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Years ago, I remember seeing the movie
version of E. M. Forrester’s classic, A Room with a View.
It’s a film of exquisite beauty, telling the story of a
young Victorian woman and her guardian who take the European
tour, from England to the capitals of Europe. One scene
sticks in my memory after all these years. In the splendor
of the great cathedral in Florence, Mr. Emerson looks across
the piazza to see his dower, doubt-filled, unhappy son and
says, “Will someone tell him that besides the everlasting
‘Why,’ there is a yes and a yes and a yes?”
I had chosen the topic for this sermon
and this remembered scene as an introduction some time ago,
but against the backdrop of this tragic week:
·
the Blacksburg campus shootings
and these senseless deaths
·
an angry young man and now the
fear of copy-cat killers
·
continued sectarian violence in
Iraq
·
unfolding darkness seems to engulf
us, death all around us
…perhaps the reading of the morning
sounds the word of hope we need to hear in this dark time.
In short order, it feels like a wave of deep sadness has
overwhelmed the joy of Easter and evil has negated the good.
One wonders sometimes if, in fact, the darkness will
overcome the light.
But against that backdrop, I would
suggest St. Paul offers the word of affirmation and hope:
God’s great amen has sounded. God’s great yes has been
spoken. “Against the everlasting ‘why,’ there is a yes and a
yes and a yes.”
1. God says “Amen, Yes” to Jesus’ life.
Realize that the Resurrection is not just
a way to end the story, a happy ending after the cross –“and
they all, literally, live happily ever after.” (Though in
this case, the really good news is that we really do live
happily ever after!) The Resurrection is the final
validation of all Jesus taught and what he did, who he was
and how he died. The Resurrection and the post-resurrection
appearances all combine to affirm the life of this One who
claimed to be the Son of God. Easter says “Yes” to the Jesus
way of life, to the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount
as the values for living. This, in fact, is THE life,
the way of life, life more abundant.
In the resurrection of Jesus, God puts
his final stamp of approval on the peacemakers, calling them
children of God. He affirms the work of the meek, who seek
to reclaim and renew and rebuild the earth. He supports the
merciful who show mercy, and encourages those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness. He offers the final amen for those
who lived with a single-minded passion, the pure in heart.
In the Resurrection we hear the echoes of God’s word spoken
at Jesus’ baptism: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am
well-pleased”…and it shouts to the world: “The Jesus way is
the way of life.”
For the
Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preach among you, was not
“yes and no;” but in him it is always “Yes,” for all the
promises of God find their “yes” in him.
Dr. James Howell says the Christian faith
is not just a doctrine to be believed, it is a life to be
lived…the life of Jesus in our lives, affirmed by the
resurrection as the way of life.
God says “Amen! Yes!” to Jesus’ life.
2. And God says “Amen! Yes!” to your life.
In the
face of the kind of darkness we have experienced and the
wide-spread brutality in our world, it is easy to turn to
despair. It’s one of the potential responses to such tragedy
when it all seems so meaningless, so futile, and we feel so
helpless.
·
In one morning, 32 lives snuffed
out for no reason, and then another at NASA and another
school threatened, and on it goes.
·
In the past two months, over 150
of our brave soldiers and over 1,000 Iraqis killed in this
on-going conflict.
·
Thousands dying in Darfur and
seemingly no way to stop it.
It is
easy to begin to believe that life has lost its worth, and
to turn to despair.
Frankly, I worry about the negativism, the cynicism, the
despair of our times.
Here’s an example: I received a high
school graduation announcement a while back with the motto
of the graduating class on the front. Remember, this is the
motto for a group of high school students:
I have no yesterday,
Time took them away.
Tomorrow may not be,
But I still have today.
Agreed, today is the only day we truly
have, and the threats to our future are real. But how can
you live with such a negative view of life?
·
No past to celebrate or to claim?
·
No future to look forward to?
·
Just live for today?
Unfortunately, it seems to represent all
too many contemporary voices. But frankly, I couldn’t live
like that. I need an affirmation of life. I need something
to hold onto in the face of despair. In the face of the
everlasting “Why,” I need to hear a “Yes.” And Christian
faith does just that. Christian faith affirms the past…that
God can forgive and redeem and teach and heal, so that we
can say “Yes” to the past. Christian faith celebrates today
as the precious gift of God. Christian faith affirms a hope
for tomorrow rooted in the God who is the same yesterday,
today and forever.
God says Yes to life, your life in
all of its fullness – past, present and future – so we live
in hope.
The Resurrection proclaims that
ultimately life is stronger than death, love is stronger
than hate, and even when evil has done its worst, God still
works for good. His great “Amen” has sounded in Jesus
Christ, bringing with him all the promises of God for you
and me.
Look back at the context of St. Paul’s Corinthian letter.
He begins by acknowledging the suffering
they had endured, their affliction and their sorrow. He
says there were times when “we were utterly, unbearably,
crushed to the point where they despaired of life itself.”
But even in the shadow of such despair
and suffering, St. Paul could affirm the healing, the
comfort and the presence of the eternal God. Listen to the
Eugene Peterson translation from Chapter 1:
All praise to the God and Father of our
Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all Mercy! God of all
healing comfort! He comes alongside us when we go through
hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside
someone else who is going through hard times so that we can
be there for that person, just as God was there for us.
We don’t want you in the dark, dear
friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on
us. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it.
We felt like we’d been sent to death row; that it was all
over for us. We were forced to trust God totally – not a bad
idea since he’s the God who raises the dead!
And he did it. He rescued us from certain
doom. And he’ll do it again. Now that the worst is over,
we’re pleased to report that we can face the world with our
heads held high.
(II Corinthians 1:3-11)
That sounds a lot like the witness of Bob
and Lee Woodruff, son of this community and well-known news
anchor. While I was working on this text, alongside of it, I
was reading their book about Bob’s injury in Iraq and his
struggle toward healing and wholeness. It is a powerful
witness to their love and faith and sheer determination. At
the end, Lee writes:
We’ve had more than our share of happy
times, wonderful times, laughter to fill buckets and joy
enough to burst a human heart. When I think about it, life
is not so unlike the evening news. It’s nice to end the
story with a happy kicker; a piece that makes us all feel
good inside…but the moments that define us, that strip us
down to raw bone and cartilage and build us back up; they
are the tough ones. They are the stories of grief or
tragedy, stories tinged with sadness and sorrow. I believe
how we attack those curve balls is the stuff of life.
(Bob and Lee Woodruff, In An Instant,
page 269)
Tragedy in Blacksburg, strife around the
world, pain in individual families and homes, sudden
illness, surprising diagnosis, death. I don’t know why these
things happen. In fact, I am not sure there is a “why.” But
I believe in the core of my being that “in the face of the
everlasting ‘Why,’ there is a yes and a yes and a yes.”
I
just love this verse 20.
It’s worth writing on a post-it and
sticking it on your mirror. Read it first thing every
morning when you look yourself in the eye for the first time
in the new day:
“For all the promises of God find
their ‘Yes’ in him.”
Against all the “no’s” of our day, and
when one is tempted to despair, it is God’s great yes…to
Jesus’ way of life and to your life.
3. So St. Paul says in response, we utter our “Amen” to the
Glory of God.
In
response to God’s great “yes” in Jesus Christ, we say yes to
him.
If you have ever worshiped in an
African-American church, you know that preaching is not a
spectator sport. It’s a participatory sport of call and
response. The preacher will call out the word and the people
will respond: “Amen, Preach it, Yes, Well…”
Now I know there are plenty of times when
the sermon could use a little help along the way, but
whether or not you choose to respond with an audible “Amen,”
St. Paul says the important thing is that somewhere we offer
our amen, our yes, our response to him.
I don’t know exactly when the first time
was that I said “yes” to Christ in my life. I grew up in a
home where faith and prayer came with the corn flakes in the
morning and the toothpaste at night. I do remember one time
when I was about nine, the preacher gave an invitation at a
Sunday night service and I went to the kneeling rail and
gave my life to Christ. I remember the day of my
confirmation when I was about twelve years old under the
hands of Rev. Ralph Richardson, saying “yes.” I remember any
number of summer camp commitment services, accompanied of
course by short-lived summer romances. I can only hope the
yes lasted longer than the girlfriends.
I keenly remember my ordination,
responding to those improbable questions and accepting the
impossible task, saying “yes” to my calling and to the
church. I can’t begin to tell you how many times since then
I’ve been drawn to say “yes” all over again.
·
Every time we receive the bread
and the cup, we are saying “Yes.”
·
Every time we renew the vows of
baptism, it’s a reminder of our covenant with Christ.
·
Every time I am touched by a hymn,
inspired by an anthem, when my spirit rises in praise, I say
“Yes.”
Maybe many of you are just like me.
Saying “yes” to God is so much a part of who you are, you
can’t even remember a time when you didn’t. And maybe, on
the other hand, for some of you there has never been a time
that you even offered the first “Yes,” the first “Amen.”
Today – maybe for the first time, maybe the umpteenth time –
I want to invite you to say “yes.” To respond to God’s
witness with your own witness, to claim all the promises of
God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, to utter your “amen” to the
Glory of God.
One of the books which impressed me as a
college student and still sits on my shelf was written by
the General Secretary of the United Nations, Dag
Hammarskjold. A Swedish diplomat, he died much too young in
a plane crash in Africa. After his death, this manuscript
was found in his New York apartment, translated into English
and titled simply Markings. Near the end of this
eloquent little book and ultimately the end of his life, he
writes:
I don’t know Who – or What – put the
question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even
remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to
Someone, and from that hour I was certain that existence is
meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender,
had a goal.
From that moment I have known what it
means “not to look back” and to “take no thought for the
morrow.”
Then
one of the last prayers before his death, dated July 19,
1961:
Have mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon our efforts,
that we, in love and in faith,
may follow Thee,
with self-denial and courage,
and meet Thee in silence.
Give us a pure heart
that we may see Thee,
a humble heart
that we may hear Thee,
a heart of love
that we may serve Thee,
a heart of faith
that we may live Thee.
(Dag Hammarskjold, Markings, page
180, 189)
Will someone tell them, that besides the everlasting “why”
there is a yes and a yes and a yes?
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was not
Yes and No; but in him, it is always Yes. For all the
promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter
the Amen through him to the glory of God.
Notes:
This sermon was preached on the Sunday
following the murder of 32 students and faculty at Virginia
Tech University. In our congregation, five persons are
graduates of Virginia Tech. They shared in lighting a candle
in recognition of the tragedy.
Dag Hammarskjold’s Markings was
first published in 1974 and is still in print. Bob and Lee
Woodruff’s book is entitled In An Instant. Both can
be ordered from our virtual bookstore at
www.fumcbirmingham.org. |
