“Alive in
Christ”
by Bruce J. Johnson
Scripture: Judges 4: 1-7 Thessalonians 5: 1-11
I wasn’t surprised by what I
saw on the entertainment page of Saturday’s New York Times! It didn’t take long
for Walt Disney Pictures to capitalize on last week’s performance of the new
Disney cartoon, Chicken Little. It was #1 at the box office last weekend,
hauling in $40 million. I was thinking that soon enough little Ryan Miller will
be enjoying that razzle-dazzle world of digital cartoons— on television or off
a DVD or his cell phone or some other techno devise----- or maybe even the old
fashion way---in the movie theater. No doubt some of his favorites might soon
be ‘Shrek,’ or ‘Toy Story,’ ‘Finding
Nemo’ or ‘The Incredibles.’ I’m sure I missed some—what are they? Other
favorites?
This sequel to ‘Chicken
Little’ didn’t get such great reviews but $40 million isn’t a bad start.
Besides, what do movie critics know anyway? Pretty tough to keep the child
within alive. We all remember the story don’t we? Indeed the sequel begins with
a frenetic recap, something I watched on a 4-minute introduction on the internet—Chicken
Little crying wolf that the sky is falling. His town goes batty with panic.
Only to declare Chicken Little public nuisance #1 after it is determined our
hero was misled by a falling acorn. A year later, the little guy and his
widower dad, Buck Cluck are still trying to live down the shame. But wouldn’t
you know it? Just when things are starting to look up for Chicken Little
something actually falls from the sky for real in the form of a spaceship panel
that signals the arrival of encroaching aliens. Of course, no one believes him
and Chicken Little becomes an object of ridicule again. However, he plucks up
his courage and takes on the alien menace, saving the day, aided by his school
pals--- a 900 pound piglet, Runt of the Litter, and Abby Mallard, and Fish out
of Water. You got to love it!
Our Christian faith has a
bit of ‘Chicken Little’ in it. Thessalonians has a lot of it—in its talk of
“the day of the Lord.” Last week’s lesson was particularly pointed. In the
fourth chapter, we noticed that many were believing that their sky was about to
fall or if you will, Christ was coming. There was, therefore, a deep and
abiding concern among many for those who have died. Has death come too soon and
have they missed out on God’s triumphant establishment of the kingdom? And Paul
speaks to that situation directly. I love that passage: (1 Thessalonians
“We
would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that
you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring to him those who have fallen
asleep.”
What Paul
is saying, of course, is not to worry—when it happens, God will gather up the
living and the dead—to the sound of the trumpet and the archangel’s call and
all will be with Christ. Okay?—okay!
At the
same time, of course, we still wait for that day and in some way, maybe our
Christian faith, at least in that regard, has lost some of its credibility! The
sky hasn’t fallen and yet, there was a usefulness to this concern about the day
of the Lord. It places a premium of the decisions of today—
Therefore: GET READY AND GET RIGHT!
There is
something very important about what Paul is saying to us this morning not only
about living in a state of ‘readiness’ but in a state of ‘confident readiness.’
And within that readiness, the fundamental question for Paul is “What is your
source of true security and hope. Who gives you peace and who provides for your
future? Of course, within his day and for that outpost of the
Is it any of the idols of your religious or
secular culture? I don’t think so! —don’t we all know that any of those can
be gone with a thief that comes in the night?
Those
questions are as relevant to today as they were then—if not more so, because
they are our questions now.
Indeed,
these days—from moment to moment we are reminded, or so it seems—of the
vulnerabilities of life. That story in Monday’s Hartford Courant about the
storms in 3 Midwestern states was staggering--- 10 seconds of horror that
killed 22 people. A twister struck without warning Sunday morning, as its
victims slept. It simply touched down and bounced around and then was gone! (It happened again yesterday in
Or
Wednesday’s story about those three suicide bombers in
These and
so many others challenge us to look not at tomorrow but today.
I have always
liked the following:
TODAY
Today is ours----------------Let’s
live it.
And love is strong------------------
Let’s give it.
A song can help -------------- Let’s
sing it.
And peace is
dear----------------Let’s bring it.
The past is gone----------------Don’t
rue it.
Our work is here-----------------
Let’s do it.
The world is wrong-----------------
Let’s right it.
If Evil comes------------ Let’s
fight it.
The road is
rough---------------Let’s clear it.
The future vast------------- Don’t
fear it.
Is faith asleep?----------- Let’s
wake it
Today is ours-------------- Let’s
take it.
And
that’s what Paul is essentially telling his beloved Thessalonians. Paul
counsels the community to live in ‘the day’ using a metaphor that invites us to
listen at multiple levels. We are of the day (light) and therefore be awake and
sober, not sleeping and drunk. But we are also of ‘THE DAY’ people of the
resurrection, alive in Christ this very moment, no matter what happens now or
in the future.
This morning we are celebrating
the sacrament of baptism for little Ryan Miller. In a recent edition of
Sojourner’s magazine, the feature article was about Hurricane Katrina and what
the waters revealed --- How hurricane Katrina opened the eyes of many to the
reality of poverty in
“Therefore encourage one another and build up each
other….”
I was reading an article the
other day in USA Today about the recent school shootings at the
“You
can talk about all kinds of high-tech strategies, but when it comes to keeping
schools safe, it’s more about the ‘software’—meaning the students and a
positive campus climate…
Contrast that with this
story: (USA Today,
“Not
far from the carnage in
Ahmed
Ismail Khatid, a 12 year old boy with a winning smile, was playing near his
home in the Jenin refugee camp on the
Ahmed
died two days later in an Israeli hospital, yet another victim of the five
years of bloody conflict that has claimed nearly 5000 lives, three-fourths of
them Palestinian. Unlike so many, however, his death did not trigger yet
another round of violence. It triggered a reason for hope.
Ahmend’s
parents, rising above their grief, donated his organs to critically ill
patients in the hospital, all Israeli, who had been waiting for transplants.
Their actions may have saved five children, ages 7months to 14 years and a 58
year old woman.
It is all about the software
isn’t it?
And the waters of baptism
which flow over the infants we cherish are meant to reveal the essential
software of those joined to Christ—as persons God created and loves- as the
ones for whom Christ died and was raised--- the ones who are truly ‘alive’ in
Christ—a children of the day and not of the night, of the light and not of
darkness, of goodness and not of evil— children ---safe and secure in their own
salvation when ‘the sky really is falling’ and Christ calls and brings them
home.
Amen