the few countries where massages are still not covered by health insurance. The overwhelming cultural message here is that we're no "soft touch" and that "touching" is just for "softies."
Despite our rigid-necked, straight-backed, stiff-armed approach to getting touched and being in touch, the health benefits of touch have been clearly proven by our own hard-nosed scientific methods. Tactile stimulation is a powerful stimulant to infant growth and development. Babies who are held more both gain weight and master basic motor skills faster than babies who receive less holding and touching. Fortunately for babies, their small bodies and soft skin make us naturally want to touch them, hold them close and snuggle them.
But studies also show that the elderly benefit from touch in much the same way. Among those who received regular touching, from massages to hugs to holding hands, the following was found: Their motor skills remained sharper, their mental abilities continued to be acute, and their general state of health was better than among those who reported virtually no physical contact with others. The touch didn't even have to be human. The simple act of petting a dog or stroking a cat seems to help our physiological need for physical contact.
For the past 20 years we have been in retreat from touching. We have been posting "hands-off" signs at schools, workplaces, even at home and at church. And for good reason. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have been scarred by inappropriate touch in school, at work, and even in the church. Yet, our text suggests that NOT touching is at least as much a form of abuse as inappropriate touch.
"1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 I am grateful to God — whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did — when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.
4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
A conductor from Eastern Europe was being interviewed after having spent years in isolation because of his political views. After the usual series of political and personal questions, the reporter took a surprising turn: "What in your opinion is the most beautiful piece of music ever written?" The maestro thought for a while, and did not answer. "While you were held in isolation," the reporter pressed further, "what did you want most to hear? What music would you at that moment have thought the most beautiful to hear?" The maestro perked up: "In the whole world?" "Yes, in the whole world," the reporter replied. "In all the world," the conductor said with tears in his eyes, "the most beautiful music is the sound of another voice."
Paul would have agreed wholeheartedly with this musician's judgment. At the time of this writing, Paul was in prison, alone, cut off physically from those he most loved and from the churches he had helped nurture into existence. Paul's emotional longings speak clearly throughout his letter Timothy. Though physically isolated, Paul spiritually tries to reconnect himself to his own past – to get back "in touch" with the grounding strength and support of his Jewish ancestors' faith -- a heritage that allowed him to celebrate the fact that he had always worshiped the one, true God. Paul then reminds Timothy that he, too, has a heritage of faithfulness that will keep him "in touch," "in Christ," no matter what the challenge.
Then another way Paul reaches out to his disciple is through the power of a remembered touch. Paul recalls for Timothy how he was filled with God's spirit of power and love and self-discipline through the ritual of the laying on of Paul's own hands. This symbolic touch forever joined together Timothy and Paul as brothers in Christ and for Christ's mission to the world.
Tell me: How is it that the church, which owes its very existence to the power of a touch passed from one generation to the next, could have become so out of touch with its own membership, with its own body? I believe the Christbody community needs to proudly reclaim its "touchy-feely" heritage and heart. It is only when we allow ourselves to touch and be touched that we can feel whether a living, vital pulse-beat of faith is coursing through our sanctuaries.
For years it has been Megan Weidrick who exemplified this spirit for me here at Faith. Every Sunday, she would give me a hug after church. She would even run back in if she missed me before leaving. Nowadays, her gift of touch has been handed on to little Angela Henkel, another "touchy feely" member of Faith. Angela Henkel who I think is about three, gives me the softest, most tender hug each Sunday.
Without touching, who can tell whether our churches are dead or alive? Can we trust the message sent by our eyes? Does having a beautiful building or a state-of-the-art sanctuary automatically mean that we have a strong spiritual pulse? To demonstrate how easily the eye can be fooled, philosopher John Locke offered the simple, classic example of an oar in the water. While the oar appears to be crooked, distinctly bent at the waterline, it, of course, feels straight -- as it actually is. When the sense of sight is deceived, the sense of touch tells the truth. Can your faith pass the "pinch test"? If you touch it, is it real?
--When touched by another's suffering, do you weep?
--When touched by another's joy, do you laugh?
--When touched by another's pain, do you ache?
--When touched by another's warmth, are you comforted?
--When touched by another's coldness, are you chilled?
--When touched by another's sorrow, do you mourn?
--When touched by another's love, do you multiply that love and send it on?
Jesus promised perfect freedom comes not to those who do as they please, but to those who love as they should. What is it God wants from us? Does God want us to think the right thoughts? Does God want us to do the right things? Or does God want us to be in the right relationships -- with God, with each other, with ourselves, with creation -- relationships based on truth and trust and touch? Any religion that announces God is Love is about relationships! It is the relationships that produce the right thoughts and right actions. Relationships come first. Paul's heartfelt words to Timothy combined the touch of a genuine agape relationship between believers with the saving touch of grace offered by Christ. Paul and Timothy and all those who are together with them "in Christ" share in the saving event of Christ's resurrection. That is the divine touch of pure love as it was embodied by Christ on the cross for our sake.
Biblically speaking, to be saved means to become bonded to a community. Other cultures can understand this better than we can. In Africa, hell doesn't mean other people, as Sartre said it did. Rather, hell means being removed from other people, being thrown out of a community. In India, when one marries, you join in a relationship, not just to another person, but to an entire family.
When we step outside our community and try to go it on our own, to live entirely upon our own judgment, we inevitably get into trouble. In the familiar story of Adam and Eve, did you ever stop and notice just when the Serpent works on seducing Adam and Eve? It is when they were separate, apart from each other, not in direct relationship. The Serpent employed the first example we have of the divide and conquer technique. The snake in the grass is still at work. Thirty million Americans (one out of three church members) join a church and then drop out. Why? Charles Arn did a study of why United Methodists left. He found that the primary reason the majority (75 percent) left had nothing to do with theology. It was relational. People just didn't feel wanted and didn't get bonded to the community. They felt there was no room for them to discover and grow their spiritual gifts.
Let me ask you, how does one receive faith? Through others! How does one receive strength for the journey? Through others! How does one find healing from the wounds along the way? Through others! No matter how sophisticated our modes of travel may have now become, the need for journeying together, for keeping in touch, is still a pivotal human need.
If you were one of 90 million people who watched the final Sein-off of the Seinfeld show May 15 of this year, you know that the show ended as it began: a story of a group of utterly self-absorbed friends who make something out of nothing, a sitcom creatio ex nihilo. We watched them in the courtroom after they failed to help an overweight carjacking victim. Unwilling to touch or be touched, Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer listen as a parade of witnesses testify against them. The four are charged with "criminal indifference" and sent to prison to contemplate their shallow lives.
Even after they land behind bars, the callousness, self-centeredness and indifference to humanity continue. The mindless chatter about nothing continues. George complains about poor service from the guards. Elaine frets about how not to make a phoning faux pas when calling a friend from her cell. Jerry gives a show for his fellow inmates. Kramer fidgets. Yada yada yada.
Is this to be the verdict against the church: Criminal Indifference? Or is the phrase "Indifferent Christian" an oxymoron? Christians, in fact, can do nothing but be in relation with those who are around them, whether a carjacking victim, the visitor at church, the homebound neighbor up the street, one's aged parents, one's wayward children, longtime friend or short-term acquaintance. To touch and stay in touch is Christian behavior. Touching is the soul-river that runs it -- through our Christ-community of faith.
A piece of graffiti on a New York subway wall expresses the idea: You can punch my lips so I can't blow my horn, but my fingers will find a piano. You can slam the piano lid on my fingers, but you can't stop my toes from tapping like a drum. You can stomp on my feet to keep my toes from tapping, but my heart will keep swinging in four/four time. You can even stop my heart from ticking, but the music of the saints shall never cease. (William G. Carter, "Singing a New Song: The Gospel and Jazz," The Princeton Seminary Bulletin, xix, no. 1 [1998], 46.)
And this is the point of Paul's letter to Timothy: No matter what the challenges that confront us every day, our lips can still blow the horn of praise, our fingers can still play a melody of joy, our toes can keep tapping the song of encouragement, the heart can still swing to the song of the Spirit. This kind of kinetic, stay-in-touch church will march to the "music of the saints [which] shall never cease." We in the church are a touchy-feely people. Let's stay that way.
AMEN