“I’d Rather Be A Spoon”

Philippians 4:4-14

March 28, 2004

Saint Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

I like the story that I have told once before, but not here, not from this pulpit, about the little girl who was helping her mother in the kitchen of their house. It was dinner time, that evening. This daughter’s job, every night, was to set the family’s dinner table. Wanting to add a little spice to her nightly task, she decided that she would pretend that the knives, forks, and spoons, were alive and could talk. Her mother, by the sink, peeling potatoes, glanced over and saw what her daughter was doing. She listened carefully as the knives, forks and spoons visited with one another and as they struggled to make their way from the kitchen floor to the dinner table. After the long journey and several conversations, the little girl noticed that her mother had been paying attention to what she had been doing. So she turned to her and said, “You know, Mom, if I had a choice, I’m pretty sure that I’d rather be a spoon than a knife or a fork. With a gentle grin on her face, her mother put down the potatoes, turned to her daughter, knelt down beside her, and asked, “A spoon? Why, honey, would you rather be a spoon? Don’t you like the knives and the forks?” She explained, “Well, forks are too grabby. They are always stabbing at stuff and taking things that don’t belong to them. You know, Mom, every time we have a good dessert at school, Timmy Johnson will distract me. Then, when I am not looking, he will use his fork to steal my dessert. It happens all of the time, mom.” The girl’s mother listened and then she asked, “Okay, so what about the knives? Why don’t you like knives?” She thought for just a minute and then declared, “Oh no! There is no way I would be a knife. Knives are scary. Besides that, the only thing that knives are good for is cutting up things.” Mom, have you ever done much thinking about it? You really cannot eat with knives. Have you tried to do that? Unless you are eating peas with peanut butter on the knife, it is next to impossible to get anything in your mouth.” Then the girl lifted up a spoon, and put it right in front of her face. She glared at it and after a minute said, “Spoons scoop up some of the best things like ice cream and pudding. They can even pass things around if they want to.” Her eyes lit up once again and she said, “If I had to choose, I’d rather be a spoon!”

I told this story for the first time nearly six years ago now. I shared it with Jeanie Burton, who I was working with at First Methodist Church. She shared it with her husband Greg, who said that if he had to choose, he would rather be a spork, the combination spoon and fork found mostly at Kentucky Fried Chickens. Being a spork ruins this story of mine.

Here is what I think. I think that the little girl in the story knew what she was talking about when it came to her utensils. I am sure that she did not realize it, she also said a word about people when she spoke of forks and knives and spoons. I want you to try something. If I asked you to close your eyes, couldn’t you imagine the Timmy Johnson’s in your lives? The people who grab, the ones who want more and more out of life? I remember the first time that I went to Wal-Mart with my sister and her children. By the way, the first time was the last time, too. At the time, Hunter, my nephew, was five years old. My sister made the mistake of turning down the toy aisle. You should have seen Hunter’s eyes light up. If there was a toy within grabbing distance, Hunter had it in his hands. This happened, by the way, about six years before Annie Grace came around. Our mother was with us. I looked over at her. She smiled and said, “I remember a little boy who used to do that.” I smiled at her and said, “Mother, you should not talk about my brother like that when he’s not here to defend himself. She looked back at me and said, “I’m not talking about your brother!” Church, haven’t you known people, who on their way through life, grab all that they can in hopes that it will fill them up, desperately believing that it will somehow make them happy? So we have known some fork people, probably. But what about knife people? Have you known people like that, too? I can remember when I was growing up, one of the things that we did was to cut each other down, instead of building each other up. We did it with words, often. I still remember one of the more popular ones. It went like this, “Like the doctor said to your mother when you were born. It’s gonna get ugly.” You will know this, the cut-downs are not reserved for elementary school kids. They are not stockpiled for words. Haven’t you known people who have cut down the goals of their lives, and settle for less than they can be? But spoons, well, they are a different story all together. Spoons are a part of some of the best foods. You use a spoon for things like Jell-O and ice-cream and banana pudding. I do not know how it is around your house, but we always run out of spoons way before we do knives or forks.

In thinking about the apostle, Paul, one of the greatest leaders in the early church, I cannot help but to realize that there was a time in his life, when he could have been described as a knife. If it were up to him, Christianity would have never gotten off of the ground. His line of thinking was this, “You follow the rules, you cross the “t’s,” dot the “I’s,” follow the letter of the law no matter what. If you did this, then salvation was for the taking.” He thought that way; it was his way of operating until the day God changed his mind on the Damascus Road. With a blinding light and a voice from heaven, all that was changed and his life was never the same again.

This is the apostle that we discover, sitting in a jail cell, probably in Rome, as he writes to what most commentators believe was his favorite church. In part, he is writing to dispute what some people have said about being a Christian. In part of this letter, Paul uses strong language to describe what we have come to believe the Judaizers said about following Christ. Listen to his line of warning about these folks, “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!” The Judaizers were people who believed that if you wanted to be a Christian, you had to first be circumcised and a Jew. They reasoned that since Jesus was first a Jewish man, then those who wanted to follow him had to take the path that Jesus took. Paul did not agree. Paul said that anyone could come to Jesus without that requirement. So he writes back to the Philippians with that message in mind. Paul is angry and he has every right to be. In every church that he pastored and assumed responsibility for, when he was safely out of town, the Judaizers would come behind him and gently say, “You know Paul is wrong, don’t you?”

Their doing this made Paul mad. He called these folks dogs, and then spoke of his pedigree, and his past life. It is as if he has his fingers raised and ready to list his accomplishments: “I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless...” It is not enough. All that is not enough, says Paul. What is enough is knowing Jesus and the power of His resurrection. You must not miss this. Paul says that he considers his past accomplishment trash and rubbish when they are compared to knowing Jesus Christ and being found in Him.

This is no small statement. Paul’s past accomplishments were nothing to dismiss. And Paul is not a man who regrets his past, a man who is torn up and burdened inside because of guilt. He is not a man who is depressed, and one who finds sleeping at night pretty hard. No, no! This is a guy whose past is powerful. And yet he says, “These past things are nothing at all compared to being found in Jesus Christ. Paul has no regrets. Paul thought that if you were going to be a Christian, then you should be like Jesus. So, then, what do you do with things like pride and

independence? You put it aside. In fact, you throw it away, and you run toward being like Jesus. With your temples pounding, and your heart pumping. With your bones aching and your face sweating, you run to be like Jesus.

Well, what should we do with these words this morning? I have preached these words of Paul before. Chances are pretty good that you have heard them preached before. The last time I preached them, I focused on accomplishments, my accomplishments, and what they mean in relation to knowing Jesus. Since I have preached that sermon before, I would like for us to travel down another road. Paul will set the agenda for our sermon this morning. Listen to his words, “This one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, those of us who want everything God has for us.

Well, let us look at these two things. First, Paul says that following Christ and being found in Him means putting the past behind you. The baseball fans here this morning may remember the name Satchell Paige. Satchell once said this, “Don’t look back, someone just might be gaining on you.” Maybe you have seen the great scene in Disney’s The Lion King. Now that Annie Grace is around, I have seen that movie a hundred times. Do you remember the scene where Simba, the Lion King’s son is grown? For years he blamed himself for his father’s death. It was not his fault, but still he has been running from it. In this scene, the best one in the movie in my opinion, Simba is talking with Rahkiki. Their conversation goes something like this, “Change is good, but it’s not easy. I know what I have to do, but going back means I will have to face my past. I’ve been running from it for so long.” Rahkiki reaches over and hits Simba on his head with a stick. Simba says, “Ouch! What was that for?” Rahkiki says, “It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.” Simba says, “Yeah, but it still hurts. Rahkiki says wise words when he offers, “Yes, the past can hurt, but the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it. So what are you going to do?”

I think that it is safe for me to say this. Most of us do not do very well with our pasts. I think that we either hold on to something back there so strongly that we cannot move forward. Things like grudges, guilt, and bad relationships. Or, we stay in the past because we cannot imagine hope in the future. Sometimes we are afraid that the past will repeat itself. We simply will not give it the chance to do that. Or, we cannot press on to the future because we do not believe that things can ever be better. It can be said of your life and it can be said of the church. Sometimes we get caught saying, “Our best days are behind us. There is no future here now.” I do not want you to think that way about yourselves and I refuse to let you think that way about our church! If that is the mind set, I need to go somewhere else. If we think that we have already lost the race, then what is the use in running it? So do not look back. Strain forward to what lies ahead.

A preacher tells that he once had a problem with a raccoon in his yard. When he set out food for his cat, the raccoon would come out of the woods, climb up on the picnic table and eat the food. The preacher noticed this happening and so he got out a high powered hose. When the raccoon came near, he sprayed him with water. It worked. The raccoon was so frightened that he retreated to the woods. Five minutes later, the raccoon changed his mind. He turned and made his way back to the picnic table. The minister saw him and sprayed him again. The raccoon retreated again. Then an amazing thing happened. When he got out of reach of the hose’s

spray, he turned around and moved toward the water. He kept coming in spite of the water. It was as if he was saying, “I do not care what you do to me. I am gonna eat this food. When you go into your house, when you get tired, when you put down the hose, I am going to be out here on this picnic table and there is nothing that you can do about it!” Forgetting what lies behind. Straining forward in what lies ahead. Stand firm with these words. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to Homiletics magazine for the opening idea for this sermon. Thanks to the writers of The Lion King for the scene described in this sermon. And special thanks to Rev. Hal Brady for the story about the raccoon).