Sermon July 8, 2007 at Saint Philip's

Reflections on a Snickers Sundae
By The Rev. Raymond J. Howe

On Wednesday afternoon I treated myself to a Snickers Sundae.  It was delicious ...   three scoops of Vienna Mocha Chunk ice cream, fudge sauce, pieces of a Snickers bar, gobs of whipped cream, and of course, a cherry on top.  About once or twice a year I do this, and I always feel just a little bit guilty.      

As I devoured my sundae, I thought about my friend Susan who is diabetic.  Susan keeps a very strict diet.  Her eating habits are ten times better than mine.  A normal range for blood sugar for most of us is about 80-120.  Susan’s blood sugar level may drop to 35 or rise to 479.      

As I ate my Snickers sundae, I reflected on Susan and her diabetes.  I thought about my grandfather (my dad’s father) who died of diabetes in the 1920's around the time of the discovery of insulin.  I reflected upon how different things might have been if insulin had been discovered a few years earlier.  I thought about the glucose tolerance tests I occasionally had to take as a boy (before they became somewhat more tolerable) ... and realized that a youngster, I was worried that I might already have diabetes myself.    

All of this set me to thinking about the analogy of all of this to spiritual realms.  First of all, it made me thankful.  So my first point today is
... maybe your sugar level for instance — but be careful, don’t eat too many snicker’s sundaes!

But I’m not just thinking of things like cholesterol, blood pressure or weight.

Most of us are not tempted to take money out of the offering plate when it comes around.

Most of us are attracted to people of the opposite rather than the same sex.
 
Most of us are not so needy that we have to make fools of ourselves in order to get the attention of others.

Most of you (and you’ll notice I have changed the pronoun) have some reasonable sense of direction.  I do not.  I can get lost in a revolving door.  Yesterday I tried to find the Wingate Rehabilitation Center in West Springfield.  I won’t bother to tell you how lost I became ... both coming and going.  Once, years ago when I was driving and Beverly Ann had been in a deep sleep for some time, she awoke to tell me that I had made a wrong turn.  I took me a few miles to admit it, but she was correct.

Take a moment now to silently thank the Lord for some areas in which you fit into some normal and healthy ranges.  And remember that when that happens, it is a gracious gift from God.
(Pause)
It would be ludicrous for me to think of myself as in any way better than my friend because my blood sugar level is normal and hers is not ... especially when I am eating a snickers sundae.  The fact of the matter is that she has to work very hard to stay anywhere near to normal limits ... and most of us can do so with very little effort.  

All of us have known or been, either the student in school who gets A’s without effort or C-‘s by working real hard.  

Some people we know seem by nature to be very comfortable with their sex identity, whatever it might be, and the expression thereof.  We also know others for whom this is a major ongoing problem.

To be either self-satisfied or judgmental toward another is usually great folly, both practically and spiritually.  Remember that our Lord told us in the Sermon on the Mount ... “Judge not, that you be not judged.”  

At this point I will give you a few moments to silently ask God’s forgiveness for a situation in which you have been judgmental or impatient toward another human being.
(Pause)

The third point that I pondered while I was eating my Snickers sundae is that bad things do happen to good people, and sometimes we simply have to play the cards we are dealt as well as we can.  

Susan is having a tough time with her diabetes.  But she would have a much harder time if she ate sundaes whenever it got her down.  Some people do exactly that with disastrous results.

Let’s continue the analogy between diabetes and spiritual matters.  In the same way that my friend would be foolish not to use the resources which God has made available to her, such as doctors, insulin, medical treatment ... so would any of us be foolish not to use the spiritual resources that God has given to us –– prayer, scripture, sacraments, the church, the ordained ministry, one another and also our own particular strengths, abilities, talents and gifts.

My friend knows how deeply intimately, personally and completely God loves her and is ready to forgive her, but she would never say, “God, because I know you stand ready to forgive me for anything, I know that it is ok for me not to take my insulin anymore and to eat Snickers sundaes all the time.”  Even saying the words sound ludicrous.

Yet so often I see people doing exactly the same thing with God and the spiritual resources that God offers us.  They seem to say that because God loves me I can act in any darn way I please and still be assured of forgiveness.  I can set aside God’s commandments and the spiritual resources God has offered and not pay the consequences.  
I say to you, “You can not”.
I say to you, “You can not.”

St. Paul meets this attitude head-on in Romans, Chapter 6 when he responds to the same question:  “Should we continue to sin in order that grace may abound?”  Almost in agony Paul responds, “By no means!  How can we who died to sin go on living in it?”

St. Paul in these words – and Christ in his death – are saying that in the same way that my friend would risk death by not using insulin and good diet, so each of us risks spiritual death by not following God’s commandments and using the resources he offers us.  

So, use your resources to the very best of your ability.  Don’t compare yourself to anyone else.  God gave very different abilities, strengths, gifts and resources to the person sitting next to you.  And that person’s accountability to God is therefore quite different from yours.  
Play the hand you are dealt, but play it the very best possible way you can.

And now, the words people most like to hear from the pulpit:

“And in conclusion and summary”
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