Head Towards the Roar

“Run Towards the roar”

Grace to you and Peace from the God who is, The God Who was and the God who is to come. AMEN

Blessing are you when you are Poor? Huh. You know, praying with this text all week I have a vivid recollection of a moment from last fall. I was standing right  here, in between Bill Ieuter and Jeff Riemer listening to Keith Boyd have a conversation about the Stained Glass Window project. They were likely surprised that I came in because I was not invited to that meeting, at least not by them. I was asked to attend however by Stephanie because I knew that she was interviewing for the position she now took and she felt I should be aware of what was going with the windows. They didn’t know that but Of course, none of us at that time knew that the boiler was about to die.

Today we know all of this, including the large price tag of these windows and  also know that interim pastors are in rare supply in the association.

We must be careful with hearing this text today. The obvious and common misreading of this text is that Jesus saying that God only like poor people, and that happy people are damned. In that reading perhaps God is responsible for the trying times and so we should accept them. In fact, maybe Jesus is telling us that we should hate success and seek failure, and maybe those of us who like comfort and happiness should not bother with Jesus or with the church.

That isn’t what the text means and that doesn’t fit Luke’s theology or The wider witness of the Bible.

It might be helpful to note that in the opening verses we are told that Jesus was trying to teach his disciples but that there were surrounded by a large crowd who wanted to touch Jesus, to get a quick fix of his power to make them feel better immediately, they didn’t want his teaching.

This context tells us that Jesus is trying to give us more than comfort and stability. He is trying to gather his committed followers and give them deep abiding wisdom. As in, meaning of life path to enlightenment, Kingdom of God, heart of religion kind of stuff.

This however, does not explain why those in hard times are described as blessed, and those who are in happy secure enjoyable times are being told to look out. And it does not lead us to place where we can make constructive sense of our current challenges.

I want to share a story that I think can open up the meaning of this teaching to us, and for us in this present moment.

It is a story that I form a man I look up to like I look up to my own father His name is Alan and Alan is someone I regard as a wise sage and so do many other men.

The story is wisdom story and its one I know that Alan has shared many times with many people, including myself. It is a story that I have in turn I have found myself passing on as well.

For example, I am in a PGG. PGG stands for “personal growth group”. A PGG is a covenanted group of men. PGGS are formed by going on retreat where they get to know one another on a deep level. After the retreat the mean learn a protocol for gathering and meeting together. My PGG has been meeting together for three hours every two weeks, in order to support each in growing as individuals to be the best humans we can be. We encourage, challenge, support and hold each other accountable. Some of them are here this morning. I invited them because I have shared this story with them so many times that we use in our PGG on occasion.

Alan,  the wise sage who first told me the story has been meeting in his PGG for over thirty years, Alan is the person who told me about the program that formed our PGG.

Alan worked as a employment lawyer before going on his retreat and he went back to school to become a therapist after going on retreat.

Alan now volunteers as a leader himself on Wisdom Years Retreat. The Wisdom Years is a retreat specifically designed for men over fifty as they transition  into the second half of their life.

The story Alan tells, is of a Pack hunting of African lion herds. (the story comes from National Geographic and you can find these videos online.

Obviously hunting is essential for the survival and strength of the pride. Lions hunt best when they hunt as a pride. Hunting alone lions are successful 17% of the time, when they hunt in packs that average raises to 25% and when they hunt as a herd at night it raises to 33%. So the healthiest lion prides are those that hunt together at night in coordination, and it is truly astonishing how coordinated they are in their hunting strategies. The National Geographic videos telegraph the lions hunting formations like John Madden telegraphing wide receiver routes or prevent defenses. One particular story has become quite famous about lions from a particular region in Africa where Impala are the main source of food.

Impala are like the deer of the African savannah. They travel in very large herds and are much quicker and more fleet of foot than lions. They are hard to catch, and must be hunted in well organized packs. And this is where things get really interesting.

See, the young lions and lionesses are fast, and strong and nimble, they have the physical tools needed to successfully take down an impala. However, the immature lion are impulsive, reactive and lack to wisdom and skill to organize themselves in order to hunt together strategically as a pride. The older lions and lionesses, on the other hand have lived long enough to possess the wisdom of how to hunt together as a coordinated pride... the only trouble is, in the time it has taken to gain that wisdom they have grown a little long in tooth, their bodies are older and slower, their joints  achy and slow. HOWEVER! The  elder males lions have a secret weapon, namely the older the lion the bigger the roar. In other wide the older the lions, the wiser the lion, and the slowest are the wiser ones and with loudest, deepest roars... you can hear an elder male lion roar up to 5 miles away!

SO! What these wise lions do, is position the young pups, in a tight semi-circle on one side of the impala herd as the impala sleeping or grazing or settling in for the night. The older slower lions head to the other wide of the herd and they ROAR!

The roar is so loud and fierce and the ground rumbles and in all the impala react immediately, without thought they frantically turn and run away into the dark in the opposite direction of the terrifying sound of the roar and run right into the waiting claws of the younger, faster lions.

First Congregational church, you are going through a season in which there is much to fear, much to grieve much to run away from. But what I think Jesus it trying to teach us is that the wise do not run away from the tough stuff or flee from  hard and scary feelings, rather in the face of scary unknown realities, the wise path is to head straight towards the roar.

Head to the roar.

I know there is much loss and grief in this community about Stephanie leaving. Head towards the roar.

I know that many of you feel worried about the future of our congregation about lower participation and about member growth.

Head towards the Roar.

I know you feel  great anxiety and fear whether or not we can afford to pay the operating budget, the boiler and the stained glass repair and what it means if we can’t. Head towards the roar.

I have heard much great anxiety about waiting through the interim minister process and about finding a new pastor. Head towards the roar.

I also know, for those of you who predate Stephanie, that the last interim pastor who was here 30 years ago and that the search and call process that led to Stephanie’s predecessor David was challenging and I know that there was some pain and grief in the years that followed, and that maybe not all of that was dealt with directly and intentionally. It is not too late. Head Towards the Roar.

Brothers and sisters, I think this is really what Jesus is telling us and why these words can seem hard or confusing.

Jesus is telling us straight that for human beings Grief, pain, fear anxiety, poverty, hunger are all a part of the deal and the only way past them is through them. Woe to those who turn tail and flee from the scary stuff because that can be the very path the end up devouring you.

At this point let me share that he words Jesus uses, Markarios and Ouai, are hard to translate directly in to English. And spending too much time in the Greek ditch distracts from the big picture. But let me suggest an accurate way to translate these words would be to say Blessed implies, that those who are hungering, struggling to make end meet, afraid, anxious and feeling abandoned are the ones who also have an experience for the wisdom of God to break through to them. And other hand those who cling only to the good stuff, who run away from the problems, the scary and painful stuff and who can only head towards to safe and satisfying stuff are almost certain to miss the God moment that was offer to them.

The best thing we can do right now to bring about God’s blessed future for our congregation is to head right towards the grief and fear of the present and the past. The only other option is turn tale and run the other way, which is the most efficient way to let what it scaring you, control you.

In closing in our PGG we talk about having and strong container. This means that we have rules, processes and accountabilities to keep us safe, so that we can head towards the roar, in other words we can risk over and over again bringing the hard and panful stuff to each other. We have appropriate containers here at FCCW. I am not inviting everyone to moan, and complain, err out your garbage and grievance and just bleed all over each other. I am suggesting, that we do not need to wait for the interim to arrive to head to the roar. Mary's Supper and Men’s Coffee are great place to intentionally schedule covenanted time to share.

What is more, my office is just down the hall, my email and phone number are right on the bulletin and on our website; and thanks to these men I do my work and know how to keep confidence. I take the safety of my office as Ordained Minister very seriously. I am happy to schedule a time to listen and to talk.

Wherever the safe container is for you; Please hear this. Jesus is telling us, not just as First Congregational but as human being that heading towards the roar now. AMEN, may it be so.