PAUSE – RECONNECT – FOLLOW – WE ARE EASTER PEOPLE
Isaiah 58: 6-11
Philippians 3: 7-14
APRIL 6, 2025
Some of you may remember the book, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Folghum. It was a cultural phenomenon, in the 1980’s, featuring 50 essays about life suggesting that we adults could improve ourselves … the book actually teaches that the world could be improved beginning neighborhood by neighborhood IF adults had paid close attention to the key messages that our kindergarten teachers taught us with smiles day after day while we acclimated ourselves to the world of daily structure, responsibilities, and expectations.
I don’t think I know a single person who actually purchased the book, but I know that it was the source of “water cooler” conversations at work for some time. I still can envision the cover of the book probably from the many posters that were mass produced.
You might remember some of the lessons too … because some of them parallel the teachings of Jesus Christ, which if we chose to adopt into our lives those lessons would not only improve ourselves but would also make for a better world. Lessons we learned in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School so many years ago.
Here are a few of Fulghum’s suggestions:
SHARE EVERYTHING … the Gospels say, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none. And, anyone who has food should do the same.”
It is perhaps fitting that this is Fulghum’s first lesson because it is also in our first lesson of the day … that the prophet Isaiah in response to people’s inquiries about fasting taught, “The Lord God said,”. Now, I just want to emphasize that phrase that came in Isaiah before today’s reading … the Scripture that Don read today from Isaiah was from THE LORD GOD even though this Scripture fits nicely with ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarden’ … surprisingly and sadly some folks when they hear Scriptures like this they want to deny them even though the Bible declares the lessons are directly from GOD because the God expectation doesn’t match the words from those in the world they like to adhere to. But, to continue, “THE LORD GOD said, “Isn’t this the fast I chose, untying the ropes of a yoke … setting free the mistreated. Isn’t it SHARING … SHARING … YOUR bread with the hungry, bringing the homeless poor into YOUR house, and covering the naked when you see them and not hiding them.” So, yea … lesson number one, which is rooted in love for your neighbors is SHARING … an essential concept in an era when people are put down for suggesting that funds get distributed to the poor amongst us.
Number 2 on Fulghum’s list is to PLAY FAIR … Jesus said, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.” And, of course He also said … “Love all of your neighbors as yourself.”
DON’T HIT PEOPLE … Jesus said, “If someone slaps you on one cheek, don’t stop that person from slapping you on the other cheek. If someone wants to take your coat, don’t hold back your shirt.”
CLEAN UP YOUR MESS … Jesus said, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
DON’T TAKE THINGS THAT ARE NOT YOURS … In Ephesians we read, “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their owns hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.” Yes, this lesson from Paul takes us back to lesson number one … SHARE EVERYTHING, which can be found throughout Scriptures in case you were wondering whether we are called to be hoarders or to use all that God has blessed us with to ensure that no one is hurting in this world.
SAY YOU’RE SORRY WHEN YOU HURT SOMEBODY … In First Peter we read, “Clothe yourselves all of you with humility towards one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Of course, we know we pray asking that God forgives us like we forgive others.
No, I am not going through all of Fulghum’s list which also includes reflections on holding hands and sticking together out in the world’s traffic, living a balanced life by learning some, drawing some, singing and dancing and playing and working some everyday. He had this wonderful reminder that warm cookies and cold milk ARE sooo GOOD for you!
And, finally … there were two lessons from Fulghum that struck home as I thought about what to share with all of you today. You see, as we move rapidly through the Lenten Season … Palm Sunday with our joyous waving of the palms along with the pancake breakfast is NEXT SUNDAY … EASTER is two weeks away … as we move rapidly through life I worry that many … all too many of the individuals who attend church in this world whether in person or online … have neglected to make use of this Lenten season in 2025 to PAUSE in their lives and RECONNECT with God and Christ.
Fulghum refers to this as the kindergarten lesson for adults … TAKE A NAP EVERY AFTERNOON but I want to suggest that his lesson was not necessarily to take a sleeping nap but rather to rest from the world … EVERY DAY … PAUSE … put down the phones, turn off the television … perhaps put on some music or step out into nature or go to a quiet place because we have a role in taking steps to improve this world … and in making our personal lives better … we need to RECONNECT with GOD in the simplest of ways. That takes a separation from the world … that yes, can be church on Sunday’s or Holy Communion on Wednesday mornings but in this lesson from kindergarten … we need to take a break EVERY SINGLE DAY! As Isaiah reports God saying, “Then your life will break out like the dawn, and you will be healed quickly. Your own righteousness will walk before you, and the Lord’s glory will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer.”
We need the break … we need the pause and then to use that pause to reconnect and then to rediscover that as people of faith we are to actually align ourselves, our words, our actions and most definitely our social media with Jesus and to FOLLOW HIM!
The other lesson that struck home is Fulghum’s lesson number 14, BE AWARE of WONDER. This sermon really had its genesis in conversation I had with my grandson Dax. Actually, he was giggling and testing me when he asked the proverbial question, “BABU, which came first the chicken or the egg?” He also asked, “If you put a bird and an egg together what do you get?”
Ah, which came first … makes you think about chickens … eggs … hopefully not focused on the costs of your scrambled egg breakfast … but the wonderment of God’s creation.
How often do you think about the wonderment of God’s creation … remember how back in the days of elementary school you would put a seed into a paper or styrofoam cup that had already been filled with dirt … just one little seed or maybe two. Your teacher instructed you to put that seed into the dirt … add a little water … keep the cup in a warm place, perhaps on the windowsill of the classroom … and slowly but surely a tiny speck of green would appear. And then that speck of green would push skyward revealing a plant.
Oh my goodness … first there was merely dirt and a seed and a cup and water and now there was a plant ready to grow and become a flower or a food producing reality.
So, I laughed at Dax and said the chicken and the egg came together but the bird and the egg would bring another bird into the world. It’s like us … simple lessons … essential lessons … when we first became aware of things … perhaps in kindergarten we understood that there was God … there was Jesus … and there we were. Sort of the chicken and His egg, which was us. As we heard the stories of Jesus we were in awe … we were amazed by God’s love for humans and we eagerly wanted more and more of Jesus even if Jesus was a figure on a flannel board display.
We were the sprouting plant of faith … full of wonder and potential. It was almost inexplicable the joy we felt … but just like those plants … some withered away … some desperately needed more water or more light from the SON … the SON of GOD but that light was blocked out from the world.
We are called friends, to get in line … to put the world aside … to pick up our cross and to follow Jesus. It’s an adult lesson … it’s an adult need … what we can gain through faith is the righteousness of God … that comes from knowing Christ.
None of us has been perfected as Paul wrote but the question is … are you pursuing the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus? You can’t sit back and do nothing to reach it because just like those withering plants you will wither away from God perhaps even adopting a lifestyle that runs counter to God’s teaching through Jesus Christ.
We all need to pause – reconnect – follow because we are EASTER people celebrating that Jesus did not merely die on the cross but that on Easter we knew the truth HE IS RISEN <<HE is Risen Indeed>>
Lent 2025 is not over … hear the prophet and let “the Lord God guide you continually and provide for you in parched places … He will rescue your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water that won’t run dry.” And, as Fulghum reminds us one more lesson learned in kindergarten … FLUSH … all the stuff from your life that is not from God’s teaching. AMEN