Day 133 - The Rest of the Week

A sermon given at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy-Daisy, TN, April 21, 2013

scriptural references: John 10:22-42 and Acts 9:36-43.

I spent the first few days of last week in Richmond at Union Presbyterian Seminary in a discussion group talking about science and theology and thinking about today’s sermon. Late in the day Monday we heard about the bombing in Boston and later discovered one of our participants is connected to the family of the 8 year old boy that was killed at the marathon finish line. As the week evolved the bombing was continually in the news and we all saw how it came to an end Friday night with one dead older brother and the younger one wounded and captured.

I can imagine the fear, uncertainty and anger in Boston as all the swirling questions were asked, was it a terrorist attack, some homegrown act of violence like that of Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City, or the act of a rogue individual like Eric Randolph in Atlanta?  I have run several marathons and many shorter races, so I can appreciate how this act shatters the sense of camaraderie of shared exhaustion and of lost innocence the next time one approaches a finish line.

Wanton violence makes you wonder exactly what is going on. Is there more evil in the world today, or do we just have such modern communication that we know about more of it and sooner?  Maybe there is so little social restraint today we hear and see more things people do that once were private and unvoiced?  The American wild west of the 19^th century was pretty brutal. Some accounts suggest it resembled the time of the Judges, where everyone did what they thought was right in their own eyes.  I grew up in a segregated society where many wouldn’t hesitate to cause a problem if African-American child went into the movie theater.

Are times as bad as they were in the Roman era? Roman emperors would go into a town of 30,000 or 100,000 that supported the wrong politics and literally slaughter every man, woman and child, burn down all the buildings and then sow salt in the earth so the land was worthless even if there were people left alive, or some were to come back.

Some of you may disagree but I tend to think there is not more evil in the world than when I grew up or even when Christianity began but people are more imaginative about how to do evil, and a lot less restrained in their enjoyment of it.  The tragedy of “creative evil” is that it lures young people to decide it is ok. “Creative evil” puts more and more responsibility on those of us who have or teach children to protect the space they need to grow and learn about the good life. Since even the childless teach by their actions we have quite a shared burden.

This is the lesson within the exchange John describes as the Pharisees try to trap Jesus into saying exactly who he was. They ask, “How long will you keep us in suspense? Tell us plainly who you are.” Jesus answers by turning the tables on them.

Jesus said, “My works testify to me. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. I give them eternal life. No one will snatch them out of my hand…If I am not doing the works of my Father then do not believe me.”

“My works testify to me…and my sheep follow me.”  Those are powerful words. Remember Jesus spoke three times to Peter at the end of John, “Do you love me? The feed my sheep.”

The story of the resurrection of Tabitha or Dorcas (Greek) in Acts picks up this theme. What do we know about Tabitha? Her name in Greek means “Gazelle.” Since names in Scripture with special meanings usually carry some significance maybe it means she was particularly beautiful or graceful? 

Luke tells us she is a disciple and her ministry is with widows. In the time of this writing, identifying a woman as a widow gives all the information necessary to know the situation. Tabitha is probably wealthy and is working with destitute widows. Do you remember Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law? She said to call her Mara, or bitter because of her destitution.  When a husband died, everything went to the sons or other male relatives. The widow’s benefit rested solely on the compassion of the husband’s family and the willingness of a male kin to marry her. There were a lot of people with little compassion so there were a lot of poor widows.

The scene is not a lot different from what we might encounter today at a funeral. The widows are at the sitting, weeping over Tabitha and showing Peter the clothes Tabitha had made while working with them. Peter with the power of the Holy Spirit resurrects Tabitha. The scripture says, “… she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. ... This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.”

Luke does not record what Tabitha did that caused many to believe, but we can guess from her previous work that she continued as a disciple ministering to the widows because Luke says she became known throughout the land. It sounds like she seized the opportunity of a second chance at life to glorify God.

Tabitha is one of the “Easter people.”  Her resurrection was the first day of her new life. At every resurrection and healing by Jesus there is an expectation to be a witness in words such as, “go and sin no more,” or “your faith has healed you.”

Beyond this mess in Boston, I also had the positive experience of witnessing the play by our youth at church last Wednesday called “It’s all because of Jesus – the real story of Easter and why it matters.” If you missed it, you really missed a wonderful experience of this congregation at work. The children’s enthusiasm was palpable and our three dear members, Jan, Katie and Linda, did a wonderful job motivating and directing them. We are blessed by all of them.

Two things really stand out about their performance. The children were absorbed and seemed to understand the real story of Easter even though it has some fairly complex, “adult” ideas in it.  They may not understand all the complications and brutality of a crucifixion, and all the theological niceties we attach to ideas like the Trinity, but they understand the part about  “Jesus loves me,” about redemption and the importance of following Jesus.

Second, I’m struck by their innocence. They may not have gained the intellectual maturity to understand those theological complications or fully appreciate what we mean when we tell them Jesus will always be with them as a comfort, but they do hear it. It is sad to know eventually they will most likely be emotionally or physically hurt, but is a joy to know they feel the presence of the blessing of Christ’s comforting promise and God’s love when it happens. It makes the difference between despair and hope.

That is why preserving their innocence is so important - to have a time in life to play and hear the stories of faith when life hasn’t yet taken many nasty turns.  We can only pray that all children have the blessing of innocence, not having to experience and observe the sinful side of life for a little while.

In my work with young adult men at St. Matthew’s Shelter in the VIP program I see a lot of innocence lost far too early in childhood. The intense 4-week program to get them clean of drugs or alcohol, or both has a lot of young adults.  I call them adults though some are 19 or 20, maybe 21 years old, barely old enough merit the label, The tragedy of a childhood robbed of innocence by drugs and watching someone struggle with withdrawal from a drug like methamphetamine and/or alcohol isn’t very pretty to see. They bear the physical and emotional torment not only over the heavy emptiness of not having the drugs in their system, but also the cold reality and guilt not blurred by the fog of drugs and parties that distract.

Scientific and medical thought hasn’t clarified whether addiction arises from a genetic predisposition or a conscious action. Like child abuse and spousal abuse, there is a higher prevalence of alcoholism in families where a parent or parents are alcoholics.  And so I think the seeds of addiction are planted in childhood.

There is an older man who regularly attends our homeless circle group that suggests that. He is a long-term recovering alcoholic, has serious health problems teeters between life and death and comes from a Pentecostal background. Most of the men who come through the program who are focused on recovery find and lean on him. 

One day we were talking about the love of Christ for humankind and Christ’s expectation of us to apply the same love to our fellow travelers. This fellow said when he was growing up he never heard anything about a loving God, it was all about an angry, punishing God who was always just around the corner waiting to punish him. He said it has made a great difference to him finally to realize God loves him. So here he is, broken and near death but still a witness.  Could he have brought greater gifts to the world if he heard constantly from his parents in childhood not only “I love you,” but also “God loves you?” I suspect a lot of his trouble came early listening to his parents preaching the distorted idea of an angry, threatening God waiting to punish him for a mistake.

We learn so much about the world in our youthful innocence before we become jaded by the world’s treachery. Many youth begin drugs when they are barely teenagers. A serious drug habit does bad things to a young, plastic mind. It robs your mind like a lobotomy. Addiction in childhood is a millstone placed around their neck. For many, it will drag them back down into old ways.

You see the magnitude of the problem when you hear their talk about the issues of their life. They may be 22 years old but they think and talk the way they did at the age they began serious drug or alcohol abuse. It is like the drugs turned a switch off inside their heads so they grow an adult body with barely a teenage mind.

It is a difficult challenge to find the strength to stop drug use and at the same time begin to learn for the first time in their life exactly what adult behavior is. That is something a “normal” child takes 8 to 10 years or longer to learn between 10 to 25 years old.

That is why tour children’s play last Wednesday is so important. Their experience of performance, preparation, the parents in the audience, the church members applauding it all means so much to those eight children just like a youth group, bible study, it all adds up. We may be surprised that letting the children entertain us is part of our job of teaching them. Children learn through play about God’s love and scripture, they learn about responsible living by continually watching us live our lives as Christians. It is our gift and blessing to them and theirs to us.

We are never too old to have a happy childhood but it can be hard work when you are older.  Jesus says we are all children of God and we are like sheep, we need a good shepherd.

We must carefully to nurture our children, to teach them well more by our own behavior than our words. It is part of the baptism vows, you know.

I keep thinking about that 19 year old boy and his brother who did that heinous bombing that killed four including the eight year old child. From what little we read, it sounds like his older brother was a dominating influence. It isn’t Islam, I know Muslims who are horrified by this act. What would have happened had this 19 year old understood in his early years that God has a love so wide that we have a new birth and new life that will always provide the comfort of knowing there is a home?

We are Easter people, our baptism is our resurrection to a new life. Tabitha’s story is for us. We need to live to protect the innocence of children, if for only one child somewhere, sometime; so the child learns the promise of  a Christian life. Alice Walker who wrote “The Color Purple” captured the significance of Tabitha’s story and the first day of our own new life.  She said, "Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.” Amen.