Glimpses of Real
Life
Scripture Matthew 14:22-33, John 10:10
Sermon by Penny Hill
First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
February 27, 2000
Before writing my sermon
I conducted a brief, informal survey of what the term "real life"
means to people, and how they use it. The responses ranged from neutral to
negative. The following are a few of those responses:
- everyday stuff
- the everyday grind
- what you have to go back to
after vacation
- factual events that really
happened
- the life you enter after
college - you know, what you look forward to for 22 years and then
wonder why you wanted to go there
One
person adamantly replied, "You don’t want to go there with
me!" That seemed to carry a pretty clear message itself.
It's
interesting to see how these responses correlate with the passage we read
from John today. If you look at our passage from John, people seem to view real
life as the part of life that is stolen, killed, and destroyed by the
thief. Real life is seen as the loss of dreams and joy and faith. Is this
real life?
Well,
unfortunate events do happen in life. Even sad and tragic events are a part
of life. But, are they what define real life? Jesus tells us in John that He
came that we might have life and have it abundantly. Another translation says
that we may have fullness of life, and another actually said that He came
that we might have Real Life. So, what is it?
God the
Creator is the author of all of life. If you think about life as God first
created it - in a garden, in perfect paradise without anxiety, stress, or
conflict and with pure love, peace and harmony, this is probably what defines
real life as it was created to be.
This does not negate the
fact that bad things do happen in life, so maybe real life is not about the
circumstances at all. Maybe it is all about how we respond.
For
some reason people in general seem to focus on the negative circumstance and
negative responses. If you ask a child about the Bible Story of Peter
stepping out of the boat to meet Jesus on the water, they will usually tell
you it is the story of Peter sinking. Why do we always focus on Peter
sinking? Don't we get a glimpse of real life - extraordinary faith by the
fact that even if just for a moment Peter had faith enough to step out onto
the water? Can't we applaud him and be inspired by his glimpse of real
life, abundant, over-running faith and joy? Yes, the storm surrounded
him, but his response was driven by faith and love . . . real life!
So
maybe the best we can do is to get glimpses of real life and to hold on to
them, to focus on them, to strive to have more of these experiences and to
let them give us the hope that Christ promises.
In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to
learning disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire
school career, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional schools.
At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush
child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.
After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he
cried out, "Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does
is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other
children do.
My child cannot remember facts and figures as other
children do. Where is God's perfection?
The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the
father's anguish and stilled by the piercing query. "I believe,"
the father answered, "that when God brings a child like this into the
world, the perfection that He seeks is in the way people respond to this
child."
He then told the following story about his son Shaya:
One Afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park
where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, "Do you
think they will let me play?" Shaya's father knew that his son was not
at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But
Shaya's father understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give
him a comfortable sense of belonging.
Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field
and asked if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his
teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said,
"We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess
he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth
inning."
Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly.
Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya's team scored a
few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning,
Shaya's team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded with potential
winning run on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually
let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?
Surprisingly, Shaya was given the bat. Everyone knew that
it was all but impossible because Shaya didn't even know how to hold the bat
properly, let alone hit with it. However, as Shaya stepped up to the plate,
the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at
least be able to make contact. The first pitch came in and Shaya swung
clumsily and missed. One of Shaya's teammates came up to Shaya and together
they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The
pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya.
As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung the
bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher
picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the
first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game.
Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field,
far beyond the reach of the first baseman.
Everyone started yelling, "Shaya, run to first. Run
to first!" Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the
baseline wide eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right
fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who
would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood
what the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over
the third baseman's head.
Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to
second." Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him
deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the
opposing shortstop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and
shouted, "Run to third." As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both
teams ran behind him screaming, "Shaya home!" Shaya ran home,
stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made
him the hero, as he had just hit a "grand slam" and won the game
for his team.
"That day," said the father softly with tears
now rolling down his face, "those 18 boys reached their level of God's
perfection."
God's
perfection, I don't know, but did they experience REAL LIFE? ABSOLUTELY!
Yes,
life encompasses both physical and mental handicaps. Life includes disease,
divorce, and disasters that come like a thief in the night to rob children,
adults, and families of the fullness and joy that they had imagined life to
hold. Then real life, God's fullness of life, comes in glimpses as church
friends gather around grieving families with food and shoulders to cry on, as
neighbors keep up the yard for a family where a young father's body is
riddled with cancer, as teenage boys enable a handicapped youngster to feel
like an athletic hero by realizing that the real game being played is
something bigger than baseball.
Yes,
life often includes racism, prejudice, and oppression of all kinds,
belittlement and abuse that rob people of dignity and a sense of worth, but
real life, God's abundant life, can be glimpsed through a 12 year old boy who
had the courage to stand by his African-American friend in 1959 and refuse to
go into an amusement park that didn't allow people of color.
Much of
our lives is lived in the shadows, empty people creeping through the darkness
separated from community and unable to see the possibilities around us. Even
from out of the darkness we sometimes catch a glimpse of what is real, real
truth, real love, real justice, kindness, and humility, and just as Jesus
reached a hand out to Peter in his faltering faith, He reaches a hand out to
us and invites us to let that glimpse of real life become our reality. Jesus
invites us to risk emerging from the familiar darkness of doubt to the light
of His love. He invites us to sit at His table, to share His meal, to
experience the real life, the life of courageous love, that He came to show
us how to live.
Real life
is not about circumstances. It is all about responses. What do people glimpse
through yours?
[back
to archive]
|
