Proper 18 C Off to the Fair

 Proper 18 C Off to the Fair
September 9, 2001
By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell



There is something “upbeat” about the fall season. Even the slight dip in temperature is a welcome and invigorating change. I find my pace quickened. Fall is the season of new beginnings.


Last week, at the County Fair, I did my usual Rotary Club security watch at Gate #2. In a four-hour period, I counted over a thousand fair goers, mostly children, eagerly anticipating another fair “adventure.” The kids, tugging at parents, could hardly wait to climb abord the beckoning carnival rides.


Older and sometimes wiser Fair goers know that between the gate and their favorite exhibits are many enticing distractions. It takes discipline to stay on course. Many years ago, while Margaret and I were attending the Minnesota State Fair, we stopped to watch a man demonstrating a “nifty-spiffy” vegetable slicer. He quickly and easily made stacks of neat, uniform slices of tomatoes. All the while hypnotizing the small crowd with his seamless patter. We needed one of those vegetable slicers like we need a hole in the head…. so, we bought one. It never worked. We called it our tomato pulverizer.


Living life is something like going to the fair. From the day we are born until the day we die, we are confronted with a myriad of choices. More choices than time and energy will permit. Each choice has a price. And, no matter what the sign says, there is no free lunch.


 The daily challenge we face is to make choices that will hopefully promote the best that life has to offer, rather than investing in a pile of tomato pulverizers. 


One of my boyhood heroes told me that he had taped a 3 x 5 card on his bathroom mirror where he could see it every morning. Typed on the card was this sentence:


“What I am to be, I am now becoming.”


The choices that you and I make today and tomorrow will determine how we fare in the fair of life. The question to ask ourselves as we face the day is this – will the choices I am making get me to where I really want to be; and, will that be the place where God wants me to be?


From Deuteronomy we read: “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying Him, and holding fast to Him…for that means life!”


To the Hebrew mind, God is the source of life. To forsake God would be like a deep-sea diver removing his air hose because it was inconvenient. 


Every choice we make will require an adjustment in our priorities. There is simply not enough time to even sample the endless possibilities. Jesus could see how life’s alluring possibilities could distract. He had his own struggle getting past the distractions that faced him in the wilderness after his baptism. So, like any good leader, he lets his audience know that following him will have a price. People and things that have given us great comfort up until now, will have to take a different place. Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life in abundance. Follow me and you will discover my joy for yourselves.”


We will of course ask, how can we know that for sure? A sermon that I remember was titled, “The End of All Holy Things is Joy.” But how do we know how things will turn out? How do we know the end before we begin? And the answer is…. we don’t! That’s where faith comes in. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” But we will never know that until….by faith…. we try it!


What I am going to say next we all know is true, but we would all prefer to look at it with our “blind eye.” Not everyone who counts themselves as a member of the church is a disciple of Jesus Christ. They hang onto the name “Christian” and we hang onto their names with faint hope. In fact, if we were asked to rate our dedication to Christian discipleship between 1 and 10 (with 10 being the ideal); how many here in this faith community would claim a 10?


From Luke 13, Jesus is making the same point. I’m reading from “The Message” translation. “The way to life – to God! Is vigorous, and requires your total attention!” a lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down at God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. When you find yourselves locked out, you’ll protest…. “But we’ve known you all our lives!” to which our Lord will reply, “You don’t know the first thing about me…. when I say take up your cross – I mean be ready to serve your neighbor in need…even when it requires a sacrifice on your part!”


I like the idea that Fr. Wooley would prefer to call this Sunday, “Renewal Sunday.” It’s an invitation for all of us to participate in discovering new life as the Lord’s disciples. There is not one of us that couldn’t grow as a disciple of the Lord.


The good news is that we don’t have to worry about anyone else’s faith journey. Our journey is up to us! When Our Lord told Peter to feed his sheep, Peter asked how the other disciples were responding. Our Lord said, “I’ll worry about them Peter. You, follow me.”


It’s true that not everyone responds to the call for disciples in the same way that we respond. Don’t worry about it. Just be the best disciple YOU know how to be. 


I titled this sermon “Off to the Fair.” The church around you provides a variety of ways for all of us to grow and participate as disciples of the Lord. Look around you, choose where you would like to serve, and give it a try!


A prayer for confirmation from the Book of Common Prayer:


Strengthen, O Lord, your servants with your Holy Spirit; empower them for your service; and sustain them all the days of their life. Amen

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