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Sunday Sermons
3-30-08, Easter 2
Pastor Phil Lee
Title: "A Fork in the Road"
Text: John 20:19-31
Theme: Showing the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
Introduction
Today, on this first Sunday after Easter, we join the Apostle Peter, who said: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1Pet.1:3)
In these days after Easter, we Christians face a fork in the road. One road is the way of faith active in love, showing the power of Jesus’ resurrection – it’s often called the way of the cross. This road is marked by sacrifice, service, and compassion. The other road is the way of inactive faith (or unfaith) – and it’s marked by personal priorities, personal comfort, and selfishness – and it’s often called the way of the world.
The great Yogi Berra once said: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Which road will we take? Which road will you take?
Point
It’s the week after our enthusiastic Easter celebration, and we continue, along with Jesus’ first disciples, to make the radical proclamation that Christ is risen. But, if we’re going to keep going, we need the peace that only our Lord can give.
In today’s Gospel – Jn.20 – Jesus appeared before his disciples in an easily recognizable form, and he used this first post-resurrection appearance to his followers to offer them two gifts. The first gift was the assurance of his abiding peace, to engender a confidence and a clearheadedness among this fearful band of believers, to encourage them to unlock the doors and open themselves to the world.
Let’s remember that this was a group of men who abandoned Jesus at the time of his trial and crucifixion. But, Jesus did not berate them or condemn them for their failure. Instead, he gave them his peace. It was a moment of grace and love.
Jesus’ second gift to his disciples was a new purpose and agenda for their faith. Jesus proclaimed to them: “…I send you” – giving them not just another missionary task, but a lifetime commission. As God had breathed life into Adam at the time of creation, so Jesus breathed life back into the faith of his disciples by giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit. We soon see what they did with that gift.
Back in 1991, a strange thing happened to AT&T, the company that billed itself as being “The Right Choice.” In an act of good corporate citizenship, AT&T struck an agreement with New York City’s power company, Con Ed, that whenever demand strained the utility’s grid, AT&T would throw a switch, unplug some of its facilities, and draw power from internal generators at its lower Manhattan station.
That’s what happened on September 17. But the power surge of generators kicking in also kicked out some other technology that handled 4.5 million domestic calls, 470,000 international calls, 1,174 flights across the nation carrying 85,000 passengers, and the total communications system linking air traffic controllers at LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark airports.
For six long hours alarm bells rang inside the lower Manhattan station, but no one heard them because no one was there. AT&T had sent all of the personnel from that station to a one-day seminar on...how to handle emergencies. (Fortune, 1-13-92, 79)
God has given us the amazing gift of His Holy Spirit, and the Spirit breathes life and faith into us. So now we have a choice – and our choice has consequences. We can choose the way of faith active in love and show the world the power of Jesus’ resurrection, or we can choose the way of the world, and simply watch out for our own comfort and priorities.
Let’s not be like the AT&T staff at the Thomas Street station – when the time came for action, they were off at a seminar talking about it. Let’s not get caught just talking! Let’s show the power of Jesus’ resurrection in our lives!
Problem
Jesus said to his fearful followers: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
In the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy got caught up in a Kansas tornado and was dropped into the middle of an amazing dream. In her dream, Dorothy met and befriended a lion, a tin man, and a scarecrow. The lion needed courage, the tin man needed a heart, the scarecrow needed a brain, and they all journeyed along the yellow brick road to the city of Oz, hoping to get what they needed. But, upon reaching Oz, the Wizard turned out to be a fraud, an old man behind a curtain pushing buttons and pulling levers, without any real power to give them what they needed.
So it is with the followers of Jesus Christ – we need courage and heart and wisdom (that’s real power), so that we can testify to the world about the good news of Jesus’ resurrection victory over sin and death. We need to trust in God and the power of God’s Word for courage, heart, and wisdom to make our way in the world.
But, instead, too many folks choose to take the “Yellow Brick Road,” a road that promises life and self-fulfillment and comfort – the world’s good stuff. But that road leads only to a phony “Wizard of Oz” – a powerless, empty fake!
The Yellow Brick Road is well traveled, but, there is a road less traveled…
Power
Jesus breathed on [his disciples] and said to them: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you…Receive the Holy Spirit.”
The early followers of Jesus took a fork in the road that traveled out into the world, a way of faith active in love. They showed the power of Jesus’ resurrection. They took a fork in the road that followed the way of Jesus’ cross and resurrection. It is the same road we are called to travel.
Yesterday (3-29-08), was a day set aside on the calendar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to commemorate the life of Hans Nielsen Hauge, an 19th century renewer of the Church. It wasn’t much of a party. In fact, probably no one here did any celebrating because very few of us know much about Hans. But, let me tell you why I bring him up in the first place. Hans Nielsen Hauge took the fork in the road called the Gospel road. He happened to be a 19th century Norwegian Lutheran lay person who became a traveling evangelist when it was illegal to have church gatherings without clergy supervision. (I’m a Haugian Norwegian Lutheran – it’s my heritage.) But, Hauge was persistent. In fact, he was arrested and spent a number of years in prison because of his evangelism work. Hauge was a disciple of Jesus who took the fork in the road called the Gospel road. He demonstrated a faith in Jesus Christ that was active in love. He showed the power of Jesus’ resurrection, and it made a difference as there was a significant spiritual revival in Norway during the 19th century.
We, too, are called to journey down the Gospel road.
Conclusion
The great Yogi Berra once said: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
There are two roads in life, and those two roads diverge. There is a fork in the road. One road is the way of faith in Jesus Christ, full of courage, heart, and wisdom. It is the way of the cross. The other road is the way of the world, full of promises of self-fulfillment and comfort. (It’s like the Yellow Brick Road to the Wizard of Oz.) Which one will we take? Which road one will you take?
Remembering the road that Jesus took for us – the road of suffering, death and resurrection victory – let us take that road, too, because it is the road of life and it makes all the difference. Amen.
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