Sermon Preached at Church of the Good Shepherd
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Sunday, April 7, 2024, at 10:00 a.m.
Look at What I’ve/We’ve Been Missing!
“We have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s body.” (Collect, Easter II)
“How wonderful, how beautiful when brothers and sisters get along!” (Psalm 133:1)
“The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. This is the message: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.” (I John 1:2, 5)
Last Sunday you may recall that I led us in a variation on the opening Easter acclamation. We started with “Alleluia! Christ is risen,” and you replied, “The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.”
But I wanted to get to the heart of things by having us add, first, “Alleluia! We are risen!” and you replied, “We are risen indeed. Alleluia!’ And third and finally, “Alleluia, I am risen.” And then you replied, “I am risen indeed. Alleluia.”
So, may we repeat this beautiful trilogy of ecstasies?
- “Alleluia. Christ is risen…”
“The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.”
- “Alleluia. We are risen…”
“We are risen indeed. Alleluia.”
- “Alleluia. I am risen…”
“I am risen indeed. Alleluia.”
This is the heart and core of this Easter season and really all we need to proclaim.
Christ is risen, and this means we are risen, and I personally am risen.
And the title of my meditation this morning is “Look what I’ve been missing.”
Because every moment of our lives is compromised, made smaller, less joyful if we dismiss this notion or keep it on the back burner of our lives. It’s not that we must go through our days reciting this acclamation to ourselves. We’d probably be hospitalized or thought balmy if we did this. It’s that every moment of our day, every move we make, can be lived and informed knowing that life is good, life is beautiful and is meant to be affirmed always. Just like breathing, we don’t have to keep it at the top of our minds, but we’d better not forget it. Without breath we have no life!
But it is so easy to forget this affirmation.
Isn’t it a puzzle how so much of our lives is spent in sadness, stress, and suffering? Let’s look at just a few of the ways we drain the joy out of living.
Don’t we too often get wrapped up in the minutiae of our day-to-day routines and take everything so seriously. It can be a challenge. This is the tax time of the year, and I, for one, have no accounting abilities and dread putting all the figures together. So, I hired an accountant. My friends tell me to use TurboTax, but no thank you, no thank you!
And what about all those annoyances with other people that create resentments? Boy, can we spend a lot of time fuming and fighting in our minds about what so-and-so has done to us. Poor us, poor put-upon us! Yes, I can carry grudges. I wonder how many annoyances like this can be avoided by slowing down and asking how serious are they? Do we really want to make Federal cases over something, that time, a kind word, or simply forgetting about it will not fix? People can kill each other over what sometimes starts as a minor grievance. Wars start over things that one side finds “unacceptable.”
“This is so beyond the limits of what I can stand that I’m going to start an all-out war with you!” Is this stupid and sick? Yes, but aren’t most wars a little like this?
And, last example, how much of our day, our week, our years are spent in worry. Of course, as citizens we are concerned about a lot of things. We cast our votes in hopes that our representatives will carry out our wishes for our city, state and country. But if we keep CNN or MSNBC on a lot, we’ll wind up in a constant and high state of complaining and worrying. This can’t be good for our health. For how much of what we worry about do we have any power over? A lot, some, a little, none?
So, I’ve laid out a few of the activities that prevent us from breathing free, laughing out loud and enjoying this brief journey called life.
Do we forget what we are missing?
Life is short. As someone in his eighth decade of life, I not only realize how short this life is, but I realize how many minutes and hours I can fritter away in useless activities like resentments and worry. My mother once told me that I would go in the bathroom one morning, look in the mirror and exclaim, “My goodness, I’m old!”
I can imagine that some of you have had such a startling insight. It is not designed to get us down, but to awaken us to the preciousness of every day we breathe on this earth. In the grander scheme of things, our life is as short as that of a firefly.
The tragedy of wasted time in resentments and worry is how we diminish the time we could be loving. This isn’t sentimental hogwash; it is to point out and recognize just how profoundly we all need and want to be loved. I love being loved, don’t you? And the first person who needs to love me is me! And if I am deficient in loving myself, the chances of my loving you are similarly diminished. And if you have the same need to be loved as I do, then what am I waiting for? The clock is ticking and love is a-waiting! Let’s get on with it.
Isn’t this what the Resurrection is proclaiming? That love overcomes strife; that life outstrips bitterness and complaining. That except for our ignorance and belligerence, love would be much more conspicuous all around us.
How much we love being loved. So, we might as well keep it up. No one is telling us not to!
And notice how far honesty can go. Have you noticed how much love can flourish when we are honest with one another? We don’t lose out on anything by being honest. Notice that it tends to move us forward. We go to the doctor, tell our friends what is really on our minds. Life flows. It may be painful; it may be difficult, but life flows when honesty flows.
I heard the other day that we have one of two possible responses to life at any moment. Yes! or No! Yes is the Resurrection. It was how Christ faced his own death. It is how we live when we shout yes. It is not always easy; it is not always without its cost. But it is the way of life, and finally of joy. Am I not right?
What do you think? We shout “YES” because we have been yes-ed into existence and our God shouts yes at us, whether we are up or down. This is the unconditional love that lies at the heart of our faith.
I close with a lovely poem called “Millennium Blessing” by Stephen Levine. It speaks to the joy that it is present now and that stretches beyond our mortal life. All we need to do is shout “YES” to all of it!
There is a grace approaching
that we shun as much as death,
it is the completion of our birth.
It does not come in time,
…….but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember.
It is insistent grace that draws us
to the edge and beckons us surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.
We know we must pass
…….beyond knowing
and fear the shedding.
But we are pulled upward
…….none-the-less
through forgotten ghosts
…….and unexpected angels,
luminous.
And there is nothing left to say
but we are That.
And that is what we sing about.
Amen.