Call to Worship
God watches over us.
Christ walks beside us.
The Holy Spirit surrounds us.
God is everywhere; take heart.

Unison Prayer
God of time and tide:
Whether on the sea or on land,
In the storm or in the stillness,
On the mountain or in the valley,
In the desert or in the field,
Bless us this day, we pray.  Amen.

Words of Assurance (adapted from Psalm 36:5)
God’s constant love reaches the heavens;
his faithfulness extends to the skies.  
His righteousness towers like the mountains;
his justice is like the depths of the sea.

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil;
for thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen.

Opening Song: SOJA, “Things You Can’t Control”

Scripture Reading:  2 Corinthians 4:7-9, 16-18, NIV
We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Sunday Sermon

This week I fell for some clickbait and clicked on an article that asked, “How much should you be able to lift at your age?” There was a large section for people in their 20s, another for people in their 30s, another for people in their 40s, and another for people in their 50s, but then the rest just said “60+” and the description was: “Your goals at this age should be: 1) getting up from a chair without using your hands; 2) navigating stairs; and 3) carrying your own groceries.” And then the article added, “don’t worry about weights.” I thought woah, I am in shape!

I was sharing the article with an older person and they said, “One day you’re going to have to deal with these things.” Like Clint Eastwood says, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” I know there are some things I shouldn’t try to lift, some mountains I should try to climb, some waves I shouldn’t try to surf. I know that in most categories, my body has reached its upper limit and my Olympic dreams are done. Last weekend there was a doubles volleyball tournament in Long Beach called the “Dinosaur Tournament,” which means the total age of the two players has to be 80 or above. That means I could play with an 18-year old, but I’m not sure an 18-year old would want to win a Dinosaur Tournament unless they got a cool t-shirt, so I played in an Autism Benefit Tournament instead.

You know you’re getting old when the people who “defy age” are younger than you. For example, Tom Brady retiring at 45. Or the story that a professional soccer player in Japan scored a goal at age 38. At a certain age, you start thinking that even chair yoga is too hard and wonder if there is such a thing as beanbag chair yoga.

I’m not there yet, but every year I’m more aware of my physical limitations. Even a young player overcoming injury will have to face such things. The #1 thing that people pray for is physical healing for themselves and others. But to God, the entire category of the human body is of minor importance. This doesn’t mean don’t exercise. Here’s what Paul writes to Timothy: “Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is valuable in every way, because it promises life both for the present and for the future” (1 Timothy 4:8, Good News Bible).

Paul also writes that we have spiritual treasure in jars of clay. The jar is the physical body; the treasure is the Spirit. No matter how hard we try, one will wear out, but the other will not. But why?

We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 

The fact of physical limitation is meant to push us back toward God, so that we can be blessed. But now let’s talk about some other kinds of limitations. First and foremost, we cannot change human nature. Since the beginning of time, people have chosen war over peace, selfishness over selflessness, entertainment over education, themselves over others, and so on: not in every instance, but as a whole. And since people learned how to pray, they’ve been praying for world peace, for just governments, for an end to prejudice and so on. We can make dents; we can make progress; we can affect things on a local level or in small pockets of society; but we can’t eliminate the underlying problems. This causes us much anxiety and agitation, saps our energy and depletes our souls. God doesn’t want us to stop praying or to stop working for the betterment of humanity; but God does want us to stop worrying to the extent that it dims the glory of his goodness and the beauty of this world.

Here are some more limitations that we face. For the most part, we can’t help a person who doesn’t want to be helped. We can’t make our kids’ decisions for them. We can’t make a person choose to stop drinking. We can’t control every situation; we can’t even control our own tongues, much less our own thoughts. We can’t make another person love us, and we cannot save another person’s soul. This doesn’t mean we should stop loving, and helping, and hoping, and praying; we should do these things all the more, but without blaming ourselves for our limitations and calling them failures. These too are meant to push us back to God like waves pushing us back to shore. God is saying, “you can always do something, but you can’t do everything, so let me take care of the rest.”

The Scripture continues by getting to the heart of the matter.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. Therefore we do not lose heart. 

We trust Paul when he writes these words, because pretty much everything bad that could happen to a person has happened to him, yet he’s still going: still writing, still preaching, still praying. He has stopped focusing on his human body and placed all of his focus on his spiritual life; and this has made all the difference. In the same vein I say to us all, let us not lose heart. Because despite our limitations, there are still many, many things we can do. Paul writes,

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 

The older or sicker or more injured we get, the more we tend to focus on our bodies, and the more distressed we get. This is not a winning proposition, because the train of time never reverses itself. But we can still become more loving, more forgiving, more educated, more aware, more supportive, better listeners, more receptive, more peaceful, more joyful, more patient, more faithful, more trusting, more self-controlled, more generous, more understanding, kinder, gentler, calmer, closer to God and filled with grace. To these things there is no upper limit, and if we pray for any of these things, God is already predisposed to answer “Yes.”

Sometimes we don’t realize we’ve made progress until someone points it out. On Saturday morning we were supposed to play volleyball, but it was raining. The beach is an hour and 15 minutes away and everyone else lives there. I had already gotten in the car and started to drive. The other people were there and told me that they were there because they knew I was already on the way and they didn’t want me to have driven all that way for nothing. I told them that if I drove all that way and we weren’t playing volleyball in the rain, I would have totally understood and gone swimming and gotten ice cream. And then within an hour it cleared up, and we had a great day. So I learned that my friends are willing to do dumb things for me and they learned that I wouldn’t be mad if they didn’t do dumb things for me, and when it stopped raining they said it was because there was a reverend on the beach and so God got the credit and all was well. The moral of the story is that there are always things going on that we don’t understand, but with a little grace, we will understand them in time.

Paul concludes,

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Let us not lose heart. Instead, let us encourage each other all the more, remembering that God is real and God is good and God is active in the world, whether we perceive it or not, and that at the end of our limitations is where God begins. Amen.

Closing Song: Matt Maher, “Gonna Be Alright”

Benediction
May we have the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.