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Just when we thought that humanity has fully plumbed the depths of depravity, someone ups the ante and we are rocked again to the core of our beings. Did you know that a sniper culture existed in our country? I didn't. Did you know that the sniper's mantra is "One shot, one kill"? I didn't. Thank God someone is no longer loose knocking men, women, and children down with a single shot--someone who thinks he's God. "I am God," were the words on the back side of the tarot Death card. Here's a predator who evidently feels that life is out of control for him, but by choosing his targets, and killing them, he is able to exert control, if not over his own life, over the lives and deaths of others. It seems to me that we get one shot at life, and this guy was using his to take death shots at others. He has surrendered to evil; God calls us to surrender to good. He has yielded to despair; God calls us to awaken to hope. He has surrendered to death; God calls us to celebrate life. He's a guy who dispenses lethal death shots. We want to be people who give out life shots, shots of love, hope, encouragement, and joy, shots that stop others alive in their tracks. Thirteen people have now been shot and ten have been murdered in the D.C. area. Think about all the people whose lives have been shattered. When you hear news like this do you ever allow yourself to feel just some of their pain? Can you sense the loss of children left fatherless? Can you feel the impact of what family holidays will be like without loved ones? How did is this crime affect the lives of millions of people who live there? We are used to hearing words of comfort and assurance from our public officials. Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said at a briefing this past Tuesday these unbelievable words, "Your children are not safe, anywhere, at any time." Apparently, he was reading a note from the killer. One parent hurried his 8-year old son to school in Maryland and said, "My kid was fine until he heard on the radio the other day that kids are not safe anytime, anywhere." As parents we try so hard to create safe homes, schools, and communities for our children. Can you imagine what it would be like if such a sniper threat happened in Anchorage? The fear, the anxiety, the worry? Every parent must admit there are situations that arise where we cannot protect our children. We cannot protect them from verbal insults at school. We cannot shield them from making bad decisions. We cannot watch over them 24 hours a day. This is why it is so important that we give our children a strong, spiritual security. We are used to thinking that adults are old enough to place their lives in the hands of God. But what about children? Shouldn’t they be given the gift of feeling secure in their relationship with God through Jesus Christ? A little girl whose baby brother had just died asked her mother where the baby had gone. Her mother replied, "To be with Jesus." A few days later, talking to a friend, the mother said, "I am so grieved to have lost my baby." The little girl heard her and, remembering what her mother had told her, asked, "Mother, is a thing lost when you know where it is?" "No, of course not." "Well, then, how can my brother be lost when he has gone to be with Jesus?" The truth of this child’s question sank in to the mother’s heart and she never forgot it. It’s hard to give the gift of spiritual security to our children when we adults don’t feel it in our hearts. Do you feel the assurance of God’s love for you? If you were told that you had a few days to live would you feel peace knowing that Christ would receive you into his love? Jesus was being questioned by the Sadducees, a religious order of Jews who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. If a man dies and his brother marries the widow…..then he dies and his brother marries the widow, and so on….who would be married to the widow in the resurrection? Jesus’ answer astounded them all. He quoted scripture to them from Exodus, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." In other words, those who are related to God in faith have life even though physically dead. Resurrection is God’s act by which they will achieve the fullness of life intended by creation. Heaven will be such a fulfillment and completion of earthly life that such human relationships will pale in comparison. I don’t think he is saying that we won’t recognize our loved ones in heaven. We will likely still have that capacity because death doesn’t stop our love for others. But heaven will be even better that the best love we knew on earth! This is the security and peace we need now! We can give our lives to Jesus today. We can know at the deepest parts of our soul that he will take us to heaven when we die. In the midst of a troubling and threatening world we need this security. And our children need it. The 1908 National League season saw a fierce struggle between the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants. With the pennant on the line and the game tied in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Giants were at bat. With the winning run on third and a man named Fred Merkle on first, the batter hit a single, and the runner on third came home. The Giants had apparently won the game and the pennant. Giant fans poured out onto the field while Fred Merkle was still on his way to second. Alarmed by the crowd bearing down on him and convinced the game was over, he ran straight for the clubhouse. The Chicago second baseman noticed that Merkle didn’t touch second base. If he could get the ball and touch second, the winning run would be cancelled by the force out. First, he had to find the ball. One of the New York coaches saw what was happening. He ran to the ball and threw it into the stands. A fan caught it and started home with his trophy. Two Cubs players chased the man through the mob. They knocked him down, grabbed the ball, and ran back onto the field. There they threw it to their second baseman who jumped up and down on the bag to make sure the umpire saw him. As a result, New York lost the game and the pennant. We may think we have won the game of life. We may think we are going to heaven. We may think we are safe…but until we touch second base…until we find our security in a relationship with Jesus Christ, we may discover otherwise. One shot, one life. That’s the gift you and I have today. We only have one try at this business of human life on earth. How are you doing with your chance at life? All her life, Elizabeth Prentiss was frail and sickly, but her spirit was strong. Her father had been one of New England’s best-loved preachers and she had married the pastor of Mercer Street Presbyterian Church in New York City. In 1865 an epidemic struck and two of the couples’ children died within a few weeks of the other. For months Elizabeth was inconsolable. Church members did all they could, comforting the couple, bringing food, and helping with the running of the household. But Elizabeth was devastated. In her diary she wrote, "Empty hands, a worn-out, exhausted body, and unutterable longings to flee from a world that has so many sharp experiences." But God directed Elizabeth’s heart to the Old Testament story of Jacob, the man who had so many sorrows related to his children, but whom God had delivered. She prayed that God would restore her life and joy. And then one night she composed a poem, writing all four stanzas in one evening. Though it gave her great comfort, she didn’t think her poem worthy of publication and didn’t show it to anyone for 13 years. The first verse reads, "More love to thee, O Christ, More love to thee! Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee; This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to thee, More love to thee, more love to thee." One shot—one life. God has taken a once-and-final-shot-heard-around-the-world on the cross of Calvary. The cross-hairs of the cross reveal the heart of God, the intersection of vertical and horizontal relationships being brought together by an extravagant God who is looking for extravagant relationships, a God who has the world in the scope of his love. You and I have one life with many new beginnings possible because of the cross. Let us resolve to commit ourselves anew to Jesus, that we may live in an insecure world with the eternal security of God’s peace and love. Let us sing Elizabeth’s poem that gave her peace in dark times. May it give us a peace that will keep us secure from this life into the next. |
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10.27.02 - One Shot, One Life (Matthew 22: 23-33)
