New Year New Hope: The One Thing

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• How do you deal with distractions in life? 
• Do you allow the divisions of the age to consume you? 
• What would it take to focus on the important things? 

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Will Conner

Pastor of Decatur United Methodist Church

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Psalm 37:1-11; 39-40
Don’t get upset over evildoers;
    don’t be jealous of those who do wrong,
2     because they will fade fast, like grass;
    they will wither like green vegetables.
3 Trust the Lord and do good;
    live in the land, and farm faithfulness.
4 Enjoy the Lord,
    and he will give what your heart asks.
5 Commit your way to the Lord!
    Trust him! He will act
6     and will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
    your justice like high noon.
7 Be still before the Lord,
    and wait[b] for him.
Don’t get upset when someone gets ahead--
    someone who invents evil schemes.
8 Let go of anger and leave rage behind!
    Don’t get upset—it will only lead to evil.
9 Because evildoers will be eliminated,
    but those who hope in the Lord--
    they will possess the land.
10 In just a little while the wicked won’t exist!
    If you go looking around their place,
    they won’t be there.
11 But the weak will inherit the land;
    they will enjoy a surplus of peace.
 
The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord;
    he is their refuge in times of trouble.
40 The Lord will help them and rescue them--
    rescue them from the wicked—and he will save them
    because they have taken refuge in him.
 
Every week I devote about half of my time to preparing a sermon and prepping for worship. There are so many things that I would like to get accomplished through the week, but sometimes I have to wait on things because of all the time it takes to prepare a sermon and get ready for worship. I have become to ok with this because preaching and worship is about the most important thing that I am able to do. 
 
While it takes about half of my time to do this, my schedule for accomplishing this changes a bit week to week. My process is the same. I choose the Biblical text—usually this is something I have mapped out about a year in advance. So when it comes time to start each week on my sermon, I go to my planner and look at the text that I have planned for the day. I will then read and think about the text and think about what is going on in the life of the church. In the midst of this, I am asking God to speak to me through the text. 
 
Some weeks it is easy and it fairly apparent the theme that God is giving me. However, most of the time, this is when the real work begins. I hit the books. I consult scholars who give insight on the original context of the passage and what it means in its context. I read several commentaries; I look at Bible dictionaries if there are terms that I am not familiar with; and I consult other media to learn as much as possible about the text. Then I will compile all of this information by typing it into my personal, digital database. During this work, I am listening for what our local congregation needs to hear this week from the Biblical text. 
 
Once, I have an understanding of what the biblical passage is about and what the congregation needs to hear, I will write a theme for the sermon and will sketch the plot. Finally, I begin to write. Since I have done all of this work ahead of time, the writing usually doesn’t take all that long, perhaps four hours. Then after I’ve written a manuscript, I will practice delivering the message. 
 
All this works great until it doesn’t. It doesn’t work too well when the distractions begin. There is this scene from the Disney movie UP. It’s a great movie where a widower puts balloons on his house so he can fly and visit a place he always wanted to go with his wife. An over eager boy scout ends up hitching a ride on this house. When they get close to the destination, they meet a talking dog. And this talking dog is so absent minded. Whenever it begins to talk and concentrate on something it gets distracted and yells squirrel! Then it forgets what it’s doing. 
 
Sometimes that’s the way I feel. I’m in the middle of getting ready for Sunday, and the phone rings—usually it’s a robo call. Regardless, I get off track. The computer dings with a new email. I get a Facebook notification. There is a news alert. Some of these things are important, but whatever the case, they distract me and get me off track.
 
In life, it is so easy to get distracted. Your week is going fine, then “squirrel” and you get distracted. Your to-do list is well under control for the week, then “squirrel” and the water heater does down and you have to switch what you are doing immediately. Kids are masters at getting distracted. It’s homework time, “O wait, there’s something pretty.” We all know the dangers of distracted driving, even if we still distracted while we are driving. 
 
Just as distractions keep us from the main thing in life, so too is it with faith. It is such a temptation to get distracted in our faith too. Too often churches get distracted over seemingly minor things. Thom Rainer, the president and CEO of Lifeway Christians resources, asked a question on Twitter about what unique disagreements congregations had. The answers that people gave him are just too good not to share. Here are a few. https://thomrainer.com/2015/11/twenty-five-silly-things-church-members-fight-over/
 
An argument over the appropriate length of the worship pastor’s beard. 
 
A big church argument over the discovery that the church budget was off by $0.10. 
 
A major conflict when the youth borrowed a crockpot that had not been used for years. 
 
A dispute over whether the church should allow people to wear black t-shirts, since black is the color of the devil. 
 
I am sure this church wasn’t in the South, because there was one church that had an argument on whether the church should allow deviled eggs at the church meal. 
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There were some other comments that hit a little too close to home. One was about switching the brand of coffee. I whole heartedly believe that it is a gospel issue to serve good coffee if you are going to serve coffee at all. We all have those things, and issues that get us a little heated inside and distract us from our faith and the main work of the church. 
 
For the past few weeks I have been talking a bit about the General Conference that started yesterday in The United Methodist Church. Yesterday began as a day of prayer and worship at the conference. Even if many of the delegates are in disagreement with each other, they showed that they canworship and pray together. I have been praying for this conference, and I still want you to know if you want to talk about it or have questions I am open and eager to listen and share. General Conference is the only body that can speak on behalf of the whole United Methodist Church. I do not want to minimize the work that the delegates are doing at General Conference. They are dealing with real challenges in the church and how we can move forward in ministry with differing thoughts on human sexuality, marriage, and ordination.  
 
I have seen several news postings from local and national news agencies talking about division in The United Methodist Church. It is true that people of sincere faith have deeply held differences on these important issues, but I fear that our differences can serve and perhaps are serving as a major distraction. 
 
I bet that if you get all these 900 people in a room together and you put a whole bunch of Christian beliefs, ideas, and practices up on a board those 900 United Methodists are going to agree with each other on most of the stuff on the board—I’m talking about like 95% of the stuff. Take a 100 different Christians beliefs and the overwhelming majority of the people in the room will together say, “Yes, I believe that.” These delegates share more in common than they do in disagreement. United Methodists share more in common than we do in disagreement. Right now, we are focusing on our differences, but I fear these differences are more of a distraction that keep us from the main thing. 

The main thing. Stephen Covey who wrote the leadership classic, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is famous for saying keep the main thing the main thing. It’s this idea that it is so easy to get distracted: it’s easy for companies, and organizations, and individuals to get distracted for the main thing they are called to do. And, if you don’t focus on this main thing, it doesn’t just automatically happen or get done. If you don’t keep the main thing the main thing, other, lesser important things will end up becoming the main thing and you will be less effective in life, in ministry, and in business.  
 
There was another great sage that gave us similar advice. This advice comes from the 1991 movie City Slickers. Curly is an old cowboy and riding with the city slicker, Mitch. Curly begins to tell Mitch his overarching philosophy in life: 
 
Curly says, “Do you know what the secret of life is? … This (holds up one finger). 
 
Clueless, Mitch says: “Your finger?”

Curly responds saying: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean anything” – of course he didn’t say “anything.” 
 
When I think about the church and when I think about faith, I think it is so easy to get distracted from the main thing; the one thing you are supposed to stick to. When we get distracted it’s easy to fight over the strength of the coffee, the color of the carpet, and the length of the pastor’s beard. When we get distracted it is easy to fight and worry about our differences and the things we disagree about. When we get distracted, it’s easy forget the one thing. 
 
That’s where our scripture lesson from today comes in. I usually don’t preach on the Psalms. The Psalms are more of a song book, poetic lessons and expression of the life of faith. But I read over Psalm 37, it touched me about how it draws our focus back to the main thing. 
 
The writer of this Psalm is struggling with distraction. I think the writer’s distraction is more than disagreements in the church, because he talks about evildoers and the wicked. It sounds as if the Psalmist is seeing the wicked prosper and this is concerning because it appears that God isn’t blessing the faithful. But even in this midst of this distraction, the Psalmist says: 
 
3“Trust in the Lord and do good.”Even when things are hard. Even when it seems as if things are not going your way. Even when it seems that division and distraction will win the day, trust in the Lord and do good. Even when things are hard, remember the main thing, trust in the Lord and do good. 
 
Everything that follows is kind of a step by step on how to practically live out this main thing. 
 
Trust in the Lord and do good.Then in verse 4, enjoy the Lord. Then in verse 5, Commit your way to the Lord. Then in verse 7, Be still before the Lord. 
 
The Psalmist is saying that distraction and division threaten your faith life and threaten your church, so turn to God; focus first on God. But of course, we know that as we focus on God, we still have other people to deal with. And sometimes these other people help us get distracted. Whether it is because they think differently than we do, they think you shouldn’t bring deviled eggs into the church. And the Psalmist gives you caution in dealing with them: 

In verse 8 “Let go of anger and leave rage behind! Don’t get upset—it will only lead to evil”
 
If you focus on the rage and the anger. If you focus on the worry and the fear. If you focus on that grudge you’re holding against your neighbor. If you focus on the difference and the divide, it will only lead to evil. 
 
The Palmist is saying, church, keep the main thing the main thing. The Psalmist is saying, the secret of life is one thing, trust in the Lord.
 
Elsewhere in the Bible, in Micah 6:8, there is a prophet who is talking about the main thing that God wants. Beyond the fog, beyond the division, beyond the worry, beyond the distraction, Micah says: 
 
He has told you, human one, what is good and
        what the Lord requires from you:
            to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.
 
Do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God. In other words, trust in the Lord. 
 
In our Psalm that is our focus today, we get the main thing: trust in the Lord. When we dust away the distraction and the division, this is what people of faith need to be focusing on—trusting in the Lord. 
 
Of course, that is all well and good. But what happens when something comes up that seems so vitally important that you are right and someone else is wrong? I think our Psalmist would say, even then, trust in the Lord. Because we also we get an insight on to why we are supposed to clear out the distraction and focus on the main thing. You see, there is more to life and there is more to faith than the present disagreement, whatever it may be. In Psalm 37:39-40, we read: 
 
The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord;
    he is their refuge in times of trouble.
40 The Lord will help them and rescue them--
    rescue them from the wicked—and he will save them
    because they have taken refuge in him.
 
It is so easy to get distracted in life and in faith, but we have the power to keep the main thing the main thing. Even when the deeply held differences are important, it doesn’t mean that they must keep us from the main thing. We can keep our eyes, and our faith, and our work on trusting the Lord. We can focus on the mission that God has given us, even when everything doesn’t go our way. And we can do this, because God promises, that when we take refuge in God, God will take care of us. There is more to life than our present distraction, or disagreement, or difficulty. And God will sort out the differences; God will sort out the distractions; and we can keep the main thing the main thing: as the Psalmist says: Trust in the Lord, as Micah says: “do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.
 
Friends, no matter what happens at the General Conference, no matter what happens in the our community or world, no matter what distraction pulls at you today, keep your eyes on the main thing. Keep your focus on the one who loves you. Let everything else go and trust in the Lord.