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James 2:14-18
Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup – where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God acts is outrageous nonsense?
I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department.”
Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
Proverbs 4:1-9, 20-23
Listen, my children, to a father's instruction; pay attention, and learn what understanding is. What I am offering you is sound doctrine; do not forsake my teaching. I too was once a child with a father, in my mother's eyes a tender child, unique. This was what he used to teach me, “Let your heart treasure what I have to say, keep my principles and you will live; acquire wisdom, acquire understanding, never forget her, never deviate from my words. Do not desert her, she will keep you safe; love her, she will watch over you. The first principle of wisdom is: acquire wisdom; at the cost of all you have, acquire understanding! Hold her close, and she will make you great; embrace her, and she will be your pride; she will provide a graceful garland for your head… My child, pay attention to what I am telling you, listen carefully to my words; do not let them out of your sight, keep them deep in your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all humanity. More than all else, keep watch over your heart, since here are the wellsprings of life
TEACHING – In Conversation with Phil Economon
Audio available at http://www.wpctiburon.org/sermons.php
BARB
Have you ever known someone whose faith journey was triggered by earthworms?
About fifteen years ago, Westminster sent a team of adults and children for a week of learning from and interacting with the residents at the Hoopa Indian Reservation in Humboldt County. It is beautiful country where the Trinity and Klamath Rivers meet. Riding with me for the trip in my Dodge Van were my two passengers Camilla Barry and Phil Economon, who had just met. Early in the ride, they discovered that the both had a passion for earthworms! I kid you not, they talked about earthworms for the entire seven hour drive from Tiburon to Hoopa – sizes, eggs, shapes, habits, reproduction, advantages for plants, feeding, uses, on and on and on. They talked about books they had read about earthworms and promised to trade with each other. As I sat silently driving, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the wonder and fascination that Phil and Camilla had for a part of God's incredible creation – a part I had never thought about.
Phil Economon has been an important part of this faith community for over twenty years. You might know him as the leader of the 6:30a.m. Friday Morning Men's Group or by his recent travel to Afghanistan. Today we hope to share with you a glimpse of the life and faith journey of this man in his 10th decade, a life-long learner and teacher who appears to have the energy of a teenager.
Born in Canada but raised in Los Angeles, Phil is the great-grandson of a Greek Orthodox priest. His father, however, claimed to be an atheist and a communist…perhaps to break with family tradition. For that reason, Phil and his five siblings didn't have much of an introduction to Christianity or faith in the 1920s in the Highland Park neighborhood. At about age twelve, in 1929, a hard time for many families, Phil started helping out by selling newspapers on the corner but even at that young age he had a passion for God's creation – for plants, animals and people. He loved watching things grow and trying to figure out how it all worked.
Phil, how did it happen that you became the first Western Union boy who not only delivered telegrams but also eggs and chickens to neighbors and to workers in downtown Los Angeles?
PHIL
Chicken Story – put 15 eggs under and they all hatched!
Part-time jobs – County Farm – pulled out reject hens, sold eggs out of his home
Western Union – delivered eggs and chickens in neighborhood and downtown Los Angeles
FIRST TEACHER
BARB
When you were about 21 years old, in the midst of the Depression, you met a man who had a deep impact on your life. Who was Dr. George Sheffield Oliver and how did you happen to meet and work with him?
PHIL
Oliver's work with earthworms. Phil's experience working with Oliver – learning about earthworms. Method kept a secret. Hired for $10,000 to prepare gardens in homes of movie stars.
BARB
You were also at an age then when people start wondering about the purpose of their lives, why we are here, where we are going in life and what it all means. How did Dr. Oliver help you think about these bigger questions?
PHIL
The Master Key System – gift of series of books by Charles Haanei. Suggestion to read some every day. A search for truth, Harmony with nature.
BARB
P. 7: Influenced by Darwin, Haanei wrote, “The animal and vegetable kingdom are in a state of flux, forever changing always being created and recreated.” Becoming more spiritual. (Exodus 3: “I am who I am becoming.”)
“Most powerful forces are invisible – Spiritual force is the most powerful, expressed in thinking. Reasoning is a spiritual process. Ideas are spiritual conceptions. Questions are spiritual search lights. Logic, argument and philosophy is spiritual machinery.”
What did these ideas mean for you? How did they impact your thinking and your life?
PHIL
(response) “For God all things are possible” Matthew 19:26.
“You are able! Nothing is impossible with God.” Mark 9:23
SECOND TEACHER
BARB
That may have been good preparation for the next step in your life as you entered the Army in 1943. You served in Normandy and Omaha Beach and were in Paris for Liberation Day August, 1944. After the war ended in 1945, you studied at U.C. Davis and were employed in California as an inspector in the Dept. of Agriculture….Somewhere along in there your beloved brother Chris introduced you to Julia. You convinced her to move from Florida to California beginning a very special 40 yr marriage. In the early 1960s, you were living on the peninsula and together began attending the Burlingame Baptist Church. That learning experience had a second major impact on your spiritual life. Can you tell us about it?
PHIL
Dr. Osborne – a doer, an activist – story of him stopping an attack on a woman.
Understanding of Jesus as exemplifying the connection between faith and psychology – the importance of faith and action in life.
Study of “Prayer Can Change Your Life” therapeutic power of prayer.
Prayer should focus on the loving power of God.
This process of prayer has been used at the Cancer Centers of America
Small groups – MMPI, format of groups. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (1939)
Osborn asked Phil to help lead and Phil discovered that he had gifts in group leadership.
BARB
In the late 1960s you moved to Marin County and used the same small group methods with inmates at San Quentin including our own beloved Doug Huneke. What did you and Doug do there and how did the experience impact you? PHIL
(short response) TEACHING IN RETIREMENT
BARB
In 1983, you retired from your position here in Marin as the Assistant Agricultural Commissioner for Law Enforcement. However, you never slowed down. You exercise at the Y, volunteer at the Buck Center on Aging, attend Bible Study classes and you meet and talk with many friends and strangers every week. You travel to many countries including consulting on agricultural projects in Afghanistan…but one of your most important weekly appointments is with the Westminster Friday Morning Men's Group here in the Fireside Room. Twelve to twenty men meet at that inhumane hour of 6:30am and though the group has changed over time, it has been a committed gathering for more than fifteen years.
Why do you do this?
What do you hope will happen in the group?
How does the weekly experience affect your own life and faith?
PHIL
(response about the importance of Men's Group to Phil and to each other) David Cross, Stan McElroy, etc. reading of books, visiting, etc.
CONCLUSION
BARB
Phil, when I mentioned to someone that we were planning this teaching together they said, “Be sure you ask Phil what he is going to do next.” Any ideas?
PHIL (short response) Benefits of aging…..Women's Iniative
BARB
We are all watching and waiting because we learn from you in so many ways. Thank you for being such an important teacher and a living, breathing example of that great line from the Letter of James: “You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.”
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