"Reason for Hope"
Goodness may be gained
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Bill Fritz
Sunday, January 1, 2006
Text: John 1:1-5; 9-14
This November past Joan and I had a wonderful vacation visiting our family in Switzerland. However, as always, holidays come to an end. On the day of our departure we set off with a leisurely, careless pace as we said farewell to our Swiss family and boarded the train for Milan and the airport.
I relaxed, for it was a two-hour journey to Milan. Indeed, I was drifting off into slumber when I was rudely awakened by the train stopping. We should not be stopping. I looked out the window and I saw the station sign for Lucarno. Lucarno! We should not be in Lucarno, we should have been in Lugano. We were on the wrong train. We were travelling in the wrong direction. Frantically, Joan and I raced to catch a train going in the right direction. Fortunately for us we made it, but we had come very close to missing our plane connection for London. We were going in the wrong direction.
Jonathan Sacks in his book Politics of Hope charges that our world today is rushing headlong and headstrong in the wrong direction. His list of indictments is long and compelling. Societies around the world are in severe moral decline and it appears that no one can stop it. Wars, ethnic cleansing, teen suicides, breakdown of family life, the pandemic of AIDS, drug-infested neighbourhoods and rampant brutality. He cites a letter that a 12-year-old boy wrote to President Clinton when he was in office:
“Dear Mr. President, I want you to stop the killing in our city. People is dead and I think that somebody might kill me. So would you please stop the people from deading. I'm asking you nicely to stop it. I know you can do it. “ And he signed the letter: “Your friend, James.”
Nine days later this 12-year-old boy was fatally shot in the head in a drive-by shooting. This happened in an American city. Do we doubt that this could happen here in Toronto, in the aftermath of this past year?
Jonathan Sacks charges that our world has become a place of hostility rather than a place of hospitality. Is there any hope, he asks? It does seem as if our world is plunging headlong into disaster.
A man was given something that he had always wanted for Christmas. His wife gave him the present of a parachute jump. He took instruction and he was ready. He was taken to 11,000 feet and he jumped. He pulled the rip cord. Nothing. He pulled the rip cord for his reserve chute. Nothing. He knew he was in big trouble because now he was plummeting headlong to earth. Suddenly, he saw a man shooting straight up past him. So he shouted to him, “Do you know anything about parachutes?”
The man replied, “No, do you know anything about gas stoves?”
We are plunging and rocketing to destruction and we seem helpless even to help each other. Is there any hope? Yes there is. So asserts the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John, Chapter One, tells us that our world was going in the wrong direction, but God interceded. The light that enlightens every person has come into the world! John tells us that Jesus is the Light of the World. That hope is depicted for us in our beautiful chancel window. For this stained glass window depicts Holman Hunt's moving portrait of the Light of the World. Hunt is saying to us, as is the gospel writer John, that Christ is the Light of the World. Christ is our hope.
Today, on this first day of the New Year, we are aware of the mounting problems in our world. Our world is rushing in the wrong direction. Yet we have reason for hope. Our reason is Christ. For when men and women follow the light of Christ, darkness is dispelled and light, glorious light does shine. We speak of what God has promised in Christ - that is hope.
“The true light that enlightens everyone has come into the world.” Today, on this very first day of the New Year, 2006, we have reason for hope. Our reason is Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. And because of him we know that evil can be ended.
Is there anything more evil than one human being torturing and killing another? This happened to Jesus. He was Public Enemy Number One of his people. He was tortured. He was killed. In the face of that violence Jesus did not use violence. He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
On the cross, Jesus gave to the whole world and to us the hope that evil can be ended. The prophets of old dreamed of a world where there would be no war, no violence, no hostility. Yes, this can be.
Even as Christianity was being accepted throughout the Roman Empire, cruelty, blood sport and gladiatorial combat continued. Telemachus was a Christian monk from Asia who came to visit Rome. He had lived a humble, simple life as a farmer and follower of Jesus. At first, he was hypnotized with the glitter and glamour of ancient Rome. One day he went to the Coliseum to be entertained. What he saw shocked him to the core. Men in the centre ring with swords and shields, knives and nets faced the emperor and spoke, “We, who are about to die, salute you.” Then they faced each other, fighting each other to the death.
At first Telemachus thought it was staged, but then he saw the blood and the gore and he could not bear it. “For Christ's sake, forebear!” he yelled, but the clamour of the crowd was deafening as they screamed for blood. So Telemachus, the humble, little farmer from Asia Minor got out of his seat and hurried down to the arena floor. The security officers held him back, but he ran around them and jumped over the barrier and ran to the gladiators waving at them to stop.
For a moment the crowd thought this was part of the act. They laughed, but Telemachus now came between the gladiators, motioning them to stop. It must have been a ludicrous scene: two towering, muscular gladiators and this little, slight monk. One of the gladiators pushed him away, yet the monk came back. The crowd was becoming impatient, but still Telemachus the monk yelled, “For Christ's sake, forebear!” Suddenly, a sword flashed. A gladiator slashed Telemachus across the belly with one swift swipe of his sword. His bowels spilled before him, he slumped to the ground. Yet he held his hands up in prayer, and whispered, “For Christ's sake, forebear.” A pall of silence fell over the coliseum. People from the galleries got up and quietly walked out. It was as if a collective conscience had seized their hearts, and they seemed to realize that they were guilty accomplices to a great evil. And we are told that from that day, all gladiatorial combats in the Roman Empire were withdrawn. One man defying the mob, the gladiators and the emperor, and the evil gladiatorial combat ceased. Yes, because of Christ evil can be ended.
Where is the Telemachus in our day? Perhaps we sill have a few. Four Christian peacemakers travelled on a mission to Iraq. Two Canadians, James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden; a Briton, Norman Kember; and an American, Tom Fox. Yes, they went on a mission. They went to Iraq with the ridiculous hope that they could somehow bring peace to the region. Ridiculous! Ridiculous? Never call ridiculous that which is offered in the name of Christ.
The true light that enlightens everyone has come into the world. We have reason for hope. Tragedy can be transformed.
Is there any greater tragedy than the cross? A good man, a teacher, a rabbi innocent of any crime was put to death. His followers felt the depth of that tragedy, for after the crucifixion they had lost all hope. Several simply went back to their old occupation of fishing. The whole Christian enterprise into which they had put so much faith now seemed to be one great big flop. And yet, after that black Friday of Jesus' death came an amazing surprise: Easter Sunday. Jesus was risen. Yes, the disciples saw, they heard the risen Lord. Hope was reborn in them. Tragedy was transformed into new life, new possibilities and new hope for them.
And this same transformation is possible for those who follow Jesus Christ today. While we were in England this past November, all the newspapers reported the horrific murder of a young student, Anthony Walker. This young man was with friends, none of them provoking an attack, when he was set upon by two young thugs. One hit him with a mountain axe with such force that the coroner had trouble removing it. Details of this horrific, racially motivated killing were vividly reported in the press. Anthony Walker, the victim, was a bright, A-student, an active, athletic youth. He was involved in his community, he was active in church. he was an excellent student and he was planning for a career in law. Now his life was ended. What about the two young thugs? They seemed to have drifted from one job to another - aimless and shifting. They seemed beyond redemption. Now the two of them were sentenced to life in prison. What a tragedy and what sadness.
Anthony Walker's mother refused to be mired in the sadness. She attended the trial. She heard the horrific details of her son's murder, but instead of crying out for revenge, Gee Walker issued a public statement: “Although my heart is broken I want both of these young men to know that I forgive them. I forgive them.” These were not words easily spoken. These were words from the heart, words of forgiveness, words of love for the young criminals and their families. And so you see, the cruel, hard fist of hatred and hostility is rendered powerless, and forgiveness is supreme. This Christian woman, Gee Walker, has the eternal hope that her son is in God's good heaven and her prayer is with the two young criminals. In prison they can change their lives for a positive future. And so tragedy is transformed.
“The true light that enlightens everyone has come into the world.”
Because of Christ we have reason for hope.
Evil can be ended.
Tragedy can be transformed.
Goodness can be gained. For isn't it true to say that because of Christ we strive for goodness? We know that we do wrong. We know that we do lose our direction. We know that we lose faith in God. We know that we often get mired in doubts. We know that we will never be perfect, but because of Christ we strive for goodness.
For isn't it true that so many began their lives headed in the wrong direction? Mary Magdalene, Peter and Paul, Augustine, John Newton, Chuck Colson, Anne O'Brien Rice, and the list goes on. Perhaps you and I are in that list of people who began rather badly but because of Christ have gained goodness.
Several years ago I was minister at the Olde Davenport Church. We had a vivid community program and this church, TEMC, was very supportive of many of our ministries. You sent books for our library, clothing for our community store and even purchased our first Davenport Home for Boys on Lauder Avenue. People heard of our ministry near and far. One day I received a call from the prison chaplain at Burwash. He asked if a young man named Eric (not his real name) could come to live in one of our homes. Unfortunately, it was not possible, but I asked within our congregation if anyone would be willing to welcome a young man who had been in prison into their home.
Bill and Elizabeth stepped forward. This couple was now in their 80s and yet they were willing to open their home to this young man, and they told me why. As children they had been orphans. They knew what it was like to have no family. Perhaps they could be family to this young man, for they had no children of their own.
I met Eric, a fine-looking young man now 21 years old. As we engaged in conversation he shared that when he was not yet four years old his mom and dad parted company. His dad was an alcoholic and his mom, a fragile soul, just could not cope. So Eric went from one foster home to another. Some of these homes were very good; some very bad. Eric became a drifter. He drifted out of school. He drifted into trouble. He carried a great deal of anger with him and he was like a walking civil war, always getting into trouble in school and in the community. From age seven he went from one form of controlled institutional care to another. He entered reform school and finally prison. Out of his 21 years he had spent 14 in institutions. Yet, somehow by the grace of God, all his crimes had been petty. Now he yearned to stay out of prison. He wanted to have a good future ahead of him.
I took him to Bill and Elizabeth's home, and the meeting was so incongruous. Imagine a 21-year-old man making a new start with a childless couple in their 80s! Eric opened up his sadly beaten and broken suitcase and brought out a cardboard box. He had a gift for Bill and Elizabeth. Bill opened it up. It was a train locomotive ornament that opened up into a little mini bar with shot glasses and a bottle for whiskey. When I saw Eric's gift I was horrified, for I knew that Bill and Elizabeth, long-time Methodists, would have nothing to do with alcohol. How would they now react to his ill-chosen gift? I need not have worried. Bill embraced the gift. He hugged Eric. “Look, Elizabeth,” he said. “Look at the gift Eric brought us.” The both admired the gift and Bill placed it front and centre on the mantel - a singular honour.
The days ahead were not easy. Eric struggled hard to make the adjustment to freedom and life outside the confinement of prison walls, but Bill and Elizabeth loved this young man. They were gentle and patient with him. They overlooked his indiscretions. They laughed with him, they cried with him - as when Eric lost his job because of his prison record. But little by little Eric grew into goodness. He learned how to be gentle and patient himself. He overcame his resentments, his volcanic anger and his penchant to lash out at authority. In Eric we say goodness was gained because of the faithfulness of Bill and Elizabeth, this couple well into their 80s who today surely are in God's good heaven, who guided this young man on the road to goodness. Goodness was gained and surely there was great joy in heaven that day.
The year 2006 is here. Happy New Year!
Yes, this can be a happy New Year. Our troubles may not be ended. Problems and challenges are before us, but the light that enlightens everyone has come into the world. Christ is the Light of the World. He has come to lighten our darkness. Let us re-dedicate ourselves to him, for Christ is our reason for hope.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.