Are you bored? (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Luke 9:28-36
February 7, 2016
Are you bored?
That’s my sermon. The photograph was taken Wednesday morning in the front yard of our house in Cedar Falls and that is my sermon. But since I should probably earn my keep, I will elaborate.
Are you bored? Do you find your life tiresome, dull, routine? Is there very little you see that gets you excited? Very little you see that grabs your attention? Very little you see that is really worth your time? If that is so, if you are bored, I pity you. I pity you.
What is boredom? Is it an understandable reaction to an overstimulating environment? Is it the end result of being constantly bombarded with images and messages and overhyped extravaganzas — like Super Bowls? Is it a natural response to a life that often is routine and dull and quite unspectacular?
Is boredom an inevitable and mostly harmless fact of life? Or is boredom something sinister, something disturbing, something truly dangerous?
I believe it is. Boredom is something truly dangerous, more lethal than any of the other shadows that darken our spirits with the possible exception of despair. Doubt and fear and depression and anger are emotions, feelings, states of mind that can be tamed, managed, re-directed, but boredom is a lack of emotion, an absence of feeling, an empty state of mind.
Doubt and fear and depression and anger are passions that threaten to get out of hand and take over our spirits and lead us away from the truth and from our true selves, but boredom sucks dry any and all passion. Boredom is deadness, impotence, utter disinterest. Boredom doesn’t care about truth. Boredom doesn’t care.
And though doubt and fear and depression and anger are emotions that belong to us and for which we must take responsibility, they are often triggered by something outside us. We are afraid of something. Something — an experience, an idea, a discovery — plants doubt in our spirits. Something happens that leaves us depressed. Something happens that makes us angry.
We have reason to be doubtful, reason to be angry, reason to depressed or afraid. There may even be reason to be in despair. But there is no reason to be bored! We bear entire responsibility for our boredom. It comes from within us.
And boredom is an affront to God. Boredom couldn’t care less about the beauty and wonder of all God has made and sets before us every single day, which means, of course, that boredom couldn’t care less about God. I said before that depression and anger are shadows, not sins. They may lead us to sin, but they are not in themselves sin. Boredom is a shadow, a deep and dark shadow, but since it comes entirely from within us, it is sin. Boredom is blasphemy, despising and defaming the wonder of what God has made.
Is that putting it too strongly? Or am I right?
Peter and John and James went up a hill with Jesus, a hill somewhere in the area around Lake Galilee in the north of Palestine, he to pray and they to nap. But when they woke, what did they see? They saw Jesus’ glory.
What did they see? Did they see Jesus as he really was, because the disguise of his common humanity had been pulled away? Or did they see Jesus as he really was, because in that moment they had eyes to see Jesus as he really was? Was Jesus’ appearance changed or was his glory revealed, the glory that had been there all along?
Glory had been there all along. Glory is there all along. Glory is there now, if you will see it!
The heavens tell out the glory of God.
The oceans tell out the glory of God.
Robins and cardinals tell out the glory of God.
Fields of ripening corn tell out the glory of God.
Moon and stars and Northern Lights tell out the glory of God.
Dolphins and whales and plankton tell out the glory of God.
Wolf and badger tell out the glory of God.
Crosby and Emily and Prince and Neveah tell out the glory of God.
And, if you will see it, you tell out the glory of God.
That is my sermon. Glory is there, if you will see it. The light shines. The light shines in the darkness. The light shines in the darkness of our spirits. So look and see! See the light! See by the light! See the beauty. See the wonder. See the glory.
Doubt no more. The light shines. Jesus is the light. See him, hear him, touch him, be touched by him and know God.
Do not be afraid! The light of the love of God made real in Jesus shines on you, enveloping you, reassuring you, and reminding you: “Do not be afraid. I am with you. You are mine.”
Be glad. The light shines. God will come to you in the darkness. God will shine his light upon you and hold you in his embrace. God will rejoice over you and wipe all tears from your eyes.
Do not despair. The joy that the Lord gives will make you strong.
Be angry, but do not sin. Let the light of God reveal the things that deserve your anger, and may that anger, like God’s own anger, be an expression of your love and a means of bringing justice and healing and light into this world.
And please, please, by all means, for the sake of the light that shines in the darkness, for the sake of the light of Jesus that reveals the glory of being human, the glory of being God’s creature, God’s creation, God’s child — please, for God’s sake, never say, “I am bored!”