April 7, 2002 - Second Sunday
of Easter
Psalm 16; Acts 2:14a, 22-32; John 20:19-31; 1
Peter 1:3-9
THIS IS THE LIFE!
Theme: The
Joy Of the Resurrection Life
ILLUMINATING TEXT AND THEME
If you find your homiletical gas tank nearing empty on this first Sunday
after Easter, take heart! This may be a sign that you have faithfully emptied
yourself and given your best. You have, in short, followed the lead of your
Lord who emptied himself for us. This passage from the first letter of Peter
is a splendid reminder of why we pour ourselves out for the gospel.
To really appreciate this passage, it would be helpful to recall just how
bleak life is like without Christ. Ecclesiastes 9 helps do that. It says
everything is in God's hands but whether that produces love or hate, "one
does not know." Everything is vanity. The same fate comes to all. The
living knows they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no reward
and even the memory of them is lost. Their love, their hate and their envy
have all perished. Never again will they share in all that happens under
the sun. Given all this, Ecclesiastes' advice is to "enjoy" life
the best you can. Work hard now because there is no work or thought or knowledge
or wisdom "in Sheol, to which you are going." Time and chance
are the only constants. As for us, we are simply like fish caught in a net
or birds caught in a snare. Any wisdom that may surface will be ignored.
Any bungler will destroy much good. That's what life looks like to those
without the living hope of the resurrection. And that is a point so hard
to tell our Jewish neighbors and friends, because we do not want to offend,
but we know something is missing for them. We sometimes ache to give them
a little more hope.
There are countless number of people for whom Ecclesiastes' view of the
world is "the way it is." There is also precious little joy among
them. If " Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think" is their
only theme song; their "joy" isn't much.
There's a tremendous contrast between that view and the life, which is
seen through resurrection eyes! Peter sounds a call to remember God's great
mercy, which finds its ultimate fulfillment in and through Christ. Everything
may be hopeless for Ecclesiastes, but the gospel says there is great hope.
Everything may be jaded and fading away for Ecclesiastes but, says the gospel,
we have an inheritance, which is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept
in heaven for us. Calamity is random and senseless for Ecclesiastes. Trials
come, says the gospel, so that your faith may be strengthened and thereby
result in further praise, glory and honor to Christ. For Ecclesiastes, what
you see is what you get. For the gospel, there is more to life than meets
the eye.
Best of all there is Jesus. We have not seen him but we love him for all
that he has done for us by delivering God's love to us. Believing that there
is a best, and that Christ is the best, we can rejoice "with an indescribable
and glorious joy." We shall not be lost in a cosmic void. We shall
live with God.
Talk about two drastically contrasting views of life! The one makes life
a desperate grinding procession of useless days. The
other makes every day a sacramental gift. It brings us together with others
as nothing else can. This is the life indeed. How dare we not offer it with
everything that's in us? How can we ignore any opportunity to remind others
of this great mercy, which gives us new birth into a living hope through
the resurrection? This is far more than a causal " stop by if you get
a chance" invitation. This is an awakening of the soul.
Most of us pay no attention to Jonathan Edwards these days. When we think
of him we recall an image of a wild eyed, frothing at the mouth, doom and
gloom, God will get you, type of preacher who preached one sermon titled
"Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God." We need to hear what he
said in his sermon "Charity and Its Fruits." "You have an
extraordinary opportunity" he told the people at Enfield. "This
is a day when Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open! Many are coming
daily from the east west north and south; many that were lately in the same
condition that you are now in, are now in a happy state with their hearts
filled with love to him who has loved them...and rejoicing in hope of the
glory of God." Edwards, it is reported, often wept while telling of
God's merciful invitation. Shed any tears for those you preach to lately?
Only then will there be tears of joy answering yours!
ILLUSTRATING TEXT AND THEME
"The fundamental joy of the Christian life isn't found in just living
a good life. There isn't always a lot of joy in that. Real joy is found
in standing with God against some darkness and watching the light come."
(Paul Scherer)
**************
"If what you have gained from your religion is something you could
possibly hold to yourself without wanting to impart it to others, then it
is not God's best gift in the gospel . The fact you are not passing it along
proves haven't got it. If you have it, it will make you pass it on because
of what it is." (William Temple)
**************
One Princeton University student took a record of a Beethoven sonata , bored
a hole a half inch off center in it and then played that record from that
hole. It was the same record, but the music sounded like the cackling of
a thousand Disney witches. A life a half inch off from being God-centered
won't make much music either. (Frank Pollard)
**************
After a timber company cut all the trees from a two hundred foot strip of
forest, a magnificent pine was left exposed on the west side. It was straight
and perfectly formed. Before long, it crashed to the ground. It had stood
many storms when it had been surrounded by the other trees but when they
were taken away, it fell when the rains softened the ground and the winds
blew. It could not stand alone. (K. G. Durham)
**************
Julia Ward Howe asked Charles Sumner to interest himself in the case of
a person who needed help. He replied "I've become so busy that I can
no longer concern myself with individuals." "Charles," she
replied, "that's remarkable. Even God isn't that busy!"
**************
If you had a bank account that credited your account each morning with $86,400
that carried over no balance from day to day, and allowed you to keep no
cash in your account, and every night canceled whatever part of the amount
you failed to use, what would you do? You'd draw out every cent, of course!
You do have such a bank, and its name is Time. Every day it credits you
with 84,600 seconds and every night is rules off as lost, whatever you have
failed to invest. It carries no balances and allows no overdrafts. Every
day it simply opens a new account with you, and every night it burns the
records of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours...and
those you might have helped. (Ken Sopher)
**************
One often hears people saying, "If I were President then I would do
thus and so." But you are not and in all probability you never will
be. God only asks us to do the best we can with what we have where we are.
He judges us not by our achievements but by our honest efforts; not by how
near we are to the top of the mountain but by the direction you are facing.
The blunt fact is we could all do better than we do. We were meant to fly
like eagles and we have no right to act like sparrows. No one will ever
be able to say " I have done everything I possibly could." (Joseph
Sizoo)
**************
Michelangelo left many of his statues unfinished on purpose. One of them
depicts a man with his arms legs protruding out of a massive block of granite,
but the rest of the man is hardly formed. Michelangelo wanted to remind
us that like those statues, all human beings are unfinished products.
**************
If you press a block of pure gold against a block of silver, any good chemist
can show you that atoms of silver have entered the gold and vice versa.
It's the same way with people you come in contact with. Part of you enters
them, and part of them enters you. Long after you forget their names and
faces, they are still a part of you. Every person you have ever hated or
feared or run away from is part of you, but so is every person you have
ever learned from and every friend you ever had. (Theodore White)
**************
Once upon a time there was an old man living alone who began refusing to
admit people to his house anymore. Whenever anyone knocked on his door he
would peer at the glass pane in the door and turn away in disgust from the
sight. Years passed before he realized he'd seen only himself reflected
in the glass. (James Westbrook)
**************
"When faith in God goes, man the thinker loses his greatest thoughts;
man the worker loses his greatest motive, man the sinner loses his strongest
help, man the sufferer losses his secret refuge, man the lover loses his
best vision and man the mortal loses his only hope." (Harry Emerson
Fosdick)
**************
"I keep thinking of the wisdom of Aristotle when he affirmed that happiness
cannot be achieved in less than a complete lifetime. This means that the
last chapter is just as important as any other. It is good to be young and
it is good to be old. Life is lived best if it is lived in chapters and
knowing which chapter one is in and not to pine for what is not." (Elton
Trueblood)
**************
The fathers of the church were not afraid to go out into the desert because
they had richness in their hearts. But we, with richness all around us,
are afraid because the desert is in our hearts. ( Franz Kafka)
**************
"Time is but the stream I go a-fishin in. I drink at it, but while
I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It's thin current
slides away, but eternity remains." (Henry David Thoreau)
**************
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost;
that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
( Henry David Thoreau)
**************
"My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him
do it." (Clarence Buddinton Kelland)
**************
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning
to live." (Marcus Aurelius)
**************
Two soldiers were on the front lines in Europe during World War II. They
looked a lot alike, but their lives had been very different. The first man
had been successful in several different fields. His companion had been
in and out of prison, and his future looked bleak. Then a shell landed in
their trench mortally wounding the first soldier. As he lay dying he said
" Take my name and make a new life for yourself." The soldier
couldn't and didn't, but there came a day when he heard the words his buddy
said now spoken by Christ. He took Christ's name and made a new life for
himself. (Norman Meservey)
**************
"The paneled front of the pulpit was in the likeness of a ship's bluff
bows , and the holy bible rested on a projecting piece of scroll work fashioned
after a ship's fiddle headed beak. What could be more meaningful, for the
pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in the rear...
Yes the world is a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and
the pulpit is its prow." That's how Herman Melville saw things in Moby
Dick . Do we still take the pulpit as though it still leads the way? Did
we ever?
**************
Over the triple doorways of the cathedral of Milan, inscriptions span the
length of the great arches. Over one is carved a wreath of roses with the
words "all that which pleases is but for the moment." Over another
is sculptured a cross with the words "All that which troubles us is
but for a moment." Over the great central arch there are simply these
words: "That only is important which is eternal." Only the eternal
sustains joy.
**************
The French hymn "Thine Is the Glory" would have been a good accompaniment
to Peter's words of resurrection hope and challenge to face up to the coming
persecution. Set to the marvelous music of Handel, the hymn stresses the
victory that Christ, the "Risen, conquering Son," has won for
believers. Starting with the familiar story of the stone rolled away by
the angels and the folded grave clothes, he states that the resurrected
Jesus meets us and "scatters fear and gloom." Because "Death
has lost its sting" the church can sing "hymns of triumph."
Doubts are now past and life centers on Christ (it is "naught without
Thee) to whom we pray for aid in our own strife and a safe journey "through
Jordan to Thy home above." The stately four-four time of the hymn gives
believers the feeling that they are part of a great resurrection procession
marching steadily to the very gates of heaven. There will be storms along
the way, as Peter warns his readers several times, but the "Glorious
Prince of Life" has won the victory for us.
**************
Lawyer Nate O'Riley discovers "the pain and the promise of the resurrection
life" in John Grisham's novel
The Testament. Nate works in the
large Washington D.C. firm that has handled the affairs of ruthless billionaire
Troy Phelan. Phelan at the end of his life is disgusted with all his spoiled
grown children and former wives who have squandered any money he has given
them, as well as failing at every job they had held. Thus he has decided
to leave everything to his illegitimate daughter Rachel, who was raised
by a minister and his wife, and who had met him but once when she was grown.
The problem is she cannot be found, having traveled to South American over
11 years before to work among the Indian tribes far back in the jungle.
Phelan renounces the will read to his assembled family, signs the new one
leaving his estate to Rachel, and then commits suicide.
Just coming out of an exclusive rehab clinic, Josh is dispatched to search
for Rachel. He has only a sketchy idea as to where to look for her because
her home mission board sticks to her request that they tell no one of her
whereabouts. On his journey up the South American river Nate feels the isolation,
as well as the strong urge to drink. Hitherto his life has been a long series
of failures, with two divorces and children who do not want to see him,
and a long history of drug and alcohol addiction made possible by his high
salary. After overcoming many obstacles, Nate finally does catch up with
Rachel. To his shock she is not the least bit interested in the inheritance,
not even asking how large it is. She is happy in her work among the Indians.
She needs little in the way of money, and certainly not all the useless
things that money can buy. And she does not believe she can accept money,
which she did not earn. The flabbergasted Nate pleads with her, but she
refuses, telling him that he must be lonely and unfulfilled in his fast-track
life. She tells him that all he has to do to change his life is to ask God's
forgiveness and commit himself into God's care. Nate goes through the motion
of praying with her, but feels only a little relief of the burden he has
been carrying. After a bout with a tropical disease, Nate returns home and
takes up the task of representing the woman who does not want an inheritance,
both he and his bosses believing that if the other family members get their
hands on the inheritance it will ruin their lives even more. Nate faithfully
represents his distant and unknowing client, managing to keep her location
a secret as the other heirs hire a room-full of lawyers to contest the will.
Nate starts going to church and, liking the pastor, meets regularly with
him to refurbish a room at the church and to discuss spiritual matters.
Accepting God's forgiveness, Nate sets out to try to make things right with
his estranged family. He hopes to see Rachel again and convince her to sign
the legal papers giving her the inheritance and to show her that he is now
at peace with himself and God. There is even the slight hope that they might
enter into a romantic relationship. He arrives in Rachel's remote village
too late. The chief shows him her simple grave, marked with an unadorned
white cross. The disease, which had struck Nate down, also attacked Rachel.
But Nate now sees this not so much as a tragedy but as a home going for
a woman who wanted or needed little of what the world offered. He now shares
her faith and outlook, returning to the United States to take up a new work.
Rachel had drawn up her own will, accepting her inheritance and setting
up a trust that would support her mission work and any other charitable
projects approved by the trustee. Nate, of course, is that trustee.
**************
After the first plane crashed into Tower One of the World Trade Center,
a certain woman was safely evacuated from her office in Tower Two. But once
she was outside, she was informed that the damage had been confined to the
other tower. She proceeded to return to her workstation, assuming that all
danger to her building was past. She was among those killed when the second
jet crashed into Tower Two a few minutes later. Many early Christians wanted
to believe that all suffering would quickly come to an end in the aftermath
of the great tragedy of the crucifixion, which was followed by the victory
of the resurrection. But Christians of every age have come to realize that
pain and suffering continue to be a part of the post-Easter world.
**************
Now that Easter is over, sales of eggs take a real nosedive. During an average
week during the year, 68.5 million dozen eggs are sold across the United
States. In the week leading up to Easter, 111.8 million dozen are sold.
But the week following Easter the number falls to only 57.9 million dozen.
**************
Many passages in the New Testament, like today's reading from 1 Peter, were
originally letters written from one person to another or from one person
to a particular church. But with the rise of e-mail, many people today have
lost the ability to write good letters. In response, the Sorbonne University
in Paris has introduced a course in professional letter writing. A staff
member at the Sorbonne commented, "People don't write as well as they
used to and modern technology has certainly taken its toll."
**************
Being in Christ's presence doesn't necessarily guarantee protection from
pain. Last year a parishioner at the St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic
Church filed a lawsuit against the Joliet Diocese in Illinois. While the
man was doing volunteer repair work at the church, the statue of St. Thomas
in front of the building fell over on him and injured him. Ironically, St.
Thomas the Apostle is considered to be the patron saint of builders and
construction workers.
**************
The gist of the 1 Peter passage is that we still need to wait until the
day when all pain and suffering will finally come to an end. But waiting
is not the most popular activity for many people. China is notorious for
having long lines. It is common to see long lines stretching outside hospitals,
banks, and train stations. As a result, a whole new occupation has arisen
in China—standing-in-line professionals. The people who do that work
are mainly migrant workers, who are paid about 60 cents for each line they
stand in and hold a person's place for them. In some areas of China, those
professional waiters have among the highest incomes.
**************
Although boys generally have a greater promise for more employment opportunities
and higher pay when they grow up, the pain they go through in childhood
is often overlooked. Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson in
Raising Cain:
Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys, report that about 95% of juvenile
homicides are committed by boys. Boys commit four out of every five crimes
that end up in juvenile court. Boys account for nearly nine out of ten drug
and alcohol law violations. And suicide is the third leading cause of death
among boys in their mid- to late teens (accidents and homicides hold the
top two spots).
**************
Despite the resurrection, evil continues to be a reality in the world. Even
psychiatrists are coming to acknowledge that it is a force that affects
human behavior. During a symposium held last year by the American Psychiatric
Association, Dr. Michael Welner asked more than 120 psychiatrists to help
create a depravity scale which could be used by courts to judge criminals.
He noted that every day, judges ask juries to decide whether crimes are
heinous, atrocious, cruel, outrageous, wanton, vile, or inhuman—factors,
which can increase the length of, prison sentences or even lead to the death
penalty in some states. The problem is that there is no universally recognized
standard to define those terms. Some of the psychiatrists in attendance,
though, balked at the use of the religious term "evil." They preferred
to speak instead of the more secular term "depravity."
**************
"After the crucifixion, sinners went right on sinning, warriors continued
to war, torturers still tortured, and liars kept on with their favorite
indoor sport: the world persisted in being the graceless mess it always
had been." (Robert Farrar Capon in
The Fingerprints of God)
**************
"The pain passes, but the beauty remains." (Pierre Auguste Renoir,
explaining why he still painted when his hands were twisted with arthritis)
**************
On May 22, 1992 a bakery in Sarajevo was distributing bread to starving
people of the war-shattered city. With no warning, a shell fell directly
in the middle of the line, killing 22 people, wounding many others. Not
far away lived Vedran Smailovic. Before the war he had been principal cellist
of the Sarajevo Opera. When Vedran saw the carnage around him, he decided
he would take some action; he resolved to come everyday at that same hour
of 4:00 PM and play his cello. Dressed in full formal concert attire he
sat in the open crater and played a concert. (It would have been most fitting
to play
Kol Nidre and Bach's
Unaccompanied Cello Concerto!)
(Paraphrased from Donna Schaper,
Reflections, Smith-Helwys Publishing,
Macon, GA. September-December, 2001)
**************
Agnes Sanford was the first person to introduce many of us to the intriguing
concept of the "healing of the memories." She declares that the
Risen Christ is no more bounded by time than he is by space... Certainly,
one of the effects of the resurrection is that now Jesus has access to every
facet of creation—past, present, and future, as well as all places,
times and spaces. The Risen Lord is able to go down the corridors of our
minds and present us with new truth about our loss of loved ones as he did
in his miracles of healing while he was on earth. (Paraphrase of John Claypool's
quote from,
The Healing Light by Agnes Sanford, 1947; From,
Stories Jesus Still Tells, Cowley Publications, Boston, Mass. 2000
, p.78, (By Permission of the Author)
**************
An older woman had her purse stolen as she loaded groceries into her car
one summer night at 7 p.m. She continued to go out alone at night. Why?
"I didn't want to give the crook all the power."
What did she mean by her continued freedom? "I forgave him his stupidity.
He is in a lot worse shape than I am."
She remembered that God, through Jesus, had befriended her. She befriended
the thief and the robbery by using the larger wisdom and power of God. She
could have lost God, and hope, and freedom, along with her purse. Because
she forgave the thief, she kept God, and hope, and freedom to shop at night.
**************
John Wesley tells the story of being robbed on his way to visit a church.
He was in England, on horseback. The thief stole his purse too. Wesley says
he gave thanks that he wasn't hurt, and that his horse wasn't hurt. And
then, people say, he gave thanks for one more thing. "I give thanks
that I do not hate the thief."
**************
Prayer: Let us befriend those who hurt us, O God. Let us give others the
same chance you gave us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen
**************
A white member had a couch to donate to the Sunday school. Two African-American
men working in the church's garden were asked to go and get it. Fifteen
minutes after the couch showed up at the church, the white member called
to say that her couch had just been stolen by two black men in a pick up
truck. The funniest thing, she went on, was that they acted like they belonged
there.
**************
I have friends who have lived in Spanish Harlem in New York City for thirty
years. They don't lock their doors.
**************
Jesus asked us to love one another the way he loved us. Jesus didn't love
only one color or kind. Jesus didn't lock his door. When he asks us to love
each other, he may understand that some of us, for sheer physical safety,
have to lock our doors. Some couches really do get stolen. Beyond that,
he understands that we still, and nonetheless, must love each other. We
may have to lock some doors but some still have to stay open. These are
the doors to our heart.
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2nd
Quarter 2002
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