Sermon - May 16, 2010

Year C - The Year of Luke - Easter 7

First Lesson - Acts 16:16-34; Psalm　97; Epistle - Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; Gospel - John 17:20-26

There is a story in rabbinic literature, which illustrates the ups and downs, of this world.

A farmer had a fine horse that one day escaped and ran off. The farmer’s neighbors consoled him. “What bad luck you have,” they said sadly. However, the farmer responded, “Who really knows? It could be bad; but it could also be good.”

Sure enough, the next day, the horse returned followed by twelve wild and healthy young horses. “How fortunate you are!” exclaimed the neighbors. “Who knows,” countered the farmer to his neighbors’ surprise, “if it is good fortune or not?”

Not long after, the farmer’s strong, young son attempted to break one of the wild horses when he tumbled and broke his leg. “How unlucky you are!” exclaimed the neighbors. The farmer shrugged his shoulders and asked again, “Who knows if it is bad luck or good?”

Later, the king’s soldiers arrived, conscripting young men for a war in far-off lands, but they quickly passed over the farmer’s son with the bad leg. “How very lucky you are,” said the amazed neighbors as the old man muttered once again, “Who knows? Maybe it is good, maybe it is bad.”

Good or bad? Who can say? Sometimes it depends on your perspective and your faith. Consider our first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles.

Coming across a slave girl with “a spirit of divination,” Paul frees her from her bondage “in the name of Jesus Christ.” However, what is no doubt good fortune for the young girl is a financial disaster for her greedy owners, who have suddenly lost “their hope of making money” from her fortune telling. They see to it that Paul and Silas are thrown into prison – an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events for these followers of the Lord, who now find themselves locked in “the innermost cell” of the prison with “their feet in stocks.”

An earthquake – a terrible and unpredictable calamity – becomes the disciples’ unlikely means of escape and the return of their good fortune. However, their impending escape from captivity brings their jailer to the point of despair and suicide, until Paul swiftly intervenes and introduces him and his household to faith in “the Lord Jesus.” The jailer “and his entire household” are then “baptized without delay,” and all rejoice in their newfound faith and blessings.

Paul and Silas were disciples of profound faith and determination. What seems to be adversity one minute is revealed the next minute to be the means of deliverance not only for Paul and Silas but for those whom they encounter as well.

In some ways, things have probably not changed that much in two thousand years for people of faith. Just as in the time of the Apostles, the changes of everyday life are something upon which none of us can count.

Things change for both good and bad. Sometimes in the middle of it all, we cannot even tell which is which. Our heads spin at the pace of change in our world, in our lives, and in our church. It can be difficult to tell if things are heading in a way that is good or bad. What is the Lord’s doing, and what is not? Often, we simply have to trust and move forward.

Think back to when the automobile was invented. We look back upon it as a thing of great progress. However, it was not progress for the man who ran the livery stable, or the person who made horse harnesses or bridles, bits, and horseshoes. For those people it was a hardship; but none of us would want to go back to the days of the horse and buggy.

What brings progress can also bring adversity. Still, we know from experience that times of adversity are often also periods of great energy and creativity – for society as a whole and for us as individuals.

Most of us can probably tell of instances in our own lives when apparent hardship or tragedy brought in its wake opportunity and prospects we might never have otherwise experienced had it not been for what we at first mistook for unmitigated misfortune. Who can tell, really, what blessings may ensue from today’s hardships and perils?

Perhaps there is wisdom after all in the attitude of the old farmer in the tale. Who can ever say for sure what is good fortune or bad? Yet, Christians have more than quiet resignation to blind fate to fall back on. Changes, especially hardship, have never kept people of faith from prayer, hope-filled trust in the Lord, and acts of mercy.

The words of the Book of Revelation – arguably one of the more weighty works of the New Testament – are as profound and rich today as they were the day they were written. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” proclaims the Christ of the ages in our second reading today, “the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Good and bad events may be part of our human vocabulary and experience, but they are unable to confine the Lord’s all-encompassing and unending love and compassion, which forever transcend our human understanding.

Nothing under the sun is so bad that God cannot transform it into something good. If God can take the cross and transform it into a thing of life, forgiveness, and hope, then God can take even the hardships of our lives and transform them into something that works for the good of all. Nothing can keep us from God’s love. To know this can bring reassurance amid the changes of this life. He is triumphant over people's plans and sinful actions. This is the Good News proclaimed throughout the gospels. It is the fulfillment of Jesus' words today in the Gospel of John, that we all “may become completely one” in him and the Father. To know Christ and the Father’s love is life itself. We face life with Christ and the Father at our side in both good and bad. Amen.