Don Needham - Grenfell Uniting Church 8/2/04

Left Undone

'She passed away on Tuesday.

'We've spent the last few days this week frantically organizing the funeral and running around trying to find all her paper documents because she didn't have a will, and didn't tell us where she hid her stuff.

'So we went to her apartment, after she had a major stroke, to clean out all the food stuff that's in the fridge and anything else that was going to go bad and I find that she had still ripped the last day from her calendar off....10 January 2004, before she had the stroke....

'She also had a pot of pork (or what looked like pork) sitting on the stove....but after 2-3 days of intense Sydney heat and humidity, the apartment stank like you wouldn't believe.

'She passed away in peace and slept thru till she died...and also had a taste of morphine (nasty stuff but good for making her comfortable)....

'We cremated her today and she had a good dozen and a half people turn up to her funeral....many people loved her....and despite the fact that she argued with her family all her life (very head strong lady) she left many fond memories for us to hold on to ....

'Makes you think when someone close dies....especially when they didn't know it was coming.....how do you think you will leave this world, and what will be on your stove on your last day.'

This was written by a friend of mine—a non Christian—though I did manage to coax her to Charles Ordination—after the death of her Grandmother and the last line certainly reverberated in my head for it was just a month since I had been sincerely contemplating my own mortality in the cab of a header out at Bill Matchett’s farm while I struggled to get enough air.

I thought what a great way to start a sermon. What will be on your stove on your last day.

I also remembered back to my father’s last years where he’d been careful to label each of his customer’s jobs so that they could be returned for he knew his days were numbered. Most of us don’t know and many of us consider ourselves immortal. I have a small poster on my workshop wall which states ‘God put us here to accomplish a certain number of things—right now I am so far behind I will live forever’. But of course I know this isn’t so. On my gravestone will be the inscription “Here lies Don—another work unfinished” Although I do try to label all the jobs that come in—at least I’ve learned that much.

American Poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) wrote, "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), who was a contemporary of John Greenleaf Whittier, staunch abolitionist, and author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," had this to say, "The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."

The biggest stink we leave behind won’t be a pot of pork on the stove or an unfinished project or job but unrepaired hurts, careless words, the neglected opportunity to teach a family member or friend the gospel of Christ, loved ones estranged, a divided family, the neglected or ignored responsibility to God, the things we’ve left undone that are so much more important than the material things.

Remember the parable told to the disciples by Jesus? "Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. "And he thought within himself, saying, `What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?' "So he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. `And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, {and} be merry."' "But God said to him, `{You} fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?'"

Or the letter of James beginning at Chapter 4, verse 13, he states, "Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what {will happen} tomorrow. For what {is} your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you {ought} to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do {it}, to him it is sin."

What a sobering passage. And one which convicts much of the world today. We all have a tendency to get caught up in the day to day grind of this life, and forget its transient nature. Tomorrow I have to do this. Next week I have to do that. Next month I am going holidays. Next year I’ll buy the 2 paddocks next door. We say these things and take for granted the gossamer gift of life granted to us by our Lord. As Charles quoted the old Jewish saying at the last contemporary service ‘Man Plans and God laughs’.

We also leave the important undone in the quest for life experiences and while I’m not rushing off to explore the wilds of Africa or climb the highest mountain in Antarctica I am just as guilty, As one group put it “Living doesn't require one to jump out of airplanes, climb sheer mountain faces, or drive race cars at 200+ miles per hour” yet we pursue these as if it does even if vicariously via the television.

Shortly before his death, Mark Twain wrote: “A myriad of men are born; they labour and sweat and struggle…they squabble and scold and fight; they scramble for little mean advantages over each other; age creeps upon them; infirmities follow…those they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is turned to aching grief. [The release] comes at last—the only unpoisoned gift earth ever had for them—and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence … a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever.”

What a sad way to view life—no joy, no thrills, just aching grief. Certainly there is sorrow, misery, and more than enough portions of pain. But there isn’t joy? Does not Jesus speak of an abundant life?

One day, Jesus was walking with His friends when they saw a man sitting by the side of the road. Everyone knew him; he had been blind since birth and always sat in the same place. After a few minutes of conversation, Jesus rubbed spit mixed with dirt in the blind man’s eyes. After washing it off, to everyone’s amazement, he could see.

The blind man returns to home. When he finally convinces them there he is who he says he is, they drag him off to the religious leaders to figure it all out. Rather than rejoicing in his healing, they question whether he was ever really blind at all. They throw him out of the synagogue. The place where he should have been able to celebrate his healing and investigate the God who healed him, was now off limits. Luckily, Jesus wasn’t. Jesus tracked him down and told him: “My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.”

And there it is.

The difference between Jesus and everyone else. The difference between what Jesus offers and what the world or even ‘religion’ offers. He stands in front of each of us with life…life in all its fullness. The Greek adjective Jesus uses is perissos which means roughly ‘more than you need and far more than expected’ So what Jesus was saying is, “My purpose is to give so much life it is superabundant.” In other words, you will never need more life because you have more than you will ever need.

What if Jesus really meant it?
Can we really believe that in a world of guilt and shame, of unfinished jobs, hurtful words and broken relationships?

Part of God's good news is the freedom from guilt over the things we've done, or left undone. Our part is to confess to God and repent. When we do, he promises to forgive us. We do this each Sunday as part of our prayer life in worship.

But what of shame? We feel guilty because we did something wrong; shame because we are something wrong. We feel guilty for instance because we lied and shame because we are not the person God wants us to be.

Jesus befriends, heals, gathers up, welcomes in people, who for one reason or another, are living half a life and they become the people they have it in them to be. Zacchæus, a greedy tax-collector and collaborator, discovers that he is still a son of Abraham: he can still belong to his own people. Jesus’ visit welcomes him home. The woman with haemorrhages touches Jesus and does not get rejected, as she has been for twelve long years by her own community. She too is welcomed home. Being human is good enough because the guilt and shame have been taken to the cross by Jesus allowing us the freedom for the abundant life he offers.

God offers freedom from our shame when we listen to who he says we are: new creations, children of God, heirs of his Kingdom, and even blessed! We are special, we are unique, we are alive. We are children of God, and he loves us – again and again we need to re-discover this truth.

Rather than die a bitter old man such as Mark Twain described, I would want to live life abundant! The fullness is ours for the asking. That’s why, as Steve read, Simon Peter and James and John left their boats and what was probably their best ever catch of fish to go with Jesus—they saw what Jesus offered them was far more important than material gain and would last an eternity.

One final thought to tie the beginning to the end.

A Story To Live By - by Ann Wells (Los Angeles Times)

My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister's bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package. "This," he said, "is not a slip. This is lingerie." He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite; silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached. "Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is the occasion." He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician. His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment, then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me. "Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special occasion." ……. Every day, every minute, every breath truly is...a gift from God.

Please don't wait for tomorrow! Make it right today, because you may not have tomorrow!

What will be on your stove on your last day?