(I am indebted to my friend Dr. Thomas Lane Butts who preached this sermon on The Protestant Hour before an audience of thousands. As always he penetrates the depths of the human condition and matches it with God’s Acts of Salvation.)
There is nothing more common to all humankind than the experience of loss. It is a pervading part of life from the time we lose the warmth of the womb until we leave on the "Final Journey." So much of life is spent adjusting to losses which range from trivial to catastrophic. These losses which propel us from one stage of life to the next on the way to maturity. There are little losses to which we can usually adjust with minimal effort and keep our lives in manageable units. There are losses which usually, sooner or later, make some sense in the larger scheme of things. But then there are those losses which overshadow our whole existence and seem to make no sense at all. There are the losses of this past year of the death of friends and loved ones and the unprecedented loses from Hurricane’s Ivan, Katrina,…
Many years ago the Longshoreman turned philosopher, Eric Hoffer, said: "A person’s heart is a grave long before he or she is buried. Youth dies, and beauty, and hope, and desire. A grave is buried within a grave when a person is buried." You do not have to live very long before you begin to understand that.
Most of my ministry of the past four decades has been spent with people who were trying to cope with some kind of loss. Neither wisdom, nor wealth, nor youth, nor fame, no, not even luck can save us from the pain of some kind of significant loss. If you do not believe that, ask the rich and famous, and even the lucky. They will tell you.
When we think of loss, our minds instinctively turn to that important and final loss—death which we faced on All Saints Sunday. If the only loss we ever had was death, then our lives would be relatively trouble-free. Death is the final loss in our lives, but not always the most painful. All of us know of things worse than death. Death can come in a split second, or a few months; but to live for years with the unresolved pain of some significant loss is hell. To lose a child, or to lose your dignity or honor; or to lose your health, or to see someone you love lose their mental or physical health: this can be worse than death.
Most of us have some difficulty coming to terms with the idea that loss is a normal part of life. Our idealized image of what life should be like if it were like it ought to be leaves no room for loss. Deep down, we expect to keep our health, youth, our loved ones, and our possessions. How dare anyone assume to take these entitlements from us! We think of loss as abnormal, but it is not. It is only inevitable.
We do not all cope with loss in the same way. There are some who just can’t stand to look at their losses. There are places some will not want to go. It is hard me to go to The Haven as my mother died there. There are some who are preoccupied with their losses and spend much time reviewing and regretting. A few years ago, at the cemetery on Scenic Highway I noticed a man who sat beside the grave of someone almost every day. Then, there are some who periodically look at their losses to learn from them, and to see if they still represent loss. I visited the graves of my father and mother and sister recently and it was hard, but I had not been there for some time and occasionally it is helpful to stand beside their graves.
How you deal with your losses makes a major difference and I have over the years, observed that faith, patience, and reason can save us from some of the pain surrounding our losses.
Often times in the Old Testament, Divine judgment is represented by unprecedented loss, There is a vivid example of this in the Book of Joel. This Prophet as do many of the prophets, speaks of a plague of such magnitude that no one alive had ever seen or heard anything to equal it. Listen to what Joel says:
"Listen all of you old people; hear me, all of you who live in the land: has anything like this happened in all of your days or in your father’s days? Tell it to your children so that they may tell their children; and let them pass it on from generation to generation. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left the destroying locust has eaten" (Joel 1:2-4).
Everything was gone! Oh, things would improve. The sun would shine again, and the crops would grow next year, but for then everything was lost. There is nothing more final than the feeling of complete loss at the moment at which it occurs.
Later, in the Prophecy of Joel, he makes a promise that is as amazingly unprecedented as the devastating locust plague. He says it in one sentence:
"I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten" (Joel 2:25).
Can this be true?! Can anyone, even God, restore the years the locust ate? The Bible answers yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
We have all had years in our lives in which the locust came and destroyed everything, for many this year has been one of those years. And the feeling of loss sometimes have been more painful than words can describe. It was the year the baby died, or the year of the divorce, or the year you lost your job, or the year you were sued, or the year a child brought home a load of trouble. It was the year of the heart attack, the accident, or the stroke. It was the year you lost everything. Whatever it was, you have been there. You have tasted the drink of loss.
If I were to ask you to tell me the one experience in your life from which you learned the most, the experience that really changed your life, you would most likely begin to tell me about the year the locusts came. You likely did not recognize the importance of the experience at the time. You probably prayed to be delivered from it. It is only later that the importance of a locust year begins to dawn on us.
There are so many paradoxes in this business of living that it takes awhile to see what an experience really means. For most of us the locust years eventually become a fertilizing influence which enables us to accomplish what could have never been realized without them. No school teaches us more than the university of adversity.
When Jesus hung lifeless on the cross 2000 years ago, the victim of the power of Rome and the devious ways of a bankrupt religious establishment; when enemies mocked his death; and his friends wept bitter tears; and when the sun hid its face for shame, who had won – them or him? Often our loses are the source of ultimate gain!
Closing Prayer
Save us from despair, O Lord, when the losses in our lives push us into the zone of desperation. Let us hear in our hearts the words of assurance from holy scripture that you are with us always – always – always. Amen.
I hate it when I forget to say “thank you.” I hate it when I do something for someone else and they never respond by saying thank you. I know that sometimes we get real busy, too rushed, too many things to think about and we forget, but that is really no reason to forget to say “Thank You.” It is so important.
That’s why God gave us Sabbath—not just a day to rest and worship, although that would be enough, but also as a time to remember to say “thank you”. And that is why the nation has historically given us the season of Thanksgiving. I like this season. In some ways I like it better than I do Christmas.
When Moses prepared the early Hebrews to enter the Promised Land, he called upon them to “Not forget” the wilderness mercies, but to remember to live a life of gratitude and obedience.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Paul understood that the mission of Christ could not be carried on unless others took up the cause and he was grateful for the church in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Galatia, Philippi, and other small towns and large cities where Christ was being proclaimed in those early years of the Christian Era. Paul depended on the Church for his support for his travels to teach Christ, and the Church never failed him. How grateful I am every year that you as individuals fill out a renewal card making your financial pledge to the church that supports the ministry to the children, youth and adults here, and also supporting the ministry of the church in far away places among people you will never see nor never know. This Church has been in ministry for Jesus Christ since 1821. 184 years. Even God has to be impressed, well maybe not God, but I sure am impressed.
I was in New York this week, and on Ellis Island where millions of immigrants first got off the boat before they entered the United States, I noticed a special plaque. The plaque was a tribute to the WSCS—Women’s Society of Christian Service—which once was the name of the UMW. Apparently the WSCS was very helpful to the women and girls when they first came to America in those early years of the past century. Aren’t you proud to be a part of an institution which exists to help?
From the very beginning, we have been an advocate for females, and today 60% of the candidates for ministry are female. 75% of the students in our medical schools are women. You have come a long way baby!
Desmond Tutu, Anglican Church leader in Africa, quoted from a poster his wife liked which read: “If you are a woman and you only want to be equal to men, you don’t have enough ambition.”
This year we celebrate the 100th birthday of one of our members. Elizabeth Bell has lived a rather long and exceptionally blessed life right here in Pensacola. She was born the first child of William Christopher and Sarah Riddick Mackey. Elizabeth is a graduate of Pensacola High School and in 1927 was graduated from Huntingdon College. She was a first grade teacher for 24 years and for years a volunteer in the “primary department” here at church and also a volunteer at Sacred Heart Hospital and Habitat for Humanity. She is the oldest living member of our congregation, having joined the church when she was six years old in 1911. Only this year did she consent to use the elevator, but still comes with Ann Richardson who has been driving her to church the last few years.
Many things have happened since the day she was born on Nov. 18, l905, 100 years ago: Two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq. Pensacola, since those early days of her birth has witnessed a number of changes and new things such as: airplanes & automatic dishwashers, the ball point pen & black and white television, the clothes dryer and computers, electric hair curlers and epoxy glue, frozen foods and fiber optics, helicopters and hippies, Model T Ford in l908 when she was three, and mini-skirts when she was 62 (not that she ever wore one). She has seen new inventions such as pantyhose and penicillin, 45 rpm records and the refrigerator, Social Security and Styrofoam. Yes, she has seen many things come in her life time, but also has seen many things go. For example, the steam locomotive and street cars, horse drawn wagons and hula-hoops, all-white schools and the slide rule, and many more.
Through it all, she has Sunday after Sunday for a hundred years, worshiped here in this place and offered her prayers of thanksgiving.
I read recently a sociologist study based on conversations with people over the age of 95. They were asked, “What you would do if you had it to do over again, what you would do differently?” The answers were:
Risk more
Reflect more, think about what is happening.
I would have done more things that would live long after I am gone.
Perhaps here is a way that we can live in such a way that our entire life will be a thanks offering to God, whether we live 100 years or one more year.
The First Sunday of Advent brings us face to face with some rather unnerving scriptures. The End of time is depicted as coming and the picture is not very pretty. Mountains quake, the sun is darkened; the moon gives no light, stars fall from the heavens. Yikes!!!
There are many who become very confused about what is depicted by some religious teachings concerning the “End of time.” Is it something which we need to fear? Better get ready for Jesus is coming and “Is He Mad!” some have said.
Many have read the series of fictional stories called “The Left Behind Series”. The stories are based on a faulty fear of what is called “The Rapture,” which is depicted as a time when Jesus comes, that some will be taken with him and others will be left behind. It is implied that you should live in fear that you might be left behind. It is as though God is in the business of surprising us and leaving people behind. Better live in fear, less you get caught!
I tried to read one of the “Left Behind” series, but could not finish even one book, so I pitched it, less someone might pick it up and begin to believe the stories. It is fiction, not fact. It is illusion not truth. If you want to read good fiction, read Gresham, Jan Karon, or Nicholas Sparks, but not Tim LaHaye.
When I was a senior in high school, one of our classmates in our class of 35 soon to be graduates, invited the entire class to go to her church to hear their preacher, preach his “Annual End of the World” sermon. I thought to myself, “Annual, Annual End of the World Sermon?” Okay. Seeing the girl who invited us was quite cute, I said to the rest of the class, “We ought to go, being reminded of his “Annual End of the World Sermon,” probably won’t hurt us. I don’t remember much about the sermon, other than the minister yelling at us and telling us that “We had better start living right so that we will be ready.” And he was more right than wrong.
I always liked the bumper sticker that J. B. Nichols, who served in our church as pastor for years, used to show me when I would visit with him. The bumper sticker read: “In case of the Rapture, please leave me the keys to your car.”
Now there are end times all the time:
Infancy ends and Childhood begins,
Childhood ends and adolescence begins (daughter—panty hose)
High School ends, and College begins,
College ends and summer vacations end as a job begins,
Middle adult years end and old age begins
With Elizabeth Bell’s celebration of her 100th birthday, I have re-evaluated my own situation and realize that I am still in the middle years. As a matter of fact, Elizabeth asked me recently how old I was and I said that soon I would be 63, to which she said: “I wish I could remember what it was like to be 63.
There comes a time, as Stephen Covey in his book, “The Eight Habit” says, when certain stages of our lives have to end if we are to move from effectiveness to greatness, from success to significance. You can’t move to the next stage unless you embrace the end of other things. We will see. I’ll let you know. You let me know.
The point of all of this is that the coming end of time comes all the time, and it is not something that we should fear, but should embrace. With the end of one stage of our lives, is an excitement as we move into the next stage.
The Coming End of Time? Exciting or Fearful? Let’s choose together, Excitement. God has said to us, “Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of a great joy.” When your life is in Christ and you are living a life of faithful obedience, then you don’t have to hide in the darkness. You will not be left behind. You live with confidence, not fear.
Now if we die and we experience the end of all time as we know it tonight, then we will be with Jesus, and all will be fine. If we are merely a memory in the mind of God, that will be enough. If there is some cataclysmic Second Coming, then great, we will have a front roe seat for the fireworks show.
For God’s people, the end of time is not something we should fear, but long for as a coming time of Vindication for what is right, when Hopes will be realized and Dreams fulfilled.
Now the Jews at the Passover feast table always leave -an empty chair, and the open door, in anticipation of the return of Elijah, whom they expect to return. At the end of the meal, they will leave on the table a plate with some massa, or lintel or something to eat, in case Elijah returns in the night. Now, what you must understand is that when Elijah returns, everything will be made right. Justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. If someone hurts you, or insults you, you might say: “You wait till Elijah comes.”
The End of Time is not a time to be afraid, as I don’t believe it is ever appropriate for a person who is in Christ to fear anything, unless we are doing something we ought not be doing. If you are afraid of your mother finding out about what you are now doing, then you probably ought not to be doing it. If you are afraid of being embarrassed if the news paper printed on the front page something you are now doing, you probably ought not to be doing it. If God appears face to face with you tonight and you would be caught in a lie or a compromising position, then you might want to reevaluate your life, before darkness sets in.
Live in anticipation of good things that will come and your anticipation will shape the future. And surely if the Lord does come, and he will for he always does, when he comes it will be good for all of God’s people. Better yet, it will be the end of all that is ugly, mean spirited, the end of wars and rumors of war, the end of poverty and pain and problems.
I say bring it on! Let it happen. Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus! Come! And you, you be ready, filled with anticipation and excitement!