St Andrew's Presbyterian Church
'The Kirk'
Established 1822
105 Coleraine Street, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada B0K 1H0
Church Office (902)485-5014
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St. Andrew’s Pictou, November 21, 2004. Christ the King Sunday. Something of Value Isaiah 49: 1-7 Psalm 40: 1-11 Romans 5:1-8 Luke 12:1-7 You are of ...value. There are times when we are tempted not to believe this about ourselves, and sometimes other people act as if they don't believe this about us either. How often have you felt like nothing? Or how often have we dared to judge another person's worth? Sometimes, people, in a fit of temper, will lash out at someone else - hoping to hurt that person and sometimes even take delight in doing it. Children do it. And adults, who should know better, do it. Not everyone will speak injuriously to others. Some persons maintain enough control to hold back certain thoughts - refusing to speak them because they know how unkind such speech would be. It's an old, old story. We know that a sense of personal value is hard won - and not easily maintained in such a world. So we all favour those who treat us with respect. We all 'like' those who, by their treatment, make us feel like a treasured friend. And how we avoid those who treat us otherwise! We recoil from anything that seems to threaten our sense of worth. Today's text, from the Gospel of Luke, reminds us of our value when circumstances seem to deny that we count at all. Like sparrows, we too, feel so small in such a big and threatening world. For instance, we want to look ahead to the future - but looking ahead is not easy. So we are tempted to look back - but looking back is not safe - because pausing too long in a backward look can only put us behind. While some people complain that improvements among us are not occurring as fast as they could or should - others lament that change is too fast and they are tempted to look suspiciously at anything new. How many of us have questioned the system that now surrounds us - a system that boasts a 'new Math' - a 'new English' - indeed a 'new learning'? I remember seeing a cartoon picturing two college co-eds coming down the campus library steps. With their arms loaded with books, one said to the other, "Every day there are more and more things to be ignorant about!" Our kind of world does stir within the feeling of being so small. Certain kinds of living have played their sad part also. With parents scrambling to make a living, children are sometimes neglected - overlooked and even mistreated. Every time you pick up a magazine or newspaper and often on TV, you will read about or see adults who are still hurting from childhood wounds. These people need a healthy sense of self but many hold an antagonistic feeling for one of their parents. A couple of years ago, I overheard a husband and wife as they were apparently shopping for his father. "Here is something you could give your Dad for Christmas." she said. I saw her pick up a model ship. The husband came over, looked at the price tag, and blurted, "49.95! He's not worth that much!" I wondered what had happened between that father and son. I wondered what price tag would have pleased him. How much is a father worth? How much is a son or daughter worth? Apparently, the son did not feel valued - so he was unwilling to confer value. If that son could have found release from his feelings, he would have become an agent of love, to make his father sense his worth. Our text is for that son and for ourselves. It is for all whom life has made feel so small. And for all who have even dared to act as less than we are. We are of value. However - like sparrows, we seem so common as to be of comparatively little worth. Sparrows fall - we fail. In Jesus' day, five sparrows could be bought for two pennies - and the more you bought - the greater the discount. Volume decreased value, or so it seemed. But in God's sight it is not so. Billions of persons people our world. Of what value can one person be, in the midst of so many? There is a separateness and uniqueness in every person. Abraham Lincoln must have understood this because he said "God must have loved common people - he made so many of them!" God deals with all of us individually - The very hairs of your head are numbered - You are of value. The story is told of a passenger ship at sea, having to miss it's scheduled arrival time in Montreal because the ship went to the rescue of a man who was seriously ill on another ship. The other ship was 500 nautical miles away. The ships met, the sick man was transferred to the passenger ship where surgery was performed and the mans life saved. The passenger liner docked at Montreal one day late, and 900 passengers were beset by complications with train, bus and air travel connections - all because of one man in need. How did the passengers react to their change in plans? Not one person offered any criticism about the rescue action. Everyone had gotten caught up in the excitement of one man in need. - There was real concern. - The man had worth. - He was someone. - He had value. Only God knows our value. He made us, so only He can fully measure our worth. But we get some understanding of how God values us when we look at what He has done in our interest, through Jesus Christ. We are of such value in His sight that Jesus died for us. Only when we live in God's will is our worth focused, realized, and fulfilled. AMEN Jessie Johnston
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