The Carrot, the Egg, and the Coffee

Mom’s Parable

When I was a boy, not much younger than you are no, my mom told me this little parable.

And it was one of those mom stories where while she’s telling you, you’re kind of like “awww…mom!”

But be careful with those, because before you know it you’ll be repeating it to a church full of people for a senior sermon...

But mom told me this parable about what happens when tough times come in life.

She said that tough times are like boiling water.

And that there are three types of people in the world:

The Carrot

When things get tough for the carrot, when it’s dipped in to the boiling hot water, the carrot has a tendency to get soft.

These are the kinds of people who kind of shrink away from any thing hard.

They don’t want to be bothered with the challenge,

but then that means they never get to reap the rewards.

The Egg

When things get tough for the Egg, the egg decides to get harder.

Let’s be honest, this is the approach that our world favors at the moment.

Get really tough about things, get aggressive, fight back.

But if the egg stays like that for too long, instead of getting harder the egg gets more brittle.

Instead of being really tough, it turns out that people who respond in this way to the hot water actually end up crumbling as much as the carrot might.

The Coffee

Then mom said that there are people who are like coffee.

And we don’t know each other well, but as a celebrated caffeine addict, I perked up a little bit at this.

When the coffee beans go in to the hot water, they themselves don’t really change all that much other than getting a little wet.

But what they wind up doing is changing the water.

Instead of reacting to the tough times in life, those who are a little more like coffee are the ones who influence the world around them, create the culture they wish they had, and make the world better for other people while they’re at it.

The Class of 2021

I have been in youth ministry for a lot longer than any of us care to think about.

And I’ve spoken at a few of these baccalatuate services before...

And it’s a little bit like a rock star says from town to town, but I’m pretty sure I always say something like “You guys are a really special generation” and “I can’t wait to see what you become!”

And I think I meant it most of the times that I said it!

But you guys…the class of 2021...

You’ve had some extremely hot water thrown at you here toward the end of your high school carrier, haven’t you?

My friend recently asked his 90 something year old grandmother, who has lived through things like the depression, and a world war, and the Civil Rights movement, he asked her if she had ever seen anything like this pandemic.

Of course she hadn’t.

This was a once in a lifetime situation, and you guys are at such an interesting stage of life to experience it!

And in ways that I don’t know that I meant for other people, I can’t wait to see what you guys are going to do for the Kingdom next.

Paul Saw it Coming

Paul kind of saw this coming in our reading from Romans.

The whole creation is kind of broken, isn’t it?

I mean the perfect world that God created in Genesis 1 probably didn’t include things like COVID or Hurricanes or Earthquakes or 1st Round Losses by the Penguins...

The whole creation is subjected to sin, which is just a fancy theological way to say that things don’t work the way they are supposed to.

A few verses after what we read Paul says that “All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

And that’s an awesome idea

But we’re here now, in the midst of the broken creation.

So what we need is hope.

Hope

A friend of mine said that hope is “A confident assurance that God is authoring a story that moves us from contemplation to action.”

Hope is much bigger than just blind optimism that things will some how get better.

Hope is much bigger than having a cheery “camp counselor Christian” attitude toward everything in life.

Hope is much much more than placing our trust in ourselves, our abilities, our strength.

Hope, is allowing God to use us to change the water.

Armor

So imagine what kind of water we could create with the armor of God that Paul invites us to use!

Belt of Truth

Our world seems to think that truth is up for grabs.

Which might explain why I think when I see people who are squishy about the truth, they look like their proverbial pants are around their ankles.

I beg you, I implore you, may this generation be the kind of people who change the water of our culture to be one that celebrates truth, whether it supports our agenda or not.

Breastplate of Righteousness

This is one that people can waste a lot of time arguing about.

Thanks be to God we have Jesus who points us in the right direction:

Righteousness is looking after the least of these

Righteousness is offering mercy.

Righteousness is being generous.

Righteousness is about forgiveness.

Righteousness is about laying your life down for others.

If it isn’t these things, then we have to ask if it’s really righteousness.

For shoes, a gospel of peace

As summer is coming, I remember when I was a kid walking to the pool in a gravel parking lot without shoes on.

I don’t know why I did this. It sucked!

Paul tells us that spreading the gospel of peace ought to be our shoes, what protects us as we walk about this world.

Not a Gospel of exclusion.

Not a Gospel of my religion can beat up your religion.

Not a Gospel of ill-defined morality.

But we proclaim a Gospel of peace, the kind of peace that can only come when we recognize that we are loved by God just as we are.

I wonder what the water would look like if everyone out there knew that they were fundamentally and fully embraced by God in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Shield of Faith

There is a big difference between belief and faith.

Belief is when the climbing instructor tells you that the rope he’s tying to you can hold 2000 pounds.

Faith is when you step off the ledge and let the rope hold you.

The Bible, it turns out never tells us to have more belief.

We are called to have more faith.

I am praying dear seniors that you will step out into whatever comes next in faith.

Let the rope Christ has given us hold you.

And use that freedom to change the water of our world.

Helmet of Salvation

I am a bit of a cyclist.

And I have a pretty decent helmet.

Which I get the most use out of when I forget it’s up there and close the car door on myself…but still...

I’ve also crashed a few times, and my helmet has actually saved my skin a few times.

Having that kind of protection isn’t so that I can sit on the couch in my living room wearing a helmet.

It’s so that I can put myself out there in ways that I normally wouldn’t, and know that I’ll be safe.

If you are here, I assume that you already have the helmet of salvation.

If you don’t, come see me after the service and we’ll talk

But if you don’t, for goodness sake, don’t just sit around with it!

Use that helmet to go out in to the world and change the water around us knowing that you’ll be protected.

Sword of the Spirt- The Word

Prayer