“My Daughter’s Sermons:
Kayla -- The Joy of God”

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Awesome One, you take joy in your creation. Help us to see ourselves as providers of joy, so that we might fulfill our purpose as creation. Lord, Open our hearts and minds by the power of Your Holy Spirit, that, as the Scriptures are read and Your Word proclaimed, We may hear with joy what You say to us today. Amen.

The sermon title bears a little explanation. I have learned a lot about the nature of God through many things. In both college and seminary, I studied and learned both on a mental level and an emotional level. In Bible study, both corporate and personal, I have learned about the nature of God through interacting with the Bible on my own and with others. But I think I have learned more about who God is, and possibly what God experiences by being a parent. By being a dad, not by being apparent. A parent, two words. Apparent, one word. Enough of semantics, and these are some antics. Seriously, I have felt closer to God because I think I have a closer understanding of who God is and what God wants simply by the fact that God is called Abba, Father by Jesus, and I too am a father now. If God is our great parent, some of the moments we have as parents must equate, right?

So, to that end, I have decided that I want to preach about being a parent and a pastor, if I may. What I have found is that once in a while I will be in my dad mode, and all of a sudden I will think “I wonder if this is what God feels.” Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I don’t know. But I sure think it is, and sure hope it is. So, if these revelation type moments come often enough, I may preach two sermons like this every year. And this year we start with Kayla, because her revelation came about 2 weeks before Murphy’s did. Next week, we get to Murphy.

Hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in Matthew. Listen. Matthew 25.14-30.

¹⁴ “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; ¹⁵to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. ¹⁷In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. ¹⁸But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ ²¹His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²²And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ ²³His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²⁴Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; ²⁵so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ ²⁶But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? ²⁷Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. ²⁹For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ³⁰As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.

Hear also The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in the 65^th Psalm. Listen for God’s Word for you today. Psalm 65.8,13.

⁸ Those who live at earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. ¹³ the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

The Grass withers, the Flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever…Thanks be to God.

I’ve picked passages that use the word joy, which you hopefully caught. The Matthew passage is not a passage we think of when we think of joy. We think of the three servants, especially the difference between the first two and the last one. But listen to what he says to the three. To the last, we know that the master says, “³⁰As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” But to the first two, the master says this in both verse 21 and 23, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” (italics mine) We tend to focus on the first part of that statement, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things,” and we skip right over the second part, “enter into the joy of your master.”

What did the first two do differently than the third servant? Maybe that is the question. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like much. The first two get given the gifts and they go out and use them. The one servant takes his gift, and digs a hole, and hides it. To me, when that servant hears that he is sent off to the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, I don’t think it is a very long trip. You see, hiding the master’s gift is the outer darkness, and weeping and gnashing of teeth is very familiar to those who hide the master’s gift.

One unseasonably cool summer day last year, I took Kayla to the park. This is not an uncommon occurrence for us. I like to get Kayla outside of the house, away from the television, as much as possible. This also gives Melissa some time, usually some quiet alone time, since I most often take Kayla alone when Murphy is napping. Plus, my theory is that if we run her during the day, she might go to bed easier at night. So far, the theory has yet to prove, but I’m still gathering data. Since the weather was cooler than normal, the park was relatively empty. And what we normally do when it is just her and I in the park is she asks me to set a race. Which is me saying, “Okay, first climb up and slide down the yellow slide, then run over and touch the swings, and go over and slide down the curvy slide, then touch the picnic tables, then slide down the purple wavy slide, then come give me a kiss. Go” And she runs and does it.

So, we were in the midst of this normal practice, and all of a sudden I became overwhelmed with a sensation I can only relate to joy. I was ecstatic because she was so happy, especially at that moment. She was being a four year old, taking the gift of an unending supply of energy, and just having fun. I’m not sure when I began to view slides as boring, but to her they are the most fun thing. And watching her enjoy the park, well, it was overwhelming. And I thought to myself, “I wonder if this is why the Creator creates; these moments of taking joy in the pure, unadulterated joy of God’s children.” The beautiful moment of her joy is etched into my mind, and burned onto my heart, and there it will remain, along with other similar moments, forever. And for that, I am blessed and grateful.

Listen to the way Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Bible, The Message, translates a couple of verses as the master speaks to the so called “wicked” servant. “That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! (v.26) … get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.” (vv.29b-30)

I have decided to change one of my parenting techniques. Up until recently, I am forever on Kayla’s case about how she walks. She’s constantly tripping over stuff, including the mess on her bedroom floor, stairs she didn’t see, her own feet, whatever you got, she’ll trip over it. The reason for this is that she never looks down at her feet when she walks. So I’ll say to her, “Kayla, watch your feet, look where you are walking.” But lately I’ve noticed something. I’ve been running into a lot of adults, and when I say running into, I mean physically running into, a lot of adults because they are intently looking down at their feet as they walk. I was walking around the corner in a hospital recently, and a fast walking doctor slammed right into me. I saw her first, and tried to move out of her way, but she kept moving ahead, swerving all over the corridor, looking intently at the pattern in the carpet. And we were right next to a long section of window looking out at a gorgeous day, and I thought to myself, “Pay attention, why can’t people pay attention to the world, pay attention to their surroundings, pay attention to others, pay attention to so much more than just their own feet, their own self.” And then I realized, I need to learn how to walk from Kayla. Gone are the days when I will tell her to walk and look at the floor. Instead she has it right. As you walk, look up and see the good stuff.

Too many people live their lives cautiously, play it safe, don’t go out on a limb, and they walk right by a beautiful cliff without noticing, because the footing is dangerous here. They constantly worry, “am I doing what is pleasing to God.” And yet, my greatest joy as a parent often comes when my girls are just loving the gifts of creation, when they are simply being who they are, when they are living life to the fullest, when they are enjoying everything around them, when they take pleasure in the yellow slide, and the purple wavy one, and the curvy round one.

I also included a couple of verses from Psalm 65 today.

⁸ Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. ¹³ the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

I love this idea, which Jesus alludes to on Palm Sunday. He is being greeted by the people shouting Hosannas, and “Blessed is the king.” So some of the Pharisees ask Jesus to order his followers to stop. And he answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” (Luke 19.40) I love the idea of creation shouting out for joy. Fields of flowers popping open and showing beautiful reds and oranges craning up to the heavens just because that is how they were created, and if moved by human hands, altering their patterns so that they may still seek the light. Just being what they were meant to be. Rocks in a stream, worn by water’s work, smooth and shiny, by their nature pointing to a gracious and loving creator. Creation never acts like the third servant, never buries itself in the ground, not without the idea of sprouting out, growing into what it was created to be, and blooming out to the joy of the creator.

May we live lives full of joy, using the gifts the master has given us, being who we were created to be, to the joy of our creator. Amen.