Despite his ongoing financial successes, a businessman was unhappy with the way his life was going.  Consequently, he consulted a pious monk for advice.  "I'm never satisfied!  I feel empty ... unfulfilled!"  To which the holy man replied,
 
"As the fish perishes on dry land, so you perish when you get entangled in the world.  The fish must return to the water -- you must return to solitude."
 
The businessman asked nervously, "You mean I have to go into a monastery?"
 
"No, no," replied the monk.  "Hold onto your business and go into your heart."
 
          In today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus prays, "Father, I desire that those also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am" (Jn. 17:24).  In order to be with Him, we who have been given to Jesus Christ, must go into our hearts.

If you are a "Winnie the Pooh" fan, you probably know of or have read a book called "The Tao of Pooh" in which many of the Winnie the Pooh stories are used to unfold deeper meaning.  Many of the selections in the book are about a Japanese Emperor who spends most of his days attending ceremonial occasions and participating in meetings and making speeches.  He is constantly on the move.  On one such occasion, it seems that the Emperor's planning committee made a colossal mistake with his itinerary.  He was taken by limousine to a huge meeting hall where he was to deliver a speech to a very large gathering.  But when he entered the hall, it was empty.  It was the wrong day.  Whereupon the Emperor walked into the center of this great hall and stood there for several minutes in complete silence, and without moving.  Then he bowed to the empty space, and he turned to his aides and he smiled, saying, "You must schedule more appointments like this.  I haven't enjoyed myself like this for a long time."
 
          What this story suggests for us is that in order to enjoy Christ's Presence to the fullest, in order to be with Him where He is, we need to schedule appointments like that for ourselves.  We need to schedule times of solitude, times of silence -- times of prayer, if you will -- times when we must go into our hearts.
 
          There is a "Peanuts" cartoon in which little Linus is afraid to be alone in the library.  Charlie Brown tries to explain to him that everyone is lonely in some place or other.  "Where is that place for you?"  Linus asks.  Charlie ponders the question for a moment, then answers, "Earth!"
 
          Charlie Brown answers for us all.  Who among us has not felt that awful feeling that our big wide world is a lonely place; that there is nowhere to go for relief.
 
          When we look at Jesus, we might conclude that He must have been the loneliest man of all ...
 
John the Baptist was perplexed by Him.
The disciples were puzzled by Him.
His parents were confused about Him.
Government leaders and religious authorities suspected Him.
 
His closest friends deserted Him.
Judas betrayed Him.
Peter denied Him.
 
His enemies plotted against Him.
The crowds shouted "Crucify Him."
The thief on a cross ridiculed Him.
Bystanders at the Crucifixion taunted Him.
 
          Yet, He was never lonely!  The evening of His arrest, Jesus calmly announced to His disciples,
 
Listen!  The time will come --
in fact it has come already --
when you will be scattered, each going his own way,
and leaving Me alone.
And yet I am not alone,
because the Father is with Me (Jn. 16:32).
 
          Earlier, Jesus had said to the disciples, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you." (Jn. 14:18).  And later, after His Resurrection, He promised them, "... know that I am with you always" (Mt. 28:20).  Jesus promises us that He will never leave us, never abandon us, never desert us.  We have His solemn assurance that we are never alone.
 
          Jesus was a lonely figure during His forty-day retreat into the desert before He began His public ministry.  Jesus was a lonely figure when He prayed in the place called Gethsemane.  Jesus was a lonely figure along the Way of the Cross.  Jesus was a lonely figure when He cried out from the Cross "My God, My God, why have You deserted Me?" (Mk. 16:34).  But even in the utter loneliness of His death, Jesus continued to long passionately for the company of His Heavenly Father.
 
          God is Love, Scripture tells us.  And our passionate longing for the Heavenly Father is a longing for love.  Sometimes we struggle to reach through to the God of Love as though God were strange and hard to find.  Sometimes we are so intent on our search that we pass God by.  We try to turn to God as though God were a vague abstraction, and we get lost in a maze of words.  And then ... and then ... we go into our hearts, where the Heavenly Father has taken up permanent residence in the Person of Jesus Christ.  We go into our hearts where Jesus Christ is our constant companion.  There we discover, and re-discover, that He is speaking to us with a thousand voices, revealing Himself in a thousand faces.
 
          Longing for God -- longing for Love -- is like longing for air when all the time we are breathing it.  It is like longing for the sun when all the time we are basking in it.
 
          When we honestly and truly go into our hearts and recognize Him as the God of Love, we see God everywhere.  We see God looking at us through the eyes of mothers and fathers; grandmothers and grandfathers; children; friends; neighbors; strangers; even enemies, so called.  We feel God’s Presence in every touch of a friendly, healing hand.  We hear God’s voice in every kindly word.  We find God in every loving thought, word and deed, and we are at one with Him.  And we are never alone!
 
          A mother was telling her little girl about life on the farm when she was growing up.  "I had great fun on the farm," she said.  "I had my own swing made from an old car tire that hung from an oak tree.  I had a pony to ride.  I used to slide down the haystack in the summer.  And when it snowed, I would ride in a sleigh pulled by one of the horses.  My life on the farm was a really joyful experience."  The daughter's eyes lit up as she said to her mother, "I sure wish I had met you sooner."
 
          When you honestly and truly go into your heart, where Christ is your constant companion, you will hear a voice saying, "You should have come here sooner!   You must schedule more appointments like this.  You've never experienced such joy!"  And the voice you hear will be your own!
 
 

          In his retirement sermon, a pastor recalled many of the life-enriching events he experienced in his years of parish service.  He especially remembered "A wonderful older woman with a remarkable gift for cheering up whoever came to visit her."  He said, "One day we talked about how we endure and overcome our times of ill-health and loneliness, and she wrote out for me a little poem she had found somewhere, one which became her roadmap for her later years.  This is what she wrote" ...
 
God, keep my heart attuned to laughter when youth is done, when all the days are gray days -- days without the sun. 
 
God keep my heart from bitterness when life seems cold. 
 
Let my heart be filled with laughter in my days of growing old.
 
          Then the pastor added, "That is a lovely prayer that can be answered.   Even in their last days, our lives can have the stamp of joy upon them."

In the last days of her life, Joan of Arc was sentenced to death.  She was "burned at the stake."  And the dying words of a Church History Professor at Yale were spoken in memory of Joan ...
 
          He was on his deathbed, his anxious relatives gathered around, waiting.  After a time of silence, one of the relatives quietly said, "I think he's gone."  Another relative standing at the end of the bed, felt the old man's feet and said, "No, his feet are still warm.  No one ever dies with warm feet."  Whereupon, the old Church History Professor raised his head and said, "Joan of Arc did."  And then he laughed his final laugh, and died.
 
          Joy and laughter give us strength for the journey as we run the race to its end.  But even more, joy and laughter give a spirit to life that makes it more worth living.
 
          It's one of the questions new fathers and mothers enjoy talking about most: What shall we name the baby?  It's a frequent question and, in a way, it is easier to answer now than it was in ancient times.  In those days, names were given that had a specific meaning, and this seemed especially unfortunate for children of the ancient prophets.  Their dads were always making preaching points with the names given.
 
          The Prophet Hosea, for example, named his daughter "Loruhamah," (which means "Not loved") because it happened to be the title of the sermon he preached that day.  Isaiah called one of his sons Mahershalalhashbaz, which means, in a sense, "Bad times are coming!" (which happened to be how he was then feeling and preaching about the immediate future.)
 
          "What shall we name the baby?"  The Old Testament tells us that for Sarah and Abraham It was a no-brainer.  "Let's call him Laughter," they said, and that's exactly what they did.  The word, in Hebrew, is "Isaac."  And Isaac means "laughter."  Why did they call him laughter?  Because Sarah and Abraham had been without children, and long after the natural childbearing age had passed, Sarah became pregnant, and  when Isaac was born, Sarah said,  "God has given me good reason to laugh,  and everyone who hears his name will laugh with me" (Gen. 21:6). 
 
          There is an Egyptian papyrus that depicts the "Last Judgment."  It was believed by ancient Egyptians that, at the moment of judgment, in order to determine whether or not the individual could continue his or her journey to the afterlife, the pagan god, Osiris, would ask each person two questions.  The first question was: "Did you find joy?"  And the second question was, "did you bring joy?"
 
          It is particularly appropriate for us Christians to ask ourselves how much laughter and joy we've managed to find and to bring with us.  The question, of course, is thoroughly Biblical as we read in the recurring rhythms of the Psalms, for example:
 
          "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands.  Serve the Lord with gladness" (100:12)...  "Break forth into joyous song and sing praises ... Let the floods clap their hands, let the hills sing for joy" (98:4,8)... "Our mouths are filled with laughter, and our tongues with shouts of joy" (126:2).
 
          That same spirit, so abundant in the Psalms, is echoed by the Lord Jesus. In John's Gospel we hear Him say,
 
"You may be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy" (John 16:20)...  "Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be full" (John 16:24).
 
          And when He described, in a parable, the entering into Heaven of the faithful, he said,
 
"Well done, good and faithful servant ... enter into the joy of your Master" (Mt. 25:21).
 
          In today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus says to His disciples, " I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.    Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn. 13:34-35).  And, a bit later in John's Gospel, He says to them, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love... I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (Jn. 15:10,11).
 
          Erma Bombeck, whose writings over the years have evoked much laughter and joy, once described her late-in-the-afternoon strategy when her husband would soon be coming home from work ...
 
          She said that the first thing he does when he comes in the front door is to take a deep sniff to see what's cooking in the kitchen.  Therefore, when he's due home in twenty minutes and she hasn't the faintest notion what's for dinner, she goes to the cupboard, pulls an onion out, turns the oven on and plops the onion inside.  In about fifteen minutes the house is filled with the wonderful aroma of that onion in the oven.  And when her husband comes in the front door, he takes a deep breath, smiles in satisfaction, and heads for the evening news while Erma has time to figure out what on earth she's going to have for dinner that evening.  (These days, of course, it is not uncommon for a married couple to reverse these roles, in which case Erma Bombeck's onion strategy would be carried out by the husband, when the wife is coming home from work).
 
          In a round-about sort of way, there ought to be an onion in the oven (at home or at Church) all the time, so that when people first come in the door, they can immediately sense a warmth, a pleasing fragrance.  This is a joyful place.  This is a place where people love one another.  There is a family here.  There is a faith here that has produced joy and laughter -- and Jesus' prayer is being fulfilled:  "I have spoken all this to you so that your joy may be complete."
 
          A generation ago, Norman Cousins suffered a critical illness, and in his book called "Anatomy of an Illness," he describes how important laughter and joy were in his move back toward health.  Indeed, following his observations, some hospitals for chronically ill patients began to set up "Laugh Rooms" where humorous periodicals and books and movies can be used by patients -- and with remarkable results.  Isn't it striking to read about this modern development in medicine, and then read a 3,000-year-old verse from the Book of Proverbs.  "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones" (Prov. 17:22).
 
          There are times in our lives when things go badly, when no one is very happy with anyone else, and all is tension and despair.  What we need at that moment is what God offers us in abundance -- more laughter, more joy!
 
          Sarah and Abraham named their child Laughter, and it must have sweetly flavored that family's life together from then on.  Hopefully, there is someone in your home, and in your family of faith, whose very life means laughter and joy.  It could very well be you ... and you ... and you ... and you.
 
          Did you find joy?  Did you bring joy?  Then enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
 

This day, as on every Easter Sunday, we celebrate Jesus' final victory. We celebrate the fulfillment of His life and ministry, and our fulfillment as a Christian people. The Prince of Peace has conquered, not by the power of the sword, but by the power of love. Easter is the day which puts us at peace with God, at peace with ourselves, at peace with one another, and at peace with the world.
 
When the Christian Martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was in solitary confinement in a Nazi concentration camp, he said he appreciated, as never before, the gift of just being with Christian brothers and sisters; just being together. He said he had a hunger for it that was greater than his intense hunger for food. Now we must hunger to be in a community of peace, in harmony with our brothers and sisters everywhere.
 
We're here to celebrate the Good News of Easter as it's happening now. We're here to rejoice together in the Presence of the Risen, Living Christ now. We're here to celebrate the Good News that death's terror no longer can intimidate or defeat those who live in the Lord by faith.  

When the Risen Christ appeared to His closest disciples, He offered them His gift of peace. "Peace be with you," He said to them. "As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you" (Jn. 20:21). The Prince of Peace is in our midst now. His words are meant directly for us now.
 
If truly we believe that our Redeemer lives now, we must act upon that belief so that all who observe us may feel the power of Him who teaches that to love is to live His New Life.
 
There are people who say, "I will believe if God will do so and so. I will be happy if God comes through the way I want Him to. I will keep the Faith if God heals the way I expect Him to heal." We are constantly laying down the conditions and the rules, and demanding the gift on our own terms. One of the hardest things any of us has to learn is that the gift that is given on God's terms and in God's way is always the best way -- always the best for us.
 
On that first Easter morning, the Apostle John tells us in today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus' dear friend, Mary of Magdala, "came to the tomb.   She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb, and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved.   'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb' she said, 'and we don't know where they have laid Him'" (Jn. 20:2).
 
We should be careful not to misunderstand this matter of the empty tomb on Easter morning.   When Jesus' disciples first discovered the empty tomb, it was not good news.  It was bad news, because they thought that Jesus' tomb had been desecrated.   Their Lord's dead body was gone.   It was still dark when this discovery was made, and we can only imagine how desperately they longed for the light of dawn to break.
 
And then it came. Gloriously, the morning came. Bright and beautiful it came, filled with the Resurrection Power of God, filled with the loving Presence of God. And Mary Magdalene, the Mary who had loved Jesus so terribly much, was the first person to experience the wonder of that day.   
 
It was believed, in ancient times, that after a person died, his spirit hovered near the body for three days before it departed. Consequently, Mary had gone to the tomb to be near Him and to prepare the body for burial with dignity and respect. Most probably, she had been unable to sleep. What to do then, but to get up and go to Him, even while it was still dark. And He appeared to her, but she did not recognize Him. Why? Perhaps she was blinded by her tears. Perhaps it was because she had come looking for a dead body. Perhaps it was Jesus' Resurrection Body that confused her. Then, He spoke her name: "Mary."  There is magic in your name when you hear it spoken by someone you love. And when Mary heard her name spoken by Jesus, the memory of all they had been through together flooded through her being. She remembered how he had given her a new sensitivity to life all around her and a new sense of her own worthwhileness. And then she knew! She recognized her Lord!
 
A talented public speaker was asked to recall his most difficult speech assignment. "That's easy," he answered. "It was an address I gave to the National Conference of Undertakers. The topic they gave me was, How to Look Sad at a Fifty Thousand Dollar Funeral." Now, that's a difficult assignment. But I can think of an assignment that would have been even more difficult: "How to get the early Christians to look sad." The spirit of joy in the early Christians is one of the dominant characteristics of the New Testament writings. Something so tremendous had happened to those people that it permeated their lives, filled their cup of joy to overflowing. And, as you read about it, if you try to put a lid on it, it just comes bubbling up again. There's no way to hold it back. It's contagious! It's healing! It's beautiful! They were filled with joy because this Jesus who had lived among them, this Jesus who had brought them hope and life, this Jesus whom they had seen die, this Jesus whom they had put in a tomb, this Jesus was alive! And it wasn't an hallucination. It wasn't something they had dreamed up. They report it as fact, incontrovertible fact! He was alive! They had experienced it!
 
Those first disciples didn't keep this to themselves. They passed it on -- all the enlightenment and all the understanding and all the joy generated by the Resurrection Power of God in Jesus Christ. And it is ours now: our Gospel, our Good News. Ours is the joy that comes when we realize what Jesus was getting at in all His miracles, and in all His works of healing, and in all His parables, and in all His discourses. He was saying that God is always and everywhere a God of Resurrection Power; and that God is always acting to transform sorrow into joy and death into new life.
 
The world of nature is constantly dying and being reborn. The forms, the organisms, the shapes of nature are constantly being renewed and transformed into greater and newer kinds of beings and organisms. Not only nature, but history. The structures of government and industry are constantly dying, being reshaped, being reformed. The Resurrection Power of God is there, at every level of life, and this is why we are, essentially, a celebrating people. It's why every Sunday is Easter Sunday. It's why we are an Easter people.
 
In today's Gospel Lesson, John tells us that when the disciple who had reached the tomb first found it empty, "He saw and believed" (Jn. 20:8).
 
Often, our eyes see dimly, and it is midnight. And midnight means the end. But, with eyes of Faith we see and believe, and the dawn breaks through. And it is Easter Morning, when life springs from the tomb, and our eyes open to new light, and our spirits are gifted with new life! 
 
The famous German play, "Faust," was inspired by a sixteenth century magician who claimed to be in league with the devil. In one version of the legend, Faust sells his soul to Satan. The reason he sells his soul is not for wealth, nor power, nor immortality. Rather, it is because he is overcome by his inability to discover the meaning of life. Consequently, he bargains with Satan to reveal it to him in exchange for his very soul. In the play, there is a very moving scene in which Faust is in a state of final despair. He is so frustrated and discouraged about his problem with life that he decides to commit suicide. He is about to drink from a beaker of poison when suddenly he hears a tremendous choir singing beautiful Easter music. And it gets through to him. He drops the poison and begins to weep. As the author says so beautifully, "His tears gush forth and earth takes back her child."
 
That is precisely what happens to us when we remain faithful to the blessed Community of Christ. The glory of Easter music, Resurrection music, is always breaking into our darkness and despair.   And we drop the poison of fear and doubt. We embrace the Resurrection Power of God's Love.
 
A little girl wrote a letter to God about something that apparently was bothering her a great deal:
 
Dear God,
Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't you just keep the ones you've got now?
Alice.
 
Well, Alice, there is Good News for you today from God Himself: "Because I love them so much, I do keep the ones I've got now. Because I love you so much, Alice, I want to keep you for My own, always!"
 
Jesus Christ died on the Cross and was raised from the tomb because God, our Father wants to keep each and every one of us for His own. Together, let us proclaim the Risen Lord! Hallelujah! He is risen! Hallelujah!
 

         An American philanthropist went to Israel to inspect several Houses of Worship to which he had been sending contributions. In an obscure corner of Negev he met with the rabbi of an impoverished synagogue. "We need more help," the rabbi pleaded. "This place is falling apart and the congregation is too poor to do anything about it." "Tell me, rabbi, how much do they pay you?" the visitor asked. "Twenty five dollars a month," said the rabbi. "That's all these poor people can afford." "But how do you manage to live on that?" came the next question. "Well, I'm a religious man," said the rabbi, "and if I didn't fast three times a week, I'd starve to death."
 
          Today's Gospel Lesson is the story of that supremely good religious man named Jesus who went into an obscure corner of the desert in Israel where He fasted for forty days without starving to death. "Jesus was led by the Spirit for forty days in the desert," Luke tells us. "He ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended He was hungry."

          Jesus retreated alone into the desert to prepare for His public ministry. And during that forty-day retreat, He was "tempted by the devil," Luke tells us. Physically, He was alone. Spiritually, He was not alone. With Him were God and Satan, fighting for His soul.
 
          Temptation is a confrontation of the Forces of Good and the Forces of Evil in which God opts for Goodness and Satan opts for Wickedness. The person whose soul they're fighting for casts the deciding vote. In that desert experience described in today's Lesson, Jesus cast the deciding vote. And in your own experience -- your day-to-day experience -- you cast the deciding vote.
 
          Like Jesus in the desert, you must choose...
 
...between obedience to the Father's Will and obedience to Satan's;
 
...between God-centeredness and self-centeredness;
 
...between service to others and self-service;
 
...between God's promise of fulfillment in His Divine Life of Love and Satan's promise of fulfillment in power and money and creature comforts.
 
          A mother had prepared a good, nutritious lunch for her two youngsters, Billy and Tommy. She showed them two special cupcakes for dessert, one with cherry frosting and one with chocolate frosting. "The one who cleans his plate first will get first choice," she told them. Soon both plates were empty, with Tommy finishing first. "You win," said mother, "which cupcake do you choose?" After carefully studying both cupcakes, Tommy said, "I can't decide. I can't choose. Billy hasn't picked the one he wants, and what he chooses is what I want."
 
          In one of the desert temptations, Satan tells Jesus to use His power to satisfy the patriotic longings of His people. The hope is abroad in Israel that the Messiah will come as a conqueror and that He will lead Israel to deliverance from oppression by the sword. Should Jesus use His power to make this dream a reality? Jesus chooses not to confuse means with ends. He chooses the path of trust in His Father's ways. Hatred, violence, force -- these are not the ways of the Father. The Resurrection Power of God is to be revealed in His Love. Jesus, therefore, chooses to reject the role of military conqueror and political ruler. Thus, He announces His choice to Satan in these words: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him."
 
          "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him!" Lord, what You choose is what we want!
 
          "Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Your Kingdom come! Your Will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven." Lord, what You choose is what we want!
 
          "I came not to be served but to serve!" Jesus said to the disciples. Lord, what You choose is what we want!
 
          There is a story from World War II about a father and his young daughter, Lila, who were taking an after-dinner stroll. The street was dark, except for the lights shining from the row-houses along the way. The child noticed that one or more stars were displayed in some of the front windows. "Daddy," she asked, "why are those stars in the windows?" "Each star means that the family in that house has given a son to the war," daddy answered. Then, as they walked past house after house, little Lila clapped her hands and cried out, "Look! There's a house that gave a son." Finally, they came to a break in the houses. And through that gap, the twinkling evening star could be seen, up in the sky. The little girl caught her breath. "Oh, look daddy," she cried, "look!" God has a star in His window. I guess He gave a Son to the war!"
 
          Yes, Lila, God did give His Son, not to make war but to establish peace one earth. Yes, Lila, that Son has been given to me and to you and to all people everywhere that the world may believe in the God of Love. The God who cares about His people, the God who wants to make His people unbelievably happy in His Coming Kingdom.
 
          The constant teaching of the Gospel is not, "Thou shalt be happy," but "Thou shalt do the Will of God." Nevertheless, we are not wrong to tell ourselves and our children that God wants us to be happy. Our ultimate fulfillment in happiness is God's promise to us. It is the reason we can rejoice in our fondest expectations of happiness. But, as Jesus tells us again and again, happiness is the consequence of doing God's Will. Happiness is the fruit of doing God's Will.
 
          A woman wrote the following letter to syndicated columnist Abigail Van Buren:
 
Dear Abby: I am fifty-nine years old and I'm going with a guy of seventy-nine. He says he wants to marry me, but his sister won't let him. Don't you think he's old enough to do what he wants? -- (signed) Nellie
 
Abby answered as follows:
 
Dear Nellie: By all means he's old enough. But is he young enough?
 
          As early as age twelve, Jesus knew what He wanted to do. "Did you not know that I must be in My Father's House?" He asked His worried mother when she found Him in the Temple after a three-day search. All His life He knew that He wanted to do the Father's Will. Thus, at the very end of His life, in the Garden of Gethsemane on the eve of His execution, He prayed, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will but as You will" (Mt. 26:39).
 
          How to achieve wholeness in your life? How to achieve your full measure of fulfillment as a human being? How to achieve a deep sense of your life's worthwhileness? The answer is so simple you may not believe me if I tell you. Therefore, I am going to ask Jesus to answer those questions:
 
...Feed the hungry!
...Give drink to the thirsty!
...Love one another as I have loved you!
...Do what I want you to do and you will become the uniquely beautiful human being God made you to be. Do what I want you to do and you will experience genuine happiness.
 
          Day-in and day-out, the temptations come to do other than what Jesus wants you to do. Day-in and day-out, God is opting for Goodness and Satan is opting for Wickedness. Day-in and day-out, it is you who casts the deciding vote!

“. . . proclaim liberty throughout the land to all it inhabitants.” - Leviticus 25: 10

“For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord,  just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ.” – I Corinthians 7: 22  

            On this Sunday following  the 239th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we gather in God’s house to thank God for the blessing of liberty and freedom we enjoy in this our country, the United States of America.  The outward symbols of our national heritage are all around us.  

             Many homes proudly display the most familiar symbol, the American Flag.  Many impressive displays of fireworks lit up the sky at night.  Proclamations have been issued by local, state, and national governing bodies appropriate to the day.  Although the original Liberty Bell is now silent, many people will make the pilgrimage to Philadelphia and read its inscriptions from Leviticus:  “. . . proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all its inhabitants.”  All of these things and events are but outward symbols of something of far greater importance – the spirit of freedom.  

            The Apostle Paul declared something similar in his discussion about circumscion.  “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but obeying the commandments of God is everything.” (I Corinthians 7: 19)   For Paul, it wasn’t circumscion, which declares us to be free of sin, but our relationship with God.  What is important is not the outward trappings but the inner spirit which dwells in people   That is also true of our patriotism.  While it is good to display the symbol of our nation, it is not the number of flags we put outside of our house, but the spirit of freedom in our hearts and the ways in which we act out our freedom which the flag represents.
 

            Abraham Lincoln in speaking of our provisions for national defense likewise once spoke of the importance of this inner spirit.  

            What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and independence?  It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoast, our army and our navy.  Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us.       Our defense is in the spirit, which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere.  Destroy this spirit, and we       have planted the seeds of despotism at our own doors. – Speech, 1858

            Later, Calvin Coolidge spoke about the inner nature of this liberty:

            “Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man – these are not elements which we can see and touch.  They are ideals.  They have their source and their roots in the religious  convictions.  They belong to the unseen world.  Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish.  We cannot continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.

            - Presidential speech in Philadelphia commemorating the 150th
              Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926

 

TEXT: “With what can we compare the kingdom of God or what parablewill we use for it?  
Mark 4:  30  

          The following notice appeared in the window of a coat store in Nottingham, England:  

          We have been established for over 100 years and have been pleasing and displeasing customers ever since.  We have made money and lost money. We have had good payers and bad payers.  We have been cussed and    discussed, messed with, lied to, held up, robbed, and swindled.  The only reason we survive in business is to see what happens next.  It keeps us hoping.  We're optimistic! 

          Who is an optimist?  According to a popular comic of the day ... 
          An optimist is a man getting married at the age of 81 and looking for a house near a school! 
          An optimist is having three teenage sons and only one car! 
          An optimist is having three teenage daughters and only one telephone line! 
          An optimist is one who takes four pounds of steak, two pounds of charcoal, and one match to a picnic! 

          To which we might add ... 
          An optimist is one who has been captured by the Christian Faith. 
          An optimist is one who believes in Jesus' promise of ultimate fulfillment in His coming Kingdom.

We are citizens of two worlds: the world of time and the world of eternity.  It is not a matter of conflicting or divided loyalties.  It is, rather, a question of the highest loyalty.  We owe our allegiance to both worlds, but we are born to "Seek first the Kingdom of God."  That is our true and everlasting goal.  The world of time is means, not end.  The money and things and pleasures of this world are gifts from God to be used, but not abused.  If we use them to enrich our understanding of our true worth and our true goal, they will serve us as God has intended them to serve us, and we will recognize our earthly rewards as but tiny glimpses of supreme happiness in the Coming Kingdom.   

          As Paul expresses it, "Now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12).  Properly regarded, as means, the things of this world are at our service.  Wrongly regarded, as ends-in-themselves, the things of this world become our masters.  One who confuses means with ends in this manner is, in Jesus' words, "the slave of sin" (Jn. 8:34).  

          Jesus tells us how to live by telling us what our lives are leading up to.  He has provided us with the punch ending we need to know, in order to deal with the events that will occur along the way.  Jesus' testimony unravels the mystery of the Kingdom:  God's Kingdom is the Kingdom of Love.  We are pearls beyond price because God has loved us first.  For this reason -- because we know our true worth -- we love who we are:  we love ourselves.  And for the same reason -- because God has first loved every last human creature born into this world -- we love our neighbor as God has first loved him or her.  

          Jesus said to His Apostles, "The secret of the Kingdom of God has been given to you" (Mk. 4:11).  Jesus gave Himself as living testimony to the truth.  Because He gave of Himself totally in the supreme act of love, the mystery of the Kingdom of God is revealed.  We, too, are born to testify to this truth.  We begin by recognizing our own true worth as children of God.  God, who loves me, counts me worthy to have been born for His Kingdom.  

          Do you recognize your brothers and sisters as objects of God's love?  If, in truth, you can answer, "Yes! Yes!" you will know that you are giving yourself as living testimony to the truth.  And you will be seen by your brothers and sisters as a sign of the Kingdom of Love. 

          We Christians pray the petition of hope which forms part of the Lord's Prayer: THY KINGDOM COME!  Every time we offer this petition we affirm an underlying hope that is grounded in the very core of Being Itself, in the very Essence of God and His intentions for us.  

          The key word in this petition is the word "Kingdom," obviously.  This word comes down to us from a Greek word which, for present day understanding, might be better translated somewhat differently.  For many of us the word "Kingdom" is obsolete.  We don't think very often in these political terms anymore.  Yet it is of the greatest importance that we understand this word because it represents the subject that Jesus talked most about.  This is the "Pearl of Great Price!"  This is the one thing that is so important you will sell everything you have to possess it.  This is the treasure hidden in the field!  What does it mean?  The word can be translated as the "Reign" (That's spelled R-E-I-G-N) or the "Rule" of God.  Because God is God, He is in charge, He is reigning over the world.  And because God is God, we never lose hope.  Because God is God we know that nothing man can do, ever, will ultimately defeat God.  

          He will reign.  His kingdom will come -- and that's our hope.  He who can take the Cross of Jesus Christ and turn it into the resurrection, can take all of man's worst tragedies and turn them into victory if He must.  And so, in a world of doom-and-gloom and hopelessness, we pray everyday with glowing, vibrant hope.  Or, at least we should!  

          Unfortunately, the problem with most of us is that we don't really relinquish all of our hopes and dreams to the Rule of God until we are at the end of our resources.  The rest of the time we try to have it our own way.  We want to establish our own kingdom.  We want to reign over our own lives.  It isn't until we're really up against it that we acknowledge our hope in God's Rule with sincerity.  Only then does Jesus' profound admonition against divided loyalties begin to sink into the deep levels of our consciousness: "No servant can serve two masters," Jesus warns us.  "You cannot give yourself to God and money" (Luke 16:13).  What that means is that God comes first in your life, period.  Whenever we do anything or acquire anything or achieve anything outside the context of God's Rule, we are saying to God, in effect, "I hate Your Rule and I despise Your Rule.  I have other resources to draw upon, other masters to serve."   

          Possessions, power, prestige -- whatever it is that we're willing to do, or acquire, or achieve outside the context of loving service to God is a substitute for God fashioned from our own resources.  Jesus speaks to the inevitable consequence of such folly.  Sooner or later we will come to the end of our resources and we won't be able to cope, and we may even become active members of the worldwide doom-and-gloom society.   

          A pastor in a large urban parish once did a Sunday evening TV series called "The Kingdom of God."  On Monday mornings he would visit sick parishioners in the hospital.  On one such visit he received an unusually enthusiastic greeting from a man who had been hospitalized for weeks.  "You'll be glad to know that we all watched your program last night.  There was only one TV available in the ward so we had to decide by majority vote what programs we would watch.  During your time slot it came down to either 'The Kingdom of God' or 'Murder, She Wrote.'  You won by one vote."  Said the pastor later, "I thought to myself that when we can beat  'Murder, She Wrote' with the 'Kingdom of God,' we're on our way at last!"  

          By God's design, the building of the Kingdom is a family affair.  In Jesus' words, "The Kingdom of God is among you ... The Kingdom of God is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through" (Lk. 17:21, Mt. 13:33).  And in today's Gospel Lesson, He tells us that the Kingdom of God "is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade" (Mk. 4:31-32).  

          By God's design, the yeast and the mustard seed have been implanted in our hearts.  By God's design, His Kingdom will come to the extent that it is developed and nurtured in the hearts of His children.  By God's design, His Kingdom will come when the human community comes to regard the title, "Children of God," as a profound expression of life's ultimate destiny; as something to be lived and lived up to.  By God's design, His Kingdom will come when His beloved children finally learn to love one another as He has loved them.  

          And to the extent that we design our own lives accordingly, we are on our way to the Kingdom of Love.

 

 

TEXT: "As the Father sent Me, so am I sending you"    John 20:21

            It was early morning and the local diner was buzzing with the usual breakfast crowd. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside and a man at the door shouted, "Run for your lives. Big Jake is coming!" As everyone scattered, an enormous man burst through the door, threw tables and chairs aside, strode up to the counter and demanded a gallon of coffee. The frightened proprietor quickly produced a gallon jug filled to the brim with coffee, which the enormous man consumed in one huge gulp. Trembling with fear, the proprietor stammered, "Can I g-get you another?" "No sir," said the enormous one, "I've got to go. Haven't you heard? Big Mike is coming!"  

            In today's Gospel Lesson, it is the evening of the first Easter Sunday. The terrified Apostles are hiding behind closed doors. They fear for their lives. Jesus has been crucified. They worry that they'll be next; that Jesus' enemies are coming. But their fear-and-trembling is misguided, because Jesus is coming!  

            "The doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews," the Apostle John tells us. "Jesus came and stood among them and said  'Peace be with you... as the Father sent Me, so I send you ...receive the Holy Spirit." And "the disciples were filled with joy!" (Jn. 20:19-22).

On this Day of Pentecost, Jesus comes to us. He is in our midst now, saying to each of us, "Peace be with you...as the Father sent Me, so am I sending you...receive the Holy Spirit." And, hopefully, we who struggle from day-to-day with our fears and anxieties, are filled with joy. 

            Jesus comes to us and reveals the Good News of the Resurrection Power of God. He comes to us as our Risen Lord. He has risen in order to bring us peace of soul, to bring us to fulfillment, to make our lives whole and complete -- everlastingly whole and complete.

            Week-after-week, in a variety of ways, we hear this Good News, but are we experiencing this Word of God at any deep level of our being? Or are we routinely allowing our everyday fears and anxieties to prevail, thereby robbing us of the ability to rejoice in the reality that a Gracious God is with us in Jesus Christ? 

            C.S. Lewis once wrote:    Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun     which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These    pure and spontaneous pleasures are "Patches of Godlight" in the woods of our experience. 

            We all have experienced these "Patches of Godlight" -- at the seashore and in the mountains and other places. The tragedy is that many of us need to have something literally hit us in the face before we feel it. Yet, it was there for all of us to experience as we came here today -- in the elements, and in the sky, and in the people we encountered along the way. All around us, everything is vibrant and alive with the Presence of the Christ-Spirit of God. And this is what the New Testament writers keep on telling us. But that's only the beginning. 

            What happened to the New Testament Christians was that when Jesus came into their midst they experienced God's Presence in a new and intense way -- so overwhelming, so fulfilling, so healing, they couldn't contain it within themselves. They had to get the Good News out to the whole world.  

            What they realized in their innermost being was that the Spirit of a Loving God was present in His Son, and His Son was actually present in their midst, as the perfect Model of what human life is all about:

            I'd rather have example than precept any day, I'm glad my Saviour walks with me, not merely points the way. The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear; Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear. The greatest of all teachers was my Lord Who lived His creed,

For to see good put in action is what all His people need. I may not fully understand the doctrines I've received, But there's no misunderstanding how He loved and how He lived.  

            Many have looked at Jesus, but how many have seen Him? Many have seen His shadow, His people, His story. But only a handful have seen Jesus. Only a few have looked through the fog of religiosity and found him. Only a few have dared to stand eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart with Jesus and say, "I believe that you are the Son of God . . . You are the cause of my joy . . . I rejoice in Your Presence in my life."

             Lists of people's "Famous Last Words" can be found in books of quotations and other sources. One such list includes those of President  Franklin D. Roosevelt:

            I have a terrible headache. 

            The last words of author Washington Irving were: Well, I must arrange  my pillow for another weary night! When will this end?  

            Florenz Ziegfeld, of theatrical fame, said: 

Lights! Ready for the last finale...the show looks good!  

            Beethoven's last words were:

Applaud friends, the comedy is over.  

            And Edgar Allen Poe said:

Lord, help my poor soul. 

            The Apostle John tells us that Jesus' last words to His disciples included this instruction: 

            As the Father sent Me, so I am sending you.  

            As the Father sent Jesus, so He is sending us now.  

            "Thank God I have done my duty," were the last words of the famous British naval officer, Horatio Alger. Would that they be the last words of us all!  

            In one of the "Peanuts" cartoon strips, Charlie Brown holds up his hands and says to his friend, Lucy: "These are hands which may someday accomplish great things . . . These are hands which may someday do marvelous works." To which Lucy replies, "They've got jelly on them."  

            In the interest of your eternal happiness, do not talk about your Christian duty with jelly on your hands. God's formula for happiness is not meant to stick somewhere between your knowing it and doing it. If your neighbor -- or your Church -- is in need of material support, don't let your money keep sticking to your fingers. If a person is in need of your forgiveness, don't let your compassion keep sticking to your self-righteousness. If a brother or a sister needs relief from loneliness, don't let your understanding keep sticking to your indifference.  

            Our world is full of misery and fear and ignorance. Our plain Christian duty is to do all we can to make the little corner of our influence less miserable and fearful and ignorant than it was before we came into it. Our duty to live for our own happiness and our duty to live for the happiness of others are inseparable. God wills the happiness of all. Our happiness is doing God's Will.  

            I'd rather have example than precept any day; Thank God my Savior walks with me, not merely points the way.  

            Follow Jesus' example, and let these be your last words, at the end of each day: "Thank God I have done my duty!"

 

 

TEXT: "They have taken the Lord out of the bomb, and we do not know where they have laid him"
(John 20:2).

            A little boy wrote a letter to God which began with a question: "Dear God, are you real?  Some people don't believe it.  If You are, You better do something quick!" 

            We have gathered together to celebrate the Good News that 2000 years ago, Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of all that is -- the Real God -- did do something quick. 

            We celebrate the Easter Good News that, by the Resurrection Power of the Real God, Jesus Christ, who died on Friday afternoon was raised from the dead on Sunday morning. 

            There once was a Church that had a standing committee whose duty it was to go among the congregation while the sermon was going on.  And whenever they saw anyone sleeping, one of the committee members went up to the pulpit and woke up the preacher.

            There may be times when we could use such a committee around here, but never on Easter Day.  Because, for preacher and congregation alike, for you and for me, Easter is the day of heartfelt, deep-down, wide-awake celebration.

               Today is a very great day for the people of God and a very sad day for the forces of evil.  Some of you may remember reading C.S. Lewis' book, "The Screwtape Letters."  It is the story of a senior devil named "Screwtape" who writes to his nephew "Wormwood," a junior devil who has been sent here to earth to harass Christians.  Before sending Wormwood on his mission, Screwtape gives him a word of advice: "Never let those Christians see the banners flying."  By which he means, the "Resurrection Banners."  (Perhaps some of you remember seeing paintings of Christ in which He is holding the Resurrection Banner as a sign of His victory over death).

              Today is the day when the banners are flying high!  Today is the celebration day for the Christian Community.  Today we celebrate the victory.  Today we celebrate Jesus Christ raised from the dead.  Today we celebrate an historical happening, an Event that has made all the difference for us Christians ever since it happened.  It is, among other things, the sign as well as the means by which the Real God communicates to us His real Resurrection Power.  

            By means of that Resurrection Power, God is always acting to make all things new.  Out of our despair He brings hope!  Out of our sorrow He brings joy!  Out of our brokenness He brings wholeness! Out of our death He brings New Life!  This is the way the Real God is always acting.  And once you get hold of that reality at the center of your being, your life never will be the same again.
            In a "Peanuts" comic strip, Snoopy and Woodstock are on top of Snoopy's doghouse.  Snoopy says, "What are you doing here?  You're supposed to be out somewhere sitting on a branch, chirping.  That's your job!  People expect to hear birds chirping when they wake up in the morning."  With that, Woodstock flies off to the top branch of a shrub and belts out a single chirp.  Then he flies back to the doghouse, and Snoopy says, "You only chirped once.  You can't brighten someone's day with one chirp!"  So Woodstock flies back to the shrub and lets out six more chirps.  And when he again returns to the doghouse, Snoopy smiles and says, "There now.  Didn't that give you a real feeling of satisfaction?  The bad news is you're supposed to do that every morning, for the rest of your life!"  This being more than Woodstock can take, he faints.

              Please don't faint when I say that, for us, a people of Resurrection Faith, the Good News is that we can share the joy of our faith with others every day of our lives!  He is risen!  Every day of our lives we say it, shout it, sing it, even chirp it!

              We experience Easter as the most powerful, the most heart-moving, the most life-enriching Event in our human experience.  Easter changes us.  Easter changes how we think about who we are and what we ought to be doing with our lives.  Easter lifts us up and enables us to see life and each other from a whole new height.  Easter enables us to appreciate and revere one another as lovely and precious children of God!

              In the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, the Apostle Paul gives an account of the Resurrection.  Consisting of fifty-eight verses, it is one of the longest chapters in the entire Bible.  Only the first ten or eleven verses has to do , directly, with the Resurrection of Jesus.  All of the other verses are about the way God's Resurrection Power works in our lives.  Paul is eager to help us understand that this is for us a present experience;  that this is not just a theological idea, not just a celebration of something that happened two thousand years ago, but something that happens now.  

            Easter day is the day of all days to try to get in touch, right now, with those points in your life where you need resurrection most -- the painful points, the points of pressure and stress and tension and anxiety and grief.  Maybe someone is using you.  Maybe it's the temptation within you to rebel against God by doing things that hurt other people.  Maybe you're in a terrible situation of grief over the loss of a loved one.  Maybe it's the need to forgive.  Maybe it's the need to be forgiven.  

            A mother announced at the dinner table one evening, "I am so tired of hearing bad news.  I'd give anything just to  hear one piece of good news."  Whereupon, her six-year-old son said, "Tuesday is my birthday."

              Easter is the day of all days to make the shift from the bad news to the Good News.  

            Easter is the day of all days to begin to experience the Resurrection Power of God welling up from the deepest center of our beings; to feel and experience the healing right at those points where we need it most.  

            The spirit-lifting paintings of the great artist, Renoir, are aglow with life and light and color.  He seemed to put light inside the people he painted.  Such beauty on canvas!  Remarkably, for the last twenty years or so of his life -- his most productive years -- Renoir was terribly crippled with arthritis.  His hands were twisted and gnarled.  His wrists, his arms, his spine even were ravaged by the disease.  He couldn't stand as he worked.  He had to sit and be shifted about in his chair by assistants as he painted.  At times the pain was so great as he worked that beads of perspiration would stand out on his face.  On one occasion, one of his students (the great artist Matisse) said to him, "Why do go on and torture yourself like this?"  Renoir looked at the canvass on which he was working and replied, "The pain passes, but the beauty remains."
 

            This is a striking symbol of the Resurrection Power of God that is available to us.  The pain of our daily deaths, the pain of our growing and changing and relinquishing, the pain of all those bad news points in our lives passes, but the beauty of the New Life of Love, the beauty of God's Resurrection Power, remains!  

            In today's Gospel Lesson, John tells us that "When Mary of Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb."  And, running to Simon Peter and the other disciples she said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have laid Him" (Jn. 20:1,2).

              But now we know.  Now we know that the Spirit of the Risen Christ is deep within us.