Today’s message was written by Rev. Dr. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

Today I want to suggest an exciting idea – I want you to try giving yourself away. 

I once knew a man who suffered a nervous breakdown, during which he sat for months in gloom and mental darkness. One day I suggested he try to turn off his dark, depressing thoughts by practicing thanksgiving. I said, “Start thinking of people who greatly helped you in your life.”

So, he wrote an elderly school teacher, Miss Elaine Smith, who had been a positive influence on his life. A reply came, written in the shaky handwriting of an aged lady. “Dear Willy,” she wrote, “When I read your letter I was blinded by tears, for I remember you as a boy, and as I think of you now I see you as a little fellow in my class. You have warmed my old heart. I taught school for fifty years. Yours is the first letter of thanks I ever received from a student, and I shall cherish it until I die.” 

Friend of Dial Hope, writing a letter of thanks – a project like that – may involve taking a little time – but it’s an opportunity to give a little of yourself, and really that’s the best you can give. Strangely, when you give yourself, you find yourself. 

Let us pray: God of hope, we come to you when our hope is vanquished, and our faith is small. We come to you when the promise of the “good life” has been found lacking, when clothes and cuisine, cars, and cappuccinos become insufficient nourishment for the hunger of the human spirit. We come to you because we have nowhere else to go. O God, save us from ourselves; from self-indulgence, and self-idolization. Heal us from the sickness of the body but even more from the sickness of the soul. May we get caught up in the current of your compassion, the flood of your forgiveness and so lose ourselves in the wide ocean of your love. In the name of the risen Christ. Amen.

Over the past few days, we’ve raised the question: How do we, as followers of Jesus, engage the culture and politics of our day?   

Yesterday we reflected on the need to listen to one another with basic kindness. Today, I’ll simply add the need for humility. 

There’s a great story about the famous Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.  He was in his kitchen, musing out loud one evening, “I wonder how many truly great college football coaches there have ever been?”  And his wife shot right back, “Probably one less than you think!” 

It is important to have people in our lives who keep us humble. 

We are broken people. No matter how much we think we know, no matter how much we’ve studied or prayed, and no matter how well intended – we often are wrong. 

There is no doubt, the Bible is crystal clear about the need for followers of Christ to remain humble. 

1 Peter 5:5 reads, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 

Proverbs 16:5 says, “Arrogance is an abomination to the Lord.”

It’s written in Philippians 2, “Let the same mind be in you, as was in Christ Jesus… who humbled himself…”

Our prayer today was written by Thomas Merton. Let us pray:  O God, we are one with You. You have made us one with You. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, You dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts. Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection. Oh God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept You, and we thank You, and we adore You, and we love You with our whole being because our being is in Your being, our spirit is rooted in Your spirit. Fill us then with love as we go our diverse ways, united in this one spirit which makes You present in the world, and which makes You witness to the ultimate reality that is love. Love has overcome. Love is victorious. Amen. 

Yesterday, we began to reflect on faith and politics. No doubt, dangerous waters! It would be easier to try to keep the two separate, or just not talk about it.  However, as followers of Christ, we can’t just throw up our hands and say, I’m not going to engage.   

I think about how beautiful it is to read about churches that stood up against slavery. But to do that they had to bring their faith into the political arena. They had to stand up and say, we think selling human beings is wrong.

I remember my friend Rev. Herb Meza telling me that back in the late 1950’s he published an article called, “The Agony of a Southern Preacher.” The agony was that as a pastor, he felt strongly that God created and loved all humans equally without regard to race. And in his heart, he knew how vital it was for the church to push the culture, and to push our country to move towards civil rights. And yet, when he preached on it, many in his congregation said, “Hey – you’re preaching politics. Keep the politics out of the pulpit.”  But he preached anyway… And people threatened his life.

Sometimes the church has done this really well. And other times, we have to admit, we have not had that great a witness.  Part of the complication is that there are times when just don’t agree with one another – and we come down in different places on the same issue.

Even some of the most basic tenants can cause friction. For example, while most Christians would agree that central to our faith is caring for the poorest most vulnerable members of our society – Jesus said whatever you have done to the least of these – the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the foreigner – you have done it to me. However, we just don’t always agree on how to go about that.

And then what about some of the more controversial issues? Capital punishment, abortion, just war, gun legislation, and on and on… Good, honest, faithful people – people who know their Bible, who know their theology – who love the Lord somehow end up interpreting the scriptures in different ways – and ultimately end up with different convictions. 

Why is that, God? What do we do with that? 

I’ll continue the reflections over the next few days. For now, I leave you with this prayer…

Let us pray: Let us pray: We pray O God, for our country in this election year. In spite of our political differences help us to listen deeply to one another, help us listen deeply to you. Where we disagree with one another – may we do so in a spirit of love. May we, who seek to follow you, be the salt and the levain and the light that reflects your gospel. By the way that we live, by the way that we speak, by the way that we work and play and interact – use our very lives to bring hope and mercy and joy to a world desperately in need. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Today, I am deeply grateful for those of you who have supported the Dial Hope Foundation with a financial donation. Hope reaches others because of you. Thank you!

In his book Orthodoxy, GK Chesterton wrote, “The thing I mean can be seen in children when they find a game or joke they especially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess – not absence – of life. Children are abounding in vitality of life because in spirit they are fierce and free – therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again,’ and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead – for grown-up people are not strong enough to exalt in monotony.” 

“But, perhaps God is strong enough to exalt through monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again to the sun.’ And every evening, ‘Do it again to the moon.’ It may not be an automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike. It may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never gotten tired of making them. It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy. For we have sinned and grown old and our Father is younger than we.”

There is something telling about the cycles of the seasons, the cycles of nature, even the cycle of a day – when the evening gives way to dark and the night then gives way to dawn – and it happens over and over. There is something about that consistency that reminds us that God is faithful.  We may stray or fall short, but God is always there – ever calling us back.

Let us pray: Eternal God, we praise you today for the beauty of your creation, and for the way you so faithfully provide. We want to be fierce and free. We want to be fully alive and abounding with hope. Help us to be faithful as you are faithful. Help us to hold fast to your promises and to your word to your guiding, loving hand; through Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Reverend King Duncan once told about a letter that appeared in The Catholic Digest. A mother wrote that she was just finishing up a load of laundry, heading back upstairs when her kindergarten-aged daughter presented her deepest theological question. “Mommy,” she asked, “if it were the end of the world, and everyone was getting ready to die…” The mother stopped, shifted the basket, and said a quick prayer for wisdom to answer this question. “Yes?” The mother encouraged her daughter. The little girl continued: “Mommy, if the end of the world came, would you have to take your library books back?” 

Duncan reflected, “Obviously, that young lady did not want any unfinished business in her life.

“How about you? Is there some unfinished business in your life that needs to be taken care of? Is there someone you need to forgive? Are there amends to be made? A letter written? A phone call you need to place? A visit you need to make or a word or two that you need to speak?  

The late humorist and author Lewis Grizzard once told about a time when he was being visited by his minister in the hospital. Grizzard was scheduled to have open-heart surgery the next morning, and he confessed to his pastor that he had not exactly led a virtuous life. He asked if there was still time to repent. The minister looked at his watch and replied, “Yes, but I’d hurry if I were you.”

Let us pray: Loving God, thank you for loving us exactly as we are – right now in this moment. But we also thank you that you love us so much that you invite us to change and grow. We want to live healthy, whole, meaningful lives, and to that end, we ask for insight, courage, and strength.  Be especially close to those who feel the weight of the world on their shoulders; and with those who are in pain and suffering today. May your Spirit rest on each one of us bringing us your peace. Amen.