Sermons
"The Lost Ones--or Bob's Old Beds"
Gracious God may you open our eyes to your presence all around us-in
your holy name
we pray.
Amen.
Good Morning! It's good to be back.
Because of your incredible generosity
-I spent the last two months
at our house
in Betterton, Maryland.
In addition to being in Maryland,
a couple days a week
-I'd lead Kayaking tours
and do some kayak instructing
for Coastal Kayaks a tiny place
on Fenwick Island in Delaware.
Fenwick Island
is right on the Atlantic
-just north of Ocean City, Maryland.
On the days
I was guiding or instructing
-I'd get up around five
and drive
two and half hours
from our house to the ocean
-bisecting what's known
as the DelMarVa peninsula.
For those of you
unfamiliar with the area
the DelMarVa peninsula
is that finger of land
where
Delaware, Maryland and Virginia-(Del-Mar-Va get it?)
come together
nestled between
the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
Aside from the
condos and hotels
constructed on the coast
to contain
the nine million people
who spend a week's vacation at the beach
-the remainder of the peninsula
is extremely rural
dedicated to
soy-beans,
corn fields
and chicken coops-
-with chickens far exceeding
the human population.
On a hot day-there's no denying the chickensÖ
On one of the many
speed-trapped
revenue producing
back roads
on my drive to the beach
was a store-now closed
-called,
"Bob's Old Beds."
One day
-I got to thinking
about Bob's store
that extinct place of business.
Bob's Old BedsÖ
Where did they come from?
I mean-
where did he get the old beds?
Estate sales
after lonely old ladies
laid back and breathed their last?
Young couples
shacking up
combining one household
-getting rid of the guy's gross mattress
-dropping it off
at Bob's old Beds
so they can have
a bit of extra cash
to get some beer and cigarettes for the weekend?
Or
were they
box spring and mattress sets
--found by the side of the road
-still damp from the morning's dew
-or from heaven knows what elseÖ
Maybe Bob has a large family
and as they move on
to better mattresses
just as a matter of course
they drop off their old beds
at crazy Uncle Bob's
who, (can you believe it?)
resells the beds
to people furnishing half-way houses.
On their way
to the mattress discount store
they just make it a family practice
to detour down rte. 404
to drop off their old bed.
Or maybe
Bob has a cousin
who works for the county sheriff
-and at the end of each month
he calls Bob and tips him off
with the addresses
of all the folks being evicted the next day.
How's he get those beds?
Then I got to thinkingÖ (It was a long drive)
Who buys old beds?
Is it people furnishing half-way houses?
Or poor folks
moving into double-wides?
Maybe its the local farmer
who wants to construct
a tumbling gym for his two sons
so that some day
they might experience Olympic greatness?
Or its the high school football coach
looking for something
for his varsity team to crash into ?
A proprietress
of a nearby house of ill repute?
The warden of the county jail
looking for a cheap way
to furnish his holding cells?
Hey--- does Bob ever clean the old beds?
Brush'em off
-spray them with Lysol-dust for lice and fleas?
Does he encase them in cracked plastic?
How did he decide to go into this business?
What did he do before this entrepreneurial stutter step?
How did he come up with the idea
-"Used beds that's what I'll sell!"
Lastly what I wanted to know--
What type of bed does Bob sleep in?
Does he buy his own wares?
Does he change beds
like others change sheets
-depending upon what models are in stock?
Who knows about Bob's old BedsÖ
There was so much I could never figure outÖ
no doubt my in-depth musings
accounts for all tickets I accumulated.
With all the new beds in the world
-can you imagine going after
ones that have already been slept in?
Who even knew that those old mattresses mattered?
Who in their right mind would go after used beds?
****** ******** ********* ***********
What about----what about
the lost things of this world
the least-the lost
the ones
-that seemingly only God sees as Holy?
This morning we heard two stories
-two parables-
one of a shepherd leaving behind
99 of his flock
to look for one lost sheep
-and a woman-who lights a lamp-
and tears her house apart
just to find one coin.
The shepherd leaving untended the bulk of his worth
-to find one lost presumably smelly sheep.
The woman no doubt
spending more money on the oil
to light the lamp
than the lost coin is worth.
Yet all the same-seeking,
searching, looking
not until they get tired or bored
-but looking UNTIL they find the lost.
Our world's standards dictate
that we don't waste the energy,
use the time,
risk the safety of the 99
to find the one that is missing.
Common sense says-go with what you know
-what you have and leave the rest.
In the same vein-
most of us wouldn't ever dream
of buying a used mattress
-maybe in a pinch taking one from a friend
-but purchasing one
with no idea of its colorful history-its dicey pastÖnoÖ
But God-God calls us to do
as the shepherd and woman
and Bob (of Bob's old beds) did
-God calls us literally and symbolically
to seek out the lost, the least, the used up and the spit out.
God calls us-but do we?
Do you?
Do I?
********* ********* **********
In yesterday's New York times
Nicholas Kristof
-wrote an editorial entitled,
"Reign of Terror"
-in which he describes
his most recent visit to Darfur in the Sudan.
He writes,
"I found a man
groaning under a tree.
He had been shot
in the neck and jaw
and left for dead in a pile of corpses.
Seeking shelter
under the very next tree
were a pair of widows
whose husbands
had both been shot to death.
Under the next tree, he writes,
I found a 4-year-old orphan girl
caring for her starving
1-year-old brother.
And under the tree next to that
was a woman
whose husband had been killed,
along with her
7-year-and 4-year-old sons
before she was gang raped and mutilated.
Those were the refugees
sheltering under just four adjacent trees. Thousands of other victims
with similar stories
stretched as far as the eye could see.
Every week
as many people die in Darfur
as did in the world trade center attacks.
When I read articles like this
-If I can bear to read them
-I always think-yes,
but what can I really do?
I don't even know where to begin
-where to begin,
sweeping, looking-helping.
But in this case-
the broom is readily at hand.
Father Joseph
of the diocese of Renk
in the Sudan
is currently here in Chicago
and because of the good work
of Connie Wilson
he will be with us in two weeks.
On Wednesday, September 22-
preaching at our mid-week Eucharist
and then leading a discussion
on the situation in the Sudan
after the service.
Now my friends,
Is the time for us to rearrange our schedules
And come and listen to this good man.
Now is the time
for us to listen and discern
how much money
we can give to aid his people.
Just how much care
and love and support
we will invest.
What we do give---
Will it be enough?
Will it change things?
At the very least
it will change us.
No doubt it will be worth it
for the one
-the one least and lost
whom we will not give up until we find.
Our God, our faith
calls us to seek until we find
the lost and the least
-those set aside and discarded
by the rest of the world.
What about
the lost and the least of this world
-that only God seems to see as holy
-isn't about time we went looking for them?
Amen.