When life Tumbles In What Then?

A sermon by Rowland Croucher at St Martins’ Community   Church

Resurrection Sunday – 31 March 2013

Lectionary Readings:   Acts 10:34-43  or  Isaiah 65:17-25; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26  or  Acts 10:34-43, John 20:1-18  or  Luke 24:1-12

First I want to pay a tribute to our dear friend Damien Christie whose life we remember with fondness and all sorts of other feelings today…

I re-read my Facebook correspondence with him again yesterday: he was very honest, in spite of the darkness which coloured much of his life. We’ve walked around the streets of Fitzroy, talking about serious and also inconsequential stuff – some of it (under the heading ‘abuse’) I will never divulge to anyone. Something that was not inconsequential was his great love of animals – especially of the last dog he owned which when it died devastated him. I remember sitting on a brick fence in South Yarra with him; our arms around each others’ shoulders, as we both cried and prayed.   He was a man of courage as he battled with the demons of despair and hopelessness… until this week a ‘survivor’. Rest in peace, dear friend.

So what has an ancient story about one person’s resurrection got to do with this?

Everything.

The Luke story (chapter 24) is about the perplexity of Jesus’ followers as they lived in the hours between their discovery that Jesus’ tomb was empty, but they had not yet met the risen Lord.

Between their friend and Lord’s death, and this moment, their lives had been turned inside out; their minds and hearts were filled with dismay and despair (‘We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel’)…

Life will come crashing in on each of us some time. And different people will have different reactions ¢â‚¬ ¦

As I’ve talked to Damien’s friends, and one of Damien’s close family-members,   I’d have to say each of your responses was different: they range from relief (he is at peace) to deep grief (why did someone so young have to die, and not forewarn any of us?)…

A hairdresser I hadn ¢â‚¬â„¢t met previously asked what I did? My said  ¢â‚¬ËœI do what you do. ¢â‚¬â„¢ ‘You’re a hairdresser?’ she asked. ‘No, I’m a counsellor’. Of course: most hairdressers and many taxi-drivers are  ¢â‚¬Ëœcounsellors ¢â‚¬â„¢.  ¢â‚¬ËœSo what ¢â‚¬â„¢s been an interesting case? ¢â‚¬â„¢ I asked her. ‘Oh, that’s easy’ she said…   She was working in a suburb not far from here, and an elderly  ¢â‚¬Ëœregular ¢â‚¬â„¢ came in on a different day than usual. Why did she change her day? Well, her husband was dead at home, dead in bed, he ¢â‚¬â„¢d died during the night.  ¢â‚¬ËœHave you contacted anybody? ¢â‚¬â„¢ the hairdresser-counsellor asked.  ¢â‚¬ËœOh no, ¢â‚¬â„¢ the lady replied,  ¢â‚¬ËœI had to have my hair done first, because a lot of people are going to visit in the next few days! ¢â‚¬â„¢

****

When life tumbles in, what then – for you?  

Three of the greatest sermons in the English language in the 20th century focus on this question. Arthur John Gossip tragically lost his wife when they were in their middle years, and the following Sunday he stood in the pulpit to preach. His first sentence: When Life Tumbles In, What Then? Gossip took as his text Jeremiah 12:5:  ¢â‚¬ËœSo, Jeremiah, if you ¢â‚¬â„¢re worn out in this footrace with men, what makes you think you can race against horses? And if you can ¢â‚¬â„¢t keep your wits during times of calm, what ¢â‚¬â„¢s going to happen when troubles break loose like the Jordan in flood? ¢â‚¬â„¢ Gossip preached:  ¢â‚¬ËœI don ¢â‚¬â„¢t think you need to be afraid of life. Our hearts are very frail, and there are places where the road is very steep and very lonely, but we have a wonderful God. And, as Paul puts it,  ¢â‚¬Å“What can separate us from his love? Not death, ¢â‚¬  he writes immediately. No, not death, for standing in the roaring of the Jordan, cold with its dreadful chill and very conscious of the terror of its rushing, I, too, like Hopeful in Pilgrim ¢â‚¬â„¢s Progress, can call back to you who one day in your turn will have to cross it,  ¢â‚¬Å“Be of good cheer, my brother, my sister, for I feel the bottom and it is sound. ¢â‚¬  Gossip had reached the bottom of who he was in his grief. But at the bottom, he reached the core of all that he believed:  ¢â‚¬ËœYou people in the sunshine *may* believe the faith, but we in the shadows *must* believe it. We have nothing else! ¢â‚¬â„¢

John Claypool, a brilliant Southern Baptist pastor and preacher who became an Episcopalian priest, preached four sermons from the Book of Job while his nine-year-old daughter, their only daughter, was dying of leukemia. In the final sermon he said:  ¢â‚¬ËœGod reminded Job that the things he had become so indignant about losing actually did not belong to him in the first place. They were gifts  ¢â‚¬“ gifts beyond his deserving, graciously given him by Another ¢â‚¬ ¦ To be angry because a gift has been taken away is to miss the whole point of life. That we ever have the things we cherish is more than we deserve. Gratitude and humility rather than resentment should characterize our handling of the objects of life. ¢â‚¬â„¢ In Tracks of a Fellow Struggler he tells how he came to thank God for the *nine years!!!* he and his family had enjoyed the company of their gorgeous little girl, Laura Lue.

The third powerful sermon on this theme was preached on Sunday 23 January, 1983, by the senior pastor of Riverside Church, New York, the Reverend Dr. William Sloane Coffin. The sermon began:  ¢â‚¬ËœAs almost all of you know, a week ago last Monday night, driving in a terrible storm, my son Alexander  ¢â‚¬“ who to his friends was a real day-brightener, and to his family  ¢â‚¬Å“fair as a star when only one is shining in the sky ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬“ my twenty-four-year-old Alexander, who enjoyed beating his old man at every game and every race, beat his father to the grave ¢â‚¬ ¦

 ¢â‚¬ËœMy consolation lies in knowing ¢â‚¬ ¦ that when the waves closed over Alex ¢â‚¬â„¢s car, God ¢â‚¬â„¢s heart was the first of all our hearts to break ¢â‚¬ ¦ And I know that when Alex beat me to the grave, the finish line was not Boston Harbor in the middle of the night. If a week ago last Monday a lamp went out, it was because, for him at least, the dawn had come. So I shall seek  ¢â‚¬“ so let us all seek  ¢â‚¬“ consolation in that love which never dies, and find peace in the dazzling grace that always is. ¢â‚¬â„¢

If you listened carefully to those stories, there were *differing* but complementary responses to the reality or prospect of life tumbling in on us: self-respect, living in the now, faith in a good God, gratitude and humility, and an assurance of the tender love of God.

~~

It ¢â‚¬â„¢s Resurrection Sunday, and that ¢â‚¬â„¢s what Easter is all about. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s about the hopes and fears of all the years, the triumphs and tragedies of all the years, the joys and griefs of all the years and in all of our lives ¢â‚¬ ¦ coming into a healing/ salvific focus in the resurrected person of God ¢â‚¬â„¢s Messiah.

Our readings today are full of these themes.

Our Psalm (118) is a grand celebration:   Give thanks to the  Lord,  for he is good; his love endures forever…  

  Let Israel say:  

       ¢â‚¬Å“His love endures forever. ¢â‚¬   

I will give you thanks, for you answered me;    you have become my salvation…  

The stone  the builders rejected  

has become the cornerstone;  

  the  Lord  has done this,  

  and it is marvelous  in our eyes.  

  The  Lord  has done it this very day;  

  let us rejoice today and be glad.

And now back to our main question: when life tumbles in, what then? Well, we survive by affirming who we are in the midst of the storm. Paul Tillich, in The Courage to Be writes: The  ¢â‚¬Ëœultimate courage is to affirm our being against all the threats of nonbeing. ¢â‚¬â„¢ It ¢â‚¬â„¢s a reality we face every day. The forces of non-being confront us saying,  ¢â‚¬ËœYou are nobody  ¢â‚¬“ you don ¢â‚¬â„¢t have a right to exist. ¢â‚¬â„¢ To affirm who you are as a child of God is the greatest power we have to resist such threats.

There is a story about a Zen priest in China when the warlords were plundering villages early in the 20th century. When his village heard that the warlord was headed toward them, all of the people fled to the hills  ¢â‚¬“ except one priest. When the warlord arrived, he inquired if anyone was left in the village. The answer was,  ¢â‚¬ËœOnly the priest in the temple. ¢â‚¬â„¢ The warlord commanded,  ¢â‚¬ËœBring him to me. ¢â‚¬â„¢ When the priest was brought into his presence, the warlord drew his sword and cried,  ¢â‚¬ËœDo you know who I am? I am he who can run you through with this sword and never bat an eye. ¢â‚¬â„¢ The Zen priest replied,  ¢â‚¬ËœDo you know who I am? I am he who can be run through with your sword and never bat an eye. ¢â‚¬â„¢ I wish I had that kind of courageous assurance to face up to the threats in my life, don ¢â‚¬â„¢t you?

I’m reading Patrick Soodheo’s Heroes of our Faith about the the life and death of 365+ Christian martyrs through the last 21 centuries – a story each day. It’s a good spiritual exercise, to be reminded of the faith and love and hope of these brave people: many like them are still dying every day around the world, or are imprisoned in terrible prison camps…

Our new pope is a Jesuit. Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. It was his life-work, the fulfilment of a consuming ambition. He was once asked how he ¢â‚¬â„¢d feel if the Pope suppressed the Society.  ¢â‚¬ËœA quarter of an hour of prayer ¢â‚¬â„¢, he replied,  ¢â‚¬Ëœand I would think no more of it ¢â‚¬â„¢.

How does someone get to be like that?

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again – not just to wrap up history, but he comes again into our lives day in day out, when we’re facing joy or sorrow; success or despair; deep peace or deep frustration…

Media vita in morte sumus:  ‘In the midst of life we are in death’…

I ¢â‚¬â„¢d like to close with a ‘Resurrection prayer’. Somewhere in this prayer each of us is included:

Come, come, resurrected Jesus.

To those who have too low a view of who they are, come Lord Jesus.

To those in the valley of the shadow of death or despair, come Lord Jesus.

To those who have nothing much to be happy about, for whom life is too hard, come Lord Jesus.

To those for whom the griefs of yesterday or the fear of tomorrow is just too much, come Lord Jesus.

To those of us who care too little or care too much, come Lord Jesus.

To those who are living out the consequences of bad choices made by them or for them by others, come Lord Jesus.

To parents of difficult or sick or wayward children, or to those who have been abused, or to those who are single and would like to find a partner, or who wish they didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t have the partner they ¢â‚¬â„¢ve got, come Lord Jesus.

To those for whom work is hard to find or hard to enjoy, come Lord Jesus.

To those who long for better bodily and mental and spiritual health, come Lord Jesus.

To those who have lost their joy, come Lord Jesus.

To each of us here, and to those absent today, in the real situations of our lives, come Lord Jesus with your healing touch. Amen.

Rowland Croucher

jmm.org.au/

31 March 2013