Sermon – The Daily Grind
Genesis 29:15-30; 2 Corinthians 12:5b-10
Farmville Presbyterian Church
11/09/25
I don’t know about you, but last week, we had a pretty big time here in worship. I’m sorry for those of you who were not able to see it, but Anne and I (mostly Anne) shared our experience of the mission trip we took to Guatemala in July. There were a good number of pictures, and we had the sanctuary turned into a theater of sorts. Because we gave commentary on the slides we put together, we really did not have a written message, per se. I apologize to the people at home who get the sermon mailed to them each week as they did not get that this last week.
All of that is to say that last week was special, different, and illustrative of what God is doing in the lives of sisters and brothers in Christ down there on the other side of Mexico. I continue to be humbled by how much CEDEPCA is able to do to love their country into something better. It is a testament to their faith.
This week we are back to the same old, same old, and I somewhat feel the need to apologize. It is obvious that we cannot have special programs every week. We would tire of it if that became the normal, but any preacher cannot help but be a little worried about not being more dynamic, dare I say – more memorable. While the Spirit of God is the one doing the heavy lifting here and now, it is still on me to participate. I need to be offering something that the Spirit can use. While I pray that is every week, it strikes me that people may not remember many of the experiences we share here in the long run.
The dinner parable is helpful: two people were talking about the value of sermons and worship. One was lamenting how so many sermons seemed to be so forgettable. His friend made the point that she could not remember what she had for dinner a few weeks ago, let alone a year ago, but without that regular nourishment, she would be a much weaker person. The “wow” Sundays may not come every week and stay with us for years, but the regular gathering in the Holy Spirit is what we need for our daily bread.
This applies to worship but also to our daily lives, even more so there. Today is all about that daily grind of life in faith, that dignity that we need to find in the day in and day out of the ordinary, mundane, less than spectacular experience that we call life. What is amazing about this is that it is actually a really important thing in our spiritual walk to appreciate this part of the journey. This might be one of the most important sermons I ever give, even if you forget it in a month or less.
- Following Jesus is hard.
Of course, this is from our perspective. It is easy for him to love us and to hold us in his heart. He is not going to lose us or let us go. This is a key part of the Presbyterian understanding of things. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus as Paul says in Romans 8, BUT our response is a more difficult thing. Our faithfulness, our obedience, our service, and our reflection of Christ is a more difficult thing. The burden may be light, but life gives us a road through the swamp and mud up to our waists.
Primarily, this is because we simply cannot be like other people. If we look like the world, if we are indistinguishable from the world, then what are we doing? Because this is a hard thing, people tend to swap out God’s need for us to be holy with the need to be good: if I am just a generally good person, then that is enough. As long as I don’t do especially bad things, then that is enough. As long as I go to church every once in a while and give a few dollars to charity, then that’s enough. While grace is the foundation of our relationship with God, we are called to follow Christ. That’s what “Christian” means. Try following someone while sitting in the rest stop. It is getting up and off the sofa and making a difference in the world. It is about living IN the Kingdom of God. It is about giving something, contributing something, and not just receiving the benefits.
If anyone wants the easy life, then do not follow Christ Jesus. Yes, people like the idea of a God looking out for you, a God who loves you unconditionally, a God who is bigger than we, but nowhere in Scripture are we given the green light to sit in the stands while the game is played. As the game has become much greater and wider (we see a worldwide game in a way never before known), it is overwhelming to think about having to address things in so many places with such severity, but keep much of your gaze right here. Give a little bit to other places now and then, maybe even travel somewhere on a mission trip to help, but God’s needs our best work in this community. And it is called work for a reason.
The story of Jacob and Laban and his daughters is remarkable for many reasons, but I want you to see what Jacob had to do for his love. Could you imagine having to work for 14 years just to have the spouse you desire? That is 14 years just to be married. In this case, it was supposed to be seven. At least, that’s what Jacob thought. You have to wonder at what point Laban decided to do the switcheroo. It doesn’t matter today, however. Notice that the first seven years flew by. They seemed like a few days. It says nothing like that for the second seven years. No mention of bliss or joy or ease. Jacob was burned by his father-in-law and had a wife he did not want. Leah could not have been happy about this either. Was Rachel perfectly fine sharing the love of her life with her sister? Nothing about this situation was easy. Jacob felt those years. Fourteen years is a long time. His youth was escaping. It was hard to follow his heart, but it was his heart he was following. He stuck to it because of his love for Rachel. He never stopped loving Rachel no matter how hard it became. No, we do not need to work to win God’s love or acceptance, but because we love God and God loves us, we serve for God’s heart day in and day out. We tend God’s children and carry out God’s purposes each and every day.
- The grind is where we find God’s beauty and God’s grace.
Most of our life is in these moments of grind. Without something momentous, the days run together and the time can seem or feel less meaningful. The big, special moments stand out, but it is finding God in the small and mundane that is especially nourishing to the soul. I am not sure about you, but I would rather have one clear blessing in my life each day than one big blessing a year. There is nothing preventing that. Praise be to God that we can often have both! Nearly everyone will agree that God’s blessings to abound in our lives. There is nothing but our unwillingness to see that prevents us from receiving them. While Jacob was laboring all those years, Rachel was there. They were not wedded, but they were together. She was his joy everyday as he labored. There is far more beauty and grace in the day-to-day than we can begin to imagine, and it is all there for us to receive if we will open ourselves to it.
- This is where the followers of Jesus are truly shaped.
The daily grind is where we are shaped. Paul’s story is not like Jacob’s story. His life was not enlightened by his love for a young lady, at least not that we are told. He worked VERY hard for God, however. He had a love for God unsurpassed by his peers which is why he suffered so much for his mission. He understood what I am saying today in a way far beyond what I do. In fact, he had to do it with one arm tied behind his back. We don’t know what it was or what kind of disability Paul had, but he had something that made his daily grind even grindier, and he understood that impediment as a necessary part of understanding God’s grace. His success was not in his brilliance or his diligence or success but in God’s power. You might imagine that he had some kind of speech impediment yet was able to preach in life changing ways or that he had some kind of movement limiting affliction but was able to go all over the known world. Whatever it was, God was able to change the world through someone who seemed less than the average person. He found there in the middle of his struggle who he really was and who God really was.
- We may not be able to live on the mountaintop, but we can absolutely appreciate the valley.
My last point is that while we might not be able to live on top of the mountains all the time, I love the view from down below almost as much. When we are not on the mountains, we can know that the mountains are there, those moments of tremendous blessing and joy. The mountains represent those high points with God’s love. We cannot sustain that kind of experience, however. Our lives carry us back down the mountains, but we do not have to forget the mountains. We can still see the mountains and remember the climb. We can also know that there is always a mountain ahead for us. There is always another mountain coming. If nothing else, Jesus is waiting to welcome us to life and love that can only begin to imagine. The path to that mountain is not going to be easy, but it is worth the work, each and every day. The walk is really what this life is all about. With each difficult step, we learn more about who we are and who God is leading us to be. That is the path to being God’s holy people. To God be the glory. Amen.