PROPER 16C - Isaiah 28:14-22; Psalm 46; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-29; Luke 13:22-30 -

26 August 2007 - A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

The Cairns of our Lives

INTRODUCTION - Cairns

 

Sometimes when you are hiking up to higher elevations, the trail is wide and obvious and - well, there is a clear trail. Other times, especially in Colorado, it is not like that. Instead, you are traveling through one big pile of rocks, and after a while, they all start to look the same. You may know that you are headed for a summit or a high mountain lake, but it is not always obvious where the trail is. In a way, there isn’t a trail. Sometimes you just pick a route that looks best to you and take it. However, once you have some experience in the high country, you come to the realization that many people have made their way to this lake or up this mountain before you. And so you say to yourself, or to the person you are hiking with, “Do you see a cairn?”

 

A cairn is a conical pile of rocks - a mini mountain peak, if you will - that is designed to mark the trail. Sometimes you fill find a huge cairn - six or eight feet tall, which lots of stones - when you get to the actual summit. But before that happens, there are much smaller piles of rocks marking the way - usually a good way - to your destination. Sometimes a cairn is made of only two or three rocks, sometimes more. The cairn is usually built on some other more prominent rock, so that when you stop, and look up (or look down, if you are coming down), you can see it. You might have to really stop and really look for a while, because when you are in the middle of a boulder field, all the rocks can begin to blend together. But usually, if you are wondering if you have gotten off the trail, and you stop and look around for a bit, you’ll see it. “There it is! Right there. Look! We’re still on the path.” And you feel good, and sort of relieved. “Great! We must be right on course.” And if you have been seeing cairns for a half-hour or an hour, and suddenly you are not, you have a pretty good idea that you have gotten off the trail - the trail that doesn’t really exist, except for those cairns, those trail markers.

 

THE CAIRNS IN OUR LIVES

I believe there are cairns or trail markers in our lives. If life is a journey, a road, or a path - and we tend to use that imagery around here a lot - then it makes some sense that there are markers along the way. Some of them are related to age. Some of them are not about age, per se, but are more about significant life events or transitions - whether planned or unplanned - that we go through.

 

I suppose walking and talking would be some of the earliest cairns in our lives. Starting school would be another one. What are some others?

$ Going to middle school or high school

$ Turning 16 and getting your driver’s license

$ Your first kiss or your first date

$ Your first job

$ Turning 18 and being eligible to vote

$ Leaving home

$ Turning 21

$ Enlisting in the military

$ Making a lifetime commitment to Christ

$ Starting your own business

$ Getting married

$ Having children or grandchildren

$ Retiring

 

Life being what it is, our particular cairns are not always associated with positive things. Our markers might include the year we got divorced or separated, the time when a parent or spouse or child died. The cairn might be a terrible car accident, or losing a job, or going off to fight in a war, or the time you survived a natural or economic disaster.

 

We also have cairns that mark us as a nation:

$ July 4, 1776

$ 1789 - The Constitution

$ 1861-1865 - The Civil War

$ 1903 - The Wright Brothers first flight

$ 1914-1918 - World War I

$ October 29, 1929 - “Black Tuesday”, Beginning of the Great Depression

$ December 7, 1941 - Bombing of Pearl Harbor

$ August 6, 1945 - Hiroshima and the atomic bomb

$ August 28, 1963 - Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial

$ November 22, 1963 - Assassination of President Kennedy

$ July 20, 1969 - Neil Armstrong walks on the moon

$ September 11, 2001

 

TURNING 50

 

I turned fifty a few days ago. I had an absolutely glorious hike to Sky Pond on my actual birthday. I had a very special and fun celebration with some friends and family members last night. People have been asking me if I feel different. I don’t feel much different. I am just sort of wondering, “How did this happen? How is this possible?” Remember when you were in school and someone who was 50 seemed ancient? Now people who are 60, heck - people I meet who are 75 or 80... I’m thinking, “That’s not that old.” Maybe because I realize that I’m just as close to those ages as I am 25 or 30.

 

I’ve been thinking about turning 50 for a little while now. Some of you heard me say that a few weeks ago I went on a retreat, and I spent some time thinking and writing about turning 50.

 

I started writing down what I was grateful for over the past fifty years - for people, experiences that I’ve had, for God’s grace and guidance, for the beauty of creation, for books I’ve read and music I’ve listened to - for all of it. I starting writing all of those things down and I almost couldn’t stop. I had four pages worth of “gratitudes” in just a few minutes. I also wrote about the future - the dreams I still have personally, professionally, and with my family and friends. That list was shorter, but still quite lengthy.

 

I didn’t do this when I turned 40. Fifty is a different kind of marker. I sort of have to say it, over and over again, to believe it. Fifty years! That’s a while. That’s a new cairn for me. A time to take stock. A time to reflect. A time to ask, “What have I done so far? What haven’t I done? What kind of person am I? What are the things I still need to learn? What are the things I am struggling with, or, as is sometimes the case, still struggling with? Where is God leading me? What do I think I know? What is “solid rock” for me, and what is negotiable? There is a sense that time is speeding up, that if I’m going to do something that I haven’t done, it is time to get started. There is more of a sense of not taking things for granted, of the need to appreciate each day, and live each day, as fully as I can. There is more of an impatience, too, in the sense of not wanting to waste time with things that drain my energy. I want to do those things that give me and others life, and minimize the other stuff.

 

These thoughts and feelings weren’t there in the same way when I turned forty. This is a new cairn.

 

BEING STILL

 

“The nations make much ado [or, “are in an uproar”], and the kingdoms are shaken;

God has spoken, and the earth shall melt away.

The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Come now and look upon the works of the Lord,

what awesome things he has done on earth.

It is he who makes war to cease in all the world;

he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire.

Be still, then, and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations;

I will be exalted in the earth.”

Psalm 46:6-10

 

At the very time that I have reached another cairn, I read and hear, “Be still, then, and know that I am God.”

 

The world doesn’t invite you to be still. The world calls you to keep going at a very fast pace. Make much ado. Keep busy. Have your engine in a constant state of uproar, with a high RPM.

 

God extends a very different invitation.

 

We all have these cairns, these trail markers, in our lives.

 

Starting high school? Leaving home? Facing surgery or other health issues? You’ve lost a job? Think you’ve met “the one”, and you’re wondering if you should get married? Feeling unsettled at work, or in your primary relationship? Wondering if or when you should retire? Turning 21? 50? 70? 80?

 

The world says, “Keep going! Keep moving! Don’t worry about it! Check the next thing off your list.”

 

God says, “This is a marker. You are at a new cairn. Stop for a bit, and look around. Take in the view for a while before you go on. Sit down on a rock and do some thinking, some reflecting, some praying, some listening. Be still. Be. Don’t “do”.

 

Be.

Be still.

Be still and know.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know that I am God.

 

Take some time. The writer of Hebrews says “we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.” (Hebrews 12:28). Jesus talked about this kingdom all the time. Today we are reminded that he said, “Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:29) Another time he said, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

 

It is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. But God can’t give it to us if we don’t stop at the various markers in our life, and listen, and ask, “What are you saying, Lord? What do you want me to learn? What part of the kingdom do you want me to receive, at this point in my life?”

 

CONCLUSION

 

Take some time, if not today, then tomorrow or next weekend. Don’t wait too long. Take some time to think about the cairns of your life. What are the markers in your life right now? Be still, and pay attention to whatever trail marker you have come to. Be still, and know that God is God. Be still, and know that God has a gift in store for you - right now - for this time in your life. It is his good pleasure to give you the kingdom.