"Out of My
Head"
by Rev. Gary Proietti
(a collection of recent sermons)
G.L. Proietti
EMSCC 2-28-99
Title: “God’s Little Miracle”
Text: John 3:1-17
Have you experienced a miracle today? I’m not talking about the turning the water
into wine kind of miracle. For me, just getting out of bed in the morning is a miracle of
sorts. But for an elderly person, opening a can of soup is
nothing shy of a marvel. Going through the day without joint pain for some is truly a
supernatural occurrence. For others, a meaningful conversation with a spouse becomes a
magical phenomena.
Did you pick up a telephone this weekend and call one of your relatives across the
country? Do you realize the network of switches and wires and computer programs it took to
connect your telephone to a telephone just across town? The miracle of modern
communication has got to be one of today’s seven wonders of the world. The basic
technology we take for granted today, would have been a science fiction marvel just a
dozen years ago.
When I was a boy, we thought that black and white television was a modern wonder, but now
we have incredible satellite communications that was unheard of only ten years ago. Today,
even your automatic coffee maker may have a tiny computer chip in it that, thirty years
ago, would have been as big as a small car. Often what was considered impossible years
ago, is now something that we might take for granted.
Let me read some famous words about what was considered impossible in times past.
“Heavier than air flying machines are impossible,” quoted by Lord Kelvin,
president of the Royal Society in 1895. In another quote we hear these words; “The
abdomen, the chest and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and
humane surgeon.” These were the words of Sir John Eric Ericksen, appointed
Surgeon-Extraodinaire to Queen Victoria in 1973.
In 1943 the chairman of IBM was quoted as saying, “I think there is a world market
for maybe five computers.” In 1968 an engineer at IBM looked at a computer chip and
said, “But what... is it good for?” The human mind often
sells short the possibilities that lie right within our reach. When some are saying
it’s impossible, a lone voice breaks through the fog and declares all things are
possible.
In today's gospel text, Nicodemus is like one of those folks so resistant to change that
they keep claiming that new possibilities are still impossible. Nicodemus is so
flabbergasted by the unexpected nature of Jesus' images and the possibilities of his
promises that he can keep stupidly stammering is "How is this possible?" How is
it that sinful humanity can enter into the holy presence of God? How can a faithless
humanity have faith in a supernatural God?
To answer Nicodemus’ question we might say that we believe in a God who specializes
in impossibilities. We know we can do the impossible because we have access to abilities
beyond ourselves. A boy and his father were walking along a road when they came across a
large stone. The boy said to his father, "Do you think if I use all my strength, I
can move this rock?" His father answered, "If you use all your strength, I am
sure you can do it." The boy began to push the rock. Exerting himself as much as he
could, he pushed and pushed. The rock did not move. Discouraged, he said to his father,
"You were wrong, I can't do it." The father placed his arm around the boy's
shoulder and said, "No, son, you didn't use all your strength - you didn't ask me to
help."
You see, when we think our jobs are too difficult for us to handle, remember, for God so
loved the world. And when our arthritis keeps us from opening a jar, don’t forget,
for God so loved the world. And when our marriages are strained to the breaking point,
recall the promise that God so loved the world. What Nicodemus deemed impossible, Christ
provided the possible. What we perceive as unattainable, we can obtain because God so
loved the world. Whatever stands in the way of our realizing the life that God intended
for us, remember that God’s love makes all things possible.
This is the way we experience God’s little miracles.
G.L. Proietti
EMSCC 3-07-99
Title: “My Personal Saver”
Text: Romans 5:1-11
As a result of the miracle of video technology, we can now witness fast breaking news.
There are many programs on TV that use home videos to produce entire shows for public
viewing. Shows like Top Cops and America’s Funniest Home Videos provide us with hours
of viewing pleasure, but one of the most dramatic shows among the home video genre
is Amazing Rescues. We watch in awe as paramedics and police forces save people from
burning houses and raging flood waters.
We will go to great lengths to save someone who is in peril of losing life or limb. Do you
remember little Jessica McClure who stumbled down an abandoned well in her Texas backyard?
An entire community came to the rescue of the tiny child including excavators, well
drillers, fire fighters, and police. Thousands of dollars were spent saving twenty pounds
of human life.
No expense is ever spared for the rescue of a precious child of God.
There is a human tendency to get lost or go off the beaten path. Like little Jessica, we
like to wander and explore places we shouldn’t go. Occasionally, we need to be
rescued by someone who has already been to
the place of the lost. But there are times when we refuse to be rescued either because we
are too proud to admit we’re in trouble or we are unaware that we are desperately
lost. Like the recluse mountaineer who refused to heed the warning that Mt. St. Helens was
about to explode in his back yard.
You might have heard the story of the homeowner who was perched on his roof as flood
waters raged higher and higher. A man in a rowboat came by and offered him a lift, but he
sent the man off saying, “I’m a man of faith and I’m going to trust God to
save me.” As the waters rose to the edge of the roof, a rescue boat came by to offer
help. “No thanks,” the man said, “I’m trusting in God to save
me.”
Finally, as the water came up to the peak of the roof, a helicopter came overhead and for
the third time offered to save the man from the impending flood. “I’m trusting
in God to save me,” the man said, and sent the helicopter away. Well, as things would
go, the man on the roof drowned and stood before the throne of God. “I trusted in you
to save my from the
flood. What happened?” God says to him, “Well, I sent you two boats and a
helicopter!”
But remember. No matter how resistant we are to being rescued by God, God is always
standing at the gate ready to come to our rescue. Matthew 18:11 tells us that the Son of
man is come to save that which was lost. If a
man have a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety
and nine, and go into the mountains, and seek that one which is gone astray? We stand in
need of a rescuer who can save us.
In a sense, all of us have gone astray and are in need of being rescued. When we lose a
loved one to death, we need to be rescued from our despair and grief. When we become
elderly and lose our ability to do simple tasks, we need to be saved from our
disappointments about the hand life has dealt us. When our plans and dreams are dashed
upon the
rocks, we need a rescuer who will reach down to the lowest ebb of our disappointment and
swoop us out of our state of desperation.
In a sense we all need a personal savior who will personally be there to offer support and
care as only a savior can. Little ten-year-old Billy needed a savior. He tells us this
story about how he was always picked on at
school. "Every once in a while, Momma would make me go to Sunday school with Joey.
Even though it was just a bunch of singing and coloring in coloring books and listening to
Mrs. Davidson, I had learned one thing. I learned about getting saved. I learned how
someone could come to you when you were feeling real, real bad and could take all of your
problems away and make you feel better. I learned that the person who saved you, your
personal saver, was sent by God to protect you and to help you out.
"When the bigger one of the two boys who got on the bus late said to the driver in a
real down-South accent, 'Thank you for stopping, sir,' I knew right away. I knew that God
had finally gotten sick of me being teased and
picked on all the time.
As I looked at this new boy with the great big smile and the jacket with holes in the
sleeves and the raggedy tennis shoes and the tore-up blue jeans, I knew who he was. Maybe
he didn't live a million years ago, and maybe he didn't have a beard and long hair, and
maybe he wasn't born under a star, but I knew anyway; I knew God had finally sent me some
help; I knew God had finally sent me my personal saver.”
G.L. Proietti
EMSCC 3-14-99
Title: “Snake Oil and Sugar Pills”
Text: John 9:1-41
Back in my high school days, I was a real science buff. I had a lab in a corner of the
basement where I would conduct mad experiments on my siblings and friends. One time I
performed an experiment on my cousin who was
visiting. I sat her down in front of a Bunsen burner that was heating a metal block until
it was red hot. I blind-folder her and brought the hot metal near her skin until she could
feel the heat. The I touched her hand with an ice cube.
What do you think happened? Her mind was geared to believe she was going to be burned so
when she felt the cold of the ice cube she jumped out of her skin believing she had been
burned. In controlled experiments with the ice cube some of the subjects were reported to
actually develop blisters just as if they had been really burned. Our minds are a powerful
force that can bring us healing and peace. When our minds are unhealthy, it can also bring
us sickness and pain.
Researchers in a New York hospital told asthma sufferers that they were going to use an
inhalant that would open their airways. That's exactly what happened when each one of
these asthmatics used the spray, even though the inhaler
contained a placebo. And when another group was warned that the medication in their
inhalers would constrict their airways, the treatment did just that for half the test
subjects. Twelve sufferers even had full-blown asthma attacks -
which were reversed when they inhaled a placebo medication.
The power of inner healing is a marvelous wonder. Let’s look at the healing of the
blind man in the Gospel of John. Of course, Jesus could have healed the man without
putting the concoction of spit and dust on his eyes. But
Jesus was a master of bringing home a lesson. In verses 1-5 the disciples assumed the man
had somehow been on God’s hit list. After all, if you suffer from some affliction,
it’s got to be God’s punishment for some sort of unresolved sin.
Jesus explains that no one had sinned. It was an opportunity for God to be made real to a
world filled with unbelief. I imagine, even if you asked the blind man if he thought Jesus
could heal him, he would probably be a little
leery. “Well, you know, I have been blind since I was born.” It becomes obvious
that not only is the man with defective eyes blind. The disciples are also short sighted
about God’s intentions through His Son, Jesus.
That’s when the Lord does a strange thing. He spits into a morsel of dust and makes a
kind of salve. He rubs it on the man’s eyes and tells him to wash in a pool. The well
is called Siloam which means “one who is sent.” Jesus is sent by God to bring
the world a message of salvation. Washing in this pool might even be a symbol of baptism.
As we are baptized in Christ our eyes are opened to the giver of light - God’s light.
More than likely, though, the dust and spittle are symbolic of the creation story in
Genesis where God fashioned human life from the dust of the ground. In Genesis, God
breathes on the dust and it comes to life. In John’s story, Jesus’ spit seems to
contain the healing powers that open blind eyes. As the blind man staggers through the
crowd to get to the pool some fifteen hundred feet away, he wonders what spit and dirt in
his eyes would do. At the pool of
Siloam, the blind man’s eyes are opened.
But the miracle doesn’t convince the religious leaders. They put the blind man
through a battery of questions asking him how he got his sight back. They even go to his
parents and ask them how it happened. They said, “He is old
enough to speak for himself. Why don’t you go ask him?” But the religious
leaders knew very well who did the miracle. They refused to give credit to the Son of God.
This reminds me of the Bible bashers who constantly try to
disprove the Bible. One scholar claimed that when the children of Israel crossed the Red
Sea, the water was only a few inches deep. A young student responded by saying what a
miracle that was, since the entire army of Pharaoh was drowned in only a few inches of
water.
Now the religious leaders continued their method of harassment and asked the formally
blind man the truth about his alleged healing. They even accused Jesus of being a sinner
who could never do God’s work. Frustrated with all the
interrogation, I believe the man raised his hand in the air and said, “Whether or not
he is a sinner, I don’t know, but I know one thing - once I was blind and now I
see!” The power of the mind is great, but the power of God is
greater.
Author Dorothy C. Bass wrote, “We yearn once again for a way of life that is whole,
and touched by the presence of God.” All of us want a touch from God. We sometimes
wish God would wave his magic wand and make all our troubles and sorrows go away. I often
wish I could go back in time and have my little daughter back. I try to wish away my
problems and weaknesses without having to “wash in the pool” and be obedient to
God’s word.
People are actually helped by taking sugar pills and phony elixirs because they are
focused on the healing process going on inside them. The mud pack on the blind man’s
eyes were simply a device to get him to focus on the healing
that the Christ had afforded him. But the ones who were really in need of healing were
those who refused to admit their blindness. For when we come to Christ with our failings
and mistakes, our sins and offenses, we can go away saying, “This I know - once I was
blind, but now I see.
G.L. Proietti
EMSCC 3-28-99
Title: “Body Piercing Saved My Life”
Text: Philippians 2:5-11
Lately my thirteen year old daughter has been asking me about various and sundry forms of
body piercing. Now I don’t mind a couple of earrings dangling from her earlobes, but
today’s young people want everything from their tongues to there belly buttons
perforated with a gold stud. Back in the eighties, when I moved from seminary in Texas to
a church near Boston, I noticed the Bostonian were sporting tattoos, body piercings and
other pagan-like accessories. When we moved to Ohio a few years later, we noticed no one
had those kinds of fashion statements.
Today we look around us and notice that Ohioans are now sticking jewelry in their lips,
eyebrows, nostrils and other places where the sun usually don’t shine. The world is
changing around us at a blinding rate. As culture and trends change, the church seems to
be left in the dust. While we sing medieval hymns on Sunday morning, the world outside our
doors tends to be moving into a new dimension that no longer understands, much less
relates, to our brand of churchiness.
A fellow named Gene Bolin wanted to start a new church. Not just any
church. He wanted to start a church for people who didn't go to church. Rev. Bolin said he
wanted to reach non-churchgoing Generation Xers and baby boomers in Walkersville, an
affluent town within commuting range of both Baltimore and Washington. He hired a New York
agency that produced silly ads for Saturday Night Live and had them put together a page
for the local newspaper.
One print ad in the campaign shows a painting of Christ on the cross with these words
appearing to have been scratched on the canvas: “Of course people with pierced body
parts are welcome in our church" Jesus’ body piercings were obviously not a
fashion statement, but his wounds were evidence of his obedience to give up his life to
save even those who pierce their bodies for fashion.
As a church we need to ask ourselves how we can present the Gospel of Christ to a culture
who have never stepped foot into a church. There was a time when the name of Jesus was
unheard in foreign lands, but today many who have been born and raised in the United
States have no knowledge of Jesus or anything to do with His Church. Will we welcome the
person with the pierced tongue and, moreover, will we present the Gospel to those people
in ways they will understand?
In the Old Testament, body piercing is prohibited on the basis of mutilation and the
association to pagan practices. Earrings for women only were permitted but only on the
earlobe. Rings on top of the ear were forbidden because that was a sign of being a slave.
Today people are piercing their bodies because it is attractive and pretty. But
deeper than that, young people are piercing themselves as an act of defiance to society
the same way young people grew long hair in the sixties to protest the establishment.
It makes me wonder if people aren’t just trying all kinds of gimmicks and fads
because they are unhappy with their present life situation. Instead of looking for
the one whose body was pierced for them, they are piercing their bodies in order to find
some sort of self-fulfillment. Perhaps if they could discover the nail pierced hands
of Jesus, they would realize He came to die for their sins. If they could only learn of
the wounds in His feet and His side, they would discover that He is the source of all
contentment and peace.
One time on a church sign was this message: “BODY PIERCING SAVED MY LIFE.” It
was Christ’s pierced body that saved my life and gave me hope when there was no hope.
It is the Resurrection we anticipate during Lent that points us to the glorification that
lies ahead of this struggle we called life. Because Jesus humbled himself to the death of
the cross, and gave up his godliness to be like us, we are afforded new life and hope.
