Sermon August 9, 2015

We've been talking a lot about bread lately.  This is the third passage from John in so many weeks in which Jesus says, "I am the Bread of Life."  So I thought, for variety's sake, I'd switch metaphors today and talk about light.  In particular I did some research on the incandescent light bulb.

 

"An incandescent light produces light with a wire filament heated to a high temperature by an electric current passing through it until it glows.  The hot filament is protected from oxidation with a glass bulb filled with inert gas or evacuated."  Hm. What does that mean?  Another word for it is filament evaporation. Basically the idea is to prevent the filament from burning up completely for as long a possible.  That black stuff on a bulb when it burns out are deposits from the filament, like smoke from a fire, and the gas in the bulb which is nonreactive unlike oxygen helps to slow the process down.  All the science that has gone into light bulbs over the years, using different materials for the filament, coiling the filament, different gases in the bulb, all has been about trying to figure out how to prolong the life of the bulb so that the tiny fragile filament can last as long as possible with 100 watts of electricity constantly coursing through causing it to glow white hot.

 

We too are lights to the world with an infinite energy of the Holy Spirit coursing through our fragile bodies and making us glow a bit as well.   And it is a wonder that we too don't burn out quickly ourselves.  Much of spirituality and spiritual practice actually also is about how to live in this life of the Spirit.  How do we live with this eternal flame of the Spirit in our finite bodies?  Everything of course is important to this equation, and we try to figure out how to balance work and play, get rest and recreation, eat right and get plenty of exercise.  We learn to pray and study scripture, be nurtured in the faith by one another and mentors in the faith.  We seek to put away some of those negative traits and practice the fruits of the Spirit that Paul lists, summed up in Ephesians with the word, tenderhearted.

 

But the truth is that this doesn't necessarily led to a long life on this earth.  Some of our most famous saints of the church, those shining examples have been more like shooting stars than consistently orbiting planetary lights in the heavens. There are many historical figures who died too early, whose light was extinguished far too soon, many who we say went out with a blaze of glory.

 

Joan of Arc died in 1431, at 19.  Tried for heresy and burned at the stake by the English, she was canonized as a saint 500 years later.  As a teenager she was leading the whole French army against the English convinced that God had called her to this task, in intense visions ordering her to drive out the English from France.

 

St Thérèse of Lisieux a modern saint who died in 1897 was just 15 when she asked the Pope for special permission to enter a convent early. She died at just 23, but not before writing her spiritual journey down at the direction of her superior.  This work of intensity and simplicity describing her devotion and practice in the face of a prolonged illness from which she suffered became a best-seller.  She called her way, "The Little Way."

 

Of course there are all sorts of shooting stars.  Billy the Kid, Cattle rustler, gambler, outlaw, died in 1881, at 21, shot by a sheriff.  Orphaned at 14; killed his first man at 18.   Lots of artists produced their amazing burst of work early in life and died young.   Mozart 35, Chopin 39 Schubert 31, Jimi Hendrix 27.  Anne Frank died in 1945 when she was 15 years old in a Nazi prison camp but not before writing her diary.  The profoundly simple musing of little girl under extraordinary circumstance are a lasting testament to her short life.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. was 39.  John and Robert Kennedy.  There was a song about the three of them in the 60's.  "Anybody here seen my old friend . . . can you tell me where he's gone.  He freed a lot of people but it seems The Good they Die Young." Martin Luther King Jr said,  "I like everyone want to live a long life.  Longevity has its place."  But he was taken so young.

 

Jesus of course was only 33.  Is this the only course for the faithful lights of the world?  To burn out quickly under the intensity of the Spirit within.  We are inspired by these lights, we think of them as heroes, and they are for us models of life we are called to live.  But none of us want this really for our children.  And what do we do when we get into our 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's!  What about the rest of us? What does it mean to be faithful if we are not going to just burn out quickly but last a while longer here on this earth.  Can we still be lights to the world, can we still be heroes ourselves?

 

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas explores this idea of the heroic life as a model for our Christian life.  But he sees profound heroism not just in the grand and glorious blazing light witness that makes the headlines or the history books, but rather in the steadfastness of raising a family, caring for children, holding down a job, caring for the community around us, and in being a faith community day in and day out.  In his book Community of Character and other books he talks about the Christian life as the context in which we heroically live out the classic virtues. 

 

Two virtues he emphasizes are Patience and Courage.  He talks about the patience that is learned for example in persevering a long illness, but how we model this patience, which is a central character of God, in all we do.  We face all the challenges of our lives with a courage to persevere.  We are the ones who live through the challenges of raising children and as children the long journey of becoming and adult.  We are the ones who go to work each day and deal with endless challenges in our career, but also in our attempt to be good and decent people in the face of so much that comes our way.  We are the ones who do indeed know intimately the pain of chronic illness, the loss of loved ones.  We are endlessly learning to persevere when our dreams and plans for our own lives, or for what we hope for our community are thwarted again and again.  We are the ones who do little kindness day in and day out, give of our time, talents and treasures, all the time, for the hope of a better world in the face of incredible odds.  And we are one who know the joy of being in love, of seeing our children succeed, of crossing a major milestone in our lives, and of the comfort and support we know from one another regardless of what happens.  In so living our lives, day in and day out, we burning brightly with the Love of God.

 

Joseph Campbell wrote about the motif of the hero's journey in literature.  A pattern that is repeated again and again throughout mythology, literature and is exemplified also in our own lives.  Here's how the hero's journey goes.  The hero is living out his or her life in their very Ordinary World when they receive a Call to Adventure.  At first the hero is Reluctant, makes excuses for why he can't follow this call or sees himself unworthy.  But then something happens and she Crosses the First Threshold into a Special World in which she is answering the call.  This Special world need not be anything other than the ordinary world but suddenly it is imbued with a new light, a new glow, seems completely different.  Maybe a new context or circumstance.  Maybe it is a new marriage, or becoming a parent, or going to school for the first time, or entering a new and unfamiliar community.  Here in this Special World the hero encounters Tests, all sorts of challenges.  The hero meets new Mentors who guide him, forms Alliances and discovers also new Enemies.  Then the hero reaches the Dark Moment, the Innermost Cave (as it is often depicted in stories) where she endures the Supreme Ordeal, where she faces her ultimate fear, the ultimate test of faith.  Here that the hero's courage is put to the ultimate test.  And though often it seems that the hero is about to die under the pressure of this test, he nevertheless conquers.  It may or may not be success in the way we often define, it but nevertheless she learns some critical valuable lesson.  He Seizes the Sword (like Arthur taking the sword from the stone), or some treasure, some secret potion he needs, symbolizing what he has learned and gained from this ordeal. Then she starts the journey on the Road Back to her world.  Sometimes also on this journey home he is pursued by dangers having to continually fight off doubts about what he has learned.  But nevertheless the hero is Resurrected and transformed by this experience.  He Returns to his ordinary world with a treasure, a boon, some Elixir to benefit his world.  For this journey of the hero is not just about her own transformation, but she is contributing in her own personal journey to the transformation of the world.

 

I want you to see your lives fitting into this this pattern. You are all heroes on a hero's journey for the sake of the world.  We all, in one way or another, have experienced death and resurrection, we all fight battles and learn lessons and contribute to the world around us out of what we have learned. We are all lights to the world and this is how that light burns in us.  As we are willing to encounter mystery, cross the threshold into new adventure, overcome whatever we are facing and learn lessons, and bring back rewards and treasures for the whole world to benefit.

 

Ultimately, it is not really about figuring out a way to preserve the filament in the light bulb. No matter all the science we can muster, all the ways we seek balance, all the "figuring out" we try to do - it is not about how to try to cheat death and make our lives last forever or as long as possible.  It is not about whether we burn out quickly or last into our old age.  It is about, how ever long our lives last, however big or small we think our lives are, that we know ourselves to be on this hero's journey.  That we are following in all we do our Lord Jesus Christ in the way of Love.  As Paul says, being imitators of God as beloved children.  As I say every Sunday at the offering.  Walk in Love as Christ Loved us and gave himself and offering and a sacrifice to God.

 

Terese of Liseux says it this way:

 

"I will seek out a means of getting to Heaven by a little way—very short and very straight, a little way that is wholly new. We live in an age of inventions; nowadays the rich need not trouble to climb the stairs, they have lifts instead. Well, I mean to try and find a lift by which I may be raised unto God, for I am too tiny to climb the steep stairway of perfection. [...] Thine Arms, then, O Jesus, are the lift which must raise me up even unto Heaven. To get there I need not grow (I need not get bigger or grander); on the contrary, I must remain little, I must become still less."

 

Jesus it is your arms that lift me up, you that keep my little light shining. 

 

AMEN.