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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2007

THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Luke 15:1-10 (Only one thing is needed: Focus)

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SERMON THEME:

Sooner or later, whether we like it or not, we all come to realize that life is all about ONE thing: Focus. When we remain focused on the Lord -- on God’s amazing love for us -- we discover that we can do miraculous things through Him. When we lose focus, we sink.

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1. One of my favorite Hollywood movies is the film “City Slickers,” starring Billy Crystal and Jack Palance. It came out about 15 years ago. It is a clever little film about a bunch of city guys from New York who take a month-long sabbatical to work at a real-life cattle ranch in Nevada. Billy Crystal, of course, plays the part of the consummate city slicker; and Jack Palance plays the part of the consummate trail boss. Without question, this is a theatrical match made in heaven. Crystal is totally New York City. And Palance is totally Wild West. If you have not seen the movie, then let me say that it is well worth the time to rent it and enjoy a couple of hours of humor, suspense, and laughter. You will not be disappointed. But let me tell you my FAVORITE SCENE in the movie: It occurs when Billy Crystal and Jack Palance are riding their horses together beside the herd of cattle. Crystal is not sure about his horse, and Palance is the veteran cowboy. Crystal starts to complain that some of the dudes are afraid of Palance. They are afraid that Palance might be too tough on them. And then Jack Palance goes into a wonderful -- an absolutely wonderful -- diatribe about city people. He says something like this: “You city people have everything all mixed up. You spend your time burning the candle at both ends, burning up your lives minute-by-minute and day-by-day. And then you get your guts all full of knots and ulcers and heart problems and you come out here expecting ME to unravel everything for you.” And then the old cowboy does this: HE HOLDS UP ONE FINGER, the index finger of his right hand. He sticks his finger right up in front of Crystal and says this: You city folk don’t have the sense to realize that life is all about ONE THING. And ONE THING only.” And then he stops talking. Billy Crystal listens in total and abject silence, but Jack Palance doesn’t say a word. Not one word. Finally, after several agonizing seconds, Billy Crystal says this: “OK. OK, Curly. I give up. Life is all about ONE thing. WHAT IS THAT ONE THING?” And old Jack Palance smiles his crooked smile, takes a puff on his hand-rolled cigarette, looks straight into the city slicker’s eyes, and says: “THAT’S FOR YOU TO FIGURE OUT.”

2. What a GREAT answer. What a GREAT comment. Life is all about ONE thing, and ONE thing only. And you -- every one of you -- must figure out what that one thing is. No one else can figure it out for you. You must figure it out for yourself. THAT is such a wonderful question, that I would like to hold it before us this morning. Have YOU spent any time lately trying to figure out the ONE THING that YOUR LIFE is all about? In other words, have you lifted up the index finger of YOUR right hand, held it in front of your face, and asked yourself that question? IF LIFE IS ALL ABOUT ONE THING, WHAT IS THAT ONE THING? WHAT IS THAT ONE THING that life is all about for you? If you had to answer that question right now, what would you say?

3. OK. I know that this is an uncomfortable question. So let me give you MY answer right off the bat this morning. And then we will look at our lessons from Exodus 32 and Luke chapter 15. And then you will get a chance to answer that question for yourself. Here is my main point this morning:

4. From my own personal experience, I know all about focus. Actually, to be brutally honest, I know all about the DANGERS OF LOSING FOCUS. I have learned and re-learned the lesson in my life that my FOCUS must be on the Lord -- one day at a time -- or I start sinking into a quagmire of confusion, doubt, and depression. Losing focus for me can happen very quickly, so I have to spend time EACH AND EVERY MORNING, long before I leave the house, REMINDING MYSELF TO STAY FOCUSED AND CONNECTED to the Lord. What I do every morning is this: Before I read the Daily Office, before I read from the three devotional books I keep on my desk at home, before I recite the Rosary, before I pray through my prayer list . . . Before all of that . . . I take a long, slow, deep breath. And I tell the Lord how GRATEFUL I am to be able to breathe. And then I open my eyes and look around the room, and I tell the Lord how GRATEFUL I am to be able to see. And then I listen to the early-morning sounds around the house (usually our kittens fighting or our dog whining to go out), and I tell the Lord how GRATEFUL I am to be able to hear. I run through a GRATITUDE LIST -- wiggling fingers and toes, naming names of people, smiling and laughing -- every morning as a way of FOCUSING ON GOD. Some people call this a “blessing list.” But whatever you call it, it is my way of zeroing in on the NUMBER ONE REASON I AM ALIVE. My life is a PURE GIFT from God. And every day I live is a BRAND NEW GIFT from the Lord . . . A gift that gives me new opportunities each day to love Him and serve Him. God is the reason I am here. And I tell myself every morning, in the great words from Isaiah 60:1 (written during one of the darkest moments in the Old Testament -- after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC):

KUM’I OR’I KIY VA ORECH. UCHEVOD ADONAY ALAYICH ZARACH. “Arise, shine, for your Light has come! And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!”

5. In our first lesson, from Exodus 32: We encounter a very familiar story . . . And a very unfamiliar one. Moses is on top of Mount Sinai, in the presence of the Lord. He has just received the two tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments. But while he is in the midst of this extraordinary encounter, the Lord stops to tell him that the Hebrew people -- way down in the valley below -- have just made a golden calf to be their new “god.” THIS IS A VERY FAMILIAR PASSAGE. But what follows is NOT so familiar. God announces that He is going to destroy the Hebrew people for their unfaithfulness. And rather than make THEM into a great nation, He is going to make MOSES and MOSES’ descendants into a great nation. Suddenly Moses is looking into the face of an angry God. God has announced DISPLEASURE with His people. And God has grown WEARY of unfaithfulness. God has reached the end of His patience. God is going to destroy the same people He had brought OUT of Egypt. Suddenly . . . Moses is put to the test. Destruction is on the way. And what does Moses do? Does he: (1) Rejoice in his own good fortune? (2) Join God in being ANGRY? (3) Run and hide, trying to avoid God’s wrath? MOSES IS PUT TO THE TEST. And at this exact moment, Moses chooses to fall on his face before God on behalf of his people. Moses pleads for mercy. He pleads for the lives of his people. He even reminds God of the promises God has made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses begs God to change His mind! . . . And that is precisely what God does.

Now, it is important to realize that God is NOT being wishy-washy or indecisive. God was never putting HIMSELF to the test. He was testing Moses. And Moses passed the test by remembering to KEEP HIS FOCUS. God spared the lives of His people because Moses humbled himself before God on behalf of his sinful friends. Even though Moses later on disobeyed God “and spoke rash words with his lips,” he nevertheless retained his focus here, and saved the people. MOSES KEPT HIS FOCUS. HE REMEMBERED THE ONE THING.

6. In our Gospel lesson, from Luke 15: Jesus responds to personal attacks and criticism (about his “sinful” companions and friends) by telling two stories: the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. And He asks two incredibly important questions about the lost sheep: Which one of you, having 99 sheep and losing one, would NOT leave the 99 in the desert and go after the one? And after finding it, would NOT rejoice and give thanks. These questions are setting us up. For, quite frankly, most of US would prefer to “hang on to what we’ve got,” the 99 sheep, and let the lost sheep take care of itself. Or, perhaps, we would simply order a re-count of the sheep. BUT IT GOES AGAINST OUR NATURE AS HUMANS TO SET ASIDE THE GREATER TO SEEK AFTER THE SMALLER. Our way is to hold on to what we have. But we must remember that this is NOT God’s way. Jesus wants us to continually set aside our own needs to take care of the needs of others -- especially the needs of those who are lost. And again, He is not testing Himself when He asks these questions. He is testing US. Will we remember to keep our FOCUS? Will we remember the ONE THING that is most important to us?

7. That brings us full circle. What IS the ONE THING that is most important to us? Whether we realize it fully or not, the ONE THING that God wants of us is to KEEP our focus on Him. For it is only through Him that we are able to serve others in His Name. THAT’s why we are here.