Confidence!
Confidence is a powerful attitude.
With confidence, Lewis and Clark set out on their
journey up the Missouri River, across the Rockies and into the Columbia River
Basin, finally to reach the Pacific Ocean.
Years later, confidence moves the pioneers into their
wagons for the long trek westward; they endure disease, injury, violence and
death … it’s been said that the Oregon Trail was paved with the bones of
children who died along the way, from the smallest injury, when infection set
in, or if they fell out of a wagon, trampled to death by an on-coming team of
oxen.
Confidence is a powerful attitude.
Confidence brought my ancestors to this nation.
Grandparents, on my father’s side, came from the
Netherlands in the late 1800s … with confidence, they boarded the boat and make
their way across the wild North Atlantic, to land in New York City and make
their way to Wisconsin, Iowa and back to Wisconsin again.
Great, great grandparents on my mothers side – left
Silesia, in Poland, 1848 – hard times for Europe – confidence took them to the
New World, to farmland in Wisconsin … and there to begin life anew, with plenty
of challenges … including three sons drafted into the Union Army – they all
came back home, safe and sound, and one of them was my great grandfather.
Confidence brings new immigrants to our shores.
The restless animal that we are.
Feet always moving.
Eyes peering over the horizon
to see what’s there for us.
Sometimes, it’s the quest for
adventure.
Sometimes, to flee war and
poverty.
Always, the search for a better
life.
If not for ourselves, then for
our children and grandchildren.
Always, the wonder-working
power of confidence.
With confidence, we take a test.
Overcome an obstacle.
Challenge the odds.
Start all over again.
Find our way.
Seize the day.
The belief that we can do it.
Whatever life throws at us.
However life plays out for us.
If there’s a mountain, climb
it.
If it’s too high, dig right
through it.
If it’s too hard, go around
it.
Because we’re created in the image of God.
God creates the heavens and the earth, with confidence!
God said, with confidence, Let there be light.
With confidence, God confronts Adam and Eve after their
disobedience and makes good clothing for them.
With confidence, God comes to Abram and Sarai, and asks
for a few moments of their time.
With confidence, God watches the people of Israel go
down to Egypt, where they became slaves.
With confidence, God calls upon Moses at the Burning
Bush, to head back to Egypt, and help Pharaoh “Let my people go!”
We have confidence, because we’re created in God’s
image.
Yet confidence can be dangerous.
All the dictators of history
had confidence.
Alexander the Great had
confidence, to conquer his world.
The Roman Emperors had
confidence; with sword and spear, allowed no enemy to stand.
Hitler had confidence in his
twisted plans to dominate Europe and cleanse the world of Jews and homosexuals,
in defense of the homeland and for god and the German people.
Bernie Madoff had tons of
confidence when he began in Ponzi Scheme.
So does your average bank
robber.
Confidence can get us into trouble.
I suppose Eve was confident
when she plucked the apple from the tree.
Judas was confident when he
made his bargain with the authorities.
We sometimes describe
risk-takers as “over confident.”
Confidence is a dangerous attitude.
When the moral compass is broken!
History is filled with hideous moments - people with a
broken moral compass and blind confidence … immoral confidence, confidence even
in god, they might say … but the moral compass is broken, and their crimes are
great.
Christian missionaries joined hands with Spanish
soldiers, and everyone thought it was okay to convert the native population
with a sword to the throat, and if they didn’t convert, everyone agreed, it was
okay to kill them.
Christians created the Crusades and the Inquisition …
Christians have spilled a lot of blood on the pages of world history.
1492, Columbus sailed the blue - Christians in Spain
told Jews to convert to
Christianity or face expulsion.
American Christians thought it was okay to take the land
occupied by Native Americans, and for lack of understanding, Native Americans
were simply labeled, “savages.”
President Andrew Jackson, a Presbyterian, oversaw the
forcible expulsion of the Cherokee from the Carolinas; the trail west came to
be called The Trail of Tears … ending in Indian Territory, what we now call
Oklahoma … and when Americans wanted more land, well, so much for any
agreements with the Cherokee and other Native Americans.
It was Federal policy – kill the buffalo and we’ll get
rid of the Sioux.
“The only good Injun is a dead Injun.”
Christians smelled money and sailed to the west coast of
Africa, bribed stronger tribes to attack and enslave weaker tribes, and drag
them onto boats, take them across the Atlantic to the New World, with chains
and shackles and whips– to grow and cut sugar cane – and everyone agreed, it
was okay, because people of color were less than human.
Presbyterian pastors reached into their Bibles and found
verses to defend slavery … well into the 20th Century, Christian
preachers stood cheek-to-jowl with the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow Laws
throughout the south, and far too often, things were no better in northern
cities like Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia, what with red-line maps and
housing covenants and all-white churches that barred people of color from
entering their doors.
Terrible stories, are they not?
Stories to warn us.
Give us pause.
Make us think.
Christians, too, can have a
broken moral compass.
And a morally broken
confidence, and do hideous and cruel things, all in the name of Je-sus.
Today, in this place, we examine our souls.
Because God’s people have been
wrong about many things.
Which reminds me:
An old snake goes to see his doctor.
"Doc, I need something for my eyes...can't see well
these days".
The Doc fixes him up with a pair of glasses and tells
him to return in 2 weeks.
2 weeks the snake tells the doctor he's very depressed.
Doc says, "What's the problem...didn't the glasses
help you?"
"The glasses are fine doc; I just discovered I've
been living with a garden hose the last two years.”
That’s why we use the Prayer of Confession – maybe we’ve
been living with a garden hose the last few years, and we couldn’t see it.
So it’s good to take a personal inventory now and then.
Every Sunday, is probably just right.
To deal with our spiritual and
emotional rubbish.
Dig around in our mental attics
and basements.
Examine our motives.
Ask tough questions of
ourselves.
With prayer and care.
Thought and learning.
Sensitivity.
Wisdom from trusted sources.
Make some repairs.
That’s how we keep our moral
compass calibrated, well-oiled.
The moral mechanisms of our
soul running smoothly.
But let’s push on!
Confidence is creative, when the moral compass is
working well.
Confidence celebrates the past, but asks for more,
because times change.
What worked yesterday may still work today, sort of, but
something new might work even better, and unless we try, we’ll never know for
sure.
Something as remarkable as the Space Shuttle is no
longer state-of-the-art; oh, it still works, but we’ll find new ways of
reaching for the stars.
Henry Ford’s Model T was a great car, but only
aficionados and collectors want to drive one today.
Remember the rotary phone?
Teletype?
331/3 LP vinyl records?
8-track tape?
Cassette tapes?
VHS?
Dot-matrix printers?
The world is a different place than it was 50 years.
Even ten years ago … five years ago.
And ten years from now, who knows?
But confidence is creative.
Confidence is brave.
Confidence likes to experiment.
Good to experiment.
Try something different.
Our soul needs stimulation.
Too many Christians fall into a rut.
And a rut is nothing more than a grave with the ends
kicked out of it.
God says:
Do not remember the former things,
or consider the
things of old.
I am about to do
a new thing;
now it springs
forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way
in the wilderness
and rivers in the
desert.[1]
The parable of the sower is all about confidence.
The sower reaches into the bag and grabs a fistful of
seed … nothing skimpy here, dear friends … not one seed at a time, but handfuls
of seed, thrown here and thrown there, with abandon.
The sower sows with delight and confidence.
Not worried about the seed that falls into poor soil.
Because the sower knows that most of the seed will
produce a fine harvest … a hundred times what is sown … in other parts of the
field, a bit less - sixty times what is sown, or even thirty times.
Spiritual insight here:
Not every seed produces a harvest.
Not every idea is going to work.
Not every project will make it.
Not every dream comes true.
But stay with it.
Keep on sowing.
Don’t give up.
Lots of seed WILL make it.
With a good harvest.
More than enough.
To make up for the seed that never makes it.
The power of confidence.
The power of God.
We live with joyous abandon.
We laugh easily and we love deeply.
We’re bold and we’re generous.
Innovative and inventive.
Welcoming and affirming.
We say Yes a thousand times before we say No.
We have open arms and open minds.
We’re faithful and patient.
Kind and thoughtful.
And we never, ever give up.
Amen and Amen!
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