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SERMONS:
Pastor Peg posts her two most recent sermons on this page. If you are interested in reading more of her sermons you can go to pastorpeg.wordpress.com. From July through August we will be doing a Faith in Film sermon series. Enjoy.
Walking Through the Open Window
July 14, 2024 8th Sunday of Pentecost
Romans 8:31-39 1 John 4:7-12
I hadn’t seen the Sound of Music in a long time, and I was really amazed not only at the beautiful landscape and wonderful cinematography, but also at the complexity of the story. I remembered it being a story of love and family, but it's also a story about faith and life journeys. Maria's faith journey, the Captain's faith journey, the Baroness’s faith journey, and the faith journey of the family.
The time is the early 1940s in Austria, and the main character, Maria, is a young novice in a convent. She says she wants to become a nun but it’s very apparent that her heart really isn't in it. She constantly neglects her convent work and wanders out into the mountains to commune with nature. The Mother Superior decides that Maria needs to get out into the world and learn a little bit about life before she takes the huge step of becoming a nun. So, she finds Maria a job as a nanny with the Von Trapp family.
One line that's repeated several times in this movie is: When God closes the door he opens a window. Maria repeats this line, that the mother superior has said to her, before she walks out of the covenant to go to her new job.
I've always thought it was very strange to say: When God closes the door he opens a window. Why not: When God closes the door, he opens another door? I mean, we walk through doors, but we don't necessarily walk through windows. We can climb in and out of windows, but it takes a little more effort than walking through a door. I think maybe the idea of the saying is that when God closes a door, he opens a window to show you a different place that your life could be. But still, you have to walk through a door, or climb out the window, to get to it.
We quickly find out that Maria has the ability to look out different windows and to find different doors to walk through. When she first encounters Captain Von Trapp and his seven children, she’s surprised that the Captain runs his household on very military lines. The children wear uniforms, march in and out of rooms in formation, line up in order of age, and introduce themselves in a military fashion. The Captain even has special whistle sounds for each child. He actually hands Maria a whistle so that she'll be able to control the children in the same manner. She closes that door right away and insists that whistles are for policemen and dogs, but not for children. She also asks the Captain if she may make play clothes for the children. He refuses. But when she's informed that 1. He's going to be away for a few weeks, and 2. She’s going to have new curtains put into her room, she takes the old curtains and makes them into play clothes. She actually looks at a window and sees a different option.
When the Captain returns, with the Baroness, his soon to be fiancé, he’s surprised to see his children in play-dress and boating on the lake. He's upset that Maria has not stuck to the military regime and he is about to fire her, but he suddenly hears his children singing to the Baroness. The captain sees a window open into a new way of relating to his children and starts to sing with them. He helps them do a puppet show and plays guitar for them. He starts to open up his life again and throws a party at the house.
At the party he’s shown another window-vista when he dances with Maria and starts to have feelings for her. Maria is confused by her feelings, and with the “encouragement” from the Baroness, goes back to the convent. But the Mother Superior tells her that she can follow her faith by living in the world and by loving people and having a family. It is interesting that one of the most far-sighted people in this movie is the one who is dedicated to the maintenance of the closed spiritual world of the convent. But I think that this shows us that it’s not necessarily where you are physically in life – it is how open your mind and heart are to what opportunities are out there. I think that the Mother Superior’s spiritually maturity allows her to see the farthest.
Maria does go back to the Captain and the children, and three people see new paths for their lives. The Baroness and the Captain understand that they aren’t right for each other and break off their engagement. And Maria and the Captain understand that they are right for each other and see a way forward together in life.
But now a greater conflict comes onto the scene: The invasion of Austria by Nazi Germany. The Captain must choose to join the German Navy, be imprisoned, or risk escaping with his family to Switzerland. Even though he loves Austria, he chooses to escape. They are almost prevented from doing this by the Nazi authorities, but the Captain sees a window of opportunity through the Saltzburg Music Festival that his cousin has entered the children in. He agrees to sing at the festival and then go to his naval appointment. The family manages to escape with the help of the nuns and the film ends with them climbing the mountains to Switzerland.
There is one more interesting window that the film gives us. When the Von Trapp family escape in their car the Nazis get into their own cars to chase them and find out that they won’t start. Inside the convent two of the nuns turn to the Rev. Mother and say, “Rev. Mother I have sinned.” She says, “What is this sin, my child?” The two sisters hold up the wires that they have stolen from the Nazi’s cars, thereby preventing them from starting. God opened a window for the sisters to do good, and they went through the door.
So the movie is very much about where your faith can take you if you open yourself up to the opportunities that God gives you.
God, through the Rev. Mother, gave Maria a chance to see what her heart really called her to do. Maria really thought she wanted to become a nun, but sometimes the things that we really think we want to do, are not what we are gifted to do, or are supposed to do. Sometimes we have to have faith and to allow ourselves to take the risks of new opportunity. I think we all sometimes like to hide in our safe spaces, even if they aren’t the best spaces for us. Maria obviously didn’t feel called to the inside of the convent; she was constantly trying to get out into the mountains, a place where she could express herself better. But she kept on wanting that safe space and trying to fit into it. Sometimes we have to think of why we are staying in our safe spaces and not trying to expand our worlds a little.
When she walks out of the convent, she relies on her faith to go into this family of seven children who don't have a mother, and who don't really want a nanny. But you know, what she does to win them over is simply to love them in her words and actions. By making comfortable clothing for them, by taking them on picnics and bike rides. By teaching them to sing, climb trees, and row boats. She shows them how to have a joyful time with themselves and each other.
The Captain is also stuck in his ways. Since his wife died leaving him with seven children, he falls back on the one thing he knows how to do – be a military man. It's not the best way to relate to children, and you can see that the kids aren't really happy with the system, but it’s how they can be with their father. Maria’s faith however is based on love and compassion. She sees the children as human beings not soldiers, and she shows the Captain a new way to love them.
Finally, the faith that Maria, the Captain, and the nuns, have in goodness and love enable them to make the choice to flee from the Nazis, and gives them the courage to face peril for the safety of their family. Probably none of us are going to be in such a dangerous situation as the Von Trapps were, but all of us have times in our life when we have to say no to evil. And that might mean that we have to take a stand and walk a path that people don't want us to walk. When you stand against the tide, against what everybody else is doing, because you know it's wrong, you can rely on your faith, you can rely on God to help you through it, and to get you to a place of safety.
I feel that the best way to end this sermon is to simply quote from today’s scripture from Romans: In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
May all of us never feel separated from God. And may we always find the windows and doors that He opens for us.
We Are Worthy
July 7, 2024 7th Sunday of Pentecost
Job 7:1-32 Corinthians 4:7-15
Today we're starting our summer film series: Faith in Films. Our first film is the Christmas classic: It's a Wonderful Life. This film features the character, George Bailey, who loses everything and is in crisis; mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Today we read a scripture from the Book of Job, a story of a man who also loses everything and is in crisis in the same way. Because of this George Bailey has often been called a modern-day Job.
George is an ordinary person, trying to make a living for himself and his family. And he’s a good person who’s always trying to do the right thing. We see the goodness of his character when he saves his brother, Harry, from drowning when he falls through the ice. We see it when he stops his boss, the grieving druggist, from giving the wrong chemical as medicine to a child with diphtheria. We see that he's spent four years after high school working in the family business so that his brother could also go to college. The two boys are supposed to go to college at the same time, but when their father has a stroke, George agrees to stay behind to keep the family building and loan business going so that it won't be taken over by the unscrupulous businessman Mr. Potter, who would like nothing better than to run the town for his own profit.
This sacrifice is one of many that he makes for other people. When George is a kid, we learn that he has dreams of traveling around the world, going to college, and then building great buildings instead of just following in his father’s footsteps and providing moderate income housing for people. So, we feel for him when he sacrifices his second chance at college when his brother goes to work at his father-in-law’s glass factory instead of taking over George’s position in the building and loan business. All his friends go to college and see a bit of the world. Even Mary, the girl next door who he likes and marries, is actually better educated than he is.
The day that Mary and George tie the knot is the day the local bank collapses. They sacrificed their honeymoon money to help out the people who have taken loans for their houses.
George works hard and makes a place for himself in his town. He creates Bailey Park, a neighborhood of affordable houses, that stands in contrast to the slum of shacks built by Mr. Potter. During WWII George, who can't go into the military because of his deaf ear, does war work at home while many of his friends go overseas and win glory. His brother Harry, the pilot, wins the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving a troop transport.
Mr. Potter, the antagonist, is so envious of George that he tries to entice him to work for him, but George says no. We see George’s care for others in his impassioned speeches when he stands up to Potter and tells him that the people that Potter thinks aren't worthy, who are there only to be exploited, are human beings and deserve decent living conditions and treatment.
But then George’s forgetful uncle misplaces the $8,000 that will keep the company solvent. It ends up in the hands of Mr. Potter who uses it to his advantage and conspires to have George arrested for financial misappropriation of funds. On top of that he calls the local reporter so that the scandal will be widely published in the papers. George will go to jail, his reputation will be ruined, and his wife and four children will lose everything with him. And Potter knows that not only is George’s life in jeopardy, but the lives of all those people that have their mortgages and money with his company.
In his despair George becomes drunk, wreaks his car, believes that he's worth more dead than alive, and decides to throw himself into the river. But this is where God intervenes in the form of an angel, second class, named Clarence. Clarence throws himself into the river so that George will rescue him. Afterwards, George tells him that he's a failure, that all of his friends would be better off without him, and it would have been better if he wasn't even born.
Clarence takes him at his word and shows him what happens when he doesn't live. Mr. Potter takes over the town and turns it into a mini Las-Vegas. Violet, his friend from high school, becomes a prostitute. His mother instead of being kind, is a lonely bitter woman who’s lost her husband and son, Harry. Because George wasn’t there, Harry died when he fell through the ice, and since he never became a pilot, he couldn't save the soldiers on the troop transport. George’s friends are unhappy and mean. The pharmacist who he had saved, ends up killing the child and serving time in prison. Finally, he sees his wife who’s a lonely spinster.
In distress George runs back to the bridge and prays to God to let him live again.
Of course, this story has a happy ending. He comes back to the life he knows and returns to his house where the bank examiner and financial officers are waiting to arrest him, with the reporter waiting to record the scandal. And suddenly all his friends appear. His wife has found out about George's troubles, and called all his friends who are more than willing to help. Donating a little bit here and there, repaying back the kindness that he has given them throughout their lives, the $8,000 is more than raised. The financial officer tears the arrest warrant in half, the reporter takes a picture of the happy gathering, and his brother Harry toasts him saying, “To my brother George, the richest man in town.”
George, like many of us, is a person trying to get by. He has grand hopes and dreams that he keeps trying for but is never able to realize. Life always gets in the way. Even though George is doing the right thing there's an underlying sadness to him as he watches everybody else achieve their dreams. He jokes and is lighthearted, but you can see that he feels like he’s simply plotting along, helping people when the opportunity presents itself, but not doing anything to get himself ahead. We see his anger and frustration, and sympathize with his bad moods, because we know that he feels that he's not living into the greatness that he feels he’s capable of. And when things fall apart that frustration makes him feel unworthy.
But in the end George learns that he might not be living in greatness, but that he is a great man because of his care for the people around him. He learns that all those small acts of kindness that he gives, and the opportunities that he creates for others, aren’t wasted in the larger scheme of life. Because of his goodness his friends are happier, his customers are better off, and the town itself is a better place to live. His goodness even stretches out through others and affects the soldiers on the transport who live instead of die.
George finds out that he’s worthy of living, and living in greatness because of his kindness. Clarence leaves him a message: No man is a failure who has friends. It’s because of his acts of kindness that he is surrounded by people who love him. No act of kindness is ever wasted, even when that kindness is returned with unkindness. Like George we never know what ripples we will create in life with our acts of love.
There are times when we all feel frustrated because we can see that we can be better, if only . . . If only I didn’t have to work a full-time job I could write a novel. If only I didn’t have all these responsibilities, I could go get the education to advance. If only I had more money, I could build mansions instead of cottages. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be better. There is nothing wrong with wanting to fulfill your dreams. But in the end the only thing we take with us is our memories and the love that we have accumulated by giving and receiving love. The great commandment of Christ is to love others by giving kind actions of compassion every day. That is what we’ll be remembered for.
Make yourself better by being kind. While you work on your dreams act on them with love. That love and grace, as it extends to more and more people, will increase outward. Also, like George, your kindness acts as a spiritual barrier and balance to the evil and selfishness of the world that the Mr. Potters try to promote. Give and live kindness and love, and one day you might find that the love, thanksgiving, and glory that you have sent out into the universe, to the glory of God, will come back to you.