Creekside Church Sermon of August 17, 1997 "Is That All There Is?" Luke 10:38-42	Rev. David Bibbee
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I was just 13 when I heard it. but I was aware of something in me that said "No!" to the song. At thirteen I hadn't thought much about life's meaning, but I knew there had to be something more than anticipation, disillusionment, and having a ball to block the pain.

Is that all there is? disappeared from the charts twenty-five years ago, but it still gets a lot of air- time in people's lives. It is sung in condos and ghettos by the successful and unsuccessful, the illiterate and degreed, by people who don't go to church, and those who do.

I remember talking with an older woman who said, "I thought that when I got to this point in life things would be settled and secure. I mistakenly thought that all the problems would be behind us and life before us. Life isn't what I thought it would be. I don't know what to believe anymore. I don't even know what to make of God." There is that song again. Is that all there is?

We are all after something, and are always offered all the right things, all the right states of mind, but it's all surface and no substance. Deep down, we know it. There is something more than dissatisfaction, discomfort, and all the divisions we concoct in order to forget. Some cope by simply giving in to despair.

Back in 1990 Life Magazine asked a variety of people the question, "What is the meaning of life?" One man said, "We're here to die, just live and die. I drive a cab, do some fishing, take my girl out, pay taxes, do a little reading, then get ready to drop dead. You've got to be strong about it. Life is a big fake. Nobody gives a damn." If that's all there is my friend...

If life is no more than biology, no more than a roll of the dice, no more than toil and trouble, if it is only for this life that we have hoped, St Paul said, "if there is no resurrection from the dead, then we are to be pitied...duped. Better keep dancing, Novocain the brain, have a ball if that's all there is. But there is more...thank God there is more. As Bernard of Clairveaux said, "We are not human beings seeking to be spiritual. We are spiritual beings seeking to become human."

Let me take you to a home that learned this truth. There we find two sisters, two friends of Jesus, Mary and Martha. Mary is more into contemplation than cooking and cleaning. Martha, on the other hand, was like Martha Stuart - decorating, doing dinner parties, chasing dust bunnies.

Jesus is headed toward Jerusalem and the cross, and on the way he stops at their home. Mary sits at his feet and is engrossed with his every word. Meanwhile, Martha is whipping up a seven course meal for Jesus from scratch. She is also perturbed because Sis has her head in the clouds again.

Martha drops unheeded hints for help, and finally she blows. "Lord, could you please tell Mary to give the theology a rest and lend me a hand?" I'm sure Jesus appreciated a good, home-cooked meal, but he said, "Martha, why don't you take a break, kick off your shoes, and join Mary. You're too preoccupied. There is need for one thing, and Mary has chosen what is best."

Martha had forgotten something important in Jewish law. What do you do for a teacher who is a guest in your home? You do not fix him a meal. True hospitality for a teacher meant listening to and receiving his teaching. It was hard to hear the Word over the Quisenart. Jesus hadn't come to be fed. He came to offer himself to the sisters he loved.

It is easy to be in the same house with the Lord, but not be present to him. We so often get tied up with the wrappings of religion and not the content. We easily become burned-out by the mechanics- frustrated and disillusioned. "If this is all there is to church and Christianity, I'd rather do something else."

Sometimes we go overboard, running around like Martha doing church things-meeting, programs, services-being so compulsive about the things we are doing "for" God that we end up with what has been called the "Elijah Complex." He was a prophet on fire, taking on Ahab and the prophets of Baal. He was doing all these great things for God, but not "through" God. He needed to remember he was a member of the human race, and God dealt with him by giving him food and rest...helped him remember God's role.

Essentially what Jesus told Martha was, "Lighten up. You're letting yourself get distracted and losing sight of what is most important."

Is anybody listening? Running around like perpetual motion machines and getting burned-out is not a status symbol, even if it is God you are burning out for. Jesus appreciates all the efforts you and Martha make on his behalf, but what he really wants is for you to meet him, know him, and be near him. He wants you to know that he promised to make us more than tired. He promised us joy, peace, purpose, and a place...a place at his feet, a place more abiding than this world, a place with him for eternity.

Three friends were on a hunting trip in the Northwoods. As fate would have it, they got lost. It was snowing. They were cold and hungry. They stumbled upon a cabin and found the door unlocked. Going in, they found food, firewood, and a stove, but this wood burning stove was unusual. It was suspended about the floor with wires. As they were warming up, they wondered about the curious arrangement.

One of the hunters was an engineer. He said the reason was obvious. By suspending the stove there would be more efficient dispersal of heat in the cabin than if it was on the floor. "That's not the reason," said his friend who was a psychiatrist. "The cabin owner is obviously an insecure person. I'm sure he sleeps underneath the stove in a fetal position to express his unconscious desire to return to the womb."

The third hunter who was a theology professor offered yet another explanation. "Everyone knows that fire lifted up is the universal symbol of humanity's search for God. This stove is the man's shrine."

Well, as they warmed themselves around the stove, the owner of the cabin returned. After they explained their plight, they inquired about the stove. After offering the three explanations, they asked which one was right. "None of them," the man said. "They why did you hang the stove about the floor?" He replied, "I had plenty of wire and not much stovepipe."

How often do we take what is simple and make it complicated and in the process miss what we are looking for? Here is one of the paradoxes of our lives...too much creates too little. Too many things and too much to do leaves us wanting. The more frantic and compulsive about doing things for God or not doing things that will displease God, the more distant God becomes, and we are left frustrated, worn-out, and wondering-is this all there is?

Here is the catch-knowing God, experiencing the companionship of Christ, is an exercise in simplicity...simply taking time to be still in God's presence. The Bible doesn't say, "Be frantic and know that I am God." It doesn't say, "Be busy, be compulsive and know that I am God." What does it say? "Be still, and know that I am God." God never intended us to kill ourselves in our search for him. God calls us to where we can be in awe of and enjoy being with God, knowing that before everything else, we are God's Beloved, and that our worth has no other basis than this.

I've got to tell you that as I look at the life of the church I often ask, "Is this all there is?" In evangelism and outreach, there must be more effort, much more. In the total number of ministries in our church, we need more. We need more types of music and a variety style of worship which expresses the joy of our faith. We need leadership that is willing to take the necessary risk that growth requires. We need more quality and commitment in every aspect of our program and the refusal to accept mediocre. We need more passion.

The way it is, is NOT all there is. We need something more. But listen to this...we can't do more just for the sake of doing more. The more we are after will only come through something very basic.

In Hosea we hear God say, "I will lure Israel into the wilderness, and there I will speak tenderly to her." God taught Elijah to allow himself to quit trying to be God and allow God to feed him and give him rest. Jesus regularly pulled back from the pressures of ministry and taught his disciples the same..."Come to a quiet place and rest a while," he said. To Martha he said, "You are too distracted. Lighten up and choose the better part by being with me.

The condition of our lives and the quality of our ministry is tied to our communion with God...praying, listening, adoring, enjoying, and spending time in solitude with God. When we honor this relationship, other things fall into place. In all the challenges we face as a church, let's not forget what it is ultimately about-communion with God, fellowship with one another, and service and witness to the world.

There was a salesman who sold a complicated filing system to a thriving company. Three months later he returned and asked, "How's the system working?" "Super." "And how is business?" The manager replied, "We had to give the business up to run the filing system."

Let's not get so stuck on the system that we forget the business. The way it is, isn't all there is. Like Mary, we must take time daily and make a place to listen and respond to God, precisely because God calls us to more.

What we are seeking is one thing that is necessary. Seventeen hundred years ago, St. Augustine said it like this: "The important thing is drawing near to God who is closer to us than we are to ourselves."

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