I saw a poll this past week stating that
80 percent of our nation agrees that things are out of control. Most of us probably would agree with that
statement because we are in the midst of three crisis . . . pandemic, racial
unrest, and recession. It is difficult
enough to have one crisis, but these three are intimately woven together
creating a chaotic landscape and experience for many of us. At times, when this seemingly perfect storm
of mayhem is swirling about us . . . we are overwhelmed.
In the 1976 movie, Network, the lead character is an aging network news anchor whose
ratings are going down. Typical of
corporations, the news station decides to just drop the anchor and replace him
a newer and sexier version to shore up the ratings. Catching wind of this, the anchor—Howard
Beale—is distraught and ends up going on a bender. On the next night’s broadcast, he has had
enough . . . he loses it . . . and goes on a rant about how terrible life is,
how disposable people are and so forth.
Just a good old temper tantrum.
Shocked, the corporate executives move
to fire him on the spot. Then they
discover that his little tantrum has shot the ratings for the news out the
top. A new sensation is born. They encourage Howard Beale to continue his
ranting and raving. This works for a
while, but like anything new the shine eventually wears off. The ratings begin to drop. Howard is given notice again that he is out
of a job.
Back and forth it goes until finally one
day he has had enough. Facing the
audience through the camera, Howard declares his frustration, saying, “I’m mad
as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
With his definitive statement of
frustration, Howard hits a main vein in the lives of his viewers . . . in the
people of a nation. He taps into the
frustration of those watching. Soon they,
too, pick up the cause . . . pick up the phrase. Across the city, state, and country people
are leaning out their windows proclaiming that they “. . . mad as hell, and not
taking it anymore!”
Of course, the ratings go up . . . and a
movement is born.
At some point in the movie, Howard Beale
reached a tipping point. A tipping point
is that point in time when a person or group is pushed into action to rapidly
and dramatically change behavior. It is
that moment that pushes someone or some group over the edge . . . the straw
that breaks the camel’s back. It is that
moment when enough is enough and something needs to be done. When one moves
from being overwhelmed into action.
In our scripture reading this morning
Jesus is going about his ministry. He is
traveling through all the towns and villages preaching, teaching, and
healing. Everywhere that he goes he
witnesses great crowds of people. He
recognized the hardships they faced . . . saw their predicaments . . . the
poverty of material and spiritual . . . saw the injustice, oppression, and
persecution. He saw the hunger on the
faces of the people . . . hunger to be received, welcomed, and included. He saw it all in the eyes of the people . . .
oh, so may people. The need was great .
. . the time had come. He proclaims to
his disciples: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to
send out workers into his harvest field.”
Jesus had reached the tipping point . .
. enough was enough.
What happens next is that he appoints
his disciples—the twelve he had chosen—to go forth and meet the people where
they are . . . to respond to their needs . . . to welcome them into the family,
the family of God. Something must be
done . . . a movement is born. The time
has come, things must change.
Out of a sense of being overwhelmed with
what he has encountered, Jesus responds with love and compassion, with peace
and justice, with grace and joy to bring about change . . . to bring about
God’s kingdom. And, he invites his
disciples—and us—to join him. It is the
only way that the overwhelming sense he is feeling—that the people are
feeling—can be removed. Change must take
place.
I wonder if we . . . as a people . . .
as a nation . . . as the children of the God, have reached our tipping point. It would seem like it from what we are
witnessing on television, reading in the papers, and hearing on our
radios. It would sure seem like it from
the activity flooding social media like Facebook
and Twitter. With the senseless killing of George Floyd in
the custody of law enforcement officers in Minneapolis . . . a death that
flashes before our eyes as it was caught on video and broadcast everywhere for
all to see . . . we have seen daily protests across our nation and across the
world. This senseless death of a black
man seems to have been the tipping point moving toward necessary change.
The feeling of being overwhelmed . . .
the feeling of hopelessness . . . the feeling of isolation . . . the feeling of
injustice . . . of being forgotten . . . through the pandemic, the racial
unrest, and the stifling recession has pushed humanity to the brink. Enough is enough. The call is for change . . . change for a
better life, a better way of living.
It is the prompting of the Spirit at
work . . . to grow . . . to change . . . to realize the Kingdom of God.
This feeling of being overwhelmed . . .
of frustration . . . of restlessness . . . it is the Spirit at work. The Spirit nudging us towards action . . .
towards doing something. Of not wanting
to take this anymore. How are we to
respond to that prompting by the Spirit?
Well, we can begin by acknowledging its
presence in our lives. We can ask
ourselves the question about what our feelings of being overwhelmed are about .
. . what our frustration is about . . . where it is coming from. What is it about the pandemic, racial
injustice, and the recession that has us all worked up? We can pray about it . . . discern . . . and
pray some more. We need to discover what
it is that is making us feel this way.
Once we have that figured out . . . we
study it, learn about it, seek possible solutions and actions to work towards a
solution . . . then we pray some more.
There are answers and solutions to our feelings. Just as the Spirit prompted us to the tipping
point, the Spirit can move us towards solutions.
Then we must act. If wearing a mask to protect others and
ourselves is an answer towards ending the pandemic . . . then wear a mask. Do what must be done. If protesting with others to express
displeasure with racial injustice is what you need to do . . . then do it. None of the three crisis we are experiencing
are without answers or solutions . . . but nothing can be accomplished if we do
not acknowledge and then do something.
Think about it . . . in our reading this
morning, when Jesus sends out the twelve disciples, he gives them tasks to do.
He tells them: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive
out demons.” Doing anything is
better than nothing. Remember, once we
reach the tipping point we are thrust into rapid and dramatic changes within
and outside of ourselves.
Each of us has our tipping points in our
lives. It should be of no surprise that
many of us are feeling overwhelmed as we face three major crises in our
lives. It is difficult enough to deal
with one, but each of these touches our lives in some manner. It is not enough to offer our frustrations
and feelings of being overwhelmed to God . . . we might feel better for a
moment or two, but the feelings won’t go away until we deal with them. We must do something. The Spirit will pester us until we do.
Jesus tells his disciples that there is
a great need and to meet that need they should go out and love. They are to love as he has loved . . . with
grace, respect, acceptance, and justice for all. These are the gifts they have received from
God through him . . . they are the same gifts for each of us. Jesus reminds them and us: “Freely
you have received; freely give.”
The Spirit is pushing . . . what will you do? Amen.
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