Sermon at The Church of the Holy Apostles, New York City
August 10, 2008, The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
The Reverend Peter R. Carey
Genesis 37:1-4,12-28
Psalm 17
Romans 10:5-15
Matthew 14:22-23

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

     I want to begin this morning with a joke.  A joke is always good, right?

     There was this lovely English lady--you know, one of those ladies with the big floppy hats--who was very active and very generous with her time and energy in her local village and in her parish church--St. Swithin’s-on-Tyne.  And so one day she received an invitation to go down to London to attend a tea party in the garden of Buckingham Palace and to shake the Queen’s hand and to be thanked by Her Majesty for her service to Crown and Country.

     The woman was directed to take her place in the line and the Queen began to make her way toward her.  Queen Elizabeth arrived in front of the woman and extended her gloved hand.  The lady curtsied perfectly and the Queen was about to ask her her name and where she came from, when the cell phone in the lady’s hand bag went off!

     Well! The woman was mortified.  She didn’t know what to do.  She turned beet red.  And the Queen, quick as a flash, pointed to the woman’s handbag and said, “You’d better answer that.  It might be someone important!”

     I’ll apply this story to my sermon later, so stay tuned.

     In 1904, an obscure English philosopher named James Allen published a book entitled, “As a Man Thinketh.”  The title refers to a verse in the Book of Proverbs, which, in the King James version reads: “For as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”

     The work is very short; only 50 pages.  You can read it in a single sitting, but it has been enormously influential.  Since it was first published, the book has never been out of print, and it is generally considered one of the seminal works of New Age thought--both religious and secular.

     The basic premise of the work is that what we think and how  we think has an influence--and even to a large degree determines--the kind of life we live and the kind of people we become.  Here’s a little quote from the book:  “Our thoughts are like seeds planted in a fertile garden.  They take root, grow, and eventually mature into full bloom.  Thus the very center of our character-growth is our inner thoughts.  Our thoughts precede our actions.  They are the underlying forces that shape our destiny.”

     Here’s another quote from the book:  “The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears.  It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations.  Its falls to the level of its unchastened desires--and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.”

     This idea--that we are what we think and not what we think we are--has manifested itself in a thousand different ways and schools of thought and even in movies.  The film “The Secret” released in 2006, was about this idea. What is often called “The Law of Attraction,” is another version of it.  The Law of Attraction asserts that “dwelling on any quality of mind adds that quality to you, whether it be helpful or injurious.”  Positive thinking, in other words, attracts good things into your life and negative thinking attracts negative things into your life.  Another way of putting it is, as I said before:  “You are what you think, not what you think you are.”

     Over the years there have been many promoters of this idea, and many spinoffs on it, some of them secular and some Christian or quasi-Christian.  Mary Baker Eddy was a proponent, as well as the famous Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote “The Power of Positive Thinking.”  To some extent Billy Graham also espoused the same idea and several very popular TV evangelists and megachurch pastors today like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen promote various versions of positive thinking.  It’s sometimes called The Gospel of Prosperity or The Gospel of Happiness or The Gospel of Self-Improvement.  Or it could just as easily be called the Gospel of Feeling Good.  The celebrated Robert Schuller, founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, goes so far as to call the Beatitudes, the “Be-Happy-Tudes”!

     You will certainly be hearing more about Pastor Rick Warren in the days ahead because Senators McCain and Obama are going to appear and speak at his church--together for the first time on the same platform--later this month.  Pastor Warren’s church, in Irvine, California, is called the Saddleback Church and has more than 30,000 members.  Osteen’s church, in Houston, Texas, has more than 42,000 regularly attending members.  The church is located is a retrofitted football stadium, which he owns.

     These televangelists have written literally dozens of books celebrating and promoting their version of Christianity-as-positive-thinking. If you’ve been in an airport bookstore recently or in any large bookstore, you’ve seen them.

     Clearly, by keeping their message positive these megachurch pastors have been able to grown their congregations in a spectacular may.  Their message is popular.  It’s what people want to hear.  It makes people feel good and it also enables them to feel as if they can have some measure of control over their lives, providing they get right with God.  It even allows them to think that they might be able to secure their financial future by means of their Biblical faith.

     In my view, the positive emphasis is not without merit.  There is a lot to be said for the idea that like attracts like.  There’s a lot to be said for positive thinking.  There’s a lot to be said for self-help.  And there is a lot to be said against negative thinking.  A strong argument can be made that engaging in it isn’t good for you.  Negative thinking can eat away at your self-esteem and even cause depression.

     And yes, the idea of positive thinking can indeed be found in the Bible in various places.  In Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, for example, we read: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

     That seems to mean that we ought to think positively, doesn’t it?  And that God will bless that kind of thinking.

     The former rector of our parish used to touch on that theme in his sermons once in a while.  He called it “the theology of abundance,” the idea that our God is not a stingy God, but a generous God, who wants to fill us with good things, if only we will ask for them and open our hearts to receive them.

     So, yes, I’m all for positive thinking and for looking on the bright side and for self-improvement.  And for optimism and for confidence and faith in God.  And I’m sure you are too.  But I also think that there are some cautions to be kept in mind.  And I’d like to tease out some of those from today’s Gospel.

     One thing to be kept in mind is that it’s simply not true that we are totally in control of our own circumstances and our own destiny--if only we get right with God.  Nowhere in today’s Gospel story does it say or even imply that the storm came up over the lake because the disciples had engaged somehow or other in negative thinking or had sinned.  The storm happened.  Period.  They were in the wrong place in the wrong time.  That’s all.  And so it is with our lives.  Yes, sometimes we DO bring bad things onto ourselves.  Sometimes we ARE our own worst enemies.  And sometimes we also cause good things to come into our lives.  But sometimes bad things just happen and we haven’t caused them--either by our thinking or by our sins.  Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a wonderful book on the subject called, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.”  And they do sometimes and it isn’t always our fault.  When preachers or writers give the impression that people can always change the circumstances of their lives simply by “accepting Jesus as their personal Savior” or by  having strong faith or by thinking in some new way or by making a contribution to their church, well, all I can say is:  I wish it were that easy.

     Another problem that arises when positive thinking and self-improvement become the primary focus of Christianity (as it has in these megachurches) is that it quickly becomes self-absorbed and neglects Jesus’ clear call to his disciples to bring about social transformation.  To hasten the coming of the Kingdom of God.

     None of the megachurches are much interested in social transformation-- in feeding the poor, in assisting the immigrant, or the prisoner, in helping the marginalized, in women’s rights,  or in promoting the rights of minorities, or, frankly, even in peace and justice issues generally.  And only recently have they become interested in the environment.  If you look at their programs, you will find that they focus primarily on personal self improvement and family issues.  All very well and good; but not enough.

     Why isn’t it enough?  It isn’t enough because there is more to the Gospel of Jesus Christ than that.  The tremendous importance of social transformation in the preaching of Jesus can be seen by the fact that today’s miracle immediately follows the story of the feeding of the five thousand, one of the most celebrated “social miracles” in the Gospels.  A social miracle is an intervention, brought about by Jesus to meet the needs of a group as such.  The wedding feast of Cana is another example.

     Coming immediately after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, today’s miracle of Jesus walking on the water can be understood as equipping the disciples, by strengthening their faith, not just for their own happiness or for their own self-improvement, but for their work in the world.  Not merely for their own benefit, but for the world’s.

     The final red flag I’d like to raise this morning about self-improvement or feel-good Christianity is the idea of surprise.  Today’s Gospel makes it clear that Jesus will always, as they say these days, “be there for us.”  He is always prepared to calm the raging sea around us.  Always ready to uphold and support us in our life and work.  But not always in the ways that we expect or may even want.

     The disciples in the boat didn’t at first recognize Jesus.  They had their own ideas about what they needed.  They had their own ideas about what they wanted.  But Jesus had his ideas.

     So, by all means let’s tell God what we want and what we think we need,  how we want to improve and how we want our lives to get better, how we want to be happier; but let’s also be prepared for surprises and let’s, when we have to, be prepared also, like Jesus himself, to carry our cross.  “Not my will, Lord, but yours, be done.”

     This idea was driven home to me by a fellow parishioner with whom I had lunch recently.  He was talking about a particularly difficult period in his life and he said, “Help always came to me, but not always in the ways I expected.”  

     Exactly.  Christ’s message to us today and every day is more than mere self improvement.  And sometimes it’s more than feeling good.  Sometimes it’s even finding the courage to bear someone else’s burdens.  “Bear one another’s burdens” wrote St. Peter, “and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

     So, if in your life you’re sometimes confused or if you are sometimes embarrassed and don’t know which way to turn or quite what to do--and suddenly your cell phone goes off, maybe you’d better answer it.  It might be Someone important.

     Amen.