Don't Squeeze the Skunk

By Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: John 14:23-29

23 -- Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey My teaching.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 

24 -- He who does not love Me will not obey my teaching.  These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.

25 -- All this I have spoken while still with you. 

26 -- But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 

27 -- Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

28 -- You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.'  If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 

29 -- I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

          Pastor Joe McKeever tells of the time he was giving a push to his eight-year-old granddaughter Abby in the swing in her front yard.  She and her twin Erin had been learning about childbirth from their mother.  Abby was not liking what she was learning. “I’m not going to have children, Grandpa,” she said. “It hurts too bad.”

          McKeeveer said his first thought was to say, “If your mother felt that way, you would not be here.  And if your great-grandmothers felt that way, none of us would be here.”  But what he did say was, “You’re right.  It does hurt.  But the pain goes away, and you’re left with this beautiful child, and you decide that it was worth it.”

          He said Abby turned, looked him square in the eye and said, “You’re a man. What do you know?”

          Such blatant wisdom from someone eight-years-old.

          She's right, we're men, what do we know.

          But what she doesn't know, yet, is that love comes in all shapes and sizes, all colors and strengths, in all sorts of raging love, nuances of gentle affection, and life-long caring.  And there is much about that which describes being a mother.  Not all women are mothers.  Not all women want to be mothers.  Some wish to be but never have the chance.  But being a mother is something only half of the human race has the chance to be.  In that role, love often works out in some very strange ways.  

          For example, a 15-year-old boy finally wandered home at the end of the day, very hungry, as 15-year-old boys often are.  But he found his mother lying in bed and was suddenly seized with concern.

          "Mom, are you sick or something?"

          "Well, as a matter of fact," his mother replied weakly, "I'm not feeling too well."

          "I'm sorry Mom," the boy responded, looking very worried.  After a brief pause, he then added: "Don't you worry a bit about dinner. I'm getting pretty big now, and I can carry you down to the stove!"

          Believe it or not, there is love in there.

          Among the many types of love which the Greeks identified, and had very different words for, is a subtle kind of love that doesn't necessarily speak love, but shows love.

          There was a teacher who was trying to teach her class a lesson about fractions. After the lesson she tested one of the boys who was in a large family.

          "Johnny," she said, "There are six people in your family.  Your mom bakes a pie, and she cuts it up for you, what percentage of the pie will you receive?"
          Johnny, thought for a minute and said," One-fifth".

          The teacher said, "Now, remember there are six people in your family, how big would your piece of pie be."

          And again the boy said, "One-fifth."

          The teacher said, "No, you don’t understand fractions."

          And Johnny respectfully said, "You don’t understand my Mom.  She would have said, that she didn’t want any."

          That's the kind of mother's love with which most of us can identify.  And it's that kind of love which led most of us to respond by doing the things our mother told us to do.  We obeyed not out of fear, not because of threats or rules or regulations, but we obeyed because we loved and were loved.

          In today's scripture, Jesus says, "If anyone loves me, he will obey My teaching."

          We know that Jesus loved us before we ever knew Him, and we find it difficult not to love the One who loved us first.  We have had that example from the first moments we can remember, as a mother loved us and cared for us.  Mother's love held us close, gave us a feeling of safety and belonging, kept us from danger and taught us how to deal with the world.  We obeyed because we loved.  So that later in life, when we find our Savior saying "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching," we've already seen and lived that kind of love.

          Throughout the scriptures we find examples of love in action that lays the groundwork for understanding the Savior's love and what He expects from us.

          From the Old Testament scriptures we find in II Kings 22 and II Chronicles 34 the story of Huldah the prophetess who inspired Josiah to lead the Children of Israel to national revival.  She was faithful in voicing God's word and that led to the teaching of an entire generation after Josiah, who were later exiled in Babylon.  Huldah's spiritual mothering led to the grounding of faith and truth for Shadrack, Meshack, Abednigo as they were thrown into a fiery furnace, and even for Daniel.  Her treasuring the word inspired a king, who inspired a nation.

          Perhaps through Huldah's example we can see we are all to be spiritual parents to the next generation, an understanding that should radically change our sense of who we are and what God wants us to do.  But then, again, our Jesus says it plainly in John 14:23, "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching."

          Through our mothers, just as through the prophetess Huldah in scripture, we are given an example of the  nurturing, sensitivity and compassion inherent in our Savior and our God.

          All of which raises the question, if we are, indeed to be spiritual parents to the next generation, where do we start, how do we begin, how does that manifest itself?

          Again, we return to Jesus' statement, "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching."  For in His brief time in the flesh on this earth, walking among us, Jesus gave us a wealth of teachings on how to conduct not only our own lives, but how to have a spiritual impact on the lives of others.  But for us to do the things Jesus has said, we, as individual followers of Jesus Christ, must move from the entry level milk and pablum stage of babes in the Word, to studying and understanding the meat of the Scriptures. 

          As Christians we need to move from the complaint all too familiar to most Pastors of "I'm not being fed here," to "How do I feed others?"  At some point the new babe in Christ must move from being a bottle-fed believer to reaching out and feeding themselves and others in the Word.

          And where to begin?  With prayer.  Always begin with prayer.

          Jesus taught us by example how to approach the Father in prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, and as part of His Sermon on the Mount in Luke 11:2-4.  Here Jesus guides our prayer, "after the manner" of His instruction.  And in 1st John 1:9 we are urged to keep short accounts with our Lord, where John writes, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."  It all begins with prayer.  

          It may be that some of us were fortunate in our young lives to have a mother who would kneel with us beside our bed each evening, teaching us the habit of prayer.  And we would mumble that first prayer we learned, "Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."  And then perhaps we would launch into a litany of blessings for mother and father, for grandparents, for our pets, and for our favorite stuffed animals.  But we learned not to let the day pass without approaching the Throne of Grace in prayer to our God.

          For those who never learned that lesson at an early age, now would be a good time to begin.  Prayer blesses us, helps to put our own lives into perspective, and is certainly a better alternative than worrying about things.  In fact, most experts agree we as human beings spend far too much time "squeezing" our worries.

          John Haggai once wrote a book entitled "How to Win Over Worry," which included a story about the dangers of "squeezing" our worries.  He told the story of a woman in Darlington, Maryland, the mother of eight children, who came home from the grocery store one afternoon to a house much too quiet.  As she walked into her home everything looked pretty much the same, although it was much less noisier than usual.  As she looked into the living room she saw five of her darling children sitting in a circle, very quiet, concentrating on something in the middle of the circle. She put down the sacks of groceries and walked into the living room.  There she saw they were playing with five of the cutest skunks you can imagine.
          She was instantly terrified and she shouted, “Run children, run!"  Each child grabbed a skunk and ran, in five different directions.  She was so beside herself she screamed louder and more frantically.  But that just so scared the children that each one squeezed his skunk!  As the author, John Haggai put it, “Skunks don’t like to be squeezed!”

          Perhaps one day we can stop squeezing our worries, engage in daily and meaningful prayer that puts others ahead of ourselves.  We can feast on the meat of scripture and put our love of our Lord into practice by obeying what He teaches us.  Then we can live out the example of Huldah the prophetess in building into others the gifts of encouragement, hope and inspiration, Christian traits that will live into future lifetimes.  That's what our mothers have done for us.  That's what Jesus is expecting of us, as His followers in love.  For God is with those who love Jesus, and through Him we have the promise of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of peace.

          Now, go take your Mother out to lunch.

          Amen.

      

Week of Worship

May 13, 2012

Invocation:  Ever-loving God, Who having loved us loves us still, help us to hear again Your word.  "By this shall they know you are My disciples; that you love one another."  Turn our hostility into hospitality and our callousness into care.  Through Christ, we pray.  Amen.

Read: Psalm 128

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday                Romans 12:9-21

Tuesday               Colossians 3:12-17

Wednesday          Galatians 5:1-15
Thursday              1st John 2:7-17

Friday                   1st John 3:1-18

Saturday               1st John 4:7-21

Sunday                 Acts 10:44-48; 1st John 5:1-6; Psalm 98;  John 15:9-17

Reflection: (silent and written)

Prayers for the church, for others, for yourself.

Hymn: "Forgive My foes?  It Cannot Be"

Benediction:  In this hour, loving God, You have touched me with love.  Send me now to be Your touch-of-love for another.  May the love of Jesus flow through me, a current of healing and life.  Amen.