Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.

Preached on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 at The Episcopal Church of St. Paul, Chatham, NJ by Jim Mollo

-----------------------------------------------------------

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be always acceptable in your sight, our Lord and Redeemer.
Amen.

Many of you know that I was once a postulant to the priesthood. For reasons that are a sermon for another day, I backed out. But there was one thing in particular that I grieved when I left the path of ordination. It was preaching. I love preaching.

One of the things that make preaching easy and fun for me is that I usually know at least a month ahead of time when I’ll be preaching. I have a great deal of time to prepare, to read the scripture, read companion texts, to pray and write. I’m blessed to be here at St. Paul’s with Elizabeth as our priest. She trusts me. I know that. And I trust her.

Elizabeth asked me a week ago to preach today. Not a month, but a week. My response was, “Fine, fine… sure, no problem. I mean, that’s how much time a real priest has, right? Anything for you.” “Wait,” I said. “This isn’t some crazy scripture passage, like ‘women be subject to your men’, is it?” “I have no idea.” was her response and she was out the door. Uh oh.

I have no idea indeed.

“Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place "The LORD will provide"…”

The Lord will provide. The Lord will provide. What is amazing to me, if not more than a little horrifying, is that Abraham did not expect God to do anything else. But God did. The Lord provided. When Abraham was about to do the unthinkable, the Lord provided another solution. Now, I could spend hours talking about what this passage really means to me, or wonder aloud if God would really expect a homicidal sacrifice from us. But at this point in my life, I am most drawn to two things in this reading.

First, Abraham listened and responded when he was called. When the Angel of the Lord called to him, he responded, “Here I am.” And second, I am drawn to the thought that God may provide what you need when you least expect it. And God may provide WHAT you least expect.

There is a John Lennon song that gets me choked up every time I hear it. I want to share some of the lyrics with you, (I’ll read them because I don’t sing – even when Brandon asks). It is titled, Beautiful Boy, (Darling Boy).

Out on the ocean
Sailing away
I can hardly wait
To see you come of age
But I guess we’ll both just have to be patient
cause it’s a long way to go
A hard row to hoe
Yes, it’s a long way to go
But in the meantime

Before you cross the street
Take my hand
Life is what happens to you
While you’re busy making other plans

It is a lullaby and love story – a song by a father to his son – from John Lennon to Sean. It is meaningful to me simply for its beauty. But also because it speaks to the losses we’ve all suffered, for childhoods lost and family relationships ended too soon.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. Yes. Yes, it is.

Kim is going to curse me for divulging the family business, but most of you know I am a painful extrovert. I share intimately personal information, even when I shouldn’t.

So. Let’s just say we had a really hard time having Olivia. We went through lots of problems conceiving, lots of issues concerning Kim’s health during the pregnancy and we had lots of tests gone wrong. About a year after O was born we started talking about another child.

We bought a bigger house and moved in.
We painted a nursery – yellow and green.
And, well….we tried.
Fertility drugs, we tried, nothing.
The nursery has sat empty for three years.

About six months ago, we agreed it was over. We cleaned out the nursery and I started to pull up the rug to check out the hardwood floors underneath. We picked out paint samples for our new office. We’d moved on. Transitioned. We’re a one precious child family – and we’re ok with that. We decided this meant that God wanted us to go back to Europe on holiday with our soon-to-be five year old and we were happy to oblige.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

One lazy Saturday afternoon in May I was getting ready to cook dinner and began to mix a little inspiration in the form of a gin and tonic. I asked Kim if she wanted a cocktail.

She said she’d be right back. We had recently discussed the thought that she might be undergoing some peri-menopause. I was sure she was going to reinforce that this was the case and that she wasn’t pregnant. Because, well, that just wasn’t a possibility for us.

She came back with the stick and said, “Well, I guess we’re not converting the nursery into an office.”

She handed me the stick. “What? What does this plus mean? Is this a joke? Did you draw that? Seriously, this isn’t funny. Did you draw that extra line?”

Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

And, at first, we didn’t feel what we thought we should feel. We were upset. We were done. We had moved on. We had transitioned.

But God had other plans.

And we grieved. Yes, we even grieved. We grieved the life we thought we were about to live, for a new life. We were entering into what seemed – the impossible. I know people have healthy children every day – but we for all intents and purposes couldn’t have another child.

I’ve been reading Madeleine L’Engle’s, Walking on Water. L’Engle writes that, “God is always calling on us to do the impossible. It helps me to remember that anything Jesus did during his life here on Earth is something we should be able to do, too.”

She writes about going to a pond and sitting on the rocks and remembering Peter walking across the water to meet Jesus. She said, “As long as he didn’t remember that we human beings have forgotten how to walk on water, he was able to do it.”

“If Jesus of Nazareth was God become truly man for us, as I believe he was, then we should be able to walk on water, to heal the sick, even to accept the Father’s answer to our prayers when it is not the answer that we had hoped for…” (pg 11).

I believe this deeply. It is why I feel so passionately about the laying on of hands. I am certain we have the power to heal one another – perhaps just not in the ways we think. There are deep and mystical powers that swirl around this giant cavern of a Church. I believe our prayers and the prayers of those before us are forever in this place. Sometimes, our prayers get answered just as we’d thought. Other times we see that the opposite of what we hoped was actually the answer. Sometimes, the answer to a prayer is “no.” Particularly after those answers come to us, we’re forced to transition, into a place or a role we had not necessarily anticipated.

And so, Kim and I have moved, slowly, into acceptance and joy. We have transitioned once again. We’ve come to accept God’s answer to our prayers when it is not the answer we expected. We’ve transitioned to getting a new nursery in order, to disagreeing over baby names (I like Lulu), and anticipating bringing a new daughter before you for Baptism. It took time to surrender our own plans to what God had in store for us. Thank God, pregnancies take nine months and we have time to process all of this.

Like Abraham not expecting an alternative solution from God, we didn’t expect anything different either. But God did. The Lord provided. When we were busy making other plans, God provided a different path.

It’s hard to give up your expectations and your plans. But it’s even harder to fight where you are supposed to be.

Where is God calling you – in your relationships, in your work, in the Church? I’m not suggesting you be controlled, but I suggest checking in with God every now and then. Close your eyes and listen. Where is that place that God wants you – are you where you are supposed to be? I don’t mean physically – are you doing what God would have you do? Are you where you are supposed to be? Don’t fight it. At least don’t fight it too hard. When that voice calls you - answer like Abraham. “Here I am. Here I am.” And then listen.

God may provide when you least expect it. And God may provide WHAT you least expect. Be open to it and listen for that voice speaking to your soul.

Amen.