FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF MAPLE PLAIN

Sermon for September 3, 2000

Rev. Jennifer K. Stoos

Sometimes a series of events end up prompting a sermon. Someone once said that each of us will get our fifteen minutes of fame sometime in our lives, and Kathy Lavengood, this is your fifteen minutes.

Last week Kathy gave me a packet from a friend of hers who is doing education on fetal alcohol syndrome. Fetal alcohol syndrome is something that happens when a woman drinks during pregnancy, and the developing fetus is affected. Through the book, and a Minnesota FASD Day this Saturday, September ₉th, Kathy’s friend hopes to make more people aware of the dangers of drinking during pregnancy, and also make them more compassionate and supportive of the people who need to cope with the effects of FASD on their lives.

I have always associated fetal alcohol syndrome with particular facial differences and developmental delays, but it turns out that only some of the people affected have these more obvious "signs" of their disability. Many folks have fetal alcohol effects that are more difficult to recognize. People with fetal alcohol effects might be quite intelligent, but suffer from many other concerns. They might have increased sensitivity to touch and sound and light. They might have trouble with coordination. They might have problems with social relationships and with cause and effect. These plus a host of other potential disabilities are related to the brain damage that they have sustained. Their behavior can be very challenging and hard to manage. They can have trouble learning many things that others take for granted.

In the book Kathy gave me her friend Jodee and daughter Liz tell the story of Liz’s life, and her struggles to live with fetal alcohol effects. Jodee and her husband have devoted a major part of their lives to help Liz grow up, and find the potential inside of her, potential that at many times was very hard to see. Liz came to them at 5 months of age, and hated to be touched. Lights bothered her, seams on clothes bothered her, noise bothered her. She was prone to rages. Liz was ten before she voluntarily hugged her father. Her parents have lived through fits and screaming, blood, sweat and tears, inappropriate swearing, precocious puberty (which often happens with FASD kids), sexual acting out, their child being taken advantage of, school failures, and the inability to go out anywhere without constant risk of a scene. Over the years they developed ways to help Liz learn, and help her cope. Their patience seems outstanding.

As I was reading this book I was again and again reminded of people who have tested my patience as Liz tested her parents. I was also aware that at much lower levels of testing, I am likely to have my patience wear thin. I am likely to want to turn away, or give up. It is easy to lose sight of what might be in someone else, and walk away. And that is where the story hits our lesson from James.

James is a very practical book in the Bible. It is concerned with how we act. James teaches that faith and works happen together, our faith is shown in who we are in day-to-day life.

Today our reading is focusing on community relationships, and how people should be together. James works to inspire us by telling us that all of our good gifts come from God. Therefore, we should live out those gifts. We dishonor God and God’s gifts to us when we live in ways that are contrary to God’s commandments.

James also says that the word of God is something that is planted inside of us. That might sound complicated. Maybe one way to think about it would be to imagine God writing each of us a letter and placing it in our hearts.

Now imagine how much God must love us to give us each good gifts. There are billions of us on the planet, and yet each one of us is unique, and uniquely gifted in love. Add to that love the love shown by writing the word on our hearts, so that we might be drawn to God’s love. That is a lot of attention we each receive. To receive so much, we must each be very special to God, every one of us.

Jodee and her husband saw that something inside of Liz. She came to their home as a baby of five months who was expected to die. She was a screaming tense little bundle who wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone and was ready to leave this painful world. She wasn’t gaining weight, and she wasn’t developing. Her little body had had enough. But Jodee and her husband saw a light inside. And they decided to work toward that light. They saw that God had given Liz some good gifts that could be claimed, and that the light of God in her could save her.

Wow. That is an amazing promise, not only for Liz, but also for you and for me. The promise is that God has placed something special in us at our creation. God has given each of us gifts that are a part of us, like electrons and neutrons and protons. God’s word is written on our hearts, a kind of love letter, waiting to be read, or as James says, "welcomed with meekness."

Sometimes we place God so far away. We try to live up to God, or have God reach down to us. But here James offers another view, God with us—already.

Have you ever gone in the basement and been rummaging around and found that you had something you needed, but didn’t remember you had? I’ve found all sorts of tools that I would have sworn we didn’t own. I’ve found clothing that was useful, and many other odds and ends.

Sometimes we don’t’ notice, or realize, the majesty and mystery of what God has placed right here, right in front of us when we look in the mirror. Right in you and right in me and right in Liz. God’s gifts have been waiting—God’s word has been waiting—but they’ve been hidden somewhere in the basement in the midst of the dust and boxes. Some of us have to do some significant cleaning and looking, but they are there. They are hidden in the kid with FASD, they are hidden in defiant faces, they are hidden in many of us who pretend everything is in order. God’s word and God’s gifts are planted in us, waiting to be claimed. The letter is waiting to be read. James entreats us to "Welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls."

Do you know what this means? This means that God doesn’t make junk. Sometimes it is hard to trust that when someone is a real challenge. I know that Liz’s parents must have faced times when their faith was stretched to the limits. Sometimes it is also hard to trust that God doesn’t make junk when we look at ourselves. Depression and anger and hurt can overwhelm our ability to see that we have been given God’s gifts and God’s word too. It is a real revelation when we are struck in moments of clarity—when we really realize—the gifts that have been there all along. It is a moment of grace when we turn to God and gratefully and meekly receive those gifts that have been given, and read the letter that invites us into eternal love.

Kathy, thanks for the book. I’ll give it to the library for others to read. It is a witness to the importance of each of God’s little ones, and how we might work with difficulties to reveal gifts. It is a reminder to us of the impact we have on each other, both negative, and positive. It is a witness to the faith of a particular family.

May we each be convicted, as this family has been, that God has implanted something precious within each of us? May we be inspired to live out that conviction. May we be part of the faithful effort to share that conviction with others, especially the outcast, the lost, and the brokenhearted. Amen.

If you have any comments or additional ideas to share with others. Please feel free to contact jodee@connetworks.com.

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