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Sermon Archive - April 11, 1999
Pastor Danielson
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1 Peter 1:3-9
Our text for today is part of a letter that the Apostle Peter intended as
instruction for the Christian community of that day regarding "resurrection
hope" and "salvation." The idea, which permeates the entire epistle, is the
notion that life is a difficult pilgrimage, demanding both insight and
endurance; ---the successful completion of which brings SALVATION,
because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, although salvation is viewed primarily as a "heavenly
reward," it has already begun to manifest itself in the present day. By God's
great mercy, through the death and resurrection of Jesus his Son, we have
been given "a new birth" in the "now." In the words of Peter:
"Although (we) have not seen (Jesus), we love him;
and even though (we) do not see him now, we believe
in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
for (we) are receiving the outcome of our faith, the salvation
of our souls." (I Peter 1:8-9)
"Resurrection hope" is then not wishful thinking; it is the certain
knowledge that something better is coming.
- Last year I hoped that Sammy Sosa would pass and stay ahead of Mark
McGuire in the "home run derby." That was not resurrection hope; that was
wishful thinking.
- I also hoped that the Cubs would make it to the World Series and even win
a pennant. Now, an ardent Cubs fan might try to make a case that this is very
close to "resurrection hope," but I know better. It is wishful thinking.
- It was a hope of mine that Jerry Seinfeld, George Kastanza, Elaine Benes,
and Kramer would all decide to return to their popular NBC sitcom and give
us at least 3 or 4 more years of their television antics. They didn't. It was
more wishful thinking and surely not "resurrection hope" by any stretch of the
imagination.
- However, on a more serious note, I have been hoping for weeks that
NATO's engagement of the Serbs in Kosovo would somehow come to a
peaceful closure before it became the terrible tragedy it is. "Resurrection
hope?" Or, just more wishful thinking?
- And, finally, what about this one. I hoped and prayed that Ken Murken's
lung cancer would respond to the latest chemotherapy. He died the day after
Easter. Were my hopes and prayers just a higher form of wishful thinking or
are they firmly rooted in "resurrection hope?" Think about it. You be the
judge.
There is good going on around us, but there is enough bad for one to
wonder if God is out there full-time or, only responding to human need
part-time. We try to hold on to a "resurrection hope" that will sustain us
when light turns to darkness, when joy turns to sorrow, when, over and over again,
wishful thinking rises to serious levels of hope only to dead-end.
This is precisely what was beginning to happen among the Christians Peter
addresses in today's passage. They were new Christians who were in danger
of giving up their faith because of the hostility and persecution they faced;
their hope seemingly at a dead-end; their thinking wishful ---without true
"resurrection hope." What could they do? What can we do when we see life
the same way? We have three choices and a few variations or combinations
of each:
Choice #1: We can abandon all hope.
Choice #2: We can pretend things aren't that bad.
Choice #3: We can believe that it's all part of God's Plan, at least
those matters of earthly consequence that move the stars a little.
Let's take a closer look:
The first choice, "abandonment of all hope," always leads to bitterness. If
we take the enormous suffering of the world to heart and see absolutely no
way out ---no justice, no mercy, no hope ---we will most certainly despair and
give up on life itself. Hopelessness is never a good choice. It is in fact
not a choice at all!
The second option is a more common choice than the first. Pretending
things aren't that bad, manifests itself in willful attempts to remain blind
to other people's suffering. Some such "pretenders" are optimistic only for
themselves. They believe bad stuff only happens to other people who
somehow deserve it ---"you smoked for 30 years so you deserve your
cancer." These are very unpleasant people to be around when you're
suffering, and they don't tend to do too well when suffering finally catches
up with them. Then they get stuck on the question: "What did I do to deserve this?"
Pretenders simply try to ignore pain as much as possible, usually by running
away from or simply ignoring suffering.
The third choice, the belief that this is indeed our Father's world, is
Peter's choice. In the letter before us today, written to despairing
Christians 2,000 years ago, he reminds them that their real hope lies in "resurrection."
That no matter what happens in this life, Christ has won for them an
inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.
"This is my Father's world; / Oh let me not forget / That, though the wrong seem oft so strong, / God is the ruler yet."
These days, whenever Christians answer lost hope with talk of a "Plan"
known only to the Father, they are accused of being in denial ---escapists who
can't deal with reality. Christians who focus their hope on heavenly things to
come rather than earthly things that are, hear criticism that goes like this:
"That's all well and good, but it doesn't really put food on the table, or pay
the rent, or cure what ails me, does it?" Christians are supposed to be
"activists," not "escapists."
Did Peter's own resurrection hope lead him to be an activist or an escapist?
The snapshot we have of Peter prior to Christ's resurrection is of a fearful
man who essentially ran away; the impetuous apostle who swore he would
never betray Christ, and then denied him three times. On the other hand,
after the resurrection, we see Peter not only as the early Church's most
highly
respected leader, but as a man who faced his own martyrdom with enormous
courage ---asking to be crucified upside down because he wasn't worthy to
die in the same way Christ died.
The fact that Peter probably wrote today's passage shortly before his
martyrdom suggests that it is not only his response to despairing Christians,
but a confession of his own "holy hope" at a time when the Roman state was
crushing his "worldly hopes." Resurrection hope turned this escapist into a
martyr-activist. In fact, much of the rest of 1st Peter contains
instructions
on how believers should act. We, like Peter, can embrace suffering because
we know that, like the suffering of Christ on the cross, our suffering is not
the
end of the matter either. There's something better coming.
A woman was diagnosed with an incurable illness ---so the story goes. Her
doctor told her to start making final preparations, so she contacted her
pastor
and had him come to her house to discuss her last wishes. She told him which
hymns she wanted sung at her Funeral Service, what Scriptures she would
like read, and even some of what she wanted said when eulogized. The
woman also told her pastor that she wanted to be buried with her favorite
Bible.
Everything seemed in order until the pastor prepared to leave. The woman
suddenly remembered something very important. "There's one more thing,"
she said excitedly. "What's that?" the pastor's replied. "This is very
important," the woman said. "I want to be buried with a fork in my right
hand." The pastor stood looking at the woman, not knowing quite what to
say. "Does that shock you?" the woman asked. "Well, to be honest, I'm
puzzled by the request," said the pastor. The woman explained. "In all my
years of attending church and community dinners, my favorite part was
when whoever was clearing away the dishes of the main course would lean
over and say, 'You can keep your fork.' It was my favorite part because I
knew that something better was coming. It wasn't Jell-O or pudding. It was
cake or, better yet, pie! --- something of substance. So I just want people to
see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand, and I want them to
wonder, 'What's with the fork?' Then I want you to tell them: 'Something
better is coming, so keep your fork, too.'"
The pastor's eyes were filled with tears as he hugged the woman goodbye.
He knew this would be one of the last times he would see her before her
death. But he also knew that that woman had a better grasp of heaven than he
did. She believed that something better was coming.
Before the funeral service, people were walking by the woman's casket, and
they saw the pretty dress she was wearing, her favorite Bible and the fork placed in her right hand.
Over and over the pastor heard the question, "What's with the fork?"
During his funeral sermon, the pastor told the people of the conversation he
had with the woman shortly before she died and, in particular, about the fork.
He told the people he couldn't stop thinking about the fork, and that they
probably would not be able to stop thinking about it, either. He was right.
The next time you're instructed to hang-on to your fork, be reminded that
it's a sign that there is something better coming ---something of substance!
The Easter Season is a time for Christians to celebrate the true and lasting
reason for us to hope:
Christ is risen, and invites us to rise with him to new life.
Don't leave the table too soon.
There is good reason to keep your fork.
You might want to join me in the following litany. When I say: "There's
something better coming." You respond by saying aloud or in a whisper:
"Keep your fork!" Here goes . . .
- Easter is an invitation to try, with God's help, to break the bad habits and
the addictions we had given up all hope of ever breaking. There's something
better coming. . . "Keep your fork."
Easter is an invitation to work at renewing our marriage vows, if not
in an actual Service of Marriage Renewal, in that innermost place of thoughts,
dreams and hopes. There's something better coming. . . "Keep your fork."
- Easter is an invitation to reach out to that neighbor who, in our
busyness, we ignore and whose apparent and growing despair is about to
consume him. ." Tell him that there's something better coming. . . "Keep your
fork!"
- Easter is an invitation to seek God for inspiration toward greater
compassion; that we might help others see that there is something better
coming. . . "Keep your fork."
- Easter is an invitation to regain our vision of what can be! That, when
we live faithful lives, there's always something better coming. So. . . "Keep
your fork."
- Easter is an invitation to renew our faith. There's something better
coming . . . "Keep your fork."
- Easter is an invitation to "renew our strength and mount up with wings
as eagles; to run and not faint." There's something better coming. . . "Keep
your fork." ---Maybe the Cubs can win it all this year.
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