The
Final Product
Sermon preached by Ron Theile, Lay Leader
October 15, 2006
Scripture:
Psalm 112; I John 4:7-12
I
often think back to my days as a child playing in the neighborhood
on the south side of Chicago. In the late afternoon I would start
looking down the block at the corner for the big event. No matter
what I was doing, I would always make sure to glance down the block
to make sure the big event had not started. Then the time would come.
A car would stop at the corner. The person getting out of the car
at the end of the block was my dad. I would take off running as fast
as my legs would carry me. Pass the green grass or the fallen leaves
or the piles of snow I would run. Then at exactly the right moment
I would jump and fly into his waiting arms. I would lose myself in
his overcoat, and everything about the moment would say “Welcome
Home.”
Dad
would put me down and we would walk home down the block together.
I would look down at our feet so that I could stay, stride for stride,
even with him. I would notice how his feet were slightly pointed out
as he walked and I tried to carefully turn my feet out so that I was
stepping exactly the same way. I wanted to be exactly like him.
At
home, if I strolled by his bedroom at the right time when he was looking
through his dresser drawers, and if I was lucky enough to be invited
in, I could gaze upon Dad’s Sunday school medal and the string
of bars hanging from that medal that represented perfect attendance
at church. I wanted to be exactly like him.
Dad
would get up each Sunday and shake us out of bed as he announced,
“Everybody up, it’s time to go to church.” Of course
we complained, because the only time to catch Flash Gordon was Sunday
morning, and there were no VCRs or DVDs at that time to record. If
you weren’t there, you missed it. But there was no negotiation,
Dad expected us to go. I didn’t realize what the point was until
one morning when the Sunday school teacher asked me to take the attendance
to the office. As I was walking down the hallway, the windows of both
the education building and the sanctuary were open. A perfect breeze
from a beautiful morning blew through the windows as the congregation
raised their voices to “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty.”
I found peace. I was safe. I was loved not just by my family, but
by all those who, on that morning, had surrounded me. I was beginning
to learn what being a Christian was all about. I was becoming a product
of my environment.
There was a 14-year-old girl that was transferred to Mark Twain Middle
School, where I am a teacher and the Dean of Discipline, from another
school close to downtown L.A. Upon arrival at Mark Twain, the principal
reviewed the file and noted that she was sent from the previous school
for stabbing another student with a pencil. The principal took note
that the victim had to go to the hospital. With this information,
he decided to either send her back or send her to yet another school.
But before he sent her back or somewhere else, he wanted me to talk
to her first to see what I thought. She arrived in the office and
the first words I said gave her the benefit of the doubt. The conversation
went like this:
I
said: I see you stabbed someone with a pencil. But, it was probably
more like a jab, right?
She said: No. I stabbed her through the arm.
I
said: So, it wasn’t a poke.
She
said: No. I asked the teacher to sharpen my pencil before I stabbed
her so it would go all the way through her arm. Twice.
I
paused for a second and asked: Parents?
She
answered: Dead
I
asked: Friends?
She
answered: In jail
I
asked: And you?
She
paused, looked me in the eye and answered, “The same.”
She
was later escorted from the school, with her paperwork and a referral
to an anti-gang intervention group, to the car where her parents drove
her away.
If
you are asking yourself how this girl became who she is, the answer
is that she is a product of her environment. Upon examination of the
file, her parents met a violent death, the friends she spoke of were
in jail guilty of armed robbery and the only reason she didn’t
get caught was they didn’t agree with her plan for the robbery
and she walked away.
Throughout
the millennium we see examples of how children are a product of their
environment. The only way that the people of this earth are where
they are at today is because discoveries are passed down from generation
to generation and as each discovery is passed on it is improved upon
by the next generation. The same can be said of the way people perceive
other people and the way they treat each other. If there is bigotry
and hatred, family feuds, and especially, war, it is improved upon
by making worse and passed to the next generation.
The
bible gives examples of war whereas the next generation is taught,
by example, how to be warring nations.
In
Judges Chapter 3, verse 2 it says: “These are the nations the
LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any
of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the
descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience).
You don’t need to look in the bible or even go back into history
to witness hatred and war being taught to children. You don’t
have to look much beyond your own TV set to see young ones in the
middle of demonstrations of hate or war of one sort or another.
Some
children witness war each and every day. Imagine a child getting up
in the morning and going into the kitchen to see dad holding an AK47
fully automatic rifle and getting ready to do the work of the day.
Maybe dad is holding a rocket launcher. He speaks of plans to lay
mines in a roadway hoping a military vehicle will ride over it and
hoping he can detonate it at exactly the right time to do the most
damage. Imagine this child waiting for his dad to come home. Imagine
this child wanting to be exactly like dad. Or how about those twin
teens who are spokes-kids for white separatists, Lamb and Lynx who
vaulted to international attention after they appeared on ABC's "Primetime"
last year. The girls, their mother April, and
stepfather Mark Harrington recently moved to Montana from Bakersfield,
Calif., after April told "Primetime" that Bakersfield was
"not white enough."
The
problem is, of course, incredibly wider than these examples. The
problem exists in our very own neighborhoods. According to the National
Gang survey, the pervasiveness of gangs throughout our society is
undeniable. They incite fear and violence within our communities.
Gangs threaten our schools, our children, and our homes. Gangs today
are more flagrant and sophisticated in their use of violence and
intimidation. As they migrate across the country, they bring with
them drugs, weapons, and criminal activity. The report says that
acceptance of the problem, and joint community and the law enforcement
responses are our best defense. Law enforcement respondents to the
2005 national gang threat assessment noted several trends that were
prevalent across the country. They were:
Gangs
remained the primary distributors of drugs throughout the United
States .
Gangs
are associating with organized crime entities such as Mexican drug
organization criminal groups and Russian organized crime groups
.
Gang
members are becoming more sophisticated in their use of computers
and technology..
Prison
gangs pose a unique threat to law enforcement and communities. Incarceration
of members often does not disrupt their activities.
Hispanic gang membership is on the rise.
Migration
of California style gang culture remains a particular threat as
migration spreads gangs into new neighborhoods.
Reports indicate an increased use of firearms.
The
most recent survey conducted estimates the number of youth gangs
in the United States to be 21,500 with 731,500 gang members. Prison
gangs, motorcycle gangs and adult gangs are excluded from this estimate.
With
such staggering facts and figures before us, what are we to do,
where might there be a glimmer of hope?
Our
glimmer of hope can be found in one simple story about a girl named
Amanda.
Amanda
lives in the area of La Cienega and Cadillac, an area where there
are so many gangs that turf is fought over by individual pieces
of properties and not blocks and an area that it is not unusual
to hear several episodes of gunshots every evening. Amanda comes
from a single parent home and her two brothers are deeply connected
to the Mexican cartel. Amanda is an A-B student. She is a leader
at our school. When she shared her home life with me, I asked her
how she survives. She told me that she goes home, goes to her room,
locks the door and hides. I said, “Don’t be ridiculous,
surely you come out.” Amanda raised her voice and said, “Hey
look, I can’t be in a gang and be a bellringer, you won’t
let me and neither will anybody else in the choir. I can’t
have failing grades because you’ll kick me out and besides
I’ll look stupid to the other ringers and besides they need
me for the Christmas Concert at your church.” You see, Amanda
has decided which environment she will become a product of.
What
are the criteria that Amanda uses to choose which environment to
become a product of? It is the same criteria that Dominique used,
and the same criteria Lamb and Lynx chose, and the same criteria
that
a small child in the Middle East would choose, and the same criteria
that I chose that one morning long ago, and the same criteria that
every child I have ever met would choose. They will choose the environment
that offers unconditional love and full acceptance.
If
Amanda provides us with a glimmer of hope, how can we capitalize
on this lesson so that we as Christians can be the hope? We must
be the source of the love and acceptance that is sought by every
human being on this earth. And where do we look for the lesson
and the example of love and acceptance. I submit to you that we
look to the heart of a child.
Every
child or youth that I have ever met, and worked with always looked
beyond my faults and accepted and loved me without judgment. They
accepted me for who I am without question. They have taught me
to be as they are and to do the same. Therefore, the environment
created between us is based upon love and acceptance.
In
Rev. Farris’ sermon last week she spoke to Matthew 18. 2
– 6 which tell us that Jesus said, “I tell you the
truth, unless you change and become like little children, you
will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is telling
us to love and accept others as a child would. Before we were
able to read the Bible, where did we learn about love and acceptance?
We were taught by example by our mother and father. And where
did they learn? By their mother and father. And who gave this
earth the perfect example of love and acceptance? Jesus Christ
himself, whose repeated message was love and acceptance among
ourselves as God loves and accepts us.
So,
how do we, as Christians, break the cycle of hate, bigotry and
war that is in our own city and the world? We must be vigilant
as to how we treat others as if we have the eyes of the child
upon us. We must create environments for the next generation to
live within that promotes love and acceptance. This congregation
is actively involved in creating these environments. There is
Family Place, Senior Villa, our Gulf Coast work teams, Sunday
school, vacation church school, Bible study and discussion groups.
We provide space for community groups to meet and that’s
one of the reasons why the new Shelby Center is so vital to our
church and the community. From these environments, we become emissaries
to wherever we go to promote the same environment that loves and
accepts us. Our greatest resource, and our best emissaries, are
our youth and our children. When it is time for Amanda or any
other child or youth to decide which environment they will become
a product of, they will choose the environment they are most likely
to be loved and accepted. They will examine the product that this
congregation has produced and test it to see if it meets their
needs. And God willing they will choose that environment that
teaches love and tolerance as solutions to problems and God willing
will create a pyramid affect throughout our city, nation and world
so that someday this world will become the final product that
God intends to be.
And
ultimately in the end, we can look over our shoulders, and see
that the generations that follow us will live in a world of peace.
And then, we can look down the path to see our Heavenly Father
standing there. And behind him, those that came before us, who
taught us the meaning of love and acceptance. And we will run
down the path past the grass, the fallen leaves, and the piles
of snow. And we will jump at exactly the right time, and lose
ourselves in his robes. And he will take our face in his hands
and look into our eyes. And everything about the moment will say,
“Welcome Home.”
Amen
©Ron
Theile, 2006. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
All other rights reserved.
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