Father John E. McGinn, Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563
August 26, 2007 Pentecost
13
Today’s sermon uses the
scripture taken from the epistle Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 18-29
During the year I collect a
lot of different magazines and books that I really want to get to read, and
then when I have vacation I am able to look at them more closely. I came across a story which I want to share with
you this morning. I think it relates
very well to the lessens, and in particular, to the epistle from Hebrews.
Richard Slyhoff, a
Pennsylvania man who lived in the late eighteen hundreds, never cared about
God, at least during his life time. But
as he pondered his impending death, Richard Slyhoff was convinced that he would
have to face some form of eternal judgment.
Did this fear cause him to repent and seek a relationship with God? No.
Slyhoff had a better idea. He
would hide from God instead. He dug his
burial plot in the shadow of a large boulder.
And, according to Slyhoff’s beliefs, a great earthquake would occur on
the day of judgment and all the dead would rise from their graves. Slyhoff was counting on that earthquake to
dislodge the boulder and to cover his grave.
In this way, he reasoned, on the day of judgment there would be no way
that he could rise from the dead, and his tomb would we hidden from God’s eyes.
Now here’s what is
fascinating, I think, about this story.
Over the years, the boulder, hovering anonymously above Richard Slyhoff’s
grave, has shifted. Part of that
movement is due to erosion, and part of it due to a tornado that actually moved
it out of place. The boulder no longer
hangs over Richard Slyhoff’s grave. When
day of judgment does come for him, as it will for all of us, he will be surprised to discover he no longer
has a rock to hide him.
Even if our theology does not
exactly match up with Richard Slyhoff’s, most of us would probably like to
avoid paying for our sins. And, of
course, there is a way: through the
cross of Jesus. Even more to the point
for today’s discussion, however, all of us would like to find a safe place to
stand when the earth begins to shake beneath our feet.
In today’s epistle, which
Heidi just read, the writer of Hebrews speaks of a kingdom that cannot be
shaken. And that is what all of us want,
isn’t it?
We want something solid that
we can hold onto, something that cannot deteriorate, something we can count on
in good times or bad.
Earthquakes happen. That’s the first thing I want you to see this
morning. Earthquakes happen. Now, admittedly, physical earthquakes don’t
happen very often on Cape Cod. If we
lived in California, things would be different, or in Peru. And, you know, Californians have seen it all,
haven’t they. A few years ago after a
year that had included earthquakes and mudslides and wild fires and extreme
winds and record flooding, and even some funnel clouds, a Los Angeles
weathermen describe California like this:
He said, “California is more than a state. It is an acts of God theme park.” California leads the nation in many things,
not least of which is earthquakes.
People in California know that earthquakes happen.
There is a wonderful new
biography out - well, actually it has been out for a couple of months - about
Albert Einstein by Issacson. It is a
wonderful book. There is a famous story
about Albert Einstein. In March of 1933,
he was visiting the Long Beach campus of the University of California. He and a professor from the department of
geology were walking across the campus, and they were discussing
earthquakes. Suddenly, they saw people
running out of buildings, and Einstein and the professor were quite puzzled. They had been so busy discussing earthquakes
that they had not noticed that one was occurring at that very moment.
So maybe things are not as
bad here as in California or, say, Peru; but still, earthquakes happen. I read that South Dakota is the only state
that never had an earthquake. I guess we
could all move there and be safe.
Earthquakes happen, and
perhaps we will never experience a literal, physical earthquake. But we will certainly experience times when
our world will be shaken. Problems with relationships perhaps: a spouse, a
significant other, a family member, a friend.
At times, we don’t want it to happen, but our relationships are put into
danger, and we have difficulties.
There are earthquakes of many
kinds: the loss of a child. That’s an earthquake of unimaginable
proportion. Many of us say that we can
handle anything that life may throw at us except watching our own child
suffer. And yet, many good people,
people of faith and commitment, have to deal with this earthquake.
There are many other
emotional and spiritual earthquakes:
problems with health, the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one,
betrayal by a friend. Things seem to be
going along quite smoothly, but then we feel the ground starting to move
beneath our feet. And suddenly our whole
world is violently shaken. Where shall
we turn when such times come? Some
people lose themselves in their work when the feel the ground shaking, or in
some recreation, or drugs or alcohol.
These serve only to mask the hurt, and indeed may complicate the
problem. Some people reach out to their
friends. This can be helpful,
particularly to reach to a friend who shares your faith in God. It depends on the friend, of course. Some friends, even religious friends, give
terrible advice. The best friend simply
allows you to express your pain. Some
people try counseling. This is much more
productive. Many people have profited from
time spent with a professional counselor.
That is true whether you are dealing with relationship problems, or grief,
or any other problem that is weighing you down.
But still there comes a time when each of these solutions is
inadequate. And where do we turn? We turn, of course, I believe, to our
faith.
Life is difficult. We know that is true. That’s what earthquakes are all about. But there are two other realities. It think it is made very clear in today’s
lessons that God is merciful and heaven is sure. And that is the testimony of the writer of
Hebrews.
In the lesson for today, the
part that proceeds it contrasts Mount Sinai in the Old Testament to Mount Zion
in the New. Mount Sinai where Moses
received the law, was the place where God came in power. The response to God’s presence on Mount Sinai
was fear. The writer of Hebrews
described the mountain burning with fire and darkness and gloom and storm. It was a
mountain where people were given commandments they could not bear. Even Moses trembled when he came near the
mountain. But Mount Zion, which is
described in this morning epistle, is an entirely different place. And listen as the writer describes it: “You have to Mount Zion, to the heavenly
Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,
to the church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all, to
the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new
covenant, and to the sprinkled blood.”
This is that unshakeable kingdom about which the writer of Hebrews
writes. It is life in the presence of
God where there is no fear, but only joy.
And how do we find ourselves
in such a place? There are two truths, I
think, that make the kingdom of God accessible to us. The first is the character of God, and the second
is the cross, the cross of Jesus. We are
part of an unshakeable kingdom because of God’s great love for us. No other religion on earth emphasis the love
of God as does the Christian one. Our
unshakeable kingdom is impossible without God’s love.
At the beginning of the
twentieth century a clergyman named Frank Graeff was suffering from severe
illness and depression. He felt that God
was very far away. In desperation he
opened his Bible and stumbled on a verse from the book of first Peter. He read these words from first Peter, chapter
5, verse 7: “Cast your care and anxiety
on God, for God cares for you.” In that
moment God came graciously near and brought life to Graeff’s difficult
circumstances. He still confronted touch
times but he knew with certainty that God walked with him through them, and as
a response to this encounter with God, Graeff wrote the hymn Does Jesus
Care?.
Now listen for a moment to
the words from the first verse and the refrain of this hymn:
“Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and
song, as burdens press and cares distress, and the way grows weary
and long. Oh yes, he cares, I know he cares. His heart is touched by
my grief and when the days are weary, the nights dreary, I know my
savior
cares.”
That is God’s character. That’s who God is. God cares about every one of us. God not only sees us in our need, but God’s
heart is touched by our need. We do not
have a God who is far off from us. Your
marriage, your friendship, your child, your every need; God knows, God
cares. We have an unshakeable kingdom,
first of all because of God’s character.
This week in Time Magazine
there is an article concerning Mother Theresa. It said that Mother Theresa struggled for
fifty years; that she had times of depression, times of great sadness. But you know what it was that inspired her
and inspires us? It was God’s character
and that unshakeable kingdom; to know that cares and is with us.
And we also have an
unshakeable kingdom because of Jesus’ cross.
“You have come to God,” writes the author of Hebrews, “to Jesus, the
mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood.”
In 1989, a devastating
earthquake tore through the tiny country of Armenia, bringing down homes and
buildings and destroying precious infrastructure. Fifty-five-thousand people died in the
aftermath. But great devastation creates
great motivation. God made the human
spirit to rise above tragedy with a selflessness that is simply
breathtaking. And out of the tragedy of
the Armenian earthquake comes the story of Susanna Patroisin, a humble mother
who sacrificed herself to save her precious child. Now, according to the Associated Press
reports, Susanna and her four-year-old
daughter were trapped in the debris of their fallen home. As they waited for rescue, Susanna’s heart
broke at the sound of her daughter’s cries.
The little girl was so thirsty, and Susanna had no way to satisfy
her. “It was then that I remembered that
I had my own blood,” writes Susanna.
Using a jagged shard of glass, Susanna slit her own fingers and allowed
her daughter to drink some of her own blood.
For the next eight days, until mother and child were rescued, this was
how Susanna sustained the life of her child; sustained by her mother’s blood.
You know, that sounds
strangely similar to what we believe about Jesus. And here I think is the good news for the
day. According to the writer of Hebrews,
we are protected by Jesus’ own blood, we are sustained by Jesus’ own
blood. We are brought into
reconciliation with God by Jesus’ own blood.
We don’t need to hide from God and bury ourselves beneath a
boulder. God loves us. Jesus died for us. Don’t lose hope the next time you feel the
earth trembling under your feet, regardless of what that earthquake may be.
You and I are part of an
unshakeable kingdom. Jesus has brought
us into the kingdom of God.
Amen