Reflection November 7, 2010 – Rev. Carol A. Prochaska, ret.

Title: We're Stuck in Life – Forever!

Scripture Text: Psalm 17, Haggai 1:15b-2:9 Luke 20:27-38

Christmas or Easter?

Which one has the most appeal to you? For years and years I didn't think Easter had all that much going for it! You know the Easter message – the promise of resurrection, of life after death. Unless of course you were old, in your 50's or 60's and them maybe you'd be interested! Of course there came a time when I upped the age of being old to 80's or 90's – and now I'd say old is – oh, 100 or so! So when we're old — whatever we consider old — is that when we need the promises of Easter?

Christmas or Easter? Silent Night, Holy Night, candle-light, Christmas trees and presents? Or Christ Is Risen, Easter Lilies, colored eggs and signs of spring? Christmas or Easter?

This morning we heard Jesus remind us that we are children of the resurrection. Jesus also speaks of this age and the next age.. So we live now Ð in this age - and we also live in the next age (albeit it in a different form).

OK! So what about now? What if we're not old? What if we are a little bit old but as far as we know we're not going to die for awhile? What if today we're celebrating? A birthday? An anniversary? A promotion? And so right now we're not that interested in the next age! What if we're getting ready to go on a holiday and we just bought plane tickets and so we definitely don't want to dwell on the next age! Maybe we're going home to watch a football game and eat some potato chips - and so what, if anything, does resurrection have to do with football and chips?

To ask it another way: Does being a child of the resurrection encompass more than we might think?

Indeed it does! In this age, we experience, we go through resurrection over and over again. Over and over again we go from life as we know it. We continuously experience endings to enter into a different life. From a high-schooler to college student. From student to professional. From a marathon runner to a yogi. From a basket ball player to a golfer. From teacher to principle. From parenting to empty-nest. From CEO to retired. From gardener to pots on a balcony – over and over again we go from one life into another life. In this age there are changes in our bodies, changes in our finances, and changes in our neighborhood and our church. A stray cat comes to our door and we take it in. We stop at the animal shelter just to look and we come home with a puppy. There is divorce. We sell a house. We move. We buy a condo. There are so many, many times when something in our life comes to an end and we go from one life to another life. Sometimes only a little different. Sometimes quite different..

Each time we trust that there is more life and it will find us or we will find it! When we decide to sell the house that has been our home for 40 years we can do so because we believe that life in a different form will go on. When we sign divorce papers we cling to the belief that although one life is over there is another life for us just around the corner.

However! We can't necessarily see what that next life will be like. There's certain blindness. And a whole lot of trust! A whole lot of trust in the promise that God is a God of the living. A whole lot of trust that God acted. God acts. God will act. Which is another way to speak of resurrection: God acted. God acts. God will act.

Some of you will remember a book written in 1947, Who Has Seen the Wind? by W.O Mitchell. It is a story of a young boy's struggle to understand the ultimate meaning of the cycle of life. One Sunday morning young Brian is sitting outside on the porch steps. Mitchell tells how "A twinkling of light catches Brian's eyes..." He gets up. He sees how on every new leaf of the spirea drops had gathered during the night. As he bends over he sees how the veins of a leaf are "magnified under the perfect crystal of the drop."

Mitchell writes:

The barest breath of a wind stirred at his face, and its caress was part of the strange enchantment É Within him something was opening, releasing shyly as the petals of a flower open, with such gradualness that he was hardly aware of it. But it was happening,,, an alchemy imperceptible as the morning wind, a growing elation of such fleeting delicacy and poignancy that he dared not turn his mind to it for fear that he might spoil it, that it might be carried away ... He was filled with breathlessness and expectancy, as though he were going to be given something, as though he were about to find something.

Resurrection is what we are going to be given – over and over again.
Resurrection is what we are about to find – over and over again...
Resurrection is more life. A different life. A God-given-life.

As children of the resurrection, when like One Duck Stuck, we are stuck in the muck – we can trust there's life beyond the "muck" we're in. When it is others who are stuck in the "muck", we can be there for them to comfort and to encourage

Remember the Chilean Miners? Remember how they captured our attention for 69 days? In the days following their rescue they have been asked what kept them going. Their answer? Faith and the will to survive. Talk about being stuck in the muck! There they were in the depths of the earth – and there they were trusting in the God of the living and that they would ive again – above – in the sunshine.

Remember those returned exiles in our scripture from Haggai? Remember how demoralized they were as they looked at their new but puny temple foundation? Through Haggai they heard God saying to them: "I took you out of Egypt (out of slavery)..." – God acted. "I am with you. Do not fear..." – God acts. "I will fill this house with splendor ..." – God will act.

On the inside front cover of the book, Who Has Seen the Wind, there is a four-line poem by Christina Rossetti:

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

As surely as the wind blows God's breath

God's Spirit is blowing more life our way.