Creekside Church Sermon of September 14, 2003 "The Tension Dimension " Romans 12:9-21	Rev. David Bibbee
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A man was sitting in the clubhouse after playing a round of golf. He looked totally distressed, so his friend walked over and asked what was wrong. The golfer replied, "It was horrible. On the 16th tee I sliced the ball out onto the freeway and it went through the windshield of a bus, and there was a terrible accident. The bus went out of control and flipped over. There were dead people all over the place." His friend replied. "That IS awful! Now what are you going to do?" "I'm going to close my stance and shorten by back swing a little."

One of the challenges of life is how to deal with definitive moments. The project into which you have immersed yourself is finally completed. You have given it your best. You take great pride in the finished product, but scarcely have you savored the satisfaction when a inner voice asks, "NOW WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?"

The happy newly weds parade down the aisle to a grand reception and wonderful honeymoon. They come back to the house they hope will become their home, and in a quiet moment while unpacking they think to themselves, "NOW WHAT?"

Mom and Dad unpack their van filled with the belongings of their eighteen year old son. They move him into the dormitory that will be his first home away from home. They feel great pride, but it is a bittersweet sort. "Goodbye, son. We love you." Misty-eyed, they make the long drive to their freshly empty nest, and the wife says to her husband, "NOW WHAT?"

The phone rings. It is your doctor. You just had your annual physical. You expect to hear what you have always heard.... "Everything is fine. What you hear instead is, "We've found something "atypical" in your films. It looks suspicious.. I've made an appointment for you with a specialist first thing in the morning." A wave of "unreality" rolls over you and you think to yourself, "NOW WHAT?"

These are "mind your afters" moments. As someone put it, "Mind your afters: after Easter, after Christmas, after while, after work, after school, after the ball is over, after life, after death." Whether the "moment after" brings rest or restlessness; whether the pressure is off, or on, the moment AFTER is a defining moment that can either STRETCH us or SHRINK us.

Today I want us to think about the role of "tension" in our lives. We hear a lot about stress. We live stressful lives. We know what it is to be WOUND UP and WIRED. The detrimental aspects of stress have been documented, so stress-reduction becomes a key to quality of life.

Think of all the times we have asked God to deliver us from stressful situations. When we sing,"Take from our lives the strain and stress....." we mean it! The book of Psalms echoes with voices crying, "Lord, we've had enough of this. We've taken all we can take./ Deliver us from of this mess!" Jesus took regular retreats when the strain and stress of ministry weighed upon him. Throughout the Bible, people God called to serve were ready to throw in the towel because the load became so great.

Today there is a steady stream of books, tapes, programs, and pills designed to REDUCE our stress. But stress reduction is NOT a term you will find in the Bible. God didn't intend us to carry the kinds of stresses we do today, but God did not make us to live "stress free."

Tension is an essential dimension in life. The strings of the piano, guitar, and violin must be under tension to make music. The bow must be loaded with tension to shoot the arrow. The tension stored in a wound clock spring is what moves the mechanism. When fighting a fish there must be constant tension on the line. Did you ever hear of a "slack-rope" walker?

The psychologist Victor Frankl said that in the modern world, particularly among people of plenty, the major malady is BOREDOM. It happens when you've done what you set out to do, and there's no task to take its place. It happens when the family outing you thought would take eight hours fills only four, and the kids are getting antsy. It happens when plans for the evening fold and you're left with a hole in the day and nothing to fill it.

We are at our best when there is work to be done, a challenge to be met, a problem to be solved. If there is no tension, we'll create it. I know a gifted preacher who has been at it for over thirty years. He doesn't have any old sermons. After he preaches it, he pitches it. He thrives on the pursuit of fresh spiritual insight.

No one understood the tension dimension better than Paul. Living in a culture where the only authority was Caesars's, Christians recognized no authority save Jesus. They were committed to living holy lives in a hostile culture. They lived in Caesar's household, and they bore the brunt of ridicule, misunderstanding, persecution, and death. / Paul's counsel to the Roman Christians probably made an already tense situation even more so. Try to put yourselves in their place as Paul's letter was read.

"Bless your enemies, don't curse them. Laugh when your friends are happy, share tears when they are down. Get along with each other. Don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be a great somebody. Don't repay evil for evil; don't hit back. If you've got it in you, get along with every body. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it. If you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink.

Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good." (Romans 12: 14-21)

Talk about a text packed with tensions!

It used to be that when I started taking my dog Libbee for walks, she walked me, or more precisely, she "drug" me through the neighborhood. As soon as we walked out the door, she lunged ahead. I pulled back on the leash to stop her, but it only made her pull harder. I applied more tension, and she pulled harder still. What was supposed to be a pleasant "man and his dog" walk turned into tug-o-war. Even though she was choking herself and gasping for air, she kept pulling. I later learned that it is instinctive behavior for dogs to pull against resistance.

The more pressure Rome put on the Christians, the more they resisted. It was a tug-o-war the Christians would die trying to win. If the church was to survive, they couldn't battle bondage with "instinctively human resources."

Though it may come as somewhat of a surprise to you, now and then people get upset by what I say from the pulpit. Occasionally I hear from them. They think it is me they are mad at. I try to explain: "Look-- don't go hollering at me because you're ticked by something I said. I didn't come up with this stuff on my own. Don't shoot me! I'm just the messenger. Your issues are with Jesus.

Tension with Jesus is a healthy tension intended for our conversion. Tension is a spiritual exercise which shapes our behavior into a more Christ-like pattern.

Calvin Coolidge was President slightly before my time. Had I been around, I would have voted for him, because he was an avid fisherman. He was also a man of few words. While in the White House, he had gone to church one Sunday. When he returned his wife asked, "Was it a good service?" "Yes," he replied. "Did the minister have a good sermon?" "Yes," he replied. "What was the sermon about?" "Sin," he replied. "What did he say about sin?" "Against it," he replied.

There are issues for Christians which are clear cut. But most of the time its not so easy. Nothing creates instant emotion like rejection. "You've had a great record of service over the years you've worked for us. You've accomplished some great things, but you've upset the wrong people, and we can't have grievances effecting performance. Today is your last day." Or, "Things were great when we were first married. But I don't feel like I did then. I'm at a different place now. I need to find our who I am. I've filed for divorce." Your instinct is to get mad AND get even. "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them."

I cannot fathom the intensity of hatred it takes for a Palestinian terrorist to turn himself into a bomb, walk into a crowd of innocent people, and kill as many of them as possible.I abhor the disproportionate force used by Israel's military, bulldozing Palestinian neighborhoods, launching rocket attacks that kill children and calling it a regrettable but necessary action to root our terrorists. "Repay no one evil for evil. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody."

Dictators like Saddam Hussein and mad extremist like Osama bin Laden can't be given a free hand to hold us hostage to fear with the threat mass destruction. Its the responsibility of the world community to prevent them from doing the unthinkable. But God does not bless our government's solution in Iraq. It is not right when the President builds upon the nation's fear with exaggerated information about weapons as a justification for going to war.

Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging,' says God. "I'll take care of it. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink. Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

For us there is one question that serves as the litmus test when faced with situations which require taking a stand. "What would Jesus do?" If a decision is not consistent with what he taught, we are obliged to respond accordingly. Some of life's decisions are simple, straight-foward, and clear-cut, but not many of them! Telling the truth, standing by our commitments, putting a hold on our wants to relieve another's need-- we don't need to refer to our "What Would Jesus Do?" wrist bands for the answer.

But when it comes to the big ticket issues confronting our world, who asks, "What would Jesus do?" Policy makers know better than to ask, "What would Jesus do about Iraq? What would he do about terrorism? What would he do about the widening rift between the children of plenty and the children of want?" Tony Campolo asked, "Would Jesus drive a Mercedes Benz?"

Listen to these words of an observer from seventeen years ago. They could have been written this morning:

The polices of our supposedly Christian country is to be as invulnerable as conceivably possible. Granted that other nations, Christian or Jewish or Moslem or Hindu, capitalist or Communist, also are as frantically busy trying to be as invulnerable as the United States, but who is it that is going to lead us out of this mess?

Rather than explore, much less risk avenues of creative vulnerability, we are utterly dedicated to maintaining a super-masculine image of impregnable raw power and an imposing confidence which can admit no weakness. The nation whose coinage proclaims, "In God We Trust" is far and away the world's leading manufacturer of weapons."

We are still living in Caesar's household. How we respond to what is going on depends on whose version of reality we follow. The only version we have is the one given to us by Jesus, and we are to commit more to it than our brains and lips. Like someone said, "Wisdom is knowing what is right. Virtue is DOING IT!"

The more I live, the more I feel the tension between what I believe and how our society conducts business. But I'll also be the first to tell you that the more I live, the more I'm aware of the tension between life as I live it and life as Jesus wants it. "Bless those who persecute you? Live in harmony with everyone? Don't insist on getting even and let God do the judging? Get the best of evil by doing good?"

It seems that much of the time I'm more closely aligned with Paul when he said, "The good that I want to do I don't do, and the bad I don't want to do is what I do." What about the rest of you? As long as we live we will aware of our imperfections. But living with the tension between our wants and his will doesn't have to blow us away. For those who love the Lord and consistently have trouble keeping his commands, there is a gift called grace. So let me offer this final thought from something Deanna Markley gave me:

"Longing for the ideal while criticizing the real is immaturity. Settling for the real without striving for the ideal is complacency. Maturity is living with the tension."

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